Anyone got a Kindle? 3G or not?

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Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 6:38 am

Just got the despatch email. Be here tomorrow hopefully. Very Happy

Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 7:36 am

Have any of you read SAKI? I am a huge fan of his short stories.

The thing I like about them is, they only take 5-10 minutes to read each one so when I have a few minutes to spare I can re-read my favourites. I've owned about four copies of the complete works and read them over and over till the covers fell off.

Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 2:06 pm

Hi all. Sending this on my new Kindle using 3G.

Took about 5 mins to get it up and running. Very Happy

Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 2:09 pm

Hi all. Sending this on my new Kindle using 3G.

Took about 5 mins to get it up and running. Very Happy

Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 2:10 pm

Hi all. Sending this on my new Kindle using 3G.

Took about 5 mins to get it up and running. Very Happy

Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 2:11 pm

Hi all. Sending this on my new Kindle using 3G.

Took about 5 mins to get it up and running. Very Happy

Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 2:11 pm

Hi all. Sending this on my new Kindle using 3G.

Took about 5 mins to get it up and running. Very Happy

Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 2:14 pm

windy! Posting on the forum from your Kindle? How cool! jump_4_joy

I can tell you my K2's web browser would have never done that without a lot of effort -- more than I would have ever tried. So the K3's browser really must be a bit better.

Santa baby, slip a Kindle under the tree, for me
I've been an awful good girl
Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 2:21 pm

Looks like everything is working allright, windy Laughing

-sorry, I couldn't resist Wink

For future reference to readers: Windy's message was posted 5 times. I'm not crazy.

Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 2:24 pm

windypops wrote:

Hi all. Sending this on my new Kindle using 3G.

Took about 5 mins to get it up and running. Very Happy

One minute for each post? Shocked

Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 3:11 pm

Ooops! It's not the easiest thing to use for posting, but works.

I'll practice a bit more and post a few pics later.

Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 3:14 pm

Ooops! It's not the easiest thing to use for posting, but works.

I'll practice a bit more and post a few pics later.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Apr 2007 Posts: 3123

To follow the trend: sounds grand. Post a review if you can!
To follow the trend: sounds grand. Post a review if you can!

Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 6:17 pm

Oh dear, what a mess I've made. Laughing

Back to the lappy for now.

The problem here, is it's almost impossible to navigate away from a web page. There are backwards and forwards buttons at the top of the "Experimental" browser it comes with and even a Back button on the device. But as you can see, that seems to be dual action. Wink

I have managed to email a lad using fastmail. Just the once. Laughing

The only way to move the cursor is by a little 5-way pad which makes the cursor jump around from link, to just about anything it focuses on.

Having said that, Amazon's own Kindle book download page, is optimised for their browser so books can be found and downloaded in seconds. Downloading from Gutenberg a bit more fiddly but I have installed half a dozen titles in about five minutes.

The screen really is a bit spooky and looks like a top quality printed page with a silky finish.

Craig & Dora, I'll take some good photos and give an account of my first few hours with it tomorrow.

Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 7:04 pm

Normally I routinely delete duplicate posts since they're just clutter, but in this particular thread
"normal" is redefined. Laughing

I'll leave them as a testament to Windy's excitement.

Edit to add: as a card-carrying Luddite and a dedicated, passionate book lover, I have always looked upon the Kindle and other e-readers as the Devil's spawn. You guys are making me rethink my position, dammit.

Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 7:33 pm

^^^ It must be tough to read your stories on those papryus scrolls, Juan. Wink

DTBs, especially every day paperbacks and the such, will be replaced by electronic books eventually. Cheaper for the publishers with little to no waste, no dealing with returns, overruns, etc. And much more convenient to book readers. Have you ever finished a book in a series at 2AM and really, really wanted to read the next one right away? And in 60 seconds or less, you can actually do that without getting out of your warm snuggly bed and not having to go to the store?

How cool is that? Very Happy

Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 8:12 pm

Stop trying to persuade me with your damn logic!

I'm not listening! LALALALALALALA I can't hear you!!!!

Laughing

Papyrus scrolls are pretty cool, actually. Easy to unspool and they stack quite neatly. Wink

Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 8:20 pm

Juan, I am just glad there are luddites like you that are baiting the scammers that still are sending the formats via postal mail. Since you don't have a computer and all. Wink

Do you have to send your Eater posts to Rover or SOOI for them to post for you? Laughing

Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 8:33 pm

windypops wrote:

The screen really is a bit spooky and looks like a top quality printed page with a silky finish.

When the battery goes flat, the reader still shows the last page you were reading. Also spooky until you get used to it.

Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 9:44 pm

DoraTheExplorer wrote:

Do you have to send your Eater posts to Rover or SOOI for them to post for you? Laughing

Actually, I do have a computer. You have to wind it up to power it but it's good for about 3 emails per winding.

Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 10:58 am

Windypops, have you tried to use PDF files on your brand new device ?

