Thoughts on Kindle?

[CMoon]

Are any of you using these things? Or are you using alternates--IE I-Pads?

I'm starting to think about a kindle, in part because I just have so many fucking books, but also because I read a lot of children's lit and go through books very quickly (I know, why not go to the library???) Kindle books seem a little cheaper, wastes less paper, takes up no space.

Can anyone explain how you get books onto Kindle? Do you download them to your computer, then upload them wifi? Can you upload them using USB? Can you upload other e-books in other non-kindle formats?

Lastly, do the people who own these actually like them or is the printed page still the way to go?

[Acid King]

My dad has one and loves it. You can just download the stuff straight to the kindle via wifi or connect it via USB to your computer to transfer stuff to it. I've considered buying one because a large chunk of what I read are journal articles and reading them on the computer blows and printing them out takes up a ton of space and wastes a shitload of paper. I just wonder how the pdf support is on them.

[Danza]

I have a Kindle and use it all the time. I have no more space for books at my house so it is a god send. Takes a little adjusting to because of the "feel" but it really is good. The e-ink thing looks VERY good and looks pretty damn close to paper, but it isn't the same. I love having a portable library with me and it has saved me so much space, so it is 100% worth it for me.

There is an Amazon browser built into the Kindle. You can buy Kindle books directly off that site and it will be downloaded directly to the Kindle. You can also hook it up to your PC via USB to load books onto the Kindle manually.

As for other formats of ebook like epub etc. the Kindle supports few formats. However, there is a handy little program named Calibre that will convert ebooks on your PC to whatever format you want. When you install it and run the application for the first time it asks you what ereader you are using. When you use Calibre to transfer ebooks onto your Kindle it will ask if you want to convert unsupported formats and BAM. Good to go. http://calibre-ebook.com/

PDF support is OK. I think there is a way to convert PDF to a Kindle-friendly format which I often do.

[xris]

I got a Kindle a few months ago, and I LOVE/adore/cherish/lust after it! Within a week of owning it, I decided it was the best thing I have ever bought! And, will save it in a fire.
Now, some of the hard data, there is two models, I'm really happy that I sported for the $189 3G wireless version. I was able to snag it a couple months before xmas and they all sold out. It uses the cellular network for downloads, and no fee for it. Only this model comes with the USB cord also (?). The sheer amount of public domain lit available for free on it is ridiculous! Totally cover the cost of it in books in the first day I had it! All of the Oz series, Portrait of Dorian Grey, Classic Horror- Invisible Man, Frankenstein, Brood of the Witch Queen. Flatland, Aesops Fables, Alice in Wonderland, a bunch of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells.. It goes on for awhile..
Reduced cost of books! If you but new books as they release this is a no brainer. I went on a serious young adult dystopian fiction kick, Feed, The Maze Runners, Hunger Games, The Windup Girl.. Really amazing stuff here! Selling for less than half of the cost new. Lots of other cheapies, ALL of H.P. Lovecraft's stories for $1, Deathworld by H. Harrison for $1!
Amazon has such a great self publication program that is attracting allot of new authors, I have read many new novelists work for really cheap. Some of it has been fantastic! Some dumb..
The ability to download a preview, and read the first couple of chapters is really nice. Saved me from buying some crap.
It does feel like a book when you have it after a couple of days. The screen does such a great job of mimicking paper. There has been a couple times I was reading, and looked away for a moment, then when I looked back, my eyes tried to find the left page first! The heft is comfortable, I thought the buttons were a little tight at first, but after awhile I realized it was so you could hold it by that part and not worry about pressing them. The built in dictionary is sooo handy, it's nice to be able to pull it up without having to go get my unabridged. It does suck to browse through downloads on it, but I now just do it on Amazon and click the send to my Kindle button, works great.
You can get just about any PDF on it, but Google Books is making a play for the market and their stuff no longer transfers to Kindle.
Not all books are available, but Amazon is trying. I abuse the hell out of the suggest for kindle button when it's not available. *cough* J G Ballard *cough* And, recently I have been able to talk to Carlton Mellick III trying to convince him to get his books on Kindle, and got the reply that he mostly likely will soon. Neat.
I dunno, I guess that's good for now. I'll prolly post in this thread a dozen more times.. I LOVE MY KINDLE! The last couple of months I have read more on it than ever before!

[CMoon]

Xris> Interesting you mention all the public domain material. Part of what started these thoughts (beyond just having a really massive library) was watching a version of MacBeth and thinking about getting back into Shakespeare. Alas, my collected volume is gone. I can get a free collected volume for kindle.

Anyway, keep up the testomonials. I think I'll probably buy one shortly, as the entry level model is only $140.

