# kinstant - kindle browser start page



## dazdude (Dec 10, 2009)

One thing the otherwise excellent Kindle is not is a great web-browser. Even with a hardware keyboard to type urls, the process of visiting even one site is painful. If you're like most people, you'll try once or twice and then give up, forever.

Which is a shame, as the little e-reader has a free, life-long 3G connection, perfect for quickly checking your mail or the news. Which is where Kinstant comes in. Kinstant is a customizable home-page (remember those?) which has just been updated with some fancy new features.

Save Kinstant as your home-page and you have one-click access to Kindle-friendly versions of many sites (Gmail, the New York Times, CNN) plus links to category pages. Click one of these and you'll see a further list of sites, plus headlines and summaries for that subject.

With the new version, you can also add in your own links, either direct from the Kindle or from a proper web-browser somewhere else. You just add the regular URL and then, when you click the link, you are taken to a vastly simplified version formatted for the e-reader.

And there's more. A menu gives access to a calculator and Google Maps. Yes, maps. Add your location and destination and you get directions and an embedded map with the route marked.










Kinstant is a start page for the experimental web browser in current generation Kindles that offers a crisp and easy to navigate layout well suited for the Kindle's monochromatic screen and limited navigation buttons.

The current generation Kindle (version 3) sports a simple web browser as part of its experimental feature set. The browser is surprisingly good given the limitations of the monochromatic screen and the Kindle's book-oriented simple controls. Kinstant is a stripped down and Kindle-friendly start page that gives you quick and easy access to the mobile versions of a wide variety of web sites like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Gmail, Facebook, Lifehacker, and a handful of handy tools like a web-based timer.

In our tests Kinstant looked great on the Kindle and was easy to use. The only request we could make is a simple login system so users could customize the order of the links and add in their own. Visit the link below to check out Kinstan

http://kinstant.com/#


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

Kinstant is indeed neat.



dazdude said:


> Save Kinstant as your home-page


Huh? How?


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## jhall124 (Dec 2, 2010)

dazdude said:


> One thing the otherwise excellent Kindle is not is a great web-browser. Even with a hardware keyboard to type urls, the process of visiting even one site is painful. If you're like most people, you'll try once or twice and then give up, forever.
> 
> Which is a shame, as the little e-reader has a free, life-long 3G connection, perfect for quickly checking your mail or the news. Which is where Kinstant comes in. Kinstant is a customizable home-page (remember those?) which has just been updated with some fancy new features.
> 
> ...


This "is" a great page. I've even saved my zip and made the new page my default.


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

jhall124 said:


> . . . and made the new page my default.


How do you make a webpage your home page or "default" on a Kindle?


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## kadenus (Dec 12, 2010)

That is a great start page. Much easier to reach and to read than pages not intended for the Kindle. Thanks.


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## dazdude (Dec 10, 2009)

To keep Kinstant as a bookmark in your Kindle, click your Kindle's Menu button, then select Bookmark This Page.


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## ff2 (Oct 20, 2010)

I THINK "return to home" from the Calculator did not work


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

dazdude said:


> To keep Kinstant as a bookmark in your Kindle, click your Kindle's Menu button, then select Bookmark This Page.


Of course.

But this isn't a default page or home page for the browser, merely a book mark.

Some have suggested making Kinstart their default page/home page. I don't believe this can be done, but would be pleased to learn otherwise.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Elk said:


> Some have suggested making Kinstart their default page/home page. I don't believe this can be done, but would be pleased to learn otherwise.


You can sort of make it a home page if you just always go back to it before you leave the browser. 'Cause the browser will always open on the last page you accessed each time you start it up.

Incidentally, I believe it is "kinsta*n*t". . .and probably the easiest way to get to it is to turn on the wireless, type kinstant.com while on the home page, and click "go to". You may even be able to do this from within a book, but I'm not sure about that as I've not tried it. . . basically you're performing a search so the key would be telling it to look farther afield than the title currently open.


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

Ann in Arlington said:


> You can sort of make it a home page if you just always go back to it before you leave the browser.


Yep. And perhaps this is what others meant.



> Incidentally, I believe it is "kinsta*n*t"


It is. Thanks for fixing it. I hope I didn't confuse anyone.


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