Anybody here have an Amazon Kindle?

FAT LOAD OF HELP YOU GUYS ARE!

Last Edited by Atheist on 09/19/2010 06:55 AM

I have one the cheapy version, I like it.

How do you find it? What do you use it for?

The 3rd gen? How do you find the new features that are useful but not what people buy it for such as the web browser?

My purchase interest is to use it to carry dozens of academic books around that would otherwise snap my spine, and as a .PDF reader for scientific papers and photocopies.

I would have thought this was something GLP'ers were into as it would allow them to carry around practically every survival E-book they can find on the web, high resolution maps of the entire country etc.

Last Edited by Atheist on 09/19/2010 06:58 AM

tard.

wifey has one and loves it.

What does she like about the reader?

Hey there,

I got one for my husband for xmas last year. I got myself a Sony E-Reader for the same money. I rarely use the Sony anymore, as I'm restricted to the Sony Bookstore, which I find has higher prices, and not that great a selection.

The Kindle has a much better selection. But... before you purchase it, make sure that it really will read the files you want it to. I know my husband was able to get a ton of books from Public Domain with it, so maybe it does take PDFs... just make sure before you buy it and find out that it won't do what you want it to.

The wi-fi worked great, even out here in the middle of no where. He was able to get books in seconds... The text was fantastic, the glare wasn't as bad as it was on the Sony.

He didn't have the touch screen, but he was still able to highlight things, look things up, make notes, etc. He was also able to search Google for things with the Kindle.

You do need to use a credit card with Amazon to use it. You can't buy digital media via the checking account like you can use for other purchases. We simply used a pre-paid that we added to once in a while. No biggie (we refuse to use credit cards!).

The only caution besides the formats - its fragile. I know that should go without saying... but it didn't for hubby. He had it placed on the car while he got something out of the back seat, and it slipped off the car and hit the ground - destroyed. I paid $260 for it last year so he didn't get a replacement. Now that they are selling for $139, I'll consider it. But just keep that in mind. It completely cracked the display and the e-ink just didn't work after that. He hid it from me, lol, so I don't know the entire extent of the damage, but I do know it does not work anymore, or he'd be using it because he loved it!

So hope that helps you out. At $139, if it supports the formats you want, I'd go for it. The Sony had a nice option of adding memory cards to expand it, not sure if Kindle has anything like that... but you CAN store the books to an external hard drive, and switch them on and off the kindle as you read them... it does hold a lot, but not sure how many 1500 page books it would hold!

Good luck - I'm considering getting one for myself this year, getting rid of the Sony... I liked the touch screen and stylus for the same money, but it lost its luster pretty fast when books I wanted were available for other readers $5-$10 less then on Sony. So screw them!

PJ

The step mother in law has one and loves it. I checked it out briefly one day last year. The thing I immediately liked was the screen. It really looked like a piece of paper and not some kind of LCD. That's all I remember about it.

SDM

If you have any additional questions that I missed, let me know and I'll check back and try to answer. :-) It is nice to see someone who wishes to be an educated consumer!

PJ

Thanks for your time, i hear this latest model is tougher, its also very cheap here in the UK.

If i had money to burn id buy the huge version but its about 4x the price of the 6inch version, which falls in line with the ipads price, if i was going to drop that kind of money on a ebook reader id buy a tablet pc instead.

As for having problems with third party books, it wont be an issue if it opens standard .pdfs

The screens are amazing, no eye strain at all, nothing like a normal screen, thats what interests me about them.

I can dump 100's of .pdfs and books on them and it saves carrying lots of weight around but doesnt have the eyestrain of reading shit on my laptop.

Might look into one of them.

I love my kindle. I have 2nd generation. I love it because if I want a book, it downloads in seconds, no waiting for the mail or trip to the bookstore.

Also, I can adjust the font so I don't need to find my reading glasses.
Another thing I like about it is I don't have a bunch of paper backs around the house.

I am sure other ebooks are good, and do the same things.

I have heard that Amazon has the most selection.

Does anyone know if you can download books from google books onto it?

You are so very welcome! Hubby had the smaller version, and had no issues. You can change font size, page turns are a simple button push and rather instant, ie, no waiting to get to the next page. The e-Ink display is amazing.

Personally I am thrilled that they are offering it for nearly half the price of last year. I'm considering one myself for that price (and replacing hubbys, if its true they are less fragile, god bless them lol).

One thing I did love about the Sony was that I could make actual notes on things with the Stylus. And I could call up those notes in 2 seconds, no matter where in the book I was. I haven't looked into the 'bigger' Kindle, but if it has those features, I may save up my pennies for one of those because I often want to look things up while reading.

All in all, if it supports the formats you want, and holds enough books for you, I think it is a very smart investment.

One other thing that just came to mind though... I remember when we got one for Hubby there was some anger from consumers about Amazon's policy - something like you don't actually own the material you purchase from Amazon, that they retain the rights to remove any book that they want to. I tried to look just now to see if I could find the exact wording but could not just yet. I'll keep digging. Sounds like that may not be an issue for you anyway.

Enjoy it! When I was using it, I took my e-reader everywhere. Get ready for everyone and their brother to ask about it when they see it lol. I should have been paid by Sony for all the demo's I gave in doctors waiting rooms and what not lol.

Take care OP!

PJ

If they are public domain, yes you can. Hubby has done so with many. Hope that helps!

PJ

The Kindle Dx is about 400, which is hella expensive for what it does, might as well drop that on a tablet..granted pdf files look awesome on the fucking thing.

The 6 inch Kindle 3 is 109 right now, which is probably one of the cheapest, ASUS are bringing a £99 one out that has touch screen/wacom functionality...

I really dont know if i should wait.. shits pretty useful for me in regards to required reading lists and reference texts for university.

As far as i am aware most of them a manufacture format for books from the store, but most of the brands seem to load standard .pdf files and images.

So you can use them for maps, downloaded ebooks from file sharing websites etc.

Thank you.I like to read some of the old 1800 ones and it would be nice to get away from the laptop.

Good review.

Its getting to the point where im going to have nigh on about 600 paper books.

I was thinking about storing some of them and not having them on display all the time, space issue really.

I may buy a paper reference book and store it, but use a pdf for actual reading instead, a lot of technical books come with a CD - pdf nowadays too.

Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, Audible (Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX)), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion.

[link to www.amazon.com]

In the US, they are $139... which is almost a 'throwaway' price for most people... I mean, we spend that in gas and coffee for the week (sad, but true). I think we'll grab them at this price, and then wait for the technology to improve. The thing that pisses me off is, I'll prolly buy it for $139, then around Jan 1 it will go to $99 and have touch screen and all that happy horseshit.

I believe it also has landscape and portrait displays. So things like diagrams and maps do come up quite well.

If/When you do buy it, let us know what you think :-)

PJ

Have a look at this one if you want a cut-price one that seems to get OK reviews:

[link to www.play.com]

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and thread's subject but iam courious your opinion