Just got a Kindle.

[crimresearch]

I'm pretty satisfied after 1 day.

Got online at a coffee shop, checked emails, tracked a couple of Amazon orders, found some yard sales on Craigslist, got map directions. All sorts of stuff I'd normally carry in a laptop for.

I'll look at the Office suite tomorrow as I finish up grading for this semester.

 

[richardm]

I just got a Kindle Touch yesterday, and am so far thoroughly enjoying it. I don't think I will buy another physical book.

I've had a keyboard Kindle for a while now, and my wife and I have been sharing it and both loving it. I did wonder how the Kindle Touch would be to use, what with it not having any physical buttons on the edge to do the page turning; I didn't like the sound of it, frankly.

However she came back from the airport yesterday having spent some time in the electronics shop there playing with a Touch, and raved to me for about half an hour about how great it was to use.

So I guess that's her birthday present sorted out

 

[Darat]

Touch owners - can you easily move move forwards in the book when holding the Kindle in either hand? I.E. just say a thumb movement of the hand you are holding it with?

 

[gumboot]

Touch owners - can you easily move move forwards in the book when holding the Kindle in either hand? I.E. just say a thumb movement of the hand you are holding it with?

Yup, very easy. You don't have to "swipe" the page (although you can do that).

There's a strip at the top that brings up the top menu bar, and the strip at the left that takes you back a page, and if you touch anywhere else on the screen it goes forward one page.

You can also swipe left to right to turn the page forward, right to left to go back, swipe up to go to the next chapter/section and swipe down to go to the previous chapter/section beginning.

I have occasionally touched it in such a way that it skipped a page and I had to back up, but it's exceedingly rare compared to how often with a physical book I turn multiple pages accidentally.

 

[mikeyx]

I've had a keyboard Kindle for a while now, and my wife and I have been sharing it and both loving it. I did wonder how the Kindle Touch would be to use, what with it not having any physical buttons on the edge to do the page turning; I didn't like the sound of it, frankly.

However she came back from the airport yesterday having spent some time in the electronics shop there playing with a Touch, and raved to me for about half an hour about how great it was to use.

So I guess that's her birthday present sorted out

Ok so I have both the ereader and the fire and both are good at different things. The reader rocks at the gym for cardio, easier to go longer when lost in good to read.

Fire and clearspot = internet anywhere and a tablet. Cool for different reasons.

 

[crimresearch]

I'm seriously impressed, I've used it for over 2 weeks now, working on music, keeping up with all my email from students, and the daily stuff the school sends out.. about an hour every other day and the battery was still at 20% this morning. Very quick, easy to send short replies using the touchscreen keyboard.

I think my laptop just became my desktop.

 

[Darat]

Had mine since last Christmas and I leave wireless switched on all the time and I've never had to recharge mine. Probably because I transfer some files via the USB and it's been getting enough recharge from when I plug it into my PC.

(And I use mine extensively - probably a few hours of reading and browsing the store every day on average.)

Sadly this is not longer the case, over the course of the last month my battery is draining very fast, having to remember to charge it now, a charge (at the above usage) is only lasting about a week now.

I was wondering if there is any link between number of books/articles/magazines/documents and battery discharge rate?

 

[Worm]

Shouldn't be, unless you are loading lots of books on and reading them quickly. Indexing (for searching) eat battery, but I don't think simply storing books should eat power.

 

[DrDave]

I don't think simply storing books should eat power.

I find it makes it heavier to carry around though

 

[Darat]

Shouldn't be, unless you are loading lots of books on and reading them quickly. Indexing (for searching) eat battery, but I don't think simply storing books should eat power.

My reading rate is about a book every day and a half but that hasn't gone up for at least 12 months and I do download a lot of books but again that isn't anything I've just started doing.

The battery drain problem is something that has really appeared out of the blue over the last month, until then I've never had to think about charging it - it pretty much got charged enough when I hooked it to the PC to back-up or transfer stuff to it.

 

[gumboot]

No issues with charging for me... in fact I've only ever charged it twice since I got it, and the first time was when I first got it! And I read almost exclusively at night with the light embedded in the leather case, which runs off the Kindle's battery.

 

[Pixel42]

I've had to recharge mine about every two weeks ever since I got it. I typically read for 2 or 3 hours a day.

