Kindle. Wow!

[W3MIV]

Just bought a Kindle. It is the "global" model, and (ostensibly) will download books in most of the rest of the world. Not that I am off to anywhere for a bit. A goodly bit, likely.

I looked at the new iPad, but rejected it as being too pricey and too much a duplication of my laptop. All I am interested in is reducing the weight and bother of most of the books I read during my enforced status as a handicap. Believe me when I tell you I much prefer to be handicapped in Trap than the way it now works.

Back to the K. It is quite capacious. I have downloaded a plethora of classics -- Dickens, Sinclair (Upton), Norris, Lewis (Sinclair), Fitzgerald, Chesterton, Poe, Wilde, Wister, Wodehouse, and more -- from the Gutenberg Project. All public domain; all free of charge; and all free of avoirdupois. Consider that the K weighs in at less than a pound.

Battery lasts very long time (I know not just how long since I have not run it out, though I have read up to six hours without shutting it down). I generally plug it in to recharge when I turn in.

Screen is ultra sharp, and I am told that the real-ink technology only uses power to change the screen, and that the current is off until the page is changed. No backlight, but it holds up very well in bright sunlight -- unlike most backlighted LCD screens.

Good deal at $260 with free ship from Amazon.

Anybody out there using one?

[KU0DM]

Nope, I'd go bankrupt. Everyone I've talked to has called it a book buying machine. Very cool device, but the click-buy impulse would drive me to debtors prison. :oops:

[KB2SFH]

I chose the Sony e-reader after reading unfavorable reviews on the Kindle. I got the $199 Sony from online on a site with no tax since I am not in Illinois and free shipping.
http://www.abt.com/

[n2ize]

I'll stick to old fashioned printed and bound (ink on paper) books for now.

Actually I have downloaded various types electronic books. I read them on the computer screen or else print the pages I intend to read.

[kf0rt]

I've come close to buying a Kindle a few times, but not yet.

XYL would read 10 a week and the only thing that slows her down is having to get in the car. :shock:

[n0iu]

I don't have a Kindle reader, but I do have the Kindle app on my iPod Touch. I had the Touch for a while but never really thought about actually reading a book on that tiny little screen, but I gotta tell you, I am hooked... big time! I am reading more books now than I ever did!

For me, I think it has to be the fact that the text is lit from behind rather than being reflected off the page like with a "normal" book. I find it easier on these tired old eyes.

I don't know if you can use other "e-readers" on the Kindle, but I also use one called Stanza and the e-reader from Barnes & Noble.

And I totally agree with the fact that this thing will zap your bank account! I curse Amazon for their One Click buying! :twisted:

Oh, and I already informed my wife that I will be getting an iPad... sooner or later... probably by Christmas... if I can wait that long. Yeah, I drank the Apple Kool-Aid some time ago. There are some WiFi communications issues that they are working on so I am sure there will be a v2.0 very soon.

Enjoy your e-reader!

[N8YX]

A Kindle might come in very handy for use as a mobile reference device by, say, field servicing personnel who should not (or cannot) be issued a laptop computer. I've never used one of the things...how does it do when presenting graphics? Can the display be zoomed?

[KA5PIU]

Hello.

I have used them all.
The Kindle is kind of cool, Amazon offering.
Nook is the B&N offering.
And Sony e-reader, well,,,,. :mrgreen:
I lump them together as they are more alike than not.
The first thing about them is the e-ink, Much easier on the eyes to read than even the best CRT or LCD display.
The second thing, black and white, yep, not a drop of color.
The third thing, speed, or should we say lack of?, the screen "refresh" is real slow, but it is a static display after all.
Next is the operating system, all use some form of embedded that is not normally open to the user.
WiFi is now the norm across the board but anything even close to real browsing is not an option.
MP3 player? sort of, but hobbled by both the OS as well as the size of the unit, clearly no threat to the iPod market.
But, with all this being said, as a portable "book" it is about as ideal as we are going to get at this time.

[al2n]

I have thought of getting one, but have not read up on the details enough. The thought of carrying a few dozen books in one unit is appealing.

Do you need a monthly subscription to use one? Or is all you pay for the books?

[KU0DM]

Do you need a monthly subscription to use one? Or is all you pay for the books?

I believe it's pay-as-you-go. Although that'd be interesting, pay a monthly amount and download up to X number of books.

[W3MIV]

I have thought of getting one, but have not read up on the details enough. The thought of carrying a few dozen books in one unit is appealing.

Do you need a monthly subscription to use one? Or is all you pay for the books?

The Kindle retails for $260 and the shipping is free. It is a stand-alone device that can download books through its own wireless (cellular) 3G connection. That may be problematic in AK. When you buy a book from Amazon, there is no charge to download it to your Kindle; the book is yours, just like a paper edition would be, and it is archived on Amazon so that you can download it again if you have deleted it from your Kindle.

You may also download books via your computer over the internet, and then install them (or remove them) from the Kindle via USB. This would work anywhere.

