Reading the New York Times On a Kindle 2 193
reifman links to his thorough and thoughtful review of the experience of reading a newspaper on the Kindle 2. "I've been eager to try The New York Times on the Kindle 2; here's my review with a basic video walk-through and screenshots. I give the Kindle 2 version of The Times a B. Software updates could bring it up to an A-. Kindle designers should have learned more from the iPhone 3G. Unfortunately, my Kindle display scratched less than 24 hours after it arrived. As I detail in the review, Amazon customer service was not very accommodating. Is it my fault — or will Kindle 2 evolve into an Apple 1G Nano-like $22.5M settlement? You can read about Hearst's e-reader for newspapers from earlier today on Slashdot."
So wait, (Score:2)
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RTFA? But that's too hard! It's easier to just post a stupid question, same as it's easier to ask someone to find answers, rather than google the answers yourself. /end sarcasm-all null:
I actually just tried the Kindle II... (Score:5, Interesting)
A friend of mine bought one for reading in the subway. He finds it great, and he points out correctly that for avid readers it's wonderful just from the standpoint of space conservation. For Manhattan-dwellers especially, that's a major selling point.
It's a pretty good product--the only bad thing about it is from the publisher's standpoint, since IIRC it requires you to prepare your books in a new format (which is a not-insignificant undertaking) and Amazon has near-complete control over the pricing structure. (The pricing structure thing hurts authors, too.)
Countering that is that it will make some books more accessible. It doesn't take much work to get books now, but the ability to have them in front of you and easily readable right away combined with sample chapters gives you at least part of the convenience of actually walking into a bookstore, only you get it anyplace you can get the data connection.
I can't speak to the durability, though, because it's still a new toy. Give it a year and see how it holds up in different conditions. But overall, this is definitely a shiny product, in the good sense as opposed to the coefficient-of-specular-reflection-is-too-high sense. It'll probably really help Amazon once the economy picks back up, since more people will have the income to spend on a Kindle and they'll have had a chance to improve it.
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the only bad thing about it is ... Amazon has near-complete control over the pricing structure. (The pricing structure thing hurts authors, too.)
Doesn't this thing read pdfs and/or text files? If so, can't the authors sell their books from any website they want, for whatever price they want? Exactly how does Amazon exert control over the pricing structure?
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You're forced to create an account and then send pdfs and text files to an email associated with the account for a fee ($0.20 per file or something like that). It's difficult, and Amazon has everything locked down.
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What do you mean by "locked down"? Do they check the txt/pdf to see if it's a copyrighted work?
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No they just charge you for the privillege of reading your own work on your own device.
Re:I actually just tried the Kindle II... (Score:4, Informative)
Not true at all. I just spent the weekend converting all the e-books I had purchased on Baen's webscription site for the Kindle. Bean has a link in the download section of each book to "convert to Kindle format". You enter you kindle email and go. Now you can enter the email address @kindle.com and it will convert and use Whispernet to push it to the reader. That costs $0.10 per book. Or you can use the @free.kindle.com address. The conversion happens and a link is sent to download the e-book to your computer. It's then a simple drag and drop to the Kindle and you're good to go. That one costs nothing.
Incidentally, this option is available for the "Free Library" section at Baen which has a pretty extensive collection of their published authors.
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Don't people at Slashdot ever feel like they have to have to slightest knowledge about what they're commenting on? As some one else said, the amount of misinformation here is just STAGGERING.
Re:I actually just tried the Kindle II... (Score:5, Informative)
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You obviously never even looked at the website, let alone read a review of the thing.
I think they're kind of lame(no removeable storage, non-removable battery), but my wife recently got one, so I know that:
A)You can(not must) send PDFs to an account for translation. It costs $.10 if you send it via the cell network(duh, that costs money). If you transfer them by computer, it costs $0.00 My wife, being an artsy type, has the Adobe suite, so she just converts them herself if they aren't just used as an image container.
B)You can just plug it in a USB port and copy plain text to it like a thumb drive, albeit with no meaningful folder managment. She has loaded it up with a bunch of ebooks she already had in plain text, plus the aforementioned converted PDFs.
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.
