Free Kindle Active Content

Posted on April 4, 2011 by kaizenboy

Here’s a list of all available free Kindle Active Content -

  • Shuffled Row by Amazon Digital Services. This is like a one-line, one-player Scrabble where you have to make the longest words you can from a stream of words. It’s a lot of fun and very addictive. My favorite free kindle active content.
  • Every Word by Amazon Digital Services. This is like that game where you’re given letters and have to make as many words as you can. This is also quite fun. You can pick between a timed and non-timed mode.
  • Video Poker by Amazon Digital Services. A casino style game. Not sure how to play it but it looks pretty and interesting.
  • Number Slide by Amazon Digital Services. That old sliding game where you had to slide numbers in a square into order. Had a lot of fun with the physical version and this digital version is fun too.
  • Blackjack by Amazon Digital Services. Love blackjack and this game is good. It’s pretty similar to EA’s Texas Hold’em Poker in quality and finish.
  • Mine Sweeper by Amazon Digital Services. For a more simple minesweeper press Alt+Shift+M on your Kindle. This is the active content Minesweeper.
  • Jumble, 3 Free Puzzles by Puzux. This is a very short preview of what the other Jumble games by Puzux are like.

    • Since there is no advertising allowed in the Kindle Active Content store there are very few free active content offers. However, as competition heats up, we might see companies offer free kindle active content to create a name for themselves.

    Filed under: Free Kindle Apps | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

    Free Kindle Apps

    Posted on October 16, 2010 by kaizenboy

    There are currently three free kindle apps in the Kindle App Store –

    1. Minesweeper – A simple minesweeper app with 3 difficulty levels and lots of replay value.
    2. Every Word – A word puzzle game where you have to make as many words as possible out of a set of words.
    3. Shuffled Row – Another word puzzle game. This is quite a bit like a one person Speed Scrabble.

    Each of these apps has its own particular strengths. Let’s take a quick look.

    Free Kindle Apps – Thoughts

    The most addictive game is probably Shuffled Row. Though if you like minesweeper on Windows you might find the Kindle Minesweeper App more addictive than Shuffled Row.

    Shuffled Row isn’t very suited to short breaks as it helps to be in flow to get good scores in Shuffled Row. Minesweeper and Every Word on the other hand are easy to handle in 2 to 5 minute snippets.

    Every Word and Shuffled Row are great for improving your vocabulary.

    At the moment I’d rank Shuffled Row first. The other two apps are good but nowhere as good as or as compelling as Shuffled Row.

    Filed under: Free Kindle Apps | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

    Kindle Minesweeper Free App

    Posted on October 16, 2010 by kaizenboy

    Amazon released a free Kindle App today – Minesweeper.

    It’s really quite good with three 5 star reviews already.

    Kindle Minesweeper App – Thoughts

    The key details and my thoughts –

    1. 3 difficulty levels. The higher the difficulty the more the squares in the grid. It becomes a bit cluttered at the higher difficulty levels.
    2. You can turn on tips which are quite helpful.
    3. The write-up says there are thousands of different puzzles for almost endless variety and it certainly seems that way when you’re playing it.
    4. Kindle already has a minesweeper – However, it was very, very basic and really can’t be compared to this Kindle Minesweeper App.
    5. At free this is a must get. It’s easily worth $2 or $3.

    What do people think of the Kindle Minesweeper App?

    Here are a few snippets from Amazon reviews –

    This is SOOO much better than Kindle’s built-in Mine Sweeper game (which you can access by pressing ALT+Shift+M)!

    The graphics are really good on an e-ink screen. Unlike the Kindle’s built-in Mine Sweeper, this version keeps track of your high-scores as well as your play-time.

    I have been a MineSweeper aficionado for many years, so I was naturally skeptical to see that there was an implementation of MineSweeper for the Kindle. Without a touchscreen or mouse interface, could the game be as playable as I always remember it in Windows? I can assure you that the game is not only playable, but quite enjoyable

    There are only 3 reviews so far but they’re all 5 star and it really does seem that the rating will hover between 4 stars and 5 stars for a very long time.

    Kindle Minesweeper Pros and Cons

    There are quite a few pros –

    1. It’s free.
    2. It’s fun.
    3. 3 difficult levels and almost infinite replayability.
    4. Graphics are quite decent. 
    5. The game tracks your scores and times.
    6. Tips to help you play.
    7. Moving around is very straightforward.

    There are additional pluses like the app having a nice background image for the menu.

    There are also some cons –

    1. At the hardest difficulty level the numbers are tiny – they’re really hard to see.
    2. It’s a bit of a distraction from reading.
    3. The instructions are in a rather small font size.
    4. The Quick Reveal feature is a bit hard to figure out.

    There’s not much to complain about. It’s an A- grade game and deserves a 4 to 5 star rating.

    Filed under: Free Kindle Apps | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

    Follow

    Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

    Join 198 other followers