The Most Unusual/Unique Thing You Use Your Kindle For

The Kindle seems like a very versatile machine. It's not just for books, but to me, a near all-around replacement to printing things for personal use, and more importantly, a gateway to content that I'd never otherwise see.

Of course, with such a versatile device, there must be many unique uses for it. So what's the most unique thing you use your Kindle for?

For me, sometimes I have a (growing) collection of my favorite songs' lyrics on my Kindle. There's something to reading the lyrics instead of listening to the song or playing the words in your head. I'm not sure what it is.

I don't think this is very unique or unusual, but I took favorite pics of family, friends, quotes, musings etc. and made my own screen saver. Sort of fun to see important parts of my world on the kindle.

I use my Kindle for the user guides to my camera and lens collections. Easier access than tiny, hard-to-read manuals and nicely searchable and scaleable.

I used my Kindle to read a paper I wrote for grad school out loud to me because it was easy to catch grammar mistakes and awkward wording that I would have missed if I read it silently. I think I'll do it with every paper from now on!

E. Sund, great idea. I imagine it would also be good to use to listen to a speech or presentation you prepared to see how it sounds. Great idea!

I use it for old radio shows when I travel, which seems to be unusual. :)

I do put my travel info on it (confirmation numbers and such).

I put directions on it when I am going somewhere.

I put sound clips in the Audible folder, so I can play an appropriate one when I want. :)

I've used it to send a picture to my SO (Signifcant Other), who also has a Kindle, and was out of town.

For use during lunch hour at the office, I have menus for for my favorite takeout restaurants on my Kindle, complete with the phone numbers of course. I also use it as my address / phone# book.

I typed up a workout routine for the treadmill with times and settings and used it when I exercised.

Once, while out running errands, I didn't have a paper and pen handy so I put my last minute grocery list on it so I wouldn't forget something at the store using the note feature.

I also tried using a calendar I downloaded to the Kindle but that didn't work out so well...so ended up deleting it.

Some very clever ideas here.

I went to the Safeway tonight but forgot to bring a list when I left the house for other areas and I ALWAYS forget something. So I sat in the car and went to the MyClippings file and went to the last location and typed in all the things I felt I had to get and saved it. And once inside the store I didn't forget anything that way. Am getting used to that keyboard too.

But what I use it most for, outside, is to google what good restaurants are nearby or stores that have what I'm looking for, etc... and usually I google a product I'm looking at and thinking of buying and add the word "review" to it to get a bunch of reviews and usually pricing comes with it too. With electronics, it's especially useful, since all the model numbers sound alike!

I keep my camera, Edirol 09 HD, digital piano, and other PDF manual/guides on it so I never have to wonder where they are anymore and they're with me when I need them.

I also see really interesting info on the Net that I want to read at my leisure and I can highlight it and copy it (with images) to Microsoft Word (mine is an old 2003 version). then I email it to my Kindle address and the results are beautiful.

Also add tutorials like Ted's.

I previously wrote an entry about "Cute pdf" which will print any non-complex webpage to a PDF file which I can email to the Kindle, and that worked when I was in a hurry one day so I was able to study up a new place before I got there.

Obviously I love this gadget and do get irritated when I see non-Kindle-owners saying it can do only one thing. Where else do you get 24/7 web access, as needed, anywhere without paying the usual cell-phone data monthly-charges?
Those alone, at a minimum plan of $30/mo (often $100+ month) would cost $360 in a year. Interesting $number, no? (And I wouldn't pay that.)

If they ever start charging for the non-store visits, then they will have to lower the price of the Kindle.

- Andrys
http://kindleworld.blogspot.com

Don't forget that poor wedgie Kindle 1. I use mine as a cheese slicer.... ;-)

I talked about this in another post but, my Kindle saved my bacon as well as 3 friends when we wanted to go hiking in Red Rocks yet needed to sign onto Southwest Airlines (at exactly 24 hours prior to our flights) in order to get a decent seat selection. We logged in at breakfast on our way to our hike and all got onto our flights at the very first of the line. (Believe me, if you are slender, you want to get your choice of seats when flying from Vegas) I stressed about this for weeks until I realized I had the perfect way to get my seat selection without bringing my laptop on vacation...we all know how much fun that is nowadays!

I use mine to access sparksnotes in a panic before class when I realize I didn't read a book I was about to have a test on. Gotta say, it's saved me a lot >< I also use it frequently in my Spanish class with the Spanish/English dictionary. It can be sort of odd to search, but it gets the job done.

i use mine to hold my notes for class. Perhaps not very unique, but i type out notes i've written for class and send them in a txt file to my kindle. I makes for easy spontaneous studying for those so few free moments without having to carry along my laptop, notebooks, or textbooks at all times.

The Kindle is going to be an important part of the process I use to edit my novels. I recently dug out a manuscript I hadn't looked at in five years with the intent of whipping it into shape and sending it to market. Instead of lugging around almost 800 pages in a big binder, inspiration struck and I emailed the Word doc to my Kindle.

Reading it there was an amazing experience - I was able to detach almost completely from the fact that it was a manuscript, probably because my brain is wired to accept what's on the Kindle as a "real book". It was like having the finished book in my hand. And when I tried Text To Speech with the manuscript (don't worry, I gave myself permission), you'd have thought I was listening to an audio book narrated by James Earl Jones.

So in the future, I plan to use the Kindle to review my early drafts before beginning the process of editing.

What great ideas there are here, not to mention terrific imaginations. I just read books and sometimes check my e-mail. Now that I have all of these wonderful ideas, I'm going to use my Kindle for a lot more things. I read these posts almost as much as my Kindle. Thanks!

Pamela says:
I use my Kindle for the user guides to my camera and lens collections. Easier access than tiny, hard-to-read manuals and nicely searchable and scaleable.
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Now THAT'S an excellent use of the Kindle. Hmm, I'll have to look into doing this.

Brewster says:
Believe me, if you are slender, you want to get your choice of seats when flying from Vegas.
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Is that a jab at all of the fabulous all-you-can-eat buffets available in Vegas. ;)~

J. Seidel says:
Don't forget that poor wedgie Kindle 1. I use mine as a cheese slicer....
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Wow, first time I've heard of a Kindle being used to "cut the cheese", though being a Kindle 1 owner, and not having TTS functionality, mine are the silent but deadly type, hehe. ;)

[Deleted by the author on Apr 16, 2009 7:58:14 AM PDT]

I downloaded rules to all the card/dice games we like to play. That way, if we're traveling (and I ALWAYS have my Kindle along), we can look up the rules to a game that we may not have played in a while. I just downloaded my Word file, as a text file onto my Kindle. Now, we always have our game rules with us!

I've also looked up the weather radar on my Kindle when we're traveling. This past weekend we were on the road, and knew a storm was coming our way. I looked up the radar on my Kindle, and saw that the storms were only about a county away. That gave us time to get to shelter (which was good, since we were in a tornado warning!). Luckily, no tornados. However, the Kindle is good in a pinch to look up weather, and also if your electricity goes off.

I email my daughter's spelling and vocabulary words to kindle and have Tom give her the test. She loves it!

Melissa

Wow I didn't know you could do all this on Kindle...I just read...being technically challenged can be boon or a bust, I guess..I am impressed with all of you!!

Bryan - Which digital photo sites do you frequent? My favorite is DPR.