You obviously never even looked at the website, let alone read a review of the thing.
I think they're kind of lame(no removeable storage, non-removable battery), but my wife recently got one, so I know that:
A)You can(not must) send PDFs to an account for translation. It costs $.10 if you send it via the cell network(duh, that costs money). If you transfer them by computer, it costs $0.00 My wife, being an artsy type, has the Adobe suite, so she just converts them herself if they aren't just used as an image container.
B)You can just plug it in a USB port and copy plain text to it like a thumb drive, albeit with no meaningful folder managment. She has loaded it up with a bunch of ebooks she already had in plain text, plus the aforementioned converted PDFs.
Something seems very wrong with the fact that a whole novel can be sent over a cell network for $0.10, but a text message of under 200 characters cost double that.
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Something seems very wrong with the fact that a whole novel can be sent over a cell network for $0.10, but a text message of under 200 characters cost double that.
At this point, even a novel is an insignificant use of bandwidth. It's not about cost at all. It's about maximizing profit. As long as dodo teenagers continue to run up huge overage charges for exceeding their SMS limit, they'll keep charging like that.
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I got my Kindle 2 last week. I never tried the original Kindle, nor any other ebook reader. I did read a lot of the forum chatter about issues such as no SD slot and only 1.4GB storage.
So far, I've been really happy with it, other than the brief panic over my credit card company shutting down my account after the dozens of ebook downloads tripped their fraud sniffer.
I'm not concerned about expandability. I've downloaded mostly the classics in literature and philosophy, including more than several entire col
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True, it is very readable, low stress, mostly decent contrast(the whites could be a little brighter).
The only reason I really dislike the storage/battery issue is that if I used it, I'd use it a lot. While I do like physical books, I've never had a problem with reading on a screen so I have enough ebooks that even in plain text they'd fill hundreds of megs.
I think my collection in their original formats(i.e. large) still fits on a 8 gig stick, but I stopped trying to carry it all with me lately, as a large
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Me, I just email everything to my Kindle. It's not in the least difficult, (a barely trained monkey could do it) and the Kindle is far from "locked
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You don't have to, that's just how Amazon lets you convert stuff.
You can still use MobiPocket Creator (owned by a company that is owned by Amazon) to convert documents (including PDFs) on your computer, and a USB cable to move a document to Kindle friendly format without ever sending emails.
Also, Amazon has never sent me a denial. A few failures, when I was testing it to see exactly how complex a PDF it could handle, but no denials.
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To mod or not to mod your FUD (Score:3, Informative)
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1. You create a Walkman account when you get a Walkman. This is tied to 2 Walkman email addresses...
2. Sending MP3s is simple: email them to the standard account which will push it out to your Walkman directly after converting the file to ATRAC (cost: $.10),or the free one that converts it and sits in your Walkman account on Sony.com.
3. If you opted for free, you download the ATRAC file to your PC, plug your Walkman in, and transfer it. Gee, that was TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE WHEN SONY DID IT.
FTFY, no charge t
ugh (Score:2)
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You're forced to create an account...
If you have a Kindle, 99.9% of the time you have an account. So I suppose you are allowed to say "forced".
If you have an account (see above) you can send PDFs to one of two email addresses.
1) "your kindle id"@kindle.com
2) "your kindle id"@free.kindle.com
If you send PDF to (1) Amazon will convert your file to its AZW format and wireless transfer it to your Kindle. There is a fee of $0.10 using this method.
If you send the PDF to (2) Amazon will convert your file to its A
Re:I actually just tried the Kindle II... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I actually just tried the Kindle II... (Score:5, Insightful)
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I thought we were waiting for the Linux-based firmware that would let you run arbitrary programs so you can read all the formats they don't support.
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Well, considering the Kindle already runs Linux, I'd say it's more of a matter of time until somebody figures "something" out.
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I thought we were waiting for the Linux-based firmware that would let you run arbitrary programs so you can read all the formats they don't support.
Well, considering the Kindle already runs Linux, I'd say it's more of a matter of time until somebody figures "something" out.
Sure, just like Android. Regardless, the point still stands. Sorry I didn't make it clear that I already knew that from reading the article on the thing yesterday (DRM-laden systems not being high on my list of things to research. It is interesting though.) I suppose next time I should pause for the time it takes to take two gulps of coffee.
