Results 1 to 8 of 8

Thread: Kindle

  1. #1
    Diamond Member AndyD's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Cape Town
    Posts
    4,923
    Thanks
    576
    Thanked 934 Times in 755 Posts

    Kindle

    I ordered a couple of Kindle book readers from Amazon as Christmas presents for me and wifey. We're both hooked.

    The new Kindle is very slim and about the size of an average paperback novel. I have to say the screen technology is absolutely brilliant. It's an electronic ink type screen and it's streets ahead of LCD screens as a book reader. You can read it in any light including direct sunlight and it's unaffected by shadows. It has a one Gig built-in memory which equates to around 800 books you can carry around in it. The battery life is unbelievable, I charged them in mid December and even wifey's which is used several hours a day is still over half charged.

    The Kindle can handle PDF books but the native format is .mobi. I was a little disappointed when I first got it and loaded it with my pdf library, with pdf's you don't get all the display options such as text size and number of words per line or line spacing settings either. After a little digging I grabbed a free copy of Calibre which batch converted my whole pdf library of 3000+ books in a few hours into .mobi files. After I reloaded it with the mobi versions I never looked back. I'm reading more now than I've read since my uni days.

    It can do a couple of other things such as play mp3 music through it's in-built speakers and also has a fairly convincing text to speech reader but none of the extras fall under the heading of bloatware and they don't detract from it's primary function.

    I wondered if anyone else owned one or has used one and whether you enjoyed it as much as I do.
    _______________________________________________

    _______________________________________________

  2. Thanks given for this post:

    Mark Atkinson (01-Feb-11)

  3. #2
    Diamond Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Cape Town
    Posts
    6,329
    Thanks
    426
    Thanked 978 Times in 795 Posts
    Why don't you just use a netbook or a laptop? I'll far rather have a 17" HD screen than a tiny mono screen that I have to squint at.

  4. #3
    Diamond Member AndyD's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Cape Town
    Posts
    4,923
    Thanks
    576
    Thanked 934 Times in 755 Posts
    Netbooks and laptops are very bulky compared to the kindle. I used to read books on my laptop which is a 16" Lcd (not 1080p though, only 768 vertical lines) but the kindle screen is far better and less straining on the eyes. The display options mean you can set yur text size, character spacing and line spacing along with the contrast options means you don't have to squint. My eyesight is fairly poor when it comes to reading and other close-up stuff and the kindle is the best device by far for me.

    One thing where the laptop is better is for technical publications and manuals which have colour graphics and photos etc. The kindle don't do colour. Ive kept all my work literature on my laptop for that reason. If they bring out a colour one then it might be a different story.

    My advice is try one if you get the chance, I don't think you'll be disappointed Adrian.
    _______________________________________________

    _______________________________________________

  5. #4
    Diamond Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Cape Town
    Posts
    6,329
    Thanks
    426
    Thanked 978 Times in 795 Posts
    How much?

  6. #5
    Gold Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    561
    Thanks
    32
    Thanked 49 Times in 32 Posts
    Hiya - if you are avid readers - adopt-an-author.com takes you down all kinds of avenues and thought patterns with authors, book, genres, influences, music etc and you can obviously order directly off the site..a kindle is on my shopping list :-)
    Regards

    Debbie
    debbie@stafftraining.co.za

    From reception to management training, assertiveness, accountability or interviewing skills, we have a wide range of training workshops available for you!
    www.stafftraining.co.za

    Find us on
    Facebook

  7. #6
    Gold Member Mark Atkinson's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    Melbourne, Australia
    Posts
    796
    Thanks
    212
    Thanked 150 Times in 117 Posts
    Blog Entries
    12
    Quote Originally Posted by adrianh View Post
    Why don't you just use a netbook or a laptop? I'll far rather have a 17" HD screen than a tiny mono screen that I have to squint at.
    I couldn't imagine much worse than trying to read a book on an LCD screen. My eyes would die.

    Thanks for the little review Andy. I've been interested in the Kindle technology but I haven't looked into them for exactly the above reason. I didn't realise they have a different type of screen.

    Maybe I'll hint at the family for my next birthday or something.

  8. #7
    Diamond Member AndyD's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Cape Town
    Posts
    4,923
    Thanks
    576
    Thanked 934 Times in 755 Posts
    Thanks for the info Debbie.

    Quote Originally Posted by adrianh View Post
    How much?
    It comes to around R1200 each with shipping. It is USD exchange rate dependent so it will vary.
    _______________________________________________

    _______________________________________________

  9. #8
    Diamond Member wynn's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    east london
    Posts
    3,338
    Thanks
    548
    Thanked 625 Times in 524 Posts
    Well if the world libraries were on kindle there would be no books to burn would there?
    "Nobody who has succeeded has not failed along the way"
    Arianna Huffington

    Read the first 10% of my books "Didymus" and "The BEAST of BIKO BRIDGE" for free
    You can also read and download 100% free my short stories "A Real Surprise" and "Pieces of Eight" at
    http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/332256

Did you like this article? Share it with your favourite social network.

Did you like this article? Share it with your favourite social network.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •