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On February 14 2011 00:20 frozenclaw wrote: Why do you guys buy books? Can't you just convert to epub through different programs (IE: Calibre)??
Yes we can. I do, great program.
I own a Sony PRS 350. Largest downside is that I can't turn off the touch screen. I don't use it for next page, so the only time I want to use it is when I change zoom (at start of book) or when I want to switch book.
I do like the size though, fits in my pocket. The size I wanted.
Consider size when you buy. Do you carry it in a bag or a normal pocket? Some readers are huge and you will need a bag to carry it around. Upside is larger screen size.
Oh and you can ignore wifi, you have to charge the reader sometime anyhow. If you are going to use USB to charge it, then you might as well handle your book collection at the same time. Considering you can have over a thousand books on a modern reader there is no reason to have to update daily.
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Actually there is, fetching news from 3 or 4 different newspapers in the morning full automatically without having to connect the kindle is a huge plus. I have different newspapers always up to date everyday without doing a single thing. I can also add books on my kindle everywhere (when I am at university, work, on the move via mobile phone) without having to carry a cable. Given that the kindle does not need recharge for a very long time not having to use a cable is just awesome.
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On February 14 2011 00:46 Rflcrx wrote:Show nested quote +On February 13 2011 23:56 zyax wrote: I own a Kindle 3 and it fully supports .pdf since version 2. no, it doesn't *sigh*
It actually does support the file type and I can read my PDFs. IT DOES NOT work like an .azw file though and it takes a little getting used to but I can read pdfs just fine.
Some people rotate the screen and read on the kindle sideways to get a more continuous page view.
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I don't mind the size, since it'll be in my bag most of the time. And I use my pc every class I go to, so I don't really mind handling it that way. I guess I'll get myself a kindle then, since it seems most of the people here are really happy with it. Only thing I wanted to know last: can I convert my pdf's to another format for the kindle, and if so, which one would be best? the program you use would be handy as well. thanks a ton for the info, you got me convinced to get one :D
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Well thats not the definition of fully support is it? There is a lot of stuff the kindle cant do with a pdf, like break lines/resize text/load as fast as pcr.
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On February 14 2011 01:11 horste wrote: I don't mind the size, since it'll be in my bag most of the time. And I use my pc every class I go to, so I don't really mind handling it that way. I guess I'll get myself a kindle then, since it seems most of the people here are really happy with it. Only thing I wanted to know last: can I convert my pdf's to another format for the kindle, and if so, which one would be best? the program you use would be handy as well. thanks a ton for the info, you got me convinced to get one :D
Calibre is the most used program for converting and handling book collections if you ignore the ones that belong to the reader itself. It works very well.
On February 14 2011 01:05 Rflcrx wrote: Actually there is, fetching news from 3 or 4 different newspapers in the morning full automatically without having to connect the kindle is a huge plus. I have different newspapers always up to date everyday without doing a single thing. I can also add books on my kindle everywhere (when I am at university, work, on the move via mobile phone) without having to carry a cable. Given that the kindle does not need recharge for a very long time not having to use a cable is just awesome.
I do not read the newspaper (at all), so that is kind of void for me. I know average charge time is above 1 week depending on amount of usage, but I have no reason to update my collection even that often.
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my kindles keep goddamn breaking cuz im clumsy as fuck EDIT: oh and I'd like to call attention to amazon's great hardlyanyquestionsasked warranty policy, it pretty much consisted of this ME: "hey can i use my warranty on my kindle?" amazon: "yeah whats the problem" m: "screen's broken" a: "did you break it" m:"...no..." a: "ok we'll ship you a new one just send the broken one back with the box the new one comes in" m: "wtf you guys are awesome"
great shit though i love reading e-ink screens
i hear nook has a cool touch screen lcd thing at the bottom though and barnes and noble ahs more books than amazon
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On February 14 2011 01:16 SpiritoftheTunA wrote: i hear nook has a cool touch screen lcd thing at the bottom though and barnes and noble ahs more books than amazon
Sony has full touch screen on their readers. Nice if you want to take notes or draw something. Also good for on the fly switching between books, zooms and looking things up by highlighting them or noting a page in a book. Also decreases the size of the reader since you don't have many/any buttons outside of the screen area.
Over all touch screen is overrated while e-ink isn't.
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On February 14 2011 01:16 SpiritoftheTunA wrote: my kindles keep goddamn breaking cuz im clumsy as fuck EDIT: oh and I'd like to call attention to amazon's great hardlyanyquestionsasked warranty policy, it pretty much consisted of this ME: "hey can i use my warranty on my kindle?" amazon: "yeah whats the problem" m: "screen's broken" a: "did you break it" m:"...no..." a: "ok we'll ship you a new one just send the broken one back with the box the new one comes in" m: "wtf you guys are awesome"
great shit though i love reading e-ink screens
i hear nook has a cool touch screen lcd thing at the bottom though and barnes and noble ahs more books than amazon
I have been on one end of that conversation many a time. )
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one last question before I would order one then. Is there any benefit of getting a 3g kindle over one with just wifi? I guess not, but wanted to be sure :p It's not something I'd use to browse the internet or anything, just for reading, so wifi should suffice I suppose?