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Its been out for years: Nokia Internet Tablet. [wikipedia.org]
Sure, you dont get e-ink but you get a decent screen with color, a light-weight distribution [wikipedia.org], wifi, FBreader, mplayer, skype, ssh & rdp client, lots of apps, flash support, no lock down, etc. The 700 series go for a song on ebay.
Im planning on buying one of these soon. I feel that I dont need a netbook considering how many computers I have access to, dont really need a dedicated ereader, but would like a portable device thats more powerful than a pda phone
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I also have an N800. It does make a good eBook reader (FBReader FTW!) but I would probably buy a Kindle in a heartbeat if it wasn't so expensive. The N800 is much more portable, and the backlight is nice, but if you wanted to sit out in the sun and read or something it's useless. Also, the Kindle would be better for PDFs. The N800's screen is too small to read full-page PDFs with diagrams and illustrations.
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I looked at the Nokia tablets, and decided that if you don't get a V770 (Saw them NIB shipped for $130 on ebay recently) that you need to get the N810 because for just a few dollars more (heh) you can get a backlit keyboard and internal GPS. Kind of a no-brainer. If I were looking to buy an Open device with integrated navigation, I would buy one immediately. Instead, I bought a WebDT 360 [dtresearch.com] for under $300, it has wifi, bluetooth, and most importantly a fairly daylight-viewable 8.4" TFT... well, actually, most
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I think that would depend on who is producing the e-paper. Which is the only component in the system that is unique.
It may not be possible to get a knock-off for years. So, just put aside 50 cents a day, and two years from now when they're finally putting out Kindle knockoffs, you can buy a Kindle 3.
Re:I actually just tried the Kindle II... (Score:5, Insightful)
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So it can't read PDFs. Big negative IMHO - I wouldn't mind having something like this (at $150 max) to stash dozens of technical references and white papers on. But I'm not going to go through the hassle of converting every PDF I'd want to store.
Nice to someone draw attention to the fact that paperback novels aren't the sum total of everything people spend their time reading. Given that popular fiction seem to be Kindle's focus, the rest of the world will have to wait for something else altogether.
Which is
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I think you've missed the whole point of PDFs. They are meant to preserve formatting.
People use PDFs for the same reason they don't use HTML or plain text for said documents, and vice versa.
Now if the documents you want are perfectly readable as plain text you should blame the source for using an unsuitable format, rather than hating the format for doing what it is supposed to do.
Re:I actually just tried the Kindle II... (Score:5, Insightful)
I think you've missed the whole point of PDFs. They are meant to preserve formatting.
I think the OP is saying he hates PDFs as a format for reading electronically. This is completely logical. As you note, PDF is specifically designed to not be like a computer document, but rather to preserve printed media formatting. This makes them totally unsuitable for on-screen reading. Why people continue to distribute documents that will never be printed in PDF format is beyond me. I blame Adobe for pushing the Acrobat Reader software as being something more than the printer-friendly format it is.
What I'm waiting for is a color e-ink reader, with a roughly 8.5x11 screen (or at least the same aspect ratio), and the capacity to natively display PDF documents. I imagine something the size/weight of a laptop screen, with a touch screen and a few nav buttons at the edges.
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What I'm waiting for is a color e-ink reader, with a roughly 8.5x11 screen (or at least the same aspect ratio), and the capacity to natively display PDF documents. I imagine something the size/weight of a laptop screen, with a touch screen and a few nav buttons at the edges.
Exactly; this is something you immediately realize would rock, the minute you pick up an iPhone. Just scale the thing up to 8.5x11, lose the phone, add some serious battery capacity, and I'll pitch a tent in the mall to buy one.
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I'm in the same boat -- I got a PRS-500 for reading papers on the shuttle bus to grad school. The screen was a bit small (or I'm a bit nearsighted, one), but other than that it worked great.
