Who has a Kindle...

I have the latest Kindle. I got it last year. It's great. For reading, I prefer it over an LCD-type display. It's much easier on the eyes and is EXCELLENT for reading in daylight. I disagree somewhat with the comment that it is not good for jumping around. While books on Kindle have a much more linear feel, I've found that once you get used to the functions, searching and finding stuff is about the same (you can add bookmarks, search, select and save text). Although, there is no e-book equivalent for browsing or flipping through a book.

The reader is not really good for books with tables and graphs, and pictures can be iffy. I hope they improve that with future revisions, because I'm primarily a nonfiction reader. It's really best for pure text books, so fiction is probably best.


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I gave my wife a Kindle. She loves it. Fortunately for me, she's overwhelmed with reading from grad school just now, so I've been "borrowing" it. Pink cover and all. I love it. Funny, because before I gave it to her I was afraid it would be the death knell of books. It's not. It's simply a really handy additional tool for reading. Anyway, I'm currently reading Saul Bellow's Herzog. Perhaps when I'm done, I'll have to download Robert Lennon's latest novel (mabelsound, I've forgotten whether your nom de plume is Robert or John).
 
Kindle 3. I couldn't imagining buying using it to look at photos, but for reading it's great. I'm waiting for the 3rd Stieg Larsson book to go on sale. Son has the Sony reader. The advantage of that is he can checkout library books with drm.
 
robklurfield said:
I gave my wife a Kindle. She loves it. Fortunately for me, she's overwhelmed with reading from grad school just now, so I've been "borrowing" it. Pink cover and all. I love it. Funny, because before I gave it to her I was afraid it would be the death knell of books. It's not. It's simply a really handy additional tool for reading. Anyway, I'm currently reading Saul Bellow's Herzog. Perhaps when I'm done, I'll have to download Robert Lennon's latest novel (mabelsound, I've forgotten whether your nom de plume is Robert or John).
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It's J. Robert Lennon! But I go by John personally. (You can see why I choose the initial initial.)

Thanks for considering my novel! Would love to hear what you thought, if you read it.

One other thing about the Kindle...it works, but it is so obsolete-tech. It just doesn't feel sorted yet. I'm with John Gruber, who said that it seems like it was something designed in 1985 and only just now manufactured. It's super cheap to buy though and it looks like it will eventually be free, if Bezos's broad hinting is to be believed.

I want greater screen contrast and better book design, personally. but those will come.
 
If you are looking for a device dedicated to reading, then the Kindle is the best by far. I have an Ipad and it works well for reading - it is just heavier and has some screen glare issues. One thing that is nice about the Ipad is that I have photos and other Apps along with the e-reader.
 
Roger Hicks said:
(...) The more so as Kindle is apparently well suited to Glorious Living Black-and-White? (...)
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Perhaps the following pics can answer that question. I've just picked two random scans from my hdd, created a kindle ebook and took some quick snaps of it. I'll include the resized originals as well.


original version:
airport.jpg


on the kindle:
airport_kindle.jpg


original version:
phils.jpg


on the kindle:
phils_kindle.jpg


I hope that gives you an impression of the rendering qualities of the kindle. Actually I find it not too bad.
 
I've thought about Kindles and iPads, etc. Not sure if I would ever use one. I do have a fetish for paper books and the printed word in general. I also tend to mark my books up!!! How practical is this with readers?

An extreme example, I just finished reading "Infinite Jest" by David Foster Wallace, for the second time, and I couldn't imagine readng this, or alot of other authors I like (Vollmann, Bolano, etc.) electronically.

That being said, altough others have said different, I think these readers could be a revolution for text books, magazines and such.

mabelsound's comment about autographs rings true for me also!
 
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My wife loves her Kindle, especially since it's lighter to carry on travel than books. If your primary interest is an e-reader, the Kindle is a good deal, IMO. Nice sharp screen.

I use the Kindle app on my iPad, and I think it's great. I've downloaded guidebooks for vacation planning, and can use the links in the text to go directly to hotel or other travel-related websites. And the iPad Kindle app works fine for reading, too. I've also downloaded some free books from Stanza, and that works fine too.
 
Mcary said:
Has anyone tried creating a PDF of images in Lightroom or other programs and loading that into their Kindle?
If so how did the images look on the screen?
Thanks Mike
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I just did this last week, not to photographic images but to both a short story and an unfinished work of mine that's now the length of a novelette (20k words, so far).

The original texts were in ".txt" format, because they were written on my AlphaSmart Neo (which is the subject of an entirely different thread -- a great writing-only tool, one of the best keyboards found anywhere, and a two-year battery life on three AA-cells, available from Renaissance Learning's online store for around $160us).

I imported the ".txt" files into Open Office Writer (but Word or any other full-featured WP would work), then resized the pages to fit the size of the Kindle. I have the latest WiFi-only version of the Kindle ($139US in the colonies), so I simply measured the screen size of the Kindle, used that for the page size in Open Office Writer, then formatted the border size to 0.1". I then exported the file as a PDF (file/export/pdf) and saved it as a PDF file. Make sure, after resizing the document's page size for the Kindle but before exporting as a PDF, to apply whatever margin justification that you want. I like it justified on both right and left margins. After export to PDF, the original WP file I simply reverted back to full-sized pages. Thus, the page resizing was a temporary means to achieve a PDF of the right page size.

