InkiMail.com

[InkiMail]

Well it's not quite a book. It's a website that lets you use your Gmail account in a book-like way. I'm a programmer. Which is akin to being an author, I suppose. I have a Kindle 3G and I find trying to use my Gmail account on the 'experimental' web browser, even on the mobile site I find it almost impossible. Just too small small, to much gray and too hard to see. I wanted black and white, big fonts...something like reading a book.

So I put in some serious time and wrote this webapp and put this out there for all to see and use. The webpage has all the info and I hope you find it valuable. And yes, I admit, I'm asking for $9.95 for unlimited use for a year. I wanted an email experience that was book-like for my Kindle (can be used on any web browser equipped ereader), so I priced it like a book.

http://www.inkimail.com

[InkiMail]

Amazon's Whispernet is a fairly expensive service for Amazon to support. They haven't pushed a software update to the Kindle devices for quite some time. One reason is the expense of getting into the always connected devices over Whispernet without a clear return on that expense. So I've wondered about the use of the experimental browsers on 3G-enabled readers. When I wrote InkiMail, I used a PC with software that kept track of my up/download traffic in MB so I could see how much data was being handled. It was tiny. I curious about opinions about where this free web-connected feature is headed as B&W eInk gets its color replacement someday and bandwidth increases. Can they still keep offering free 3G?

[rcuadro]

It is not going away... and you neglected to mention that you also have the Nook, sony, and several other readers that have 3G at no cost...
Although, the introduction of WiFi only alternatives are not only cheaper but also lightens the expense of maintaining the 3G

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by InkiMail

Amazon's Whispernet is a fairly expensive service for Amazon to support. They haven't pushed a software update to the Kindle devices for quite some time. One reason is the expense of getting into the always connected devices over Whispernet without a clear return on that expense.

Interesting set of suppositions. It could be that they haven't pushed a software update because they're not ready. And I'd like to see how you know what their expenses are for always connected devices. Since Amazon is pretty quiet about their profits and costs, I suspect you're just guessing.

Part of the cost of the Kindles is to pay for the "free" 3G. I would guess that less than 10% of Kindle users are anywhere near to abusing that free connection. The Kindle isn't really built for easy web browsing.

[mikemc2]

Originally Posted by InkiMail

I curious about opinions about where this free web-connected feature is headed as B&W eInk gets its color replacement someday and bandwidth increases. Can they still keep offering free 3G?

Note that the Nook has 3G & Wi-Fi but the, easily rooted, Nook Color is Wi-Fi only. Any reader that would be even half-decent for web surfing will be Wi-Fi with 3G/4G being optional with a monthly fee (see: iPad).

[InkiMail]

After some serious thought, I've decided to make InkiMail a free service. You can access your Gmail accounts in an easy-to-see, book-like way for free!
I hope you would consider a small donation so I can keep InkiMail up and running. Please give it a try. All you need is a Gmail account.

http://www.inkimail.com

http://about.inkimail.com

[InkiMail]

So far InkiMail has 172 unique users, according to my log - which does not contain passwords! , the emails I received from my support@inkimail.com address are generally positive. The main observations are;

Concern about entering Gmail user data, primarily passwords to log in
Slow loading the list of emails
Unformatted HTML data in the email body.

I understand the concern about having to enter the Gmail password. I wish I could do it some other way. The only thing I can do is assure everyone that your account info is safe. The slow loading is a multi-part issue. The eReader is not speedy by its nature, and since it's an interface into Gmail, its has a bit of lag. If you have a lot of emails in your inbox, it could take about 30 seconds to load the list.

As for the unformatted HTML. The purpose of InkiMail is to get rid of the HTML, since thats what makes it so hard to read the text. But sometimes there is so much junk in the email, it looks like gibberish. If enough people use InkiMail, I'll try to recode that area to see if I can improve readability.

Thanks for playing with InkiMail. I appreciate it. Don't forget to let me know what you think at support@inkimail.com

Dave

[InkiMail]

I've improved the code that generates the lists of emails in the inbox. Hopefully it loads faster now. It does on my test accounts. Please let me know if you're using InkiMail.com and if you've noticed that the email list displays quicker.

Dave

support@inkimail.com