Now, a couple of years later, the non-(easily)-user-replaceable battery is dying, and I'm trying to decide whether to try to swap batteries, spring for a 505, spring for a 700, or get a Kindle 2. Thanks to earlier posters, I know I *don't* have to pay $0.10 to convert all my .pdfs over, so now I'm trying to decide whic
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There is always the iRex 1000 or iRex iLiad if you want a larger screen.
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How hard is it to write a for loop in your shell to mail all the PDFs you want to your user@free.kindle.com address? The only big downside I see is the major waste of bandwidth involved, and I wouldn't buy one either, but it's still not difficult to get the content onto the device. Amazon converts the PDFs to kindle format for you. The device runs Linux already, so it's very very likely that someone will turn it into a more general-format reader in a relatively short amount of time. I just hope they sell it
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Note, an Ipaq is smaller, and you can convert any text on your computer with Overdrive ReaderWorks to .lit format for use with Microsoft Reader. I have read 300 books this way in the last 3 years. The Ipaq is cheaper than the Kindle, too. And did I mention it has Wi-Fi internet access and plays mp3s like an iPod too?
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I recently tried a Kindle 2. The Kindle is much more *readable* than your back-lit display. The E-ink screen does not cause more stain on your eyes than reading a normal book. It's passively lit, and it looks very good. It takes a while to refresh a while page, but that's a small price to pay if you're reading pages at a time. And the E-ink retains the image when the device is off, so it's using no power most of the time.
I've tried reading on my iPhone. It just doesn't work. Good for short term, terr
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Is it only me who just hates the way that e-ink displays flash black every time the whole image changes? Quickly paging through a document would be a slow, painful experience of flashing black and white text. Come back and let me know when the Kindle 5 display updates instantaneously without an ugly black flash and I'll consider it.
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I honestly got used to the black flash really quickly. That said, it would be nicer to turn pages faster. The K2 reportedly turns faster than my Kindle 1, so they are making progress.
I do want to point out that if you hit Page Forward 5 times really fast, it flashes once and you're now 5 pages ahead.
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So it's slow enough that it only flashes once- great :)
I meant that if you're looking for a page in a paper or manual, say you know it's the page with a particular table on, and is around page 100 to 110. I do this sort of stuff all the time with a PDF reader, just hit page down until I see the table that I recognise to fly past. Waiting for the display to flash and update for every page would be just painful.
I honestly loved the idea of e-ink until I tried out Sony's new reader over Christmas. I just knew
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Yeah, because that's what I really want my books to do. Play music at me and let me browse the internet.
Hey, why stop there? What about email, stock quotes, instant messaging, and all sorts of stuff that interferes with reading books?
It's a book reader for pete's sake. It does not make julienned fries.
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Is there any reason the device shouldn't have all that functionality? You get it basically for free once you've done the work of making a wirelessly-connected eBook reader; all of those things that you mentioned require extremely small amounts of bandwidth. If you just put a really good IM and voice communication (even walkie-talkie style, with substantial delays to allow the use of idle network bandwidth) package on it, you'd probably sell twice as many units. As long as I can easily set the device not to
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It's a book reader that costs $360. At that price I too am wondering what all else it does to justify me paying so much for it. I still haven't found a good reason for this thing to be so ridiculously price
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Re:I actually just tried the Kindle II... (Score:5, Informative)
From experience with the Kindle 1, which I've had for ~ 6 months, its a very durable device with the exception of direct pressure on the screen. I've accidentally spritzed it with water and soap, so as long as you're not giving it a bath it does fine. I stick it in my backpack on the way to school and takes a fair amount of abuse that way.
However, the one sticky point is that the screen is very susceptible to direct pressure on the screen. Because the e-ink relies on a glass backing for its operation, if you lean too heavily on it, it will shatter and the screen will be non-functional. This happened to mine when I had it on my bed and it disappeared under some blankets and I put my palm down on it crawling back into bed. Fortunately, I had a very good experience with Amazon customer service and received a new one within a few days. Keeping it in its leather carrying case and being aware of it eliminates those problems for the most part, and it can take quite a bit of abuse with just minimal precautions.
With how thin the new version is, and the fact that the case doesn't come standard, I wonder if the screen isn't more durable on Kindle 2. Can't say I'd want to test it myself though...
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However, the one sticky point is that the screen is very susceptible to direct pressure on the screen.