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On February 14 2011 02:52 horste wrote: one last question before I would order one then. Is there any benefit of getting a 3g kindle over one with just wifi? I guess not, but wanted to be sure :p It's not something I'd use to browse the internet or anything, just for reading, so wifi should suffice I suppose?
Wifi will be enough yes
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I have a nook, wifi version, my mom has the Kindle 3G. The nook color and ipad is awful please don't get it, tabs, computers and phones are not meant for reading. That is simply an extra feature that they threw on, get one of these for the other features and accept the e-reader capability as a bonus feature.
A few pointers.. the wireless internet is absolutely useless for me. Unless you think you will be on the road all the time and won't already have books ready to read, you should get the wifi version, it's not worth the price to upgrade.
The kindle is a much nicer machine imo, i really dislike the book organizers (bookshelves etc, but the kindle is slightly better for this, and easier to navigate,( I'm not a fan of nook touch screen), but it has 2 major draw backs which kept me from buying one. You can't expand the memory with sd cards(this only matters if you plan on having music or audio books, It would be very difficult to over flow the memory), and you can't get books from most libraries. Libraries now have e-libraries where you can check out books for a short time, and then they go away. Almost none of them have kindle support, there are very few that do.
Get the e-reader if you plan on reading, the other features are there for show on the store shelf, they don't actually do much for anyone that I know that has one. You should try to use one of the e-readers you want before you buy one.
I personally use my nook a ton, I've read quite a lot on it since I got it for myself for Christmas, I don't think you can go wrong with either device.
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On February 14 2011 01:19 Yurie wrote:Show nested quote +On February 14 2011 01:16 SpiritoftheTunA wrote: i hear nook has a cool touch screen lcd thing at the bottom though and barnes and noble ahs more books than amazon Sony has full touch screen on their readers. Nice if you want to take notes or draw something. Also good for on the fly switching between books, zooms and looking things up by highlighting them or noting a page in a book. Also decreases the size of the reader since you don't have many/any buttons outside of the screen area. Over all touch screen is overrated while e-ink isn't. I disagree. I have a Sony and I don't do annotations or anything, but the touch screen is amazing in conjunction with looking up definitions.
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On February 14 2011 03:25 Chaoz wrote:Show nested quote +On February 14 2011 01:19 Yurie wrote:On February 14 2011 01:16 SpiritoftheTunA wrote: i hear nook has a cool touch screen lcd thing at the bottom though and barnes and noble ahs more books than amazon Sony has full touch screen on their readers. Nice if you want to take notes or draw something. Also good for on the fly switching between books, zooms and looking things up by highlighting them or noting a page in a book. Also decreases the size of the reader since you don't have many/any buttons outside of the screen area. Over all touch screen is overrated while e-ink isn't. I disagree. I have a Sony and I don't do annotations or anything, but the touch screen is amazing in conjunction with looking up definitions.
I havn't looked up a single definition in ~50 books read on my Sony. I guess that says more about my book taste than anything else. ^^
Before deciding which one to buy, either go to a store and check them out (there is none near here) or compare them some other way such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_readers .
Then decide which ones that fits you best and then compare them closer such as looks, if still even, get the cheaper one.
I would suggest getting one with epub support, but that is just a feature I want. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_formats#Comparison_tables
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I imported a Kindle recently and I like it a lot. It's more comfortable to read on than a book in my opinion.
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thanks a lot for those links yurie, they're really helpfull! and ofcourse all the other people too I appreciate it
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i use kindle for the ipod touch. for pdf files i use an app called PDFReader and it works great.
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I had gotten the Kindle when it first came out and went through 2 of them within the first year due to screen breaking in my magical bag of holding. Switched over the the iPad and my only complaint is that it also has VLC/TED on it so I often find myself not reading. The portability can be a bit of a pain there is no way you can fit it in a pocket.
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I have a nook. The reason I got the nook is that it supports the epub format which the kindle does not. epub is the closest thing to a common standard for ebooks and it is also the standard that libraries use (those who offer ebooks). The kindle supports amazons own proprietary format that only amazon uses to publish books. This is of course great for them as they control what is being published and in some sense what is being said in public. Being somewhat attached to my freedom of speech this is just not acceptable for me.
So I went for the nook which on paper seems like a great product. Unfortunately I don't think it is in real life. This is just my personal opinion but one of the problems is that the battery life is just not good enough. I don't want to have to constantly charge my "book" (yes I have turned off wifi). In my experience it hardly has enought power to read a full book. The other thing is that the little color touch display (which drains all the power) is just not very good. It is often very unresponsive and inaccurate and I still have not gotten accustomed to the interface. To be fair I have not used the latest software update as I have practically stopped using it. The last books I have bought I bought in the old fashioned format.
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It has been almost two years since I bought my reader now and the battery life is going down a bit (only about three days now). So looking into the current models I see that the Sony PRS 350 is still the only 5 inch eInk Pearl device (according to wikipedia)?
Is there a new screen technology after Pearl that is better which also has a 5 inch model? (The largest size I consider portable.)
If there isn't one I guess I'll have to replace the battery/buy a new one of the same model (none for sale in my country).
Edit, correction on battery life. The battery life is still decent, not low as I said. Never did let it run to 0, just trusted the warning and it seems normal now. Parts inside it are moving a tad though, so I expect it'll break internally in the next half year.
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