[Vexorg]

If you're getting books from the library, I hear that some readers (I believe the Nook can do it, but the Kindle can't) can check out and read e-books from certain library systems, so that might be something to look into. I don't have any real experience with any of the dedicated e-readers, but I'm using an iPad with iBooks for the purpose right now. I haven't bothered using it with any purchased books yet, just public domain stuff (there's no shortage of that though.) I've messed a bit with the Kindle app for iPad, but haven't used it enough to form an opinion on it.

As far as using an iPad for an eBook reader in general, it's certainly not the cheapest way to go, but I find it actually works quite well to read on, and does plenty more. I don't think it's quite to the point where I could just completely replace a notebook with one, but it's closer than I expected it to be when I got it. It's also not exactly the lightest thing in the world, and if you're the kind of person who ends up reading for hours and hours at a time it's possible you could eventually hit battery life issues. I'm waiting for the Android tablets to catch up (they're definitely not there yet) but for now, I think the iPad is the best device of its type on the market by far.

[brentsg]

If you want to read in sunlight or normal ambient lighting then I'd get a Kindle. If you want to read mostly at night, in the dark then I'd consider an iPad.

Obviously the iPad is more expensive but adding a book light to a Kindle would drive me nuts.

[CMoon]

Maybe stupidly, just bought a kindle reader, applied for the amazon visa to get the thing for $99. I'll let you know how my experience goes, but I'm anxious to save shelf space, paper and money. I'm very curious to see how the calibre programs work and if I can convert various files to kindle. Also curious to see how well it supports word, html and pdf, which it now claims it does.

[brentsg]

I don't know about the alternate formats and file conversions, but my wife uses one to read books purchased via Amazon and it's really brilliant. The e-ink is awesome and every bit as easy on the eyes as paper and ink. No way she'll ever be without it, or something better.

[xris]

Cool! Honestly, I bought mine with clenched teeth, it was a decent amount of money for me, but did not even come close to having buyers remorse. If any thing stoopid happened to it, I would happily buy another. Plus, it seems durable, I've dropped mine, slept on top of, and bounced my keys off of it ( that I don't wanna try again though..)
On the note of supported pdf files, Amazon advertises that if you have a file that you can't just drag and drop into it, they will convert it and email it you for $0.15. But, I have yet to try this, maybe I will with Prometheus' guide..
So, I guess you set up an Amazon account, their main site is pretty easy to browse for Kindle books. It's suggested reading list works rather well actually. Although, after I had downloaded a ton of free stuff, I had to go through it and remove all of it from the suggestion files. But, once i left the stuff I really like, the suggestions started being helpful, yes, I would actually like to read that.
I really like that I have almost 100 books on this little tablet! It does really neat things like auto book marking your spot, you can adjust words per line, type sizing, a couple different fonts (however, I do kinda miss seeing many new fonts with new books.. I'm constantly bringing it up on their faceybooklet page) Reading with one hand without the book slapping shut on me.
Many people say they wish it was back-lit.. Not good, very bad for your eyes, harmful during long periods of reading.
The battery life is really good. It'll last a very looong time with heavy use. It only uses power when you change pages. The refresh flash was distracting for about a day, now I don't notice it. It's there to prevent image ghosting.
I pay for everything with their prepay cards. It took a little time with customer service to set it up so it wasn't attached to a credit card.
You won't regret getting it! Let us know what you think once you've read something on it!
edit: One thing that is really weird, is that it doesn't use page numbers.. It's like a verse log number system thingy.. It does have a progress bar, and percentage rate instead.

[mesh control]

How long does the battery charge last on these?

I wish college textbooks were supported on the kindle. V_V

[CMoon]

How long does the battery charge last on these?

I wish college textbooks were supported on the kindle. V_V

Apparently upwards of a month.

Regarding textbooks...*cough*...this is why I'm rather interested in the ability of the kindle to support other formats. There's plenty of stuff that will never be on kindle. If you can get it in a word, pdf or html format and read it on the kindle with that easy-on-the-eye digital ink, well then...

I also found some brewing books I owned which had pdf downloads. Having them as reference while I brew at a friend's house on a kindle sounds bad-ass.

[gct]

I know you already bought one CMoon, and I cannot speak from personal experience but my father has a Sony eReader and loves it, and for Christmas last month he gave one to my sister and she loves it.

From what they say, the best part is not being locked to any particular format (besides PDF I suppose) but they prefer PDF anyway and if I were to get an eBook reader, I would prefer PDF as well. I have been behind in my course reading so I have been lugging around a big heavy textbook for the last few days, I do think it would be very convenient to have that in a lighter format that doesn't require me to boot my computer.

[Jeneki]

So are all the ebook stores DRM-free yet (for new, non public domain books)? The last time I checked was a few years back and it was pretty ... unappealing.

Right now I've only got public domain books on my reader for this reason. There's no way I'm paying for an ebook that won't transfer a license to other brand devices if I choose to upgrade in the future.

