Amazon's Kindle

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419Eater Admin Joined: 30 Sep 2003 Posts: 7469

Has anyone here got their hands on one of these devices? Looks like a good low-cost way to read e-books.

KINDLE LINK

Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 1:51 am

I know it looks great. a little high for $400 though.

However there is hacks for the new Iphone or Ipod Touch that you can save pdfs on the device and read them as well that way.. maybe if this was $150-200 it would sell but for $400 i dont see it doing too well.

But i bet soon there will be hacks to surf the net on it for "free" and various other things soon

419Eater Admin Joined: 30 Sep 2003 Posts: 7469

Trouble with those devices - as nice as they are - is that the screens are fairly small. With the Kindle at least you get a good amount of screen real estate.

Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 9:45 am

Amusing name.

Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 9:47 am

Hmm. My feelings on the Kindle - getting there, but no cigar. You can't share the e-books you've bought (well, fair enough), you have to pay 10 cents per document to put your own files on it, and you have to pay $1.99 to subscribe to a blog, even if the blog is normally free.

Plus it's kind of ugly.

Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 10:12 am

I got to play with one for a bit (belongs to a friend of mine) -- the screen is quite nice (size and appearance), it's lightweight and has good battery life (I only used it with wireless turned off). Very fine as far as actually using it goes. The keyboard is crappy but I hardly used it, the page-turn buttons are fine. Best thing about it is the display which is not at all hard on the eyes.

The proprietary document format is a real annoyance (or worse depending on your views on DRM), especially when ordinary documents have to be converted (at a cost?!?!) to view on the expensive player.

It really depends what you're going to be using it for, and your own reading habits. For me the cost of the device (plus additional costs for books/magazines/other publications that can only be read on this reader) is just too high for what it does. of course I'm not a self-made zillionaire thanks to cash-bai.... er never mind. Razz

It's definitely better than any other electronic book I've tried (and I've tried quite a few), and way better than trying to use PDAs or laptops as electronic books.

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

Thanks for the entertainment of the last half hour when I should have been working Wink

The screen update is very slow, a significant fraction of a second.

You can't buy content outside the USA, (although any baiter could probably find a solution to that). You can't go on-line outside the USA because it uses a 3G network only offered in the USA.

PDF conversion is experimental.

Books seem quite expensive and are non-transferable.

I couldn't find any references to an ongoing cost, but I suspect there is one if you can browse the web with it. (Which it sucks at.)

Conversion can be free - they can email them to your computer and you upload them via USB. One review said he got a 40% sucess rate with that, but he was sending them Palm Document Format (a different PDF) files and expecting them to be converted Rolling Eyes

I'm tempted but I think I'll wait for the next model. With any luck that will have a faster screen, a lower price (although �200 isn't bad, when it gets here it will be �400), a wider range of conversions, various discount plans on media you've already bought hard-copy and vice-versa, better web browsing, Linux compatibility...

Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 12:04 pm

SONY also make those. I've seen one (but not up close). Cheaper than the Amazon one.
If I go to Tottenham Court Road tomorrow, I'll pop into the Sony shop and see if they have one and give it the once over. Wink

I think I saw something like this: Clicky at a computer fair that was able to display various txt docs. Might be worth checking them out as an alternative.

Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 12:11 pm

The screen update is slow, but faster than most "screen updates" on the archaic "dead tree" format (and I am a quick page-turner).

And it is certain that future versions (and competitors) will be cheaper and better in all sorts of ways.

It's a great toy but probably not the world-changer many of its biggest fans seem to think it will be. But then I'm a cynic (but a cynic still hoping someone can develop a good, practical, reasonably priced electronic book device that meets my vague wishlist).

Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 12:21 pm

Found this article : http://www.drugster.com/psp/psp-ebook-tutorial_drugstercom.htm

Battery life probably not up to much though.

419Eater Admin Joined: 30 Sep 2003 Posts: 7469

The fact that it would be a struggle ATM to convert one's own downloaded/created PDF files to it is a major reason for me not going for it right now. I expect that situation to change soon once a few coders have got their hands on it Smile

Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 3:14 pm

Is there any way to put lads to work doing the conversions? Wink

Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 11:04 pm

I read 'ebooks' in pretty much anything. Treo650, Toshiba E800, Windows or Linux laptops etc.

By ebooks I mean any format. PDF, .lit (Msreader) .doc or plain old .txt file.

To bookmark simply insert a !!! or any non standard character group. To bookmark a pdf I usually copy a string of text and save it in an Evolution (or outlook) note.

If I was going to spend that kind of monry for an ebook reader I'd probably get a large screen PDA. My favorite is/was the Vadem Clio. I'd store book files on a compact flash card and read from that. Pocket word was what I read them in after converting them.

Geeky, but fun! Laughing