Kindle

[User]

 

[CopperBrompton]

Absolutely worth buying - probably the best-value gadget I've ever bought.

You load books via USB cable, via wifi or (on the 3G model) via 3G from anywhere in the world free of data charges. You can store around 3,500 novels on it.

 

[fossyant]

Just got the 3g version. Just select books from amazon - either from device or via web, turn on and hey presto, book is there in a jiffy.

Really easy to read the screen. It's a present for my son, so haven't had loads of fiddling, but so far so good.

 

[rusky]

Got one for the mrs who's a technophobe & even she can use it!

I would strongly suggest getting a protective case for it

 

[goo_mason]

Well worth it, Mr P!

Others have already described the book loading process. I'd also recommend getting the free Calibre e-Book management software for your PC to work with your Kindle - it does lots of things like:

• Library Management
• E-book conversion
• Syncing to e-book reader devices
• Content server for online access to your book collection

but the reason I use it is for:

• Downloading news from the web and converting it into e-book form calibre can automatically fetch news from websites or RSS feeds, format the news into a ebook and upload to a connected device. The ebooks include the full versions of the articles (including pictures), not just the summaries. Examples of supported news sites include:
  • The New York Times
  • The Wall Street Journal
  • The Economist
  • Time
  • Newsweek
  • The Guardian
  • ESPN
  • and many, many more…
  calibre has over three hundred news sources and the news system is plugin based, allowing users to easily create and contribute new sources to calibre. As a result the collection of news sources keeps on growing!
  

You won't regret getting your Kindle!

 

[Keith Oates]

Can you only buy them on-line or are they also in some shops!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ianrauk]

Only on line Keith

 

[Keith Oates]

Thanks Ian, not much good trying to get one out here then!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Keith Oates]

I've now managed to load Kindle PC on my computer and must admit it is very good. I've now decided to try and get one but I don't know if he standard 3G one is too small or the DX too big can anyone who has seen both give an opinion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[marinyork]

I've now managed to load Kindle PC on my computer and must admit it is very good. I've now decided to try and get one but I don't know if he standard 3G one is too small or the DX too big can anyone who has seen both give an opinion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!

The Kindle has a 6" diagonal screen and I've seen it. The DX has a 9.7" screen and is substantially larger, more expensive and harder to get hold of. I'm not even sure you can get hold of the latest Kindle DX in the UK (I know you're not in the UK Keith). I've obviously not seen the third generation DX but I have seen the Kindle 3.

If you're reading books on it, it's absolutely fine unless you find 7,8, 9 words to a line really irritating and want 14 words to a line. If you're reading pdfs or browsing it's a fraction too small. For e-books there are 8 font sizes, three type faces, three line spacings and three settings for words per line. For PDFs and browsing there is 'fit to screen', 150% zoom, 200% zoom, 300% zoom and actual size. From what I could tell the greatest failing really was there wasn't a 125% zoom level which seems to coincide with getting rid of margins and a more comfortable text size whilst getting everything on the page in portrait. You can tilt PDFs and websites round to landscape mode though, that sort of doubles the number of zooms (if you see what I mean). I would imagine that the DX would be substantially better if one had worse eyesight than myself or my friend or just irked by the size and wanted to read shedloads of fiddly PDFs on it. The DX I'd imagine is more like reading a small magazine or hardback vs reading a small paperback.

 

[Keith Oates]

Thanks Marinyork, that's just the sort of info I wanted to help me decide which to get. The DX is available according to the adverts I'm getting and can be sent out here but I don't know how long it will take to get here. I don't know why but they can't or won't send e-books to the PC etc. when I'm in China but if in Vietnam, Hong Kong or The Philippines you can get the books with no problem!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[CopperBrompton]

For most people, the paperback size will be right. I'd only buy the DX if you're planning on viewing lots of A4 PDFs.

 

[Piemaster]

Thanks Marinyork, that's just the sort of info I wanted to help me decide which to get. The DX is available according to the adverts I'm getting and can be sent out here but I don't know how long it will take to get here. I don't know why but they can't or won't send e-books to the PC etc. when I'm in China but if in Vietnam, Hong Kong or The Philippines you can get the books with no problem!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sounds very much like the chinese authorities blocking content to me. Can't have you downloading any subversive Catherine Cookson novels can we

There was an issuse betweeen the chinese and google - dunno what eventual outcome was.

 

[marinyork]

Sounds very much like the chinese authorities blocking content to me. Can't have you downloading any subversive Catherine Cookson novels can we

There was an issuse betweeen the chinese and google - dunno what eventual outcome was.

Piracy is perceived to be particularly bad in china than some other countries. Content providers, film studios etc are scared witless of classic books that were written ages ago but still under the extremely long copyright laws in countries like the UK where amazon and the publisher makes a gigantic mark up making their way round the world for free. Same with textbooks. They'd also be worried about a similar thing which happened to the new DVD market with newish book titles.

 

[MacB]

Anyone got a link to availability stats, indicating what books are, aren't available and if they're limited to certain e-formats?