I just got my Kindle last week and I think I need a bit more time with it to really gather my thoughts and make any real review of the device. I will, however, cop to the fact that one of my first thoughts when I saw the “Whispernet” connectivity and a browser was, “I really wish this thing had RSS.” Thankfully, it does. Kind of…
For all you Kindle-folk out there, and I suspect we’re a growing legion, here are the things you need to do to use Google Reader as your RSS Reader on the Kindle. I was excited to discover I could do this. While there’s nothing overtly tricky, this may be able to save you few exploratory and incorrect clicks.
- Get an account on Google Reader if you don’t have one yet and add your rss feeds.
- From the “Home Page” on your Kindle, click on “Menu > Experimental”
- On the “Experimental” page, select “Basic Web.”
- From the browser page, click “Menu” and select “Advanced Mode”
- From the browser page, click “Menu” and select “Settings.” On the “Settings” page, click to “Enable” JavaScript.
- Type the Mobile Reader URL (http://www.google.com/reader/m/) into the “Enter URL” bar at the top of the browser.
- You’ll have to log-in to Google Reader on your Kindle now, which is kind of a pain the first time. You’ll probably want to ensure that the box is ticked to remember your settings so that you don’t have to do this frequently.
Voila! You can now use Google Reader for free from anywhere you get the “Amazon Whispernet.” Woohoo! Admittedly, navigation is a bit clunky and the speeds are not dynamite on the stripped mobile version of the reader, but I found that the act of reading the entries was quite pleasurable.
I have to use the Kindle roll and click navigation to get around on the reader site while using Kindle. Has anyone out there been able to get any of the keyboard shortcuts to work?
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Thank you so much. I just set it up and it works like a dream. Easy, too. Love it.
Sandra
@Sandra Scoppettone – Happy to help! Yours in Kindle-dom. Eric
i’m very interested in getting a kindle, and getting RSS feeds is very important to me. I love google reader. i have about 100 subscriptions in mine. would this be too much for the kindle? or would it work well?
thanks for the help!
Adam
Hi Adam. I currently have 92 feeds in my Google Reader and Kindle seems to be just fine. Since it’s really just a mobile webpage, I think that Kindle is agnostic to the number of feeds you may have subscribed to. I’d much rather access Reader from my iPhone these days but it’s still possible on the Kindle as described, just a lot more wonky and slow.
Anyone given this a try with the Kindle 2? I would love to implement this, but am concerned about draining the battery (and ultimately the battery lifespan) too quickly.
Hi Liora,
I haven’t tried this on a Kindle 2 but there’s no reason that it wouldn’t work. You’re just using the Kindle’s rudimentary browser to look at the mobile Google page for Reader. It’s ultimately no different than using the browser to look up Wikipedia or anything else. There’s no reason it should impact battery life substantially if you’re already running with the wireless turned on.
Eric
Thank you!!! I don’t know why I didn’t realize Google Reader had a mobile access site. And just to confirm – works like a charm on the Kindle 2 (though the short cut keys don’t seem to work).
No problemo, Call Me Cate! The short cut keys don’t work on v1 of the Kindle either but I’m still satisfied that I can get it to “work.”
On a related note, I like the Calibre app which can go and pull all the articles from an RSS feed, convert them to mobi and automatically send them to the Kindle when you connect it to your PC. One of my favorite sites posts about a dozen new articles a day. Works very nicely there. Wouldn’t necessarily want to do it for a feed of thousands of links, but for this it works great.