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I originally bought an IPAQ several years ago to read stories on and that proved to be too impractical; too small. Now, I am seeing a thing called a "Kindle" and I wonder if anyone else here has tried one. It seems as if the "pages" are as large as a paperback novels'.
The other issue with ebooks needs to be solved, and that is file size. The Paperback books I buy are a minimum of 200 pages and most often 350-600 pages, 12 point single spaced. Oh it is not that I am so cost conscious but I hate to pick up something billed as a "Book", and finish it in an afternoon. I like to get into the pages of what I read; allow it to seep into the darker recesses of my synapses; live it for a while. Some books even make me cry in their darker moments, and laugh or wiggle with delight in the happier times, imagining that hunk is actually tearing my own bodice and mauling my er "protuberances", gasp, I must stop this!
So, having calmed myself a bit, what do you think of the Kindle? I'd like to read stories on one and become, um, kindled. :)
Khadija
Comments
Before you buy...
Realise that the Kindle is just the first in a series of "e-paper" technologies. Colour is probably a year or two away from commercial availability, and perhaps better resolution, all of which will appear in Kindles eventually. Another interesting technology is flexible e-paper, which has already produced a very compact black and white e-book that rolls around it's own body, collapsing a largish screen into a form factor more like a tall/skinny modern cellphone.
The Kindle library tends to be heavy on best sellers, light on everything else, and although the latest (big) Kindle does text-to-speech, this feature is disabled on almost all books from mainstream publishers, because they also make money selling the audiobook rights.
On the other hand, one huge advantage of the big Kindle, especially, is that you can load PDF's to them directly, so you can salvage at least some already-purchased content. Plus, anything you buy is backed up on the amazon servers (assuming that amazon doesn't go out of business or change its terms of service) so you can access your entire Kindle library from anywhere, and even transfer it to a new Kindle when colour comes along. Colour will make magazines much more attractive, and some books.
Right now, Kindle editions are cheap, most around ten bucks or less, available when the hardback comes out, well before the paperback editions, but amazon are subsidising them heavily. That could change. Their files are mostly MobiPocket formatted, and there are hacks available (which void your amazon warranty) to allow loading any MobiPocket file and read it.
Amazon and Apple are in discusions even now, and Kindle content can also be downloaded to the iPhone, so I expect that Apple stores will eventually carry Kindles at retail, so one might try one out there.
Cheers,
Puddin'
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Look at all the models
There are pluses and minuses to all the current offerings. Sony and Kindle are the top two, but the Sony uses basically Sony books, and the Kindle uses Amazon books. Both these products are great in the US, but I live in Fiji and there are download restrictions to foreign countries. The other offerings are Bebook, IRex Illiad, and there is a chinese clone of the Bebook. IRex offers screen sizes up to 11", but the larger you get the more expensive they get.
I bought a Bebook, and although the software basically sucks, I love it. It can read about 15 different formats html, doc, pdf, text, mobi, the list goes on and on. I have about 2000 novels(most for free) that I've downloaded. The Bebook allows 500MB internal storage, the with SD cards upto another 4GB. I have an external 1GB card and I can store about 600 novels on it. I find in actual use, I store about 10 authors at a time. I also load all the BC, and FM stories every morning the take it out to the veranda and read overlooking the oceans and coral reefs. Works great in the sun.
Battery life is great. I never turn it off, and recharge about every 5 days. One thing that does help is a set of 5x reading glasses as some of the books have quite small fonts.
Hope this helps,
Caren
Large screens
That's why I want a screen large enough to do a good impersonation of a paperback. It seems comical to me to improve them by making them smaller. I wish they made an Adult sized cell phone too. :)
Khadija
Khadija, I'm using my Itouch.
Khadija, I'm using my Itouch.
While the screen is not as big as the Kindle, it works just fine for me.
I use a program called Stanza on it, and can also use it for music, video etc. There is actually a Kindle reader available for it as well, but I don't use it.
As for file size, ebooks are really compact. My iTouch is a 16gigabyte version, and am currently using only about 116mb for books.
I only have 29 titles at the moment, but a sample of what I have on here
A Christmas Carol (Dickens)
Bardic Voices - The Lark and the Wren ( Mercedes Lackey )
Bardic Voices - Robin and the Kestral ( Mercedes Lackey )
Bardic Voices - The Eagle and the Nightingales ( Mercedes Lackey )
Bardic Voices - Four and Twenty Blackbirds ( Mercedes Lackey )
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain)
The Time Machine (HG Wells)
My wife uses a palm TX (even smaller screen) and literally has 1000's of books and stories on her palm.
The Kindle and other readers like it are primarily just for reading. The biggest benefit to the Kindle, besides the big screen (though it is black and white) is the ability to buy a book anytime anywhere because it includes a built in internet access back to Amazon.
