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Amazon Kindle |OT| of eInk superiority

WorldStar

Banned
Thinking about getting a Kindle. I do A LOT of reading at night in bed when the lady is sleeping.

Should I dish out the extra $$$ for the built-in light, or just buy a standard one and buy a case that has a built-in light? (seen a few Kindle cases that have a light for night reading).

Anyone own one with a built-in light? Recommend it? Any downsides?
 

chiQ

Member
Thinking about getting a Kindle. I do A LOT of reading at night in bed when the lady is sleeping.

Should I dish out the extra $$$ for the built-in light, or just buy a standard one and buy a case that a built-in light? (seen a few Kindle cases that have a light for night reading).

Anyone own one with a built-in light? Recommend it? Any downsides?

That depends on whether you want it in a case or not. I prefer to have a case, because I hawk mine around in my bag, so I got a lit case. If I wasn't going to get a case I'd definitely go for the Paper White with its built in light.
 

Lumiere

Neo Member
Thinking about getting a Kindle. I do A LOT of reading at night in bed when the lady is sleeping.

Should I dish out the extra $