Kindle

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  • AndyD
    Diamond Member

    • Jan 2010
    • 4946

    #1

    Kindle

    I ordered a couple of Kindle book readers from Amazon as Christmas presents for me and wifey. We're both hooked.

    The new Kindle is very slim and about the size of an average paperback novel. I have to say the screen technology is absolutely brilliant. It's an electronic ink type screen and it's streets ahead of LCD screens as a book reader. You can read it in any light including direct sunlight and it's unaffected by shadows. It has a one Gig built-in memory which equates to around 800 books you can carry around in it. The battery life is unbelievable, I charged them in mid December and even wifey's which is used several hours a day is still over half charged.

    The Kindle can handle PDF books but the native format is .mobi. I was a little disappointed when I first got it and loaded it with my pdf library, with pdf's you don't get all the display options such as text size and number of words per line or line spacing settings either. After a little digging I grabbed a free copy of Calibre which batch converted my whole pdf library of 3000+ books in a few hours into .mobi files. After I reloaded it with the mobi versions I never looked back. I'm reading more now than I've read since my uni days.

    It can do a couple of other things such as play mp3 music through it's in-built speakers and also has a fairly convincing text to speech reader but none of the extras fall under the heading of bloatware and they don't detract from it's primary function.

    I wondered if anyone else owned one or has used one and whether you enjoyed it as much as I do.
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  • adrianh
    Diamond Member

    • Mar 2010
    • 6328

    #2
    Why don't you just use a netbook or a laptop? I'll far rather have a 17" HD screen than a tiny mono screen that I have to squint at.

    Comment

    • AndyD
      Diamond Member

      • Jan 2010
      • 4946

      #3
      Netbooks and laptops are very bulky compared to the kindle. I used to read books on my laptop which is a 16" Lcd (not 1080p though, only 768 vertical lines) but the kindle screen is far better and less straining on the eyes. The display options mean you can set yur text size, character spacing and line spacing along with the contrast options means you don't have to squint. My eyesight is fairly poor when it comes to reading and other close-up stuff and the kindle is the best device by far for me.

      One thing where the laptop is better is for technical publications and manuals which have colour graphics and photos etc. The kindle don't do colour. Ive kept all my work literature on my laptop for that reason. If they bring out a colour one then it might be a different story.

      My advice is try one if you get the chance, I don't think you'll be disappointed Adrian.
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      • adrianh
        Diamond Member

        • Mar 2010
        • 6328

        #4
        How much?

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        • Debbiedle
          Gold Member

          • Jun 2006
          • 561

          #5
          Hiya - if you are avid readers - adopt-an-author.com takes you down all kinds of avenues and thought patterns with authors, book, genres, influences, music etc and you can obviously order directly off the site..a kindle is on my shopping list :-)
          Regards

          Debbie
          debbie@stafftraining.co.za

          From reception to management training, assertiveness, accountability or interviewing skills, we have a wide range of training workshops available for you!
          www.stafftraining.co.za

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          • Mark Atkinson
            Gold Member

            • Jul 2010
            • 796

            #6
            Originally posted by adrianh
            Why don't you just use a netbook or a laptop? I'll far rather have a 17" HD screen than a tiny mono screen that I have to squint at.
            I couldn't imagine much worse than trying to read a book on an LCD screen. My eyes would die.

            Thanks for the little review Andy. I've been interested in the Kindle technology but I haven't looked into them for exactly the above reason. I didn't realise they have a different type of screen.

            Maybe I'll hint at the family for my next birthday or something.
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            • AndyD
              Diamond Member

              • Jan 2010
              • 4946

              #7
              Thanks for the info Debbie.

              Originally posted by adrianh
              How much?
              It comes to around R1200 each with shipping. It is USD exchange rate dependent so it will vary.
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              • wynn
                Diamond Member

                • Oct 2006
                • 3338

                #8
                Well if the world libraries were on kindle there would be no books to burn would there?
                "Nobody who has succeeded has not failed along the way"
                Arianna Huffington

                Read the first 10% of my books "Didymus" and "The BEAST of BIKO BRIDGE" for free
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