I have loads of books in PDF form but I made the incredible mistake of buying a Foxit reader... and that is not fluent at all with PDF's - well at least the one I have - and it doesn't perform as the specs indicate either Evil or Very Mad

so I'm considering buying a new E-reader.

Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 2:10 pm

I've taken a few shots and uploaded them HERE

The first thing you notice is just how thin it is. They show the new Kindle (edge on) next to a pencil on the Amazon site as an example of its depth. But it has a ridged feel to it.

I can't compare the screen to any other reader as I've only ever read from a computer screen before. There is no back-light so you can read for hours without getting eye strain. I'm glad I bought the cover as it's quite difficult to pick the thing up, without pushing the page turn buttons positioned on the edge and flipping forwards or backwards one page.

The page screen itself really is quite uncanny if you've never seen one before. It looks just like print on paper and isn't effected by pressing it, ie it won't distort or flare like a normal flat screen. The contrast is fixed but is very good and more than adequate for prolonged reading. The nice thing as has been said, is when you put it into sleep mode, it opens up at the same page when you start it up again. It displays a random image when in sleep, but the device can be turned off completely by holding the on/off slide for seven seconds. But I don't think that makes any difference to battery life (claimed to be month) because apparently it needs no power to display the page once it is up. Another nice touch, is you can swap from one book to another if you want, and it remembers where you were on that book too when you go back to it. The very best thing I can say is you very quickly forget you are holding it when you are reading. It's just like a book.

The easiest way of getting books into it other than from the official site is to download them to your pc and transfer them via the usb cable. I had no trouble on my Linux laptop. The usb cable is worth a mention too. It doubles as the mains/charging cable when pushed into a specially designed UK three pin plug adapter. I presume it's the system same system for Euro or US two pin plugs as well. Nice touch.

I got the 3G model in the end. It arrived with the 3G wireless up and running. You need to login as usual to your local wireless to swap to that. Once that is done, it defaults to that unless you go out of range when it automatically goes to 3G. When you get home again it drops back to wifi. The 3G feature is a bit of a strange addition to this device, as you can browse the internet and send email with a bit of effort but the web browser needs a lot development to make it usable daily. The problem is is way it moves the pointer around the screen in a jerky and haphazard way. If they do develop it to the point where it can be easily used they will have to charge or limit its use as far as I can see. But if you are out and need to send or view email anywhere there is a network connection this is the way to go for now.

@Jaun, I'm with you on the book vs reader thing. There are some books I'll always want to own and be able to pick up and hold while I'm reading. But having access to thousands of classics for free whenever you want is fairly compelling.

@Elizabeth, I'll download some on pdf format and report back.
Wink

Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 2:52 pm

Sorry to report it's not that good for PDFs. It displays the whole page which involves zooming in and scrolling around to read the text. The screen is just too small for them. Sad

Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 3:50 pm

Thanks for posting the pics, windy! Sounds like you are enjoying your K3. Wink

A couple of notes:

You will not get 1 month battery life if you leave Whispernet/wireless/3G on all the time. Even with it off, their battery life estimates are generous and I believe based only on if you read a few hours every couple of days. Also, every book you load onto your Kindle needs to be indexed by your Kindle and this takes some battery life. (Indexing is what your Kindle does so that you are able to do a search within each book.) If you add a bunch of books onto your Kindle, it will eat up a bunch of battery life temporarily. It seems that battery life will settle down after a bit of time of using your Kindle.

If you notice unusually short battery life, check to see if any books are stuck indexing. This can happen and when it does, your battery life will be short. To check, do a search for a nonsensical word like xhguih.

It should show: NO ITEMS

If it shows: ITEMS NOT YET INDEXED (X), then check back in about 30 minutes. If it hasn't changed, then a book is probably stuck. Click on it and it will show the book(s) indexing. Delete that book off your Kindle, allow any further books to index and then re-load the other book. All should be right then.

In regards to PDFs -- they either work well or they are a mess; it really depends on how the original PDF was formatted. You do have the option of having your PDF converted to the Kindle format AZW and Amazon will do this for free via your @free.kindle.com email addy. (Put CONVERT in the subject line.) This can really help for some PDFs. (Of course, Calibre can do it too.) This will only work for PDFs without DRM, of course.

Many people want Amazon to make the web browser better and believe me, the K3 like you have does have a MUCH better browser than the K1 and K2. But you have to remember, the Kindle is a ebook reader and not a multipurpose device like an iPad or netbook. Like you said, if the browser was better, I believe they would start charging for the free 3G and I don't want them to do that!

I will take some photos later today of my K2 and you can compare how yours really is an improvement. Very Happy

Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 5:00 pm

I also have a Kindle2. Wish I would have had it when I traveled to Europe instead of the 6 hardcover books I took along and then left at my friend's house.

I love my Kindle especially like to "book mark" things because in Dead Tree Books I would highlight everything important and wondered how I could do that on a Kindle.

Dora that was good thinking, posting your Santa Baby Christmas list for us all!

Quote:

Santa baby, slip a Kindle under the tree, for me
I've been an awful good girl
Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight

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