So... rubbing my dick on it probably isn't a good idea?
Not an issue. It takes several pounds of pressure to break the glass, so your half-ounce dick won't be a problem.
Of course, you'd better be careful not to crush it with your gut while trying to reach the screen with your 2.5" penis.
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My apologies. I'm not an expert on e-ink technology, my personal field of study of dynamics and control of space systems.
All I was doing was letting others know of my first-hand experience, and the biggest issue that I've had. While I may have been imprecise in my language, since I have no reason to state that you are incorrect, and wikipedia seems to corroborate you, I do know that the screen in the Kindle (which is also the same screen as the Sony PRS-505), is manufactured on glass backing. This was pr
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He finds it great, and he points out correctly that for avid readers it's wonderful just from the standpoint of space conservation.
Part of me, the part that has been using my PDA in this capacity for many years now, wonders why this was never used as a selling point for them. Given that early PDA sales were poor at best.
But the other more cynical part of me knows that it would have only forced the DRM/fair use/format debate sooner. Not that we seem to be much better equipped to deal with it these days.
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I would have thought that from a publisher's standpoint that the Kindle being proprietary and tied to a store is a VERY bad thing. It might not seem so in the short term, but in the long term if the device took off it would
FTA (Score:3, Insightful)
'' Once your promotion expires, seven day home delivery of the New York Times costs $58.06 per month or $697 annually. A Kindle 2 sells for $359. The New York Times via Kindle costs just $13.99 per month or $168. You can buy a Kindle 2 with a one year subscription to The Times for only $527. Then, you can use the $169 savings to take your friend out to a very nice dinner - the one whose sister has the dogs who get their waste dumped in your blue plastic Times delivery bags (I guess I'll find out soon if she reads my blog when she asks about that dinner).
BusinessInsider mused that it costs The Times twice as much money each year to provide home delivery than it would to buy every subscriber a Kindle: "What we're trying to say is that as a technology for delivering the news, newsprint isn't just expensive and inefficient; it's laughably so." ''
Wow. That puts the kindle price into perspective!
Also, who spents 700 a year on newspapers any more? News, even good news, is no-cost online, right?
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Wow. That puts the kindle price into perspective!
Also, who spents 700 a year on newspapers any more? News, even good news, is no-cost online, right?
Some people like thumbing through the paper physically, reading it front to back, that whole process. However, I think in time people are just going to get used to reading it on their computers.
I think that e-ink might be easier on the eyes or something. It might be nice for reading. End post.
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Over here in this 3rd world developing country, a newspaper's list price is about USD0.30. And most of them have as many pages as the NYT (if not more).
They're not as thick as the UK's Sunday Times - which has been rumoured to be lethal to small dogs, when launched by a speeding paper-boy.
Online cost of NYT 527-359= 168= USD 0.46/day
"Paper" cost of NYT = 697-168= USD 1.45/day
Why is it so expensive? 1.45 a day.
Delivery might be expensive if say the subscriber is in Hawaii or
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NYTs delivered where I live are printed by the regional newspaper. NYT bought them a press just for that purpose, although they use it on the side for other things.
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Let's see... newsprint costs €500/tonne, and masses 45 g/m^2. Each sheet is maybe A2 in size, and the typical "free" newspaper here has about 10 sheets (40 pages). A sheet of A2 paper has an area of 0.25m^2, so it's mass is 11.25g. The whole thing has a mass of 112.5g (mass of an apple? seems about right).
So the paper in a small newspaper costs about €0.06.
Someone else can work out the printing and distribution costs ;-)
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Replacing a newspaper is somewhat cheaper.
One possibility... (Score:2)
Also, who spents 700 a year on newspapers any more?
People who know how to spell "spends"?
Hey, honey? (Score:5, Insightful)
Will you hand me the sports section to read while you browse the NYT magazine?
Hey, where's the crossword?
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Will you hand me the sports section to read while you browse the NYT magazine?
The first question can be solved by buying one more kindle for yourself.
Hey, where's the crossword?
If someday it comes with annotation functionality...
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Hey, where are the coupons? Especially in this economy, that matters to a lot of people. Yeah, there are some you can download and print, but that doesn't always work well. I had to disable certain portions of my home firewall to get some of those sites to work.