Hugs,
Kristy
I touch
I have one too, but never considered using it to read books. I like to read for hours and eye strain gets to be a big issue. That's why I have a 24" screen. Still ... something to look at.
Thank you
Khadija
I Bought One Last Week
First of all it arrived in two days, which was nice. Then I had some initial problems when my brother-in-law clumsily ordered two books I did not want. I called the help line. Within thirty seconds I was talking to a human being who quickly and politely reversed the orders. He also helped with some of the questions I had since I hadn't gone through the tutorial at that time.
The resolution is much better, I think, than most books. For me there is much less eyestrain. You can choose between six font sizes and change readily. I bought and read a book (a best seller for $10 and read it in two days. Kindle will store about 150 books and Amazon stores books for you that you take off your Kindle. I was pleased with the way it feels in my hands and compared to some books - like some of the Harry Potter books and Snowball (the Warren Buffett bio) -- it was much easier to hold for a long period of time.
I found most of the functions to be intuitive. It allows you to write notes to yourself - which is fun. I can't bring myself to do that to a real book.
I'm not sure I agree with Puddintane on everything mentioned. For example, I ordered several classics that I've been meaning to reread. (Treasure Island, Pride and Prejudice, The Illiad and The Odyssey, The Adventures of Huck Finn, and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. They cost between free and $1. I've got them in hard copy but they're never with me when I want to read them and the Kindle will be.
I tried to order the latest Grisham novel and found it unavailable. I went to Amazon and left a note for John G telling him I would like it available -- which will probably spring that little devil right into action. It says there are over 300,000 titles available, but the majority are non-fiction. ONLY about 115,000 fiction books are available.
Books download in seconds. The battery will last quite some time and takes a very short time to recharge.
It works on the same technology as a cellphone.
You supposedly can send your own text files to your Kindle. I tried but failed at that but would like to do it to read some of the longer TG stories.
I normally carry several writing reference books with me, such as Elements of Style, and now have purchased copies of these for my Kindle and will no longer carry the actual book.
I'm sure I will read more and it will cost me less. The only thing is, I've loved the ability to give people the books I've read. I'm not sure how to fill that void. I have bought forty to sixty books a year from Amazon for the last five or six years. Kindle will save me quite a chunk of money, if I can get the books I want.
At $300 plus it is hardly a toy, but I like it.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
A friend has one...
but, can't use it Friday Night/Saturday... When it'd be most convenient.
I keep thinking about one, but so far, I've been able to refrain. Though, your suggestion of classics could well push me over the edge.
Annette
Big Brother
Be careful. There was a recent incident where amazon utilized one of the functions built into the kindle and remotely deleted some books from people's units. Ironically, those books were 1984 and Animal Farm. Amazon now say they're not going to do that if the same copyright issue comes up again, but they don't say anything about taking that power away from themselves.
Here is a link to the NY Times article, or enter "kindle 1984" in your favorite search engine.
Remote deletion
Itunes did that to me the other day. I own the CD too. This pisses me off to no end, but I actually have a life to live, so maybe I will just let the whole matter go for now, til I confront Itunes.
Khadija
I feel violated!
Now that this Robot Remote issue becomes clearer to me, I guess that also means that they can just bloody well get right on my brand new, shit hot, computer and do any friggen thing they want to. It makes me feel like Billy Gates an 'is boys have me trapped in a dark alley and are taking um liberties with me.
Maybe this means I go back to the old Selectric and the thing with the flat disks with the needle thingie for my music.
These bloody plonkers have a burden of trust to us don't they? Now I'll be up til gone 2:00 AM just rolling ball lightening into the parking lot. GRRRRRRR
Khadija
Remote Monitoring/Verification
Uhh... The remote deletion of content they don't want was one of the first fears people had with Vista.. The way the hardware component and software features were originally conceived, MS was actually going to "sell" access to the software removal features to other companies.
This never happened, and MS backpedaled a lot on weather or not the functionality still exists...
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for MS being able to make a fair profit on their OS, and very much in favor of "If you like it/use it then you better buy it!" philosophy, but at the same point, I'm no angel.
Supposedly, some time in the next few years, Microsoft will move to a license where you purchase x number of reboots or uses, and not an unlimited use license supposedly...
Who knows if/when it will happen....
-P/KAF/PT
(P.S. Just to clarify, I use WinXP, Vista, Windows 7 and several various flavors of Linux @ home currently. I'm not trying to provide a 1 sided view.)
