Amazon Kindle

pboreham

pboreham

Kick. Snare. Hat. Ride.
5 August 2002
C*lchester
Southend Utd
Incoming from USA on Wednesday :)

From just looking round the Kindle Store, I can tell this is going to make me read more books (already read a fair bit) from authors I normally wouldnt bother with.

I also think this will help eBooks take off and hopefully one day, all the major book and magazine publishers will jump on board. Be great to get the latest copy of GamesTM or 442 dropped straight onto the device on release date.

Will post more Wednesday, but I assume from a lack of a thread, nobody else has got one?
 
Nope, I just prefer reading text from a book than a LCD screen which would hurt my eyes compared to reading from paper.

Personal thing I guess :)
 
DagsJT said:
Nope, I just prefer reading text from a book than a LCD screen which would hurt my eyes compared to reading from paper.

Personal thing I guess :)
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I do agree, but as I say - they reckon (and reviews say the same) is that this is new technology - 'eInk' and it is nothing like an LCD screen - and hence doesnt hurt your eyes like reading from a screen does.

Still, see if thats true later this week...

My big concern at the moment is the lack of big titles/authors (no Stephen King for a start) and the general lack of UK support from Magazine and Newspapers (only Times, Independent and Daily Mail so far).

Sure it will take off though!
 
I don't understand were these companies come up with these ridiculous price-points for their e-book readers. You could buy a mini-laptop for a similar cost plus you could download the ebooks in any format for free without DRM hassles. Christ...an Xbox360 is 70-80 euro's cheaper, as is a high-end PDA.
 
Evil Star said:
I don't understand were these companies come up with these ridiculous price-points for their e-book readers. You could buy a mini-laptop for a similar cost plus you could download the ebooks in any format for free without DRM hassles. Christ...an Xbox360 is 70-80 euro's cheaper, as is a high-end PDA.
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New tech + plebs like me = mega win $
 
Arrived today - very nice so far :) Lacking a bit on content (lot of the US stuff is blocked at mo), but sure it will improve next year.

Screen is very good though Dags, not like a mobile/laptop.
 
pboreham said:
Will post more Wednesday, but I assume from a lack of a thread, nobody else has got one?
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i bought my gf the universal one for christmas. it arrived a couple of weeks ago, but is wrapped up under the tree now.

i'll let you know more once she opens it. btw, do you know if there are any hacks for it?
 
Spunk_of_MJ said:
i bought my gf the universal one for christmas. it arrived a couple of weeks ago, but is wrapped up under the tree now.

i'll let you know more once she opens it. btw, do you know if there are any hacks for it?
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Dont think they can be hacked in any way. (The B&N Nook can, but thats shite anyway).

There are some work-arounds on getting US Content onto it, but I've not got it to work.

I'm sure UK Support will arrive in 2010! Nice X-Mas present :)
 
well...

she opened it up yesterday and the bloody thing wouldn't turn on!

it was stuck at the 'critical battery' screen, and after charging it for the WHOLE of yesterday and leaving it charging overnight, it was still displaying the same message today. the yellow light was on to say that it was charging, but nothing had changed.

rang tech support today and they ran some troubleshooting, and eventually got into recovery mode, but it wouldn't boot up.

the guy ordered a replacement, and it should be here in a few days.

however, since then, we have managed to get it to boot, BUT the bloody thing will now not charge!

the yellow light is on to 'indicate' that it is charging but the little battery icon in the top corner is still showing the exclamation mark and not the 'lightning flash' as it is supposed to...

you got any tips on charging this thing? we tried a different lead, but same problem...

it's now charging via usb on laptop (at least the charging light is on) but it is now displaying the message 'usb mode - if you want to continue using your kindle and charging it, disconnect it from your computer'

when i do that, im back to square one!!

help me please!!!!!!
 
If its the international version, then you can only charge by USB to PC. You can buy UK chargers on places like Amazon/eBay, but you have to be sure it specifically for the Kindle and not just a generic USB->Power plug.

When you get that message on the PC, it just means to 'eject' it - but leave it plugged in. On the Mac I just right click and choose eject, on the PC, you would have to click the USB icon in the clock tray and choose 'Disconnect Hardware' till you get the messsage 'It is now safe to remove this hardware' - but actually leave it physically connected to the PC to carry on charging.

Doesnt take long to charge and holds a charge for ages, even in 'sleep mode'.

Good luck!
 
pboreham said:
If its the international version, then you can only charge by USB to PC. You can buy UK chargers on places like Amazon/eBay, but you have to be sure it specifically for the Kindle and not just a generic USB->Power plug.

When you get that message on the PC, it just means to 'eject' it - but leave it plugged in. On the Mac I just right click and choose eject, on the PC, you would have to click the USB icon in the clock tray and choose 'Disconnect Hardware' till you get the messsage 'It is now safe to remove this hardware' - but actually leave it physically connected to the PC to carry on charging.

Doesnt take long to charge and holds a charge for ages, even in 'sleep mode'.

Good luck!
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thanks mate - we got it sorted by pure luck!

when it says to eject the usb device, but leave it connected, we were ejecting it from the taskbar (as any normal person would do) BUT if we went into 'my computer' and ejected it that way, it bloody worked!! talk about vague instructions!

all sorted now though...
 
I bet nowadays you can try iPad intead of kindle, The former one is much more elegant now.
 
He! He! Yup, was a lovely bit of kit... Mad redundant almost instantly by the iPad.

They have just released a fairly decent update for it though, which add things like twitter and Facebook too it, so they are trying to make it more appealing.

They have the best book store though and should give up on the hardware.
 
Just got one of these from PC World and I must admit, it's a cracking piece of kit.

The screen is not at all what I expected, it's basically not even a screen as you'd expect an electronic device to have and really does appear to look like paper itself!

A lot lighter than expected, seems to be lighter than my 360 controller, very easy to hold and the controls work well.

Luckily I've also found all of the Discworld books I've already got so I've copied those over and they load up perfectly. Which is a relief as I've got around 25 books that I haven't read yet and I'd rather read them on the Kindle seeing as I've already got them.

Also used an app named Calibre to manage my books (superb ebook manager) and it converted my Walking Dead black & white comic for me, and it shows brilliantly on the Kindle as well.

Colour me impressed!
 
3 weeks on and it's only now running low on battery and needing a charge :SHOCK:

As time has gone on, I've become really quite accustomed to having the Kindle around to read and it's become nearly as useful as having my mobile with me.

The screen is fantastic and has surprised everyone who's seen it and expected it to be like an LCD.

Also using a program named Calibre to store my books on the laptop. It's very much like iTunes in how it's like a library where you can keep your books, edit the metadata, view book descriptions and the covers. Even better is that you can add in all kinds of eBook formats and Calibre will convert them and copy them to your Kindle. So you're not forced to buy from the Amazon store, even more helpful if there's a book you want and the Kindle version isn't available yet.

Can't recommend one highly enough if you read books.
 
Far and away my favourite piece of kit I now own. It's utterly brilliant in almost every way. Only annoyance is the rubbish arrow buttons for navigating menus. Everything else is more or less perfect.
 
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