Just got a Kindle.

[RoboTimbo]

Something else I do, using Calibre I can have it automatically download The Skeptical Enquirer (or other online magazine) and send it to my Kindle account every day.

 

[AdMan]

Something else I do, using Calibre I can have it automatically download The Skeptical Enquirer (or other online magazine) and send it to my Kindle account every day.

Mind briefly sharing how you do that? I've just started using Calibre (so far it looks like a great program to manage and convert ebooks), but haven't found all it can do.

 

[RoboTimbo]

Click on the down arrow beside "Fetch News" at the top of the screen. Click on your preferred language and a list of available news sources will open. Slide down to the one you want and click on it once. On the right side of the screen will be a dialog of how often you want it to download. At the bottom right, click on Save. That's it for having it download to Calibre on your computer. If you also want Calibre to email it to your Kindle:

You should have set up your approved email accounts on your Amazon Kindle Account page (see Sending Your Documents for Conversion in the Kindle User's Guide).

You will also need to set up your Free.Kindle.Com email account in Preferences since Calibre can send it that way. In Preferences, Sharing Books by Email, click on Add Email. You'll need to enter the information for your mail service at the bottom of the screen such as the mail server, your login name, and password for your mail service. Mostly the same stuff you enter when setting up an email client like Outlook.

Click the checkbox to have it auto deliver and it will be emailed daily to your Kindle from Calibre as long as you leave Calibre running. If you don't need that, it will still be in your Calibre library and you can plug in the Kindle to the computer and transfer it that way.

Link to a discussion on Amazon's Kindle forum: http://www.amazon.com/tag/kindle/fo...PQSU86P&cdMsgID=Mx600KS3SQOK3P#Mx600KS3SQOK3P

 

[AdMan]

Thank you!

 

[Psi Baba]

It keeps your place in as many books as you want, plus lets you add additional bookmarks in each book as well.

Caveat: I have the original Kindle 2, rather than the newest, but there is a 'back' button to take you back. And you can order the list in various ways including 'most recent' so that whatever books you want to go between are at the top of the list anyway.

Thanks AdMan and fls!

Another idea about the Kindle that appeals to me is the ability to make your own annotations. I never want to deface my books by writing in them (even if there was room), so this concept sounds great. That capability alone seem like it would make the Kindle into something that's much more than simply reading. Anyone using this much?

After hitting "preview" I realized that my posts in this thread are sounding a bit shill-ish. Honestly, I do not work for Amazon! Initially, I thought of getting a Kindle, then later I wasn't so sure, but now since this thread came up, I want one again, and the more I learn about it, the better it sounds.

Book lights:
The only thing that bothers me is that the cover with the built-in slide-out book light looks great, but cripes,, $60 is a bit steep for that thing. That's 1/2 to 1/3 the cost of the Kindle itself! Who's found an economical, but practical solution for a book-light?

 

[FSM]

I just tried Calibre too and it is pretty damned cool! Thanks RoboTimbo!


ETA:

I would suggest never getting the accessories from Amazon. Target and Best Buy carry some niiiiiiiice stuff for cheaper.

 

[FSM]

THIS is what I have... but I found it for cheaper than it is now, if I remember correctly. If you get it in store, I think you might catch a better deal.

 

[Ranb]

My wife bought a Kindle with 3G a few weeks ago. My first impression was not favorable. A book that runs on electricity but can not be read in the dark? Come on. Wife went on to explain that she could get the $60 book light option, but she read that it lit one corner of the Kindle well, and the rest not so well.

Our Kindle surfs the net, but it is rather sad compared to surfing with a laptop/broadband connection. I have never surfed with a cell phone, so I can not compare it. I will have to see what is available out there to download then see if I like it enough to get my own. Wife likes it a lot as she can get Thai titles for it.

Ranb

 

[Shalamar]

My wife bought a Kindle with 3G a few weeks ago. My first impression was not favorable. A book that runs on electricity but can not be read in the dark? Come on. Wife went on to explain that she could get the $60 book light option, but she read that it lit one corner of the Kindle well, and the rest not so well.

Our Kindle surfs the net, but it is rather sad compared to surfing with a laptop/broadband connection. I have never surfed with a cell phone, so I can not compare it. I will have to see what is available out there to download then see if I like it enough to get my own. Wife likes it a lot as she can get Thai titles for it.

Ranb

I've got a Kindle 3G (2nd Generation). And I love it.

A lot of people expect these days for anything 'electrical' to be lit. E-ink devices, like the kindle, cannot be backlit. The screen technology is opaque, so the best you can do is side lit, and the few examples were uniformly poor. So I use a light. Just as if I were reading an actual book. Now, back lit devices that you can use to read e-books on (Like the ipad, or a laptop) can produce more eyestrain, and are nearly useless in direct sunlight. A kindle is great in the sun.

As for the 3G, yes, you can use it to surf the web, but it isn't meant for that. The purpose is for you to go to Amazon's store, buy a book, and have it immediately transfered to your kindle. The Web browsing is just a bonus.

I get about 2 weeks on a charge (with 3G off), though I understand the newer kindle gets about a month, and wherever I take my kindle, I have all my books. If I want a new book, it is easy enough to acquire.

 

[Mirrorglass]

I've also had my Kindle for a few weeks now, and I love it. I'd also like to point out that I've yet to buy any books for it - I haven't felt the need, with Project Gutenberg now offering most of it's books in Kindle format. In my opinion, they work extremely well.

