CRASH on Kindle (experimental)
In the past couple of days, I've been looking at producing versions of CRASH Online for the Kindle. (It's DRM-free Mobipocket so presumably it can be converted to other formats if people want to.) Although there are a couple of things that need sorting, I thought I'd show where I'd got to so far - so if you're interested, here's issue 13:
www.crashonline.org.uk/13/crash13.mobi
(I started with issue 13 because I thought there'd be less material than with Issue One, but actually all of the Living Guide stuff I was thinking of is done in issue 3.)
It's formatted as a magazine (in Kindle terms), so it's divided into sections of Articles, Regulars, and Reviews. Unfortunately this means that you don't get to just flick through the contents in the order they were originally in the magazine.
I've just noticed that you can't see the cover any more, so that's something I'll have to go
back and sort out. That was previously visible when it was created as a Kindle book. Also the credits have gone missing - they used to be there too.
If people are Kindle-free but interested, here are a few pics:
http://www.crashonline.org.uk/13/kindle/index.htm
www.crashonline.org.uk/13/crash13.mobi
(I started with issue 13 because I thought there'd be less material than with Issue One, but actually all of the Living Guide stuff I was thinking of is done in issue 3.)
It's formatted as a magazine (in Kindle terms), so it's divided into sections of Articles, Regulars, and Reviews. Unfortunately this means that you don't get to just flick through the contents in the order they were originally in the magazine.
I've just noticed that you can't see the cover any more, so that's something I'll have to go
back and sort out. That was previously visible when it was created as a Kindle book. Also the credits have gone missing - they used to be there too.
If people are Kindle-free but interested, here are a few pics:
http://www.crashonline.org.uk/13/kindle/index.htm
Post edited by mjwilson on
Comments
Thanks Nick!
The software is kindlegen (from Amazon).
The formats are HTML/CSS/JPG/GIF - the same as the main web pages. The only changes so far are to edit some transparent GIFs, which hadn't worked too well, to embed the Jetman comic directly into the page (instead of linking to WoS FTP), and to remove the web navigation. The CSS support is pretty limited I think, but then I'm not doing anything stunningly complex on the web site anyway. I think I could probably get the Kindle stuff looking nicer with a few extra tweaks to the HTML.
Finally there are a couple of extra files which are OPF and NCX. These are basically just metadata for the book, including author information and table of contents.
Ummm... you're... welcome?
hope you continue with this. :-)
You can already browse the web with a Kindle.
Kindle Previewer : http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000234621
Calibre: http://calibre-ebook.com/
(although Calibre doesn't quite seem to understand the navigation I'm using here)
@nickh you can download kindle reader for windows and various other devices for free from amazon (think there are iphone and android versions but being a Symbian monkey i'm not too sure). I have it on my little netbook. It's not quite the same as an actual kindle but considerably cheaper (if you consider the netbook as free on account of it being over 3 years old now)
TBH Calibre is a bit brain damaged and can give inconsistent results when used (that includes running it against the same file multiple times).
I do have a few other format converters about and will dig them out once I remember which ones behaved best.
Thanks for the effort.
Edit:
Rather than downloading the previewer, download the actual Kindle app for your PC/Mac/Android or iDevice
You can? Ooh, I'm going to have to find one and have a play. Free 3G + web browsing for ~?150 is rather tempting.
On a real Kindle, there's now easy access to the cover (this might already have been available user other viewers).
Some of the formatting has been simplified on the news and editorial pages, which should make it possible to read them properly.
Thanks, PM sent.
As a result of this exercise, I've now found that Issue 13 has a Smash review that isn't on CRASH Online - I thought I had all of the SMASHes done. (It's "Mini Office".)
Brilliant stuff! I love the magazine format and admittedly this is the first time I've tried something like this on my kindle. I also like the fact that your version cuts out the unnecessary fluff - ads, letters to editors (although some were genuinely enjoyable), etc.
My only nitpick is that the screenshots in the mag are too small on the kindle. Combined with the lack of colour on the kindle, it makes the screenshots none too legible of use. If they could be resized to better proportions they would really complement the articles IMO.
Bytes:Chuntey - Spectrum tech blog.
For issues of CRASH where I've already transcribed the letters, it's likely that I'll include them.
OK, I'll think about that. You can zoom images manually on a Kindle by selecting them with the 5-way controller.
Is it me or is there no way to add a journal/periodical to a collection on the Kindle?
It just crashes on earlier versions.
Jon.
Wow, that's weird, and kind of a pain. I guess they're only expecting the scenario where you're buying a new issue from the store every week (or other interval).
That isn't going to work well for CRASH, nobody's going to want 98 issues cluttering up their main document list.
Seems odd. Did the earlier versions support periodicals?
ahh that might be a pain in the future. still 98 issues of crash on my main ducument list is better than no issues of crash on my document list. ;)
Next up is probably the CRASH History supplements.
Really impressed with this, well done. Finally an electronic version of Crash I can read in the bath.
Bytes:Chuntey - Spectrum tech blog.
I agree with Mile too... :)
At the moment, in the 'sections' list, I have: Cover, Features, Articles, Regulars, and Reviews. This pretty much matches up the way in which the content is divided up on the magazine's content page from the issue. [You won't see this division in quite the same way in the Amazon Previewer; you might need a real Kindle to see it as I'm describing. See the top pic at http://www.crashonline.org.uk/13/kindle/index.htm .]
The reviews, however, are just all together alphabetically.
The question is whether adventures, educational and strategy should be split out into their own section. So effectively Adventure Trail would becomes its own top level section in the table of contents, and it would contain Derek Brewster's column followed by the adventure reviews.
What would people prefer to see?