There is a very large selection of free books that are available from the Gutenberg Project or from other sites such as http://manybooks.net. Amazon also has a good selection of free ebooks available on their systems.

Most "best sellers" available as Kindle editions from Amazon retail for about $10.

[KB3LAZ]

You damn kids with your Jolly Ranchers and Diet Coke...or something like that. Call me obsessed but I like the feel and smell of paper and I love having my own library. I really do have a fascination with paper and specifically old paper. Don't get me wrong I do see the convenience factor but I still like a gold old fashioned book.

[N7RJD]

I've come close to buying a Kindle a few times, but not yet.

XYL would read 10 a week and the only thing that slows her down is having to get in the car. :shock:

She can't read and get in the car at the same time?

Personally I'm great at multitasking. I can walk and trip over my own two feet at the same time. :rofl: :rofl:

[n0iu]

In most cases, once you download a book from Amazon, you can read it on up to six devices. The other really cool thing about the Kindle platform is what they call Whispersync. In my case, I have a broken (no sound) iPod Touch that I keep in the "gentleman's lounge" and a working iPod Touch that I take to work. So lets say I download a book on my PC and start reading it. Before I go to work (I work the graveyard shift and sometimes its slow so its nice to have something to read), I run the Kindle app and it will automatically sync to the furthest page read on any registered device. So then I come home and run the Kindle app again. This time, I go to the "gentleman's lounge" for some quiet time and run the Kindle app on that iPod Touch and it automatically goes to the furthest page read. And likewise, when I go to my PC, it will pick up one the furthest page read.

Cool, eh?

[W3MIV]

You damn kids with your Jolly Ranchers and Diet Coke...or something like that. Call me obsessed but I like the feel and smell of paper and I love having my own library. I really do have a fascination with paper and specifically old paper. Don't get me wrong I do see the convenience factor but I still like a gold old fashioned book.

I feel your nostalgia. (Or, is it neuralgia?) As the owner of a substantial library of well over three thousand mostly non-fiction volumes, I understand the appeal of sitting surrounded by the greats of history, law, science and literature. Nonetheless, the eBook is clearly the wave of the future.

I have had eBooks on my computer for the past several years. I started out with the Microsoft reader on the laptop. It was not convenient; there is little advantage to a five-pound laptop versus a few pounds of cloth, cardboard and paper. Indeed, the tree-model consistently won out since it requires no battery or line cord. MS got out of the book bidness, and I still have several titles stuck on a drive somewhere.

These new gadgets are different. They are CONVENIENCE writ large. Very large. A bit more than ten ounces that can warehouse a substantial library -- some 1,500 books I am told, though I have not any idea of loading that many -- powered by a thin battery that lasts several hours. It will even read the printed text to you, though that facility needs a lot of work -- inflexion is too monotone for dialogue and many words are mispronounced. Given time, that too will change. It will also play MP3 music and play audiobooks, though I suspect the battery will not prove quite so long-legged powering those options.

Best of all is that these devices have saved literature, for them who care. Books go out of print. Libraries, unlike in olden tymes, now regularly cull their collections to reduce inventory and less popular titles are sold off to used-book hucksters and gradually fade into hard-to-impossible to find status.

Digitizing offers a permanence that is unsurpassable. And most of the world's greatest literature is available for free. I like it.

[KA9VQF]

These devices seem to be the way to go if you are in college.

Several of the people I work with have them. They do buy the paper version of their text books but most offer a CD of the book that can be transferred to a Kindle device if they so desire.

I see them running around work with them and wonder how often they get smegged up there. Evidently not very often but some of the chemicals we use would total one in short order.

I’d expect all schools, even primary and high schools, will mandate them soon.

[WØTKX]

Wow, this is a cool one... not quite out yet.

http://www.skiff.com/skiff-reader.html

http://dvice.com/assets_c/2010/01/skiff_ereader-thumb-550x309-31148.jpg

[al2n]

I finally joined the band wagon and downloaded the Kindle app for my laptop.

Gotta say, I am pretty impressed so far. I may very will pick up the Kindle hand held unit this fall. Been downloading a bunch of the classics, many of which I have not read in years.

[n2ize]

You damn kids with your Jolly Ranchers and Diet Coke...or something like that. Call me obsessed but I like the feel and smell of paper and I love having my own library. I really do have a fascination with paper and specifically old paper. Don't get me wrong I do see the convenience factor but I still like a gold old fashioned book.

YES !!! +1000000000000000000

[kf0rt]

Cheap books written on paper:

I'm a bit of a fan of Amazon's used stuff. Books are cheap, and who cares if someone read it before you did? Ditto DVD's and the like. My one complaint about Kindle is the cost of the books. Seems like it's all $9.95 or something. If it's not a new release, you can usually get the real thing cheaper through their used book stores.

[KC2UGV]

I believe it's pay-as-you-go. Although that'd be interesting, pay a monthly amount and download up to X number of books.