The only qualm about the device I have is the PDF reader, which doesn't really work quite as well as I'd hoped. But it's still very decent, even in that regard. It also saves me a ton of paper, since I no longer need to print out every booklet or slideshow I need for my studies.

 

[AdMan]

Source: http://xkcd.com/548/

 

[Psi Baba]

The light I'd like to get is that Octovo Solis, but the model for the latest generation Kindle isn't out yet. The same seems to be true for a lot of the M-Edge products.

ETA: This has to be the stupidest thing I've ever read on a gadget review blog:

The Kandle has 2 LEDs that are powered by 2xCR2032 batteries. I’m not certain why e-book readers should need a light. Maybe if they all had color screens we wouldn’t need a clip-on light.

Until that day when all e-book readers are in color, you can pay $24.95 for the Kandle on Amazon.

The idiot doesn't know the different between "color" and "backlit." And he's reviewing tech gadgets. Sigh.
BTW, has anyone use the Kandle?

 

[katy_did]

One feature that's caught my attention is that it can handle PDFs. I'm often downloading pdfs of things like newsletters, short articles, etc., printing them, and taking them with me to read on the bus. And reading a stack of letter-sized paper is not as pleasant as holding a book or even a magazine. The idea of being able to dump them onto a Kindle would be a boon in itself. (I imagine, though that it's not the only e-reader that handles pdfs.) Someone mentioned Tolkien. I read reviews that said the Kindle version of LOTR does not include the maps. The pdf capability got me thinking of scanning the map to a pdf and keeping it handy.

I think I would buy an e-reader solely for their ability to handle PDFs, to be honest. I don't like reading long articles on screen, and printing them out is a hassle. That said, PDF display on an e-reader can sometimes be a bit hit and miss (I'm using a Sony): sometimes it's fine, other times it'll shrink the text right down. Overall, still worth it.

 

[Phrost]

I just bought one for my wife's birthday and fiddled around with it.

Anyone else get the "nails on a chalkboard" feeling when using the keyboard? It's textured like a cat's tongue.

 

[katy_did]

Proprietary wasn't a real consideration for me. Amazon needs DRM to convince publishers to allow their content to be sold, and they have demonstrated good faith in releasing readers for almost every platform around. And, as others have pointed out, you can put almost any other content on it if it's in, or can be converted to, one of the Kindle's formats. And they have a conversion service.

For me it's more the principal of Amazon using this proprietary format rather than the inconvenience of it (though it would still annoy me having to convert everything I download from Project Gutenberg). As I understand it, pretty much the rest of the publishing world has decided on ePUB as the industry standard, while Amazon are sticking with their own format - up until they price everyone else out of the market, that is, whereupon they'll probably provide support for ePUB. It's a bit of an iTunes situation.

I appear to be almost the only person here with such qualms, though! Good news for Kindle...

 

[Mirrorglass]

I just bought one for my wife's birthday and fiddled around with it.

Anyone else get the "nails on a chalkboard" feeling when using the keyboard? It's textured like a cat's tongue.

You speak true. I get the feeling I won't be using the typing tool much. The Kindle is really cool, but like floppy disks and car phones, it is very much an excellent concept that would really work with technology that won't be available for five more years.

 

[Mirrorglass]

For me it's more the principal of Amazon using this proprietary format rather than the inconvenience of it (though it would still annoy me having to convert everything I download from Project Gutenberg).

I'm not sure if I'm understanding this properly, but Gutenberg already offers most of it's titles in Kindle format, so no converting is necessary.

I agree that using a standard format would be better, of course. But the inconvenience is small enough that I'm more inclined to just shrug and go "eh, whatever". It's a capitalist world, and some things just can't be helped.

 

[BenBurch]

For me it's more the principal of Amazon using this proprietary format rather than the inconvenience of it (though it would still annoy me having to convert everything I download from Project Gutenberg). As I understand it, pretty much the rest of the publishing world has decided on ePUB as the industry standard, while Amazon are sticking with their own format - up until they price everyone else out of the market, that is, whereupon they'll probably provide support for ePUB. It's a bit of an iTunes situation.

I appear to be almost the only person here with such qualms, though! Good news for Kindle...

EPUB to Kindle conversion isn't hard...

 

[AdMan]

EPUB to Kindle conversion isn't hard...

Right. And it's not like Kindle can only display things converted to its own format. Aside from pdf and txt, it can also read mobi and Word docs, among others, without needing to convert.

I also wish that Kindle supported ePub directly, but, really, I haven't found it to be a major hassle so far.

 

[katy_did]

I'm not sure if I'm understanding this properly, but Gutenberg already offers most of it's titles in Kindle format, so no converting is necessary.

I agree that using a standard format would be better, of course. But the inconvenience is small enough that I'm more inclined to just shrug and go "eh, whatever". It's a capitalist world, and some things just can't be helped.

Well, certainly not if people shrug their shoulders and buy Kindle anyway.

But yeah, I think for most people it's not really an issue, as long as the proprietary format doesn't cause too much inconvenience. It is something that bothers me though, and that would prevent me buying a Kindle - the fact that Amazon has chosen to ignore what everyone else has agreed as the industry standard in an attempt to dominate the market. Kindle probably will support ePUB, once its competitors have been priced nearly out of existence. Whereupon its price will likely skyrocket!

You're right about Gutenberg - not sure why I thought their books weren't available for Kindle.