 

[Worm]

The only other thing that occurs to me is that it re-indexes occasionally - something like every 6 months, which may take some time (and eat battery) depending on how many books you have on it.

 

[dudalb]

Finally broke down and bought a kindle I got the Kindle 3G Keyboard. Should arrvie any day.
I have one question:Is it possible to replace a battery without sending it back to Amazon? I understand the batteries are only good for 3 or 4 recharges.
I also understand you can delete books to free up space. I am actually plannng on keeping the number of books on my Kindle fairly low, and use my computer and/or DVD for storage.In other words, I will only put books on the kindle when I am actully going to read it.
Since the Kindle I ma getting can read text and PDFin addition to mobi and the kindle propreitary, Project Gutenburg is going to get a lot of use from me...

 

[AdMan]

Finally broke down and bought a kindle I got the Kindle 3G Keyboard. Should arrvie any day.
I have one question:Is it possible to replace a battery without sending it back to Amazon? I understand the batteries are only good for 3 or 4 recharges.

I think you've misunderstood it. The Kindle's battery is good for many, many more than 3 or 4 recharges.

Having said that, when the battery does die, you won't be able to replace the battery yourself. But it will be quite a long time, and many recharges.

I also understand you can delete books to free up space. I am actually plannng on keeping the number of books on my Kindle fairly low, and use my computer and/or DVD for storage.In other words, I will only put books on the kindle when I am actully going to read it.

I don't know how many books you have, but the Kindle can store a lot of books, probably more than you can read in a lifetime. I wouldn't worry about the number of books you can have on your device.

 

[Darat]

My reading rate is about a book every day and a half but that hasn't gone up for at least 12 months and I do download a lot of books but again that isn't anything I've just started doing.

The battery drain problem is something that has really appeared out of the blue over the last month, until then I've never had to think about charging it - it pretty much got charged enough when I hooked it to the PC to back-up or transfer stuff to it.

Follow up from this - I had a look around the Web and a few people were suggesting a full switch off and on so I tried that. And it seems to have done the trick, I can't remember when I had last switched the kindle off so it had probably been running for over a year without a reboot which is quite an achievement for a cheap consumer, device.

 

[gumboot]

I think you've misunderstood it. The Kindle's battery is good for many, many more than 3 or 4 recharges.

Having said that, when the battery does die, you won't be able to replace the battery yourself. But it will be quite a long time, and many recharges.




I don't know how many books you have, but the Kindle can store a lot of books, probably more than you can read in a lifetime. I wouldn't worry about the number of books you can have on your device.

What AdMan said... if you're concerned about navigating billions of books you've read, you can organise the books by categories and have one for "read books" which you move them into as you finish them.

Also... if you anticipate reading a lot of PDFs you don't want an eReader, they are awful for PDF.

 

[MG1962]

I don't know how many books you have, but the Kindle can store a lot of books, probably more than you can read in a lifetime. I wouldn't worry about the number of books you can have on your device.

I have found the kindle file system to be terribly difficult to navigate. I have my collection on computer and DVD and just rotate about 10 books at a time onto the kindle

 

[Giordano]

I think you've misunderstood it. The Kindle's battery is good for many, many more than 3 or 4 recharges.

Having said that, when the battery does die, you won't be able to replace the battery yourself. But it will be quite a long time, and many recharges.

I own both a Kindle and an iPad; I agree that battery design and recharging on both is very sophisticated and the battery will last for many recharges. Probably you will want to replace the original Kindle with whatever new technology tablet is being sold by the time the battery needs replacement.

 

[CelticRose]

Finally broke down and bought a kindle I got the Kindle 3G Keyboard. Should arrvie any day.
I have one question:Is it possible to replace a battery without sending it back to Amazon? I understand the batteries are only good for 3 or 4 recharges.
I also understand you can delete books to free up space. I am actually plannng on keeping the number of books on my Kindle fairly low, and use my computer and/or DVD for storage.In other words, I will only put books on the kindle when I am actully going to read it.
Since the Kindle I ma getting can read text and PDFin addition to mobi and the kindle propreitary, Project Gutenburg is going to get a lot of use from me...

Gutenberg offers most of their books in either Kindle or mobi format, IIRC, so that's not even an issue for Kindle owners.

PDFs tend to be hit and miss on ereaders. On my Android ereader some PDFs look awesome, some require far too much zooming and scrolling, and others won't load at all.