Not sure
about the hardware, but I have heard some grumbling about the legal side of the house. This article seems to state that fairly well.
http://scifiwire.com/2009/07/amazon-deletes-1984-from.php
hugs!
grover
Kindle
My sister and a good friend have Kindles. They have taken my stories and converted them to text files and loaded them on the Kindle. They love the Kindle! Portia
Portia
Kindles
I was an early adopter on Kindle 1, and also on Kindle 2 (I gave my K1 to my son). I have been rereading the Tom Clancy novels which are very large files (I lost my paper versions by loaning them to friends(ex) who didn't return them. The books are far easier to read on Kindle and I don't have to keep them there because I have archived them on Amazon's computers. I can retrieve them in about a minute. I am a speed reader (1200 wpm on paper) and I seem to be able to read even faster on Kindle. The Kindle library is up over 250,000 books now and seems to be growing rapidly. I also canceled my WSJ paper subscription and get it on Kindle before breakfast regularly.
I am sold on K2 and tend to avoid buying books on paper.
Disclaimer: I also own stock in Amazon
windows smartphone
I read them on my windows smartphone and my netbook. I also read over 1200 wpm but with a 95% comprehension rate and yet still have the worst grammar in the world (but getting better). The problem is now in finding long books due to that short books bore me to death.
Hugs,
Jenna From FL
Moderator/Editor
TopShelf BigCloset
Hugs,
Jenna From FL
Moderator/Editor
TopShelf BigCloset
It is a long road ahead but I will finally become who I should be.
Portable readers
You know, I have been using a Sony Reader for 3 years and love it. Although lately, I am using an Apple iPod Touch with eReader software in it. I prefer the iPod since it is easy to carry but the Sony Reader for the readability. The Kindle, well, you *have* to get it from Amazon and while you can get any book available from Amazon on it, you have to pay for the service to d/l the stuff onto it. The Sony has proprietary format to be able to use it but it has the ability to use .pdf, txt, .doc formats as well as .jpg, .mp3, .gif. The iPod is only capable of eReader or palm .pdb formats. There are other readers out there but I think it is going to come down to these three readers in the long run. Sony has come out with a new reader that has a touch screen to turn the pages and also has an led backlight for reading in the dark. The prices run: Kindle= $399., Sony PRS700= $349., iPod Touch 8gb= $289 new/$189 refurb, 32gb= $389. The touch can also play music, videos, store photos, surf the web via wifi as well as run various apps available from the iTunes store. My opinion, I prefer the iPod over all the others for reading. The biggest problem, finding a program to convert files over to .pdb format then upload them to the fictionwise.com personal content in the bookshelf area then d/l the to the touch. Sony has a bookshelf that you can load them to your reader directly from your computer. I don't know anything about the Kindle... Hope this was informative enough for you.
Goldie
>> You have to pay...
Last I looked, the wireless access (through Sprint) is gratis.
Here's the text of their advertisement:
Cheers,
Puddin'
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* To be fair, Sprint coverage has always been relatively poor, but it's easier to find than WiFi hotspots. In major cities, and along major highways, Sprint is usually available, but if you want to run off to your cabin in the Adirondacks, you might have trouble.
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Sprint and Kindle
I don't have a kindle, but yeah, everything I read has said the the sprint service is free. Although, that probably could change @ some point. I think the point of the free download service for Paid-For-Books, is to encourage buying legal eBook copies from Amazon because it's ...(simpler/faster/more intuitive?), than taking the storage card out, and copying files to it.
As for Sprint service... I have had Sprint, Verison and T-Mobile phones all simultaneously at one point (less than 2 years ago) and found Sprint's service to be crisp and clear in my area. I was traveling from Philly to some of the more rural parts of Sothern New Jersey (home of the Jolly Green Giant, and birthplace of Welches Grape Juice), and actually got better service from Sprint than ATT and T-Mobile... And better service from ATT than T-Mobile.. But I liked T-Mobile's tech support best. AT&T's 3G network is finally growing and I can get 3G HSDPA in my bedroom and living room, but I'm down to EDGE access in the kitchen, and that little room some call a water closet. (blush)
-P/KAF/PT
I have one.
I have a kindle2 and I use it frequently. While it's true that the most heavily promoted kindle books are the bestsellers, one thing that is really easy to do is copy past websites into text files and then put them directly on the kindle. So pretty much anything you can read on the web, you can read on the kindle. You can even go online with the kindle through the 3G network, though on the kindle2 this is maddeningly slow.
As far as I am concerned the best feature of the kindle is the text reader. Text readers have been around for ages, and I don't know why someone hasn't just put one in a portable device before now. The kindle text reader, while still a bit robotic, is better than Stephen Hawking or the text reader you might have used on your computer. There are some quirks with the reader, especially with abbreviations or foreign words, but then you can always pause the text and take a look at the screen to be sure of what's said.
If you are fine with reading things on the itouch, that's great, kindle books are actually available on the iphone or itouch through an app, but the screen's a bit small for that, and you wouldn't be able to listen to what you were reading while you driving.
Any way, my two cents. Hope you find something that works for you!