Amazon Kindle (ebook thingy)

you can read .txt on the ipod nano but just to be dicks apple limits the length of it - granted reading an ebook on it would be weird but at least if you were bored somewhere you could do it. I mean, I can store a 1gb movie file on there so I knwo technically it could be done!

If you're that determined to read books on a 3 cm screen surely you have the determination to slap a Linux on the thing.

Recently there's been talk of Amazon adding epub support.

i have a ton of articles saved on my instapaper account, about 300 or so. i don't like the way instapaper turns them into a sort of magazine with an article limit of 20. it's annoying to have to go through the contents page each time to find the one i want. i'd rather just have each article as an individual 'ebook' or mobi file on my kindle, so i can organise by category (music articles, guardian articles, etc).

my current solution is to keep using instapaper to save any articles i want to read, but then load the original page and use rekindleit http://www.rekindle.it/ to send the article direct to my kindle. i'll do this for each article, then take all 300 articles off my kindle, stick them in calibre, reconvert them so get rid of all the 0z0w084djk93932 garbled junk on the filename, tag the author as 111111, stick them back on my kindle and use the collection function to stick them in the relevant folders on my kindle (the 111 author thing means i can sort them and stick them all in quicker than adding each at a time).

obviously, this is a pretty time-consuming and inefficient process to get where i want. does anyone have a better solution? are there any better tools for this than rekindleit? annoyingly, the rekindleit site is down right now so i can't even do it my original way!

I use klip.me, it makes each article its own book, don't know how well it'll work for scholarly stuff.

thanks nick, this could be what i'm looking for, will check out now and report back

do books in the kindle store go on sale? i'm wondering why some authors have one book cheaper than their others. (for example, light in august is $4 and all other faulkner is $7 or more)

Gateway

ngh, klip.me is kinda perfect - looks neat, labels the articles well. BUT after sending about 5 articles it just stops working. hit the java button bookmark and nothing. so i shifted it to chrome (from firefox). same again. lets me send about 4 or 5 articles then just completely stops working. can't fidn anything online about this, why would it do this, and HOW, how does it know? why not just give a message saying 'you've met your allocation for this hour' (obv doesn't work like this as it let me do it using the same log-in on a different browser. this is driving me potty, anyone know what's going on?

irritated that they make you turn them "off" for take-off and landing, though. i get that they're electronic devices, but given that they only use electricity to turn the page, and very little at that, it seems insane that they could disrupt the plane's equipment.

They're WiFi/3G devices, which means they broadcast radio signals if they're on. Ergo, during take-off/landing, they have to be turned off.

Totally considering buying one of the new small Nooks once they're released and some hands-on reviews come in. Reading hardback books using one hand while eating is causing me major hand pain these days. They're too heavy!

this is the java code, is there anything in this that explains this bollocks 5 article limit:

javascript:var l = window.location;function $klipme_install(){var d = document;try {if (!d.body) throw (0);var s = d.createElement('script');s.setAttribute('id', 'klipme_loader');s.setAttribute('type', 'text/javascript');s.setAttribute('charset', 'utf-8');s.setAttribute('src', 'http://www.klip.me/sendtokindle/bookmarklet?key=2b653568b469207f&v=2.0.3.172&t=' + (new Date().getTime()));d.body.appendChild(s);} catch (e) {alert('Please wait until the page has loaded.');d.getElementById('klipme_loader').destroy ();}}if (l.host.indexOf('klip.me')>=0 || (l.protocol!='http:' && l.protocol!='https:')) l.href='http://www.klip.me/sendtokindle/options?key=2b653568b469207f&v=2.0.3.172&url=' + encodeURIComponent(l.href);else if (document.getElementById('klipme_loader')===null) $klipme_install();else if (typeof window['$klipme_execute'] !== 'undefined') window['$klipme_execute'] ();

and as posting that chunk of code is bound to fuck up somehow, the bookmarklet is at the bottom of this page

oops, sorry for breakin the page

i broke my screen and amazon is sending me a brand-new kindle that'll be here on monday which i thought was pretty cool of them.

it is good how they're quick to replace things like that, ultra quick too. word to the wise: get one of those faux-leather covers (only a few quid from amazon marketplace), makes it less likely for you to lean on it, get it scratched etc.

oh btw, i installed the chrome klip.me extension and it seems to be working on them all now. god knows why the bookmarklets froze up

They're WiFi/3G devices, which means they broadcast radio signals if they're on.
turning the radios off from the menu is a huge battery saver.

word to the wise: get one of those faux-leather covers (only a few quid from amazon marketplace), makes it less likely for you to lean on it, get it scratched etc.

yeah my mom told me to get one of these when i first got the kindle and that's why i'm not telling her about the incident.

so i got one of these. i like it!

yeah, I got a Nook Simple Touch this weekend. it's cool!

Just noticed that Experimental Web brower feature on the Kindle is now functional. Can read ILX on Kindle now.

will that cost me if i have the 3g model, do you know?

I'm sure everyone itt knows this by now, but this is the best piece of kit i've ever had, it's perfect.

No, won't cost you. Apparently ome cheapos use it is their only webbrowser.

What do you mean now functional, President Keyes? It shows up on a different page from the Experimental one?

Cool bonus feature on the iPhone app is the free Duden dictionary for German texts.

When I first got my Kindle there was an experimental page listing 3 features, but text-to-speech was the only one that worked. I guess at some point in the last year or so the web thing got activated.