[szycag]

I bought a first gen one used recently, and it's OK I guess. This one doesn't load PDF files, you have to convert with something on the computer. I've been wanting to sell it but haven't gotten around to it. I can read on my iPod touch now, although the screen size isn't too great for that.

[Vexorg]

On the iPad side, iBooks lets you load PDFs in from iTunes without the need for any conversion. It does hide them a bit in the UI, but they're there. I've got one or two PDFs loaded on mine.

[sjewkestheloon]

Good choice cMoon, I love mine. In only one purchase I made the Kindle worth while (16 volume set of Richard Burton's translation of 1001 Nights for £1.76).

Device disappears within minutes of using it and you can get on with the actual reading.

One important thing to note is that if you have varied reading tastes (I know you do) you can't replace books with a Kindle. There are so many unavailable authors at the moment or even books that are more expensive in ebook format than paperback that total conversion leaves you out in the cold.

For me Kindle is for computer documents and classic literature and philosophy whereas modern literature is usually cheaper and more easily available in paperback format.

I really hope that Amazon bring Borges, Bolano and Pynchon out in ebook format.

[Cthulhu]

I have an iPad, it actually works quite well as an E-Reader. Obviously it costs considerably more than a Kindle or Nook but it does a lot more - think about whether the extra features are worth it to you or not. (For me it was an easy yes.) The PDF reader on it is excellent. Does not work very well in direct sunlight but is fine in the shade.

The original Nook got very poor reviews, the Nook Color got very good reviews. I haven't used either, but yes, you can apparently get some library books with it. I don't know if that's supported widely or not (or outside the US at all?).

The Kindle has the best store of all. Waaay more books than iBooks. I have heard that the Nook store has gotten much better as well but I haven't personally verified this. The Kindle also has the best battery life by far.

So... no clear best choice I suppose?

[CMoon]

One important thing to note is that if you have varied reading tastes (I know you do) you can't replace books with a Kindle.

I just had to quote this out of humor as I see myself mostly reading trashy teen fantasy books of late, all of which are instantly dumped on kindle. But yeah, someday I'll get back to reading quality literature, and then what the fuck am I going to do? I'm sure Riddley Walker isn't going up on kindle anytime soon.

[Ex-Cyber]

So are all the ebook stores DRM-free yet (for new, non public domain books)? The last time I checked was a few years back and it was pretty ... unappealing.

Right now I've only got public domain books on my reader for this reason. There's no way I'm paying for an ebook that won't transfer a license to other brand devices if I choose to upgrade in the future.

This. Also, I don't think I'll be buying a Kindle until someone can confirm that the remote deletion functionality is actually removed. Amazon's people promised that they won't do it again, but that's not saying much.

[xris]

^did you miss the part in your link explaining how it was removed due to the distributor not having the legal rights to it, and that the customers were refunded? 1984 is available for download. There was one other instance were they had erased a book because of illegal and immoral content, the people who had bought it were sure to be aware that what they had was illegal.
If you are still complaining about DRM, do yourself a favor and get past it. It's going to be a very long time while that gets sorted out. To be fair, you do have to understand that they are only trying to protect their businesses and cut down on file sharing. I'm comfortable buying stuff digitally from Amazon, they are such a large company, built around the distribution of books. I'm sure as long as I fallow the proper channels laid out, I will have availability to the content I have purchased for the rest of my life.
As far as other readers go, there is always going to be some kind of hardware rivalry in any products available. If you haven't noticed, it's always presented as a large group of readers, the Ipad, and other tablets -vs- Kindle. Now, why is only one product on one side of the fence? Tablets and newer colour touch screen readers are fine if you need something that serves multiple functions. Well, I have my phone for allot of that.. And, it's small and always with me.
I bought a Kindle knowing full well I was buying a specialty product that served only one function. It was made to be the closest substitute to a book that you can have. It does that so very well. I don't buy a book wishing that it was also a magazine..
edit: When other readers claim the amount of books available they also include all public domain books available. Amazon actually does not include these in their overall numbers, supposedly.

[Ex-Cyber]

^did you miss the part in your link explaining how it was removed due to the distributor not having the legal rights to it, and that the customers were refunded? 1984 is available for download. There was one other instance were they had erased a book because of illegal and immoral content, the people who had bought it were sure to be aware that what they had was illegal.

I understand that those copies were distributed illegally. I also understand that ownership of a copy and ownership of a copyright are two different things.

I'm comfortable buying stuff digitally from Amazon, they are such a large company, built around the distribution of books. I'm sure as long as I fallow the proper channels laid out, I will have availability to the content I have purchased for the rest of my life.

I hope you're right, but I don't share your expectations.