Give it time. Look at what happened in video rentals. First, it was pay per rental. Then, pay monthly for X rentals. Now, pay monthly, unlimited rentals, unlimited streaming.

Only reason I wont buy a Kindle: I can't take those eBooks and read them anywhere but my kindle, or a device with a Kindle app. I prefer to be able to read my books any way I choose.

[KU0DM]

I prefer to be able to read my books any way I choose.

Same reason I won't buy one. It's the Apple effect, I think the lock-down business model is going to become more popular.

[W3MIV]

Can the display be zoomed?

No. The screen is a curious affair that uses extremely fine black ink particles that are arranged electrically against a fixed, white background. Apparently, once the page has been arranged, the power to the screen is shut off until the next page is arranged. No color. No backlighting. Battery lasts and lasts and lasts when the wireless feature is turned off. Drawback is that you need ambient light to read.

It will display PDF files, though I have not done so.


I have thought of getting one, but have not read up on the details enough. The thought of carrying a few dozen books in one unit is appealing.

Do you need a monthly subscription to use one? Or is all you pay for the books?

Books are bought and downloaded from Amazon or from other vendors hawking Amazon-compatible wares. Once you buy from Amazon, a copy is kept on their server as well as on your Kindle, and you may download it again whenever you want to/need to.

Also, all of the free books of The Gutenberg Project are available in mobi-pocket format, which is compatible with Kindle. It will hold a few HUNDRED books, but managing such an inventory becomes daunting. Gutenberg has a vast library of classics that are no longer under copyright.

[n6hcm]

i'm concerned about drm, which is why i haven't gone too far with the kindle or anything like it.

i do buy ebooks ... usually as pdfs. o'reilly was having a sale: any of their ebooks for $4.95 ... available in a variety of formats (epub, pdf, ...). i bought twelve last night, and saved about $500 over their paper counterparts.

some public libraries offer ebooks (usually epub format) for loan.

[n0iu]

I don't have a Kindle reader, but I do have the Kindle app on my iPod Touch.

Oh, and I already informed my wife that I will be getting an iPad... sooner or later...
UPDATE!!!
My wife never listens to me... but that's not news!

So I told her I wanted an iPad so you know what she does? She goes to the online Apple store and orders one for my birthday! This is my third marriage and we are comin up on our 10th anniversary. Looks like this one is gonna stick!

But anyway, I have had the iPad for a couple of weeks and I do like it... a lot! I have tried the iBook app, but I still prefer the Kindle app for reasons stated earlier.

Mini Thread Hijack: I also installed the EchoLink app on the iPad. I had never used EchoLink before, but in my quest for free apps, I found this one and I must say that it also works great! I can now sit on my porch (when its not pouring down rain or 95° outside) and connect anywhere! So this is what all the fuss is about!

Now back to your regularly scheduled post.

[kf0rt]

Wife's Kindle just arrived. Third gen on this? Sure is a "cute" piece of wizardry. Got her the "International" version, but it's connected to the house WiFi at the moment. $189 plus $35 for the official case (rapage on the case, I'm thinking, but will see). I already want one, but the XYL gets to be the guinea pig. Owing to the fact that Target was out of stock last Friday and I can't keep my mouth shut, she's had about a week to anticipate. "Hey y'all, watch this!" BFF already, I'm thinking.

I'll probably be hanging out in the recipe section of the Island as I learn how to cook. :rofl:

How you liking it months later, Albi?

[kf0rt]

Bwahahahaha! As I was writing that (email open on the other monitor), I start getting a flood of Amazon receipts. She's ordered four books so far. All of them free.

Attagirl. :yes:

[w6tmi]

Initially I was a bit with n2' on the liking paper, but given the amount of literature on the Gutenberg project, and I really hate reading off of a computer, I decided to try the Nook. Barne's & Nobles similar device, based on it seems a little smaller with a touchpad rather then keyboard, and at 200 with a free 50 buck gift cert.

They charge you a buck for the freebies, I guess that's how they subsidize the 3g service, but you can read PDFs, so with CutePDF you can turn anything readable on your computer into a doc for it..

I've also found PDF's of books I own. Possibly questionable legality, but considering I have the actual book boxed up...
You can add plenty of memory via a micro SD card I have 8 gigs on mine the 4 or so it has is plenty, but I figured in case I wanted to play music..

I havent tried music, but I dont care, my books dont play music either, that's why I have a music player.

Have bought a couple as well, def nice to have that option when you're stuck, bored finished your last book and need something.
Another cool option is if you buy a book, you can "loan" it to someone. You virtually give it to them, it becomes in-accessible while they have it.

Not quite as good as the old book swap network but at least if you have friend(s) with similar taste you can save some money doing so.

I probably won't buy too many given the price is the same if not more at times then an actual book, but the "emergency book" aspect makes it worth having a CC on file with it.

You can't zoom, but you can enlarge the font to a fairly big size.

And I do like the space saving, too many boxes 'o books.

[W4RLR]

I downloaded the iBooks app for the iPhone. It came with a free copy of Winnie the Pooh.