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I like to read the news, then do the crossword and even *gasp* use the solutions shown in todays paper to see what the answers I couldn't get were from yesterdays. It's a nice little ritual, I don't see why I should change it just for some space saving. If I want a paper I'll buy a paper. If I want an e-book style reader I might buy a kindle. Please don't dictate that I should shut up and buy a kindle just for the paper. The kindle has major drawbacks for those of us who like to share the paper and do the c
Propietary Format (Score:4, Interesting)
I want an e reader because my books are piling up. But I want the same rights I get for paper books and until I get that I will not buy one. I have some books that are older than me. Now I see people with this e-reader or that e-reader and then a year or two later they have a new one and re-buy all their books.
I want all the benefits of paper books but without wasting all the space on books. Also as a society, what happens if in years people dig up our society and just find these e-readers with a proprietary format? All of our knowledge will be lost whereas with books/tablets at least they can get something to try to translate.
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I want all the benefits of paper books but without wasting all the space on books.
Let me help... libraries... buy/sell used books... a bookcase... or, a $400 gizmo that will be useless one way or another inside of a year.
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It will become useless how?
Last I heard, there are a half a million completely content Kindle 1 owners. And that came out two years ago.
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What if amazon goes under? All those ebooks that I may have bought will be gone. If you look at some of the music DRM services, what happens when Amazon decides not to support the format anymore?
Yeah! I mean, what would happen if Microsoft stopped supporting .doc? Or Adobe stopped supporting the .psd format? Or Autocad stopped supporting the .DXF file format?
You do have the same rights as a paper book. For instance, moving the book over to another format. When was the last time you had a paper book reprinte
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Buy DRM-free ebooks from fictionwise.com in mobi format, and they work just fine on the Kindle.
The mobi format is just HTML in a Palm PDB wrapper, and there are open source tools to manipulate it.
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The kindle format is not amazon proprietary, it's mobipocket, which is one of the most commonly available formats. Though I always make sure that a book is available is an open format before I buy it (and I download the book in that format as well, "just in case"), either html or pdf (which, while proprietary, is open enough that there are non-proprietary readers). There is more interesting content available in open formats than I have time to read, so it's just not an issue. Also, at least at fictionwis
Some questions from a non-Kindle user. (Score:3, Interesting)
I was looking into buying a Kindle as soon as it becomes available here (Rightpondia), but after reading the license agreement on Amazon, I'm not sure anymore.
Do I understand it correctly, that..
- in case the Kindle should be lost/broken or I buy a newer model, then all books are lost, too?
- in case I switch to a different brand of ebook reader, I'm stuck with a load of unreadable books?
- I cannot loan a book to a friend, except by giving him the whole device?
- I cannot try to remove the DRM, otherwise Amazon will kill my service?
- Amazon is snooping what documents I have on my reader?
If that's correct, then - sorry to say that - it looks like Amazon is telling me: "HA! WE SCREWED YOU!"
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- in case the Kindle should be lost/broken or I buy a newer model, then all books are lost, too?
Hey look, a FAQ:
Q: What happens if your Kindle is lost or stolen or if it breaks? Can you report it and have the email address canceled and have it disconnected from the whispernet and your Amazon account? If you buy a replacement Kindle, can you have all your documents, clippings and customizations restored through any sort of back-up of your data?
A: Yes to all of your questions. You simply go the "Mange Your Ki
Re:Some questions from a non-Kindle user. (Score:5, Informative)
-in case the Kindle should be lost/broken or I buy a newer model, then all books are lost, too?
No, book purchases are tied to your Amazon.com account, not to the device. You can redownload any of them on a new device. This includes books that get pulled from the Amazon.com store after the date of purchase! (I have a Kindle, I tested this)
- in case I switch to a different brand of ebook reader, I'm stuck with a load of unreadable books?
Yes. Hopefully Amazon will switch to the ePub format for more openness soon.
- I cannot loan a book to a friend, except by giving him the whole device?
Yep, although you can share with family who have a second or third device on the same account.
- I cannot try to remove the DRM, otherwise Amazon will kill my service?
