Apparently I’m not the only one unimpressed by Amazon’s “dead author” Kindle screensavers. Yeah, I know I could hack my Kindle to display other images (like these)… but there’s nothing specific I’d like to view and do appreciate the random “playlist” approach. Which is why I voluntarily turned on Amazon’s “Special Offers.”
Opting into advertising pre-purchase saves one $30 – $40 off Kindle hardware. But, assuming you already have hardware, you can toggle Special offers on or off. Folks with subsidized hardware will have to pay the differential to remove advertisements, displayed as the screensaver and via a banner at the bottom of the home screen, while those who paid full retail can toggle ads on/off at will via their Amazon Kindle management webpage (as shown above). That was news to me and, for the moment, I’ve decided to run the ads for some visual variety.