I lost my place in my book this morning on the train and could not find it. What are the bookmarks even for? I saw it added page #'s to my clippings document, but couldn't get to it from there.

so i'm more and more tempted to get one of these things. A couple of questions to you guys:

-I already have an iPad but don't use it that much for reading cuz of eye fatigue, but I'm a bit worried that I would neglect the Kindle as a result. Any of you guys use both?
-I was initially set on getting the large version (DX?) but the price difference and the fact that it'd be taking even more luggage space along with my iPad made me rethink. 6" seems awfully small though but maybe for e-reading screen size is not that much of an issue? Any insight?

I have an HP Touchpad (flop ipad clone) and a Kindle. Kindle is definitely easier on the eyes for reading.

The regular Kindle screen size is a little on the small size but it really doesn't matter. One problem is that it doesn't always right-align the text because of the small line size. I've started using it in sideways mode to avoid this. Poetry is also an issue, with it not being clear which lines are being wrapped.

I have a Kindle. Gave it to my friend because she wanted to try it out. I read a few books on it, but didn't really get into it. We also have an ipad. My husband loves reading from it. (He has a visual handicap, so Kindle app great cause he can switch to W/B and enlarge the font....)

Honestly I'd stay with the ipad. I didn't much like the Kindle thing myself. I will start reading on the ipad, once I finished the gazillion books I bought. lol

yeah i do really enjoy reading from my kindle but i have so many books i still need to read and seem to keep acquiring more (often because the books i want are not available for kindle)

I think the Kindle is less strain on the eyes than an iPad - it's an e-ink screen instead of backlit LCD. The small screen isn't really a factor, since you can make the font as big as you want. You'll just have to turn the page more often.

I had a first generation Kindle which had the same screen size but each page would have only half the text as a page on the latest small one has. That was too little, but the current one is fine. And yeah, the e-ink is pretty easy on the eyes.

also search was hella slow. It was like "I know I saw that somewhere on this book, maybe on the previous page, but where?"

-I already have an iPad but don't use it that much for reading cuz of eye fatigue, but I'm a bit worried that I would neglect the Kindle as a result. Any of you guys use both?

Yeah. The ipad is all right for short bursts of reading (an hour or so), but the backlight can be fatiguing, even on a low level, and it's too heavy to hold up comfortably for long periods. I can read my kindle for several hours without any discomfort at all – it's actually more comfortable to hold than a perfect-bound book because you're not having to hold it open at the spine.

-I was initially set on getting the large version (DX?) but the price difference and the fact that it'd be taking even more luggage space along with my iPad made me rethink. 6" seems awfully small though but maybe for e-reading screen size is not that much of an issue? Any insight?

It feels awfully like reading a paperback, so definitely not too small. You would only really look at the DX if you wanted to read a lazy pdf of a broadsheet newspaper.

Oh and no backlight = ~days~ of reading on one battery charge. Oh and Amazon's widely believed to be releasing a new range very soon.

Anybody keep tabs on good Kindle Singles? We should do that.

i'd be interested in that

should be an interesting fall for amazon hardware too: http://www.marco.org/2011/08/27/amazon-tablet-guess

I read good Kindle single by that unlikely recipient of the ILB silent treatment James Salter called "Charisma" I think, HOOS

Just bought "American Juggalo," "The Heart of Haiku" and "Scalper." Will report back.

And will check out Charisma too!

funny reading all the hate and "it'll never fly" stuff at the top. i bought one of these 2 years ago and haven't looked back. there were extenuating circumstances for my being an early adopter - i live overseas, where it's hard to find/buy a wide selection of physical books, and i go through a lot of books so the kindles been a lifesaver for me.

anyway yes the e-paper thing is easy on the eyes, when you sit in front of a computer screen all day it makes a pretty big difference too. also when i go on vacation i don't have to fill up half my suitcase with books, which is handy.

can i put books that i already own, onto my kindle library, for free?

― F-Unit (Ste), Wednesday, November 17, 2010 9:08 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

rapidshare is your friend - most books that i want to reread i can find for free if i look around a bit. i still wind up buying some of my more obscure authors through amazon, but there's loads out there for free as well. i'm pretty sure amazon has the most extensive collection of books available of all the sellers too...

http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/02/amazon-kindle-tablet/

no e-ink means i won't be tempted to upgrade

the idea of a dual e-ink/backlit screen kinda blows my mind

this thing isn't gonna have any e-ink technology in it

no, but the article offhand mentions a dual 'in the works'

ugh, the e-ink it was makes the kindle a better reader. an android touch-screen device sounds like the nook, which while it has some good things about it, just have a good feel like the iPad - amazon should try to get a color e-ink display up, or a cheaper, thinner kindle

it'll be interesting to see how many of these things they sell before the year's out -- like, i wouldn't want one of these instead of an ipad, and if i could only have one tablet i'd choose an ipad, but i would consider eventually picking one of these things up just to try it out

Don't get me wrong, an iPad is much better all-around as a device. But if they want it to be a good reader, and not just a substandard web-browser/general internet device, they've got to go far to go to compete w/iPad atm. If I was a huge reader, I'd pick a Kindle over the iPad - it's easier to read lots of text on an e-ink screen over time compared to a standard backlit one

getting into bed w/android feels like a misstep for amazon to me

I really liked the rumour of a kindle that focused on all the reading elements -- basically eink tablet with Reeder, Instapaper, Kindle books and some news apps. That would be killer for me. An android thingy (with only Amazon apps) seems a bit meh.

yes to all that.