That's pretty standard, isn't it? However, I haven't seen any cases of service getting cut off, or anyone even trying to break the DRM.
- Amazon is snooping what documents I have on my reader?
Only the documents you bought from them. They back up your annotations and bookmarks for the books you purchased from them, but not from any books you got from other sources or created yourself. You can also turn this feature off, if the idea of Amazon poking its nose in your stuff bothers you. Or you can never turn the wireless on and do all book purchases by USB, just to be completely paranoid.
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The end of the story is that proprietary formats and DRM suck, but that's the way it is and is going to be until Amazon can break away from it the way Apple did.
For the record: Amazon's .azw format is really just .mobi with the DRM. So if you can break the DRM, you can read the book on any device that can read .mobi, from Palm Pilots to computers. The tricky thing is that some of the books they sell are in .tpz (Topaz, sometimes .azw1) which allows them to imbed fonts in the file. I presume that this is an evolution of .mobi, but we really don't know, and other readers might not be able to handle it.
Scratched screen or review? (Score:3, Interesting)
This reviews reads a bit like "Misdeeds of the tobacco", by Anton Tchekov.
We are promised a review of how well the Kindle is suited to read the new york times on a daily basis, but the author spends a few paragraphs right off the bat informing us that he shoved his kindle in a bag with other junk (candy bars?) and scratched the screen, and then is surprised Amazon will not outright send him a new one to compensate. He even repeats it in the "the screen" section.
I don't know, but I spent a while thinking "yeah that's good to know and all, but where's the New York Times in there? Why is he trying so hard to justify how he scratched the screen?
Re:Scratching is a valid form of artistic expressi (Score:4, Funny)
I don't see this as an issue, or I would have returned my cat.
Re:an amazing product (Score:5, Informative)
Let me summarize the obvious: reflective display, not an LCD, ie you can actually read on it; first more-or-less practical generation of a new technology, as with everything else in the entire history of all technology, price will come down as it becomes more popular.
What is so fiendishly difficult to grasp?
Re:an amazing product (Score:5, Insightful)
and... you can't read text on an LCD?
LOL. Allow me to chime in with the OP for folks like you that refuse to get it.
Of course you can read text on an LCD, just like you can also read text on a CRT with 60Hz flicker, in giant lights at softball game, or hand scrawled on a bathroom wall with really bad kerning. You can also rub lemon juice on paper cuts to keep them from getting infected, but the majority of us choose not to.
The point is that e-ink is easier on the eyes, which makes what you're reading ... wait for it ... easier to read.
In Jeff Bezos' interview on The Charlie Rose show, he used a flashlight analogy, saying thta reading on a convential screen is like staring into a flashlight. The light may not be as bright as a typical flashlight, but it's a helluva lot brighter (and different) than the light reflected off a piece of paper. Or a Kindle. Ergo, Bezos opted not to use a LCD screen, while being aware of the tradeoffs of doing so. The reaction to his decision has ranged from praise to amazement to a shitload of Kindles being sold.
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Whether or not reading on an LCD is painful depends on the LCD.
My REB 1100 e-book has an LCD screen and it's a pleasure to read on. It's nothing like "staring into a flashlight"; the backlight is adjustable and can be turned off entirely for many lighting conditions. In fact, for my primary reading usage I think it's a better approach than e-ink. I like to read in bed at night, and the REB's backlight set to its lowest setting is just enough to read comfortably in a dark room, but dim enough that it do
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My REB 1100 e-book has an LCD screen and it's a pleasure to read on.
Yeah, I have both a REB 1100 and a REB 1200, and I think they're both great. What that clown Bezos fails to note with his smug "flashlight" analogy is that LCD backlights are adjustable. E-ink in bright sunlight is putting more light into your eyes than an LCD with the backlight turned off.
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Of course you can read text on an LCD, just like you can also read text on a CRT with 60Hz flicker, in giant lights at softball game, or hand scrawled on a bathroom wall with really bad kerning.
Most of us don't have workplaces where we're expected to stare at a bathroom wall for 8 hours straight, except for yo mama, and yet LCD screens seem to be good enough for the purpose.
