Who has a Kindle...

This is my Kindle...

Part of my "Digital Archaeology" project (http://richcutler.co.uk/portfolio-2)

04-Kindle.jpg
 
My daughtrer gave me her Kindle (basic B&W) and I occaisionally read something on it. I like not having to keep my place or hold the book open as I'm reading . I'm currently reading a paperback edition of David McDullough's "Truman" and it weighs a ton. I also like all the free books on Amazon.
 
Wife has a new Kindle. The contrast is unreadable in normal room lighting, in the evening. She carries an angle-poise lamp around the house with her now and she has 20/20 vision.
 
River Dog said:
The contrast is unreadable in normal room lighting, in the evening. She carries an angle-poise lamp around the house with her
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The first Kindle to interest me is the new paperwhite version that sun readable B&W screen but also built in front lighting.
It solves three ipad short fallings - weight, battery life and sunlight readability.
It should arrive sometime this week.
 
I've had a Kindle (Gen 3 aka Kindle Keyboard) for roughly 2 years now. It's the latest in a long line of reading devices. I've been reading ebooks for 20 years now, originally on a PC as real world handheld devices didn't exist at the time.

I find my Kindle every bit as readable as any paperback and most hardbacks. Only a very few of my best expensively printed hardbacks can beat it, and then in very low light the ability to adjust the font size larger gives the Kindle an edge.

I began reading ebooks to get easy access to older public domain books. The vast majority of my ebook reading (~300-500 books, though many were single short stories) has been public domain works. Most of the newer books that I've read were paper, mostly hardback. It's unlikely that I will ever buy a paperback again. In the last year, I've read 3-4 hardbacks, 0 paperbacks, and about 30 or so ebook titles (a mix of single short stories and longer works).
 
mabelsound said:
Those are great photos. How did you get the devices to age so rapidly? Really beautiful. The DS especially.
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Thanks. Also bear in mind that the photographs are meant to be viewed as 4 foot tall prints mounted next to each other on a wall so that they dominate the viewer - monolithic tombstones to technology...

As to the how... First, I prefer to get things right in front of the lens, so the ageing is real not Photoshop.

All the devices had to look at least decades old - it was crucial that they did not appear just battered; they had to seem incongruous - recent technology far older than it could possibly be. I also wanted the objects to look like they'd come from different environments (a forest, a shed, the sea, etc.).

Bearing the above in mind, I tried to imagine how the objects would look. Taking the Nintendo, I wanted it to appear as if it'd been in the sea for years. So, I bought a few broken ones and experimented. In the end, I hacked it around a bit, put it in the oven until it warped, and played a blowtorch over it (that produced that brown crazed appearance). Next, I touched it up here and there with paint, rubbed sand and dirt over it, and glued barnacles over it!

(Techniques for some of the other devices including soaking in concentrated and very corrosive acid.)

Bottom line was that it had to look realistic as a 4 foot print! In reality, the devices would weather and wear differently - I'm sure in real life the objects wouldn't look quite as visually interesting. However, if my aged devices seem as if they *could* exist, I'm happy.

Lastly, some people ask why I show photographs and not the objects for this project. The answer is that I think there's a huge difference between how we relate to photographs compared with how we perceive actual objects, such as sculptures: with photographs, we can more easily suspend our belief, and thus accept fiction as truth (because of photography's close relationship with reality and truth - which remains even in today's world of digital images). Think of the difference in how we perceive a painting of someone compared with a photo - we instinctively as a culture take the former as subjective and the latter as objective - albeit this is of course tempered by all sorts of things such as context.
 
Two Kindle Touch devices in our household. As said before, perfect for reading books, not so interesting for photography.

I don't get the comments about it being unsuitable for reference books. In a properly type-set ebook, you can link all over the place (from the TOC to the page, from refences to appendices, etc). Anything you can do in HTML or PDF, you can do in an ebook. It think the mistake people make is reading pdf on their ebooks, or using a basic converter from PDF to an ebook format.

That's kind of like making flat scans of a book, that also doesn't give you proper links. If you get your books in ebook format, you shouldn't have any problems. (For a reasonably good example, get the ebook version of Erwin Puts' Leica Chronicle.)

Also, for converting between different ebook formats (epub, mobi, etc), I recommend Calibre, easily the best digital library software around. If you need to do more than just convert (adding TOC and links, for example), Sigil is a very good and easy to use ebook creator.
 
I have two Sony eReaders and a Sony Xperia Tablet S. The former are perfect for reading novels etc. and great on the eye. The Tablet is excellent for reference books because of the colour and larger screen. For photo books the tablet is excellent as the weight difference over a slab of processed tree in the bag is noticeable. Of course for home, I want that bound paper deliciousness known as a hardback book :)
 
Although I still like the Kindle, the price of eBooks is something that sort of tempers the affection. For light casual reading, used paperbacks are available everywhere, cheap and can be traded in or resold. The Kindle eBook version is convenient but comparatively expensive. I've found I shop more carefully when it comes to buying eBooks.

Even with my reservations, I'm looking forward to the Kindle HD tablet. The price and features are very attractive.
 
KIndle Touch here, and find it very useful, especially for travel. I'm slowly collecting kindle versions of old favourites from our paperback collection that are either falling apart or turning so brown that they are getting hard to read (or to find in our 4000+ collection).

Are people aware that you can often download free books in simple text format (.txt files) and manually download them to the kindle?
 
Kindle Touch and ordered already the Paper White with built in backlight. Very useful indeed for me not only during travel but also idle time like waiting for wife while shopping, waiting for my food order to be served, in an auto repair shop and many many more usage.
 
My girlfriend has a Kindle that I use exclusively (and regularly) for fiction as it's something I'm unlikely to study in great detail, reference in great detail, or interact with after I've finished it.

Non-fiction as well as books of art are things that I intend to use over and over. I would not and do not use or want digital versions of things like this. Magazines are also something that I do not want digitally.
 
I have a Nook Color, and have ordered the HD+ 9 inch version. I'd buy a decent photo book for under $10 direct from the author before I pay $20 plus from AMZN or B&N...

The Nook is easier to carry than my Toshiba laptop by far.
 
I just returned my recently bought regular kindle..

I am waiting for a sharp text coloured tablet for magazine reading..

The new ipad 3 hopefully is sharp enough to read black and white text.. There is a kindle app in there too..
 
denizg7 said:
I just returned my recently bought regular kindle..

I am waiting for a sharp text coloured tablet for magazine reading..

The new ipad 3 hopefully is sharp enough to read black and white text.. There is a kindle app in there too..
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The large Nook looks great with the LL Bean catalog. I am thinking of getting Shutterbug on it.
 
Just got a new Nexus 7 32gb

Just got a new Nexus 7 32gb

I just got the new Nexus 7 tablet and the screen is amazing! Has a higher resolution than the Ipad mini. I also have an old Samsung 7" tablet when it first came out and have been using ereaders in the last couple of years since my eyes are so bad. The Kindle 3 was my first and went to tablets because I can read PDF files easily...
 
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