Amazon Kindle (ebook thingy)

fair dinkum

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.flagrantfoul.com/images/amazon_kindle_logo.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.flagrantfoul.com/stories.html&usg=__Hs2fk3u2_jRJ2CNFD-N8YW12fNA=&h=39&w=160&sz=2&hl=en&start=6&um=1&tbnid=9oHZEB0yaClbiM:&tbnh=24&tbnw=98&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dkindle%2Blogo%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

is dinkum like jenkum but smellier

I bought a Sony Reader PR505 a few months ago for $250, mainly because it doesn't have Kindle's DRM issues and I really don't need to pay for the internet on 3 separate devices. After a long dry spell in being able to finish a book, I've read two in the past month or so. I figure as long as there are text/pdf files, I'll be able to use it.

Sony's software and support for the book are laughable. There's an open source replacement, Calibre, that works. I wish it was easier to rip RSS feeds into an ebook format, because it would be a more legit option than paying $14/month for a Kindle NYT subscription.

If you're looking for good newer books to read for free (with suggested donation), check out:
http://www.truly-free.org/

Just so you know - internet is free on Kindle (no monthly fee), and you can read all sorts-of DRM formats (other than PDF) on it too. The Sony device is nice too, though.

all sorts of NON-DRM formats (Freudian typo?)...

i would hope that monochromatic internet browsing would be free

And it is, troll.

; )

wow what can't the kindle do

it reminds me of

http://www.retro-trader.com/images/jan2/DVC00871.JPG

i just downloaded the (FREE!) Kindle iPhone application so I can bring longer books with me on the go...

So I thought I'd go to the Kindle site and get a book, and everything I type comes back with no results. There's no Faulkner, no Pynchon, no Nabokov. Is this shit just for reading Twilight and Harry Potter and shit?

A big textbook version is meant to come out tomorrow. If it can do annotations I will be tempted.

@WGW: No Harry Potter on Kindle ;) Right now, it seems like AMZN is focusing on new releases. Public-domain stuff is also available, but stuff in-between those two extremes is harder-to-find. Getting e-publishing rights is a monumental task.

@Ed - the current products already do annotations.

i got Animal Farm for 99 cents, so i'll see how that treats me

New Orleans Sketches is the only Faulkner available from Amazon at this point. That truly-free site linked above had a couple, but I can't get to the site right now to verify. I do hope some Pynchon gets released, because I don't want to haul Against the Day around.

IF you have an actual Kindle, you can download the Feedbooks meta-book. This thing has links to a ton of Kindle-formatted public-domain books, and even takes the meta a step further with a link to the latest version of itself. All of the books download for free.

With the iPhone app, you can only read books from the official Kindle store.

Amazon announces Kindle DX

This enormous document reader will kill us all, said newspaper sources.

native PDF reader is nice and tempting....but I'm still waiting to see what Apple can offer. For almost $500 I'd like more than just a way to read books and papers.

If it can integrate with Papers or Sente, annotate and bring those back into the above, VPN into the campus library, search academic databases download papers over the air and work with knovel. I might be interested.

imna design one of these kindle book bitches - its basically just stripped down html right - im designing in indesign for print and then converting to pdf for one ebook format but then id like to convert to the native kindle format as well - anybody got any tips for me

the coming huge iphone tablet thingy is obv gonna be amzing - itll be way more expensive than the kindle tho - more like a iphone/laptop/kindle hybrid - the kindle will still hav its niche likely

yeah, it's not really the price of this thing that's my problem, it's the price for what it can do, which is just display books. Yeah, you could bitch about the original iPod also "just" being a music player, but it was easy to get digital music for no cash, either from ripping your cds or.... But with the Kindle I guess you could scan books into PDFs, but it's a lot more work to get right than ripping a cd.

There is a decent piece of free software for Windows called mobipocket creator, and on the Mac, there is something called Calibre, I think.

thx dude calibre looks promising - ill check out mobipocket in parallels if that doesnt work out

lol

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bc5-zw3yTPk/Sfi9PAQVgvI/AAAAAAAAAGE/FjuUKw1-8Fw/s400/kc-chart1.jpg

u got to think the the ebook piracy damn is abt to break - people just hav to crack whatever drm is on there - right now theres not really enough people reading ebooks to hav a critical mass but once all those college kids get readers for text books its over

tho obv there are so many fucking out there especially when u consider out of print titles that prob a huge % will never make it to file sharing - i could see piracy driving down prices to something more like $5 - which seems reasonable when u consider how much publishers are saving on printing/distro/wholesaling - this should be pretty interesting def - every book ever published at a mouse click - plus tons of people self publishing

I think the graph is more interesting than lol. Amazon's selling a lot to older people who struggle with reading regualar books because of the small type size.

i can lol if i want to
i can leave e-books behind

Are they ever going to sell this fucker in the UK?

its interesting the oldies are early adopters here - says something def for the simplicity of the device - also young people just read bloggz

this is pretty nuts http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-kindle-sales-now-a-shocking-35-of-book-sales-when-kindle-version-available-2009-5

I think they also have the cash and are more willing to pay for the luxury of adjustable font sizes and not having to carry a pile of print around. The kindle's lack of fashionability, butt-ugly grey facade and inability to mod probably drives away the younguns and mothtoflames the seniors

yeah that is nuts!

irl i have only seen kindles in the hands of old(er) people on planes

i hav never seen a kindl :(

an older woman on my bus has one, she seems weird. she wears old school walkman headphones and listens to a discman and for awhile i swear she listened to static for white noise purposes. now i'm not so sure. i heard music, real music the other day. she's the kind of person who on an empty bus will place her bag next to her so no one sits next to her. not sure what this says about the kindle. i sometimes sit next to her. she was reading some book about thomas jefferson last week. the print was clear and easy to read, i'll say that much. kindles make it much easier to see what yr fellow bus rider is reading.

also dude in one of my classes had one. youngish guy but he's super geeky and dorky and stuff.

i have never seen anyone using one on the bus but someone would probably punch you in the face and steal it and run off the bus like with iphones

actually lol who am i kidding no one would steal one of these things

theyd take it and then be like wait wtf is this thing a really old ipod

why does this ipod have a keyboard

this isn't an etch-a-sketch?

lol

maybe they would just punch you in the face and *not* steal it

*punch* what, regular books aren't good enough for you, fucker?

They might punch you in the face and then hand you a Sony eReader

I'm interested in how the textbook thing plays out. Textbooks are damned expensive due to the resale issue and this removes that but whether you have to buy individual titles for this thing or universities will get a site license as they do for journals and things like knovel. I suspect the latter so I wonder if schools will be doling out kindles and they were doing so with ipods a while back. It will be interesting to see apple and gookle duke it out for this space if the ipod tablet surfaces.

apple tablet w/full keyboard would be pretty much the best thing for college - read yr books - bring it to class as yr laptop - txt on there - whatever