Jeff Bozos' complaint about LCDs seems to be primarily with the backlighting. So why not use a transflective or even purely reflective
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In Jeff Bezos' interview on The Charlie Rose show, he used a flashlight analogy, saying that reading on a convential screen is like staring into a flashlight. The light may not be as bright as a typical flashlight, but it's a helluva lot brighter (and different) than the light reflected off a piece of paper. Or a Kindle. Ergo, Bezos opted not to use a LCD screen, while being aware of the tradeoffs of doing so. The reaction to his decision has ranged from praise to amazement to a shitload of Kindles being sold.
Well that's true of a TRANSMISSIVE LCD, but not of the REFLECTIVE type. Reflective LCD's don't work out very well for color since the light has to pass through the filters twice, but a monochrome reflective LCD would be another story.
it's not refusing to get it (Score:2)
I understand eInk. What I don't understand is people like you who think they have cornered the market on understanding.
First of all, about LCDs and Jeff Bezos. You heard all that shit Bezos told you, like looking into a flashlight? Remember one thing Jeff Bezos is selling you something. Of course he has phrases that make the competition sound like getting bamboo shoved under your fingernails. That doesn't make them true. I've worked with computers for quite some time. I've spent far more time in my life sta
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Then don't buy it. If its usage doesn't appeal to you, then don't buy it. It doesn't change the fact that its expensive because of eInk, and it doesn't change the fact that some people decided it was a major selling point. I for one find it incredibly pleasant to read of off, and I like to read long-form novels, so it works wonderfully for me.
That's the great thing about having an open market, you can use what appeals to you. I personally like to tinker, so I have linux on my desktop and server, but wan
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Some of that might be true, but...
I am a longstanding customer of Amazon, and I have bought dozens of CDs through them. But the other day when I thought to buy a few tracks as MP3s, I was disappointed to get a message that the service is only available to US customers. (I am in Australia.) I can't think of a single good reason why they would need to pursue that strategy other than to enforce DRM in some way. They were happy to sell me a CD of the same
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I don't have any inside information, but I can think of a couple very good reasons why they might not be ready to allow DRM-free MP3 downloads outside the US: non-uniform copyright laws and uncooperative copyright holders. For Amazon to actually allow MP3 downloads is not as simple as deciding they want to do it and then doing it. They need to be sure that they are not breaking copyright laws by doing so, which takes lots of lawyers lots of billable hours. They also need agreement from the copyright hold
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Buy books from fictionwise.com in DRM-free .mobi format.
Copy books onto Kindle via USB.
Problem solved.
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Pay by the page for what exactly? And how do you know what pages you might need without a comprehensive index - and even then unless you can see what you are getting, how do you know you'll get what you want?
Give the razor for free, sell the blades. Give the index for free, sell the pages. Hide all but the heading and first paragraph of every unpaid chapter so the reader can get an idea of what pages they need.
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Re:Free content and pay by the page. (Score:4, Funny)
Also, people should be able to pay by the page for content rather than buy the book. Just like paying for songs instead of albums, this is the future of reading.
Are you serious? What sort of sick demented world do you live in? Why would someone want to buy one page unless it were for a sample, which is usually given out free?
Aside from the above speculation, here are ten solid, in-depth, good reasons why you're completely wrong. 1. Y
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Re:Free content and pay by the page. (Score:5, Informative)
Um, they do allow Authors to give their content away. I downloaded a free e-book from Amazon over the weekend.
The sheer amount of ignorance on this forum has been STAGGERING. What the hell is wrong with you people?
And if you look up the Kindle Wikipedia page, they list off a dozen stores that sell and give away books that are readable on the Kindle.
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Come on batteries to read a book (well maybe at night time, saves on flashlight batteries).
The Kindle, like just about all eBooks, uses an e-paper screen, which doesn't have its own light source. You would still need to provide your own. Not sure if the glare from a flashlight would be a problem though.
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No copyright infringement. You aren't copying it. :-)
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I've been an Amazon customer since 1998. I haven't had them screw up a single order. Not one.
Hell, I just bought a Plasma TV from them.
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He's not providing any useful information regarding its durability because he admits that he doesn't know how he damaged the screen.