Then you attach the Kindle to your computer via the supplied USB cable; the Kindle will show up as a flash drive in your computer's file structure. Open the Kindle folder and drag your newly created PDF files into the Kindle's "Documents" folder. That's all there is to it. Once you disconnect the Kindle and go to the Home screen you'll see your new document in the list of books, and can be opened and read like any other Kindle Store e-book.

The quality looks every bit as good as the Kindle Store's paid files, although I'm not sure of the style of font used in the Kindle (I think it's listed in the master owner's manual document), you should be able to get close to matching the font style in Word or Open Office Writer.

Regarding the quality of B/W images on the Kindle, I am impressed with the pre-loaded images the Kindle applies to the screen when you power it off; they are like half-tone newspaper images but of a much higher resolution. Gray scale is adequate, and the fine grain of the eInk display gives it an interesting texture. Of course, the brighter the viewing light the better, as is the case with all Kindle-like displays, which is one of their chief advantages over backlit displays.

Based on my impression of the graphic images I've seen on the Kindle, I'm curious about exploring the creation of PDF files with B/W images sized and formatted specifically for the Kindle, as a Kindle-specific B/W photography book. This shouldn't be too hard to do. You can import JPEGs into modern word processor programs, then resize the pages and export as a PDF. You can also use programs like Power Point or Open Office Simpress to create pages with JPEG images, then export as PDF documents.

BTW, you can surf the Internet on the Kindle, although the pages are monochrome and nonanimated. But the quality is more than adequate for simply reading text and viewing B/W images.

~Joe
 
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rover said:
I have a Kindle, the most recent version. It is a much better media for reading than a paper book. Archival/Library wise, of course a book is far better.
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+1 I have an older DX that I got as a gift a year or so ago - I absolutely, positively friggin' love the thing. Paper books? thing "for the most part" of the past. - I look at the boxes of old books I have lying around in boxes... Uggh! Why wasn't this invented sooner?

That all said, I really don't think that this would be a good tool for photography books at all. When I say "photography books" I assume the OP is talking about "picture books" with photos by (insert photographer of note here...), rather than books about photography.

Nah, pictures are only "so-so" on the Kindle. Electronic ink (not a gimick) is about text, not pics. This may not be true of color versions (mine is black and white...) but I have no interest in those - needlessly more expensive (I guess if you do a lot of magazines) and it shortens the amazing battery life on these things.

Kindles! (or your ebook reader of choice...) Great. Get one. But if you want a photography book, still buy a good one on high quality print/paper. For that, paper will be king for as far as the eye can see...
 
Pickett Wilson said:
Well, I think something more like the Ipad is the future of textbooks. As much as I like my Kindle, it's a pretty single purpose device.
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I teach in a public school that is has a 1 to 1 student/ laptop ratio. Every student in the 4th through 12th grade has a laptop that they use in school and take home at the end of the day. My classroom has an interactive whiteboard and document camera. I have both digital cameras and video available to the students. We have numerous online paid resources. My point is that we are deeply immersed in technology.

I have a classroom set of textbooks but they are rarely used. They are valuable as one of many choices in resources. I have the luxury of choosing among many available resources for the one that is the most effective for teaching a particular concept.

In this environment I have found the laptop to be a great choice if an individual must produce electronic products (written work, presentations, etc). If the person is consuming more than producing (90/10), then something like the Ipad is great. This is the way I access this forum over 90% of the time. Ipads are great if other apps have an appeal to you.

For the pure purpose of reading for pleasure, the Kindle is king. Given all of the technology available to my students, 100% of the ones that read for pleasure use a dedicated e-reader such as the Kindle.

I hope this perspective is helpful to you in making your choice.
 
The reader and tablet will obviously merge. Single use devices like the Kindle will either become extinct or really cheap. Amazon seems to be moving towards the really cheap and charging more for content. Where have we seen that business model before..ahh..cellphone, printers..etc. The iPads and other tablets are also very limited in that they are slow and lower resolution than laptops. They also are not as easy on the eye as a Kindle. All these technologies will converge. Fast, readable, color tablets that roll or fold will solve the Beta/VHS .. type competition. For now, I'm just waiting.
 
I have both Kindle (3rd gen) and iPad. Kindle is a lot better reading device, but I wouldn't buy photography books for it. That said, because I want to carry and read two books switching back and forth, Kindle makes my life easier. The SF Chronicle for Kindle got a lot better over time as well.
 
With the Ipad you can get the Zenio app and download your monthly photo magazines like shutterbug. Amazing screen and color.
 
bwcolor said:
The reader and tablet will obviously merge. Single use devices like the Kindle will either become extinct or really cheap.
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I disagree completely. Different screen technologies for each. Kindles use electronic ink, which made for text. Also, the battery life on these things is amazing... a week or two per charge for the black and white one? The newer ones last - like, a month, and they charge pretty quickly. I have a PC, a notebook, and Kindle. I view a tablet as one of those "do all" scanner machines... Kindle sales are up. It's designed to do one thing - read books, and it does it very, very well. I don't see any Tablet taking over for this function. If I owned a tablet, I might still get a Kindle for reading.
 
I'm with Nick. I thought the iPad was going to kill the Kindle, but it isn't turning out that way--e-ink will get cheaper and better, I think, and readers will be a very fine single-use tech.

I like that I can't check email on the Kindle. Not without enormous effort anyway. It's as like a book as an electronic device can get.
 
I love my Kindle, it opened new possibilities in my reading. For reading it's the best electronic tool. I need glasses when using a computer but the Kindle is like a book. And the battery is neverending if you switch off the WiFi/3G (ok, not as a real book, I admit).
Go for it, the price is inviting too.
 
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