[CMoon]

Have any of you (I'm looking at you Xris) tried uploading pdfs, word docs, or htmls to the kindle? I know I'll find out for myself in a week, but the issue of DRMs concerns me. Case in point, I found a PDF of John Palmer's How To Brew book. I've already purchased the book and don't want to buy the kindle version (if there is one), and was hoping to just drag/drop the PDF into the Kindle. There's obviously two questions--1) will it even work, 2) will I have to fight some DRM scheme or remote deletion, or whatever (terrible flashbacks to the drm garbage with the IPOD). Hoping that the Kindle is pretty open. I'm happy to support the authors, but I'd like to know Amazon aren't gonna be up in my shit.

[hzt]

Have any of you (I'm looking at you Xris) tried uploading pdfs, word docs, or htmls to the kindle? I know I'll find out for myself in a week, but the issue of DRMs concerns me. Case in point, I found a PDF of John Palmer's How To Brew book. I've already purchased the book and don't want to buy the kindle version (if there is one), and was hoping to just drag/drop the PDF into the Kindle. There's obviously two questions--1) will it even work, 2) will I have to fight some DRM scheme or remote deletion, or whatever (terrible flashbacks to the drm garbage with the IPOD). Hoping that the Kindle is pretty open. I'm happy to support the authors, but I'd like to know Amazon aren't gonna be up in my shit.

You should be able to just copy it to the Kindle and it'll work. Depending how it's formatted the text might be annoyingly small but other than that I haven't run into any problems.

I got a Kindle for Christmas, I've wanted one ever since Kindle 3 with support for Japanese and Chinese came out and I'm definitely not disappointed. I've already read a few novels from Aozora Bunko (Japanese equivalent of Project Gutenberg) that I'd been meaning to read for literally a couple of years but couldn't face reading on a regular screen.

I'm finding it useful for university as well, we generally get pdf copies of lecture notes and that kind of thing, and then there's articles from e-journals. Having something dedicated just to reading things that would otherwise be on my computer (which is full of distractions) makes a big difference to me. It's also going to be great once my Classical Chinese class gets serious, and somehow I'm amused by the idea of reading ancient texts in such a modern way.

I haven't actually bought anything on it yet and I'm kind of worried about availability and DRM like other people have said, but to me it is honestly worth the money just as a great way of reading the kind of free content I've mentioned. I really hate reading on a monitor...

[Ex-Cyber]

You should be able to just copy it to the Kindle and it'll work.

So apparently I've been out of the loop. Last I heard, there was no way to get PDFs onto a Kindle without uploading them through Amazon. I might actually get a Kindle 3 now...

[Danza]

You can just dump PDF onto a Kindle now, at least I have, however the text and such was quite small. Calibre converts PDF to mobi as well if I recall correctly.

As for DRM, you can find scripts that scrub the DRM depending on the format. As far as I know adobe's DRM hasn't been cracked yet. But out of a good many ebooks I've downloaded I've only had a DRM issue once.

[xris]

^looks like there's an answer for you.
I haven't really tried to transfer anything onto it so far. After pouring through a couple dozen books, it would have been that time that I would have. I looked around on the net for resources. There are a ton of forum threads on Amazon covering topics like that, and that will link you to sites that host indie writing for free downloads, and connections to sites like Project Gutenberg. People are fanatical about their Kindle's, and there is a ton of sites dedicated to helping trouble shoot that kind of thing, and making free content available. A simple web search can yield very positive results.
I hadn't tried to put any pdf's on it 'cause I had learned about Amazon's self publication program. I had always wanted to try and write something, but it seemed so daunting, especially without having any experience. I've had a few false starts over the last couple of years, and was thinking of doing some short stories for practice, but never did, 'cause I felt they would just sit there. After getting my Kindle, I figured what the hell, I have nothing to loose by putting stuff up on it. I wrote a 50 page short story, but it seemed very forced, I wasn't working in a genre I was comfortable with. When it came time for the rewrite, I ended up just starting something else. I'm very pleased with how it's coming out, I think I'm about 2/3 through a novella so far. Sure, it's going to be amateurish,and the editing will probably be a mess, but it's mine, and it's a start.
Cmoon- I think you will enjoy the ability to add notations within content when it comes to some of the brewing books you are planning to use as a reference. Maybe it's time for you to think about putting together your own brew book!

[szycag]

I'd sell my first gen one for $60 shipped in the US, if someone wants to get into e-reading for cheap? Just pm me. I have a leather case and the cables for it. It's got free 3G so you can get on the internet with it just about anywhere. Like I mentioned above, you have to convert PDF to mobireader format before you can put your own stuff onto it. This one also has an SD card port which I think they took out of later ones.

[maxlords]

I'm still waiting for a dual screen color comic book reader that reads cbz format to come out. Once they do, I'll jump on the bandwagon.

[Tylerxuppercut]

I'm still waiting for a dual screen color comic book reader that reads cbz format to come out. Once they do, I'll jump on the bandwagon.

agreed I woudl really like a comic book reader!
does kindle read comics or just ebooks???