Just got a Kindle.

For those in the UK, there is a Spring Sale now on. Many Kindle books available for not much more than a pound (I'd already snapped up The Crimson Petal and the White for £1.47 without realising it was part of a bigger promotion).
 
AdMan said:
Thanks for the link.

I've only tried the screensaver hack and am very happy with my custom images! :)

I may play around with some of the other ones.
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Yes, I've just, this morning, installed the screensaver hack; as I read somewhere else, Emily Dickinson in particular was beginning to creep me out. :) I found a few images on www.kindlescreensavers.com that I liked; when I have some time, I might look for some more or make some of my own.
 
zooterkin said:
For those in the UK, there is a Spring Sale now on. Many Kindle books available for not much more than a pound (I'd already snapped up The Crimson Petal and the White for £1.47 without realising it was part of a bigger promotion).
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Damn! Just bought three more books. This is much too easy. :(

Theft: A Love Story, by Peter Carey, Them by Jon Ronson, and The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman. All for just over 4 quid.
 
RoboTimbo said:
I like using the cover of the book I'm currently reading as the screensaver.
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How do you do that?

Also, I understand that you can have the page numbers show up as you're reading, but haven't been able to figure that out either. I'm incredible tech/kindle-challenged.
 
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You have to jailbreak your Kindle and then install a hack that lets you change or replace the screensaver images. Here's a link to a thread on the Kindle forum that discusses it with some links on how to do it.

Then I go to that book's page on Amazon that I'm reading and right click on the cover and save the picture to my computer. Sometimes I might need to crop it and then copy it over to the correct Kindle's folder (I think it's "screensavers", don't have the Kindle with me at work to check). Restart the Kindle and whatever images are in that folder now become the screensaver image(s). I keep all my screensavers in a folder called screensaver.bak on the Kindle but only have one image at a time in the screensaver folder.
 
RobRoy said:
Also, I understand that you can have the page numbers show up as you're reading, but haven't been able to figure that out either. I'm incredible tech/kindle-challenged.
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It only shows up, if it's been enabled for that particular book, when you press the Menu key while reading a book. It's at the bottom of the screen.
 
RoboTimbo said:
You have to jailbreak your Kindle and then install a hack that lets you change or replace the screensaver images.
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Damn. I was hoping it was just an option.

zooterkin said:
It only shows up, if it's been enabled for that particular book, when you press the Menu key while reading a book. It's at the bottom of the screen.
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Double damn. Damn damn I say!
 
RobRoy said:
Damn. I was hoping it was just an option.



Double damn. Damn damn I say!
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It isn't as difficult as it sounds. I was hesitant at first but glad now that I did it. It only took a couple of minutes and that's just the time it takes for the Kindle to restart.
 
RoboTimbo said:
It isn't as difficult as it sounds. I was hesitant at first but glad now that I did it. It only took a couple of minutes and that's just the time it takes for the Kindle to restart.
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I'll think it over, but breaking/hacking things has never really been my deal. I know there are benefits, but I always worry that I'm going to do something simple, but incredibly wrong and destroy the universe.
 
BenBurch said:
I read that the most current firmware does not allow the jailbreak.

Seems likely as this would allow you to disable the ads on the add-supported version.
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I believe the latest firmware is 3.1. I've got that, and was able to jailbreak it--I think it usually doesn't take long for hackers to develop new methods to jailbreak firmware after it's released.

However, I can see why Amazon would try to prevent this, at least in the ad-supported version.

In addition, people should be aware that (as I understand it) jailbreaking may void your warranty, even if the process isn't difficult.
 
I've had mine for just about a month now, and it's perfect for me. Also, I've already once dropped it hard enough to cause the case to un-snap a little bit. Didn't affect functionality at all, and I just squeezed it until it snapped back together--seems as good as new.

I get a kick of the sleep mode. You'll get, for example, a picture of Mary Shelly and the text that says to snap the power switch to wake up. I thought you at least needed a good thunderstorm to do that!
 
I've had mine for about a week. After about an hour of reading with it, books started to seem antiquated. It's easier to hold than a book and you don't need to hold the pages open. Does anyone here prefer it to a book?
 
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Virus said:
I've had mine for about a week. After about an hour of reading with it, books started to seem antiquated. It's easier to hold than a book and you don't need to hold the pages open. Does anyone here prefer it to a book?
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Overwhelmingly. There's only one disadvantage for me, and that's the fact that I can't use a reader out in the rain (without getting a waterproof cover, and I'm cheap about accessories). With paperbacks on the other hand, I've always been quite cavalier about getting pages wet. :)
 
Babbylonian said:
Overwhelmingly. There's only one disadvantage for me, and that's the fact that I can't use a reader out in the rain (without getting a waterproof cover, and I'm cheap about accessories).
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Somebody in one of these threads suggested a 1-gallon ziplock works well.

With paperbacks on the other hand, I've always been quite cavalier about getting pages wet. :)
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Heathen!
 
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