Amazon Kindle (ebook thingy)

kobo minis down to £30 in store on saturday, i noticed, with other discounted prices for other models which i can't remember (website says touch is £40, others look usual price). ditto nook simples (although no stock in local foyles. and the kobos are better imo)

Has anyone been loaning books to other people? Seems like you can only do it once per book.

But looks like you can do it for lots of books now.

right, was going to a while back, but it wasn't available for the book i wanted to do it with, so i just herk HERM-ed it off the web and donated it to them that way. seemed... difficult iirc?

Please to explain herk HERM-ed. I've been trying to decode it for a while.

Ha, me too but didn't want to ask.

i think those are just throat-clearing sounds

Thought it might have something to do with Kool Herc but couldn't make it work.

sorry, Christ - internal code not translating: yes, herk HERM = throat-clearing. just entering object permanence stage of development brb.

ha, right--thanks. I was googling herk and HERM and getting all sorts of things but nothing I could make sense of. thought it must have been some sort of cunning pirate site or torrent protocol.

People are making fun of the return of the Kindle DX, but I'm wondering if it might make a great pdf reader? I don't like reading pdfs on my laptop, and I have a Kindle but it's too small and the note-taking function is hopeless. Wondering if the new one might have made a better job of the note-taking. Might look into a second hand one if so.

I had an old DX and it was great for PDFs

I have nook HD and it is really great for PDF, esp things like illustrated textbooks etc

Would love to go for the Nook, Kindle Fire, iPad Mini etc. because of their other features, but I'm really after an e-ink screen for the pdfs.

will encourage you to wait for the iPad mini to get bumped up to a retina display, quite possibly in the next couple months, for PDF-reading nirvana.

Ah, yeah. I haven't really got any experience of reading a retina display. Will go hang out at an Apple store when the mini comes out...

it's like normal seeing, but without your eyes being sliced up with razor blades

rofl

i am currently considering my options vis a vis course notes and material

i have a laptop, heavy and noisy, that's right out.

i have pens and paper, not cool but a decent backup.

i have a kindle which is good to read on but this thread leaves me to believe would not be a very good pdf reader/study tool

and i have a generic android tablet with pdf reader and notes, which is a pig to type on.

good people of this thread, would you agree that a mix of tablet backed up by pens and paper for note taking is the way to go here?

if this is in another thread, pls redirect.

my kindle is a lol kindle 3 btw

kindles are incredible for reading things in a linear fashion, point a to b, such as a novel.

for stuff like travel guides, manuals, etc, they're almost worthless. it's really hard to jump around from point to point or "flip through" a book.

yeah that's exactly why i've discounted it- specialised to perfection but not what i need for college

Tablet + pen and paper would make sense (I like pen and paper best for notes really), but could you get a light bluetooth (or similar) keyboard that can pair with the generic tablet, make it a better typing device?

there's a thought!

research suggests i can get a case/stand with a built-in keyboard for about 15 quid is this too good to be true y/n

It sort of depends why you're taking notes. I use pen and paper, but my purpose in taking notes is that it helps me focus my attention on the lecture -- I never LOOK at the notes afterwards, because the act of taking them causes me to remember what was said. If that's you, pen and paper is great.

If on the other hand you actually need to reference or search the notes, you should be typing on whatever device you're comfortable typing quickly on. For me, that's a laptop and only a laptop, but I know people who do it with a tablet + keyboard/case. Actually, full-sized bluetooth keyboard + tablet suggested by woof sounds like a great idea, though I've never tried that.

I also know people who write on the tablet screen with a stylus. This is good if there are lots of diagrams or other non-text material you want to include. But you'll have to try it yourself -- for me, any sustained "handwriting" with a stylus on a touchscreen is immensely uncomfortable.

Good point, i think writing notes actually takes my attention away from the topic tb, but i like to take notes around the material provided by the lecturer.

i couldn't take notes without having an actual keyboard of some kind - the classic kindle one is crap and fuck a touchscreen. i'd say get a blackberry, or a little usb keyboard for an android tablet or ipad.

could you get a light bluetooth (or similar) keyboard that can pair with the generic tablet, make it a better typing device?

― woof, Wednesday, 2 October 2013 00:44 (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i do that with my ipad at work, and it works incredibly well.

darragh, in all honesty you might be better off writing on paper, scanning your notes into something like evernote, and reviewing them on your android tablet. if a solution feels like it might be too clunky to work, it probably is.

there's three difft classes this semester, the maths one is gonna be p obviously simpler to have pen and pad to work out the probs with, the programming element i might or might not bring the laptop in for anyway (cos of 1/2 practical element)

it's only the last one that really revolves around 'notes' so idk

i am typing on tablet atm and it is ...... not bad at all

anyroad, all notes are supplied via pdf, and for all the actual note-taking i'll be doing i think the combined tablet-for-reading and good old A4 pad for my own muddled thoughts will prob be fine.

but it was an interesting discussion and i very much enjoyed it

ok, question. how do kids get along with ereaders?

(i have a spare nook simple touch and was going to fill it full of public domain kids' books and pass it on but i am worried that said kids are just gonna want, say, the new Horrible Histories instead.

said kids are 7 and 8 with reading ages well beyond this)

I think kids who read well and often tend to want ALL THE BOOKS so you can't go wrong with an ereader full of them.

Just out of curiosity, what if any mileage are people getting out of the Matchbook program? I've been buying stuff from them for over a decade, easily hundreds of books, and so far all it's offered me are eleven titles, including a Mediterranean Diet cookbook I bought for my mom.

3 titles, all since 2011, which is just about when I mostly stopped buying physical books from Amazon.

The number of titles in the program is tiny, like a few tens of thousands, many of which are Kindle Direct Publishing titles anyway. They seem to have launched it with the bare minimum of titles on board to make it not look like a total joke.

Waterstones are currently selling the Amazon Kindle (ebook thingy) for £49.

http://www.whsmith.co.uk/dept/kobo-ereaders-kobo-mini/list?page=1&results=60

just saying... 8)

http://www.johnlewis.com/nook-simple-touch-glowlight-ereader/p231759497

nook simple touch with glowlight £49

nearly went for a nook a couple of months ago but i read that it doesn't do well with PDFs or some other file formats?

i didn't like the nook simple touch i got (same as glowlight minus the glowlight bit) when they were going for £29 some months ago, seemed big and clunky compared to the kobo mini (mini is tiny though, postcard size)

and both those would struggle with pdfs, i guess, just because of the 600x800 resolution and the e-ink. (i have some cbrs and the screen's just too small. you can zoom in and move around but the refresh rate makes it painful).

what's the resolution on the kindle? (oh, 800x600. screen an inch bigger than mini though)

The Paperwhite has higher resolution...

and are £60 more than the one onimo mentioned... (at waterstones, £10 cheaper at amazon)

seem to have lost my kindle at the same time i lost my scarf, phone charger and debit card. can't quite decide whether to do sthng about this.

have an ebook that I was gifted --- started reading it on my 2nd gen ipad, but was getting headaches from the reflection etc. Mr Veg loaded it onto his Kindle for me to loan

...pretty sure this is the end of me being a holdout. I kinda love it! So easy to cart around and battery life is ridic and my eyes don't freak out trying to adjust to it, doesn't feel at all like reading off a screen

am v impressed, hello vg welcome to 2005 lol

i was hating the idea of these things for years and now I want one. I give up.

resistance is futile etc

Welcome welcome

i'm getting one for christmas, i also never wanted one but now i really do for all the vg reasons.

I think i shall invent a case for them that rustles and smells of old pages would that sooth yis do yis think

yes please!