One of the biggest complaints of those who have a Kindle and were outside of Whispernet coverage was that they could not get samples of books. For a while and for the K2 only, there was a workaround that allowed you to use your computer instead of the cellular network to access samples, but Amazon closed that avenue with one of their firmware upgrades. If you were out of the country or stuck in a remote area, though, you were pretty much out of luck. No doubt that cut down substantially on purchases for these readers, as they didn't have all those temptations littering their home pages. Now however, you can transfer samples to your Kindle via your computer, just as you can transfer books.After you click the Send Sample Now button, you'll be taken to another page that asks which kindle it is for. This step seems a bit superfluous in most cases, unless they add DRM to samples downloaded this way, as mobi-formatted samples have been DRM free (which may not be true of samples downloaded via computer). In any event, pick a Kindle (not an iphone) and click to start the download. One thing you'll discover at this point is if the book is a Mobi (.azw) for Topaz (.tpz) formatted ebook.
The format can be important for two reasons. First, Topaz books are almost always larger in size (so fewer fit in the more limited memory of the K2). Second, the formatting of Topaz books can be quite awful, as entire lines can be jammed together, words offset or in the wrong place (as if someone cut and pasted the lines to build the books for scanning, then dropped some lines into the wrong places). I've seen books where paragraphs started with the middle of a sentence (and ended in the middle of the same one, so you had to read into the paragraph to find the beginning of it, which can be a major pain when trying to maintain story flow). The fonts can be fuzzy, especially at larger sizes, often the Kindle forgets what page it was on when you leave the book and some have reported problems using the Back key with topaz formatted books. I try to avoid them, when an alternative exists (another store and reading on the PC, a used book, etc), but there have been a few I've bought (and not all the books have such problems, but it is highly likely that they will, as they are scanned conversions and not from original electronic texts). The most common problem is the fonts - because they are not the highly readable default fonts in the Kindle, but scanned graphics, they are almost always less readable in very large and very small sizes. I'm not saying you should skip every topaz book - but you'll want to check the sample carefully (and I've found you get a lot shorter sample, as well, as the fonts take up a lot of the initial download) before committing.
So, all those who have been deprived of samples, rejoice. You too can now fill your home page with temptations to break your Kindle budget! As a bonus, you can also rename any sample that is in the .azw format and read it on your PC (I tested one this morning). Change the extension from AZW to PRC or MOBI (either one works) and then you can read it using either the MobiPocket Reader or Calibre software. Just don't let the boss catch you reading samples when you are supposed to be working (or you might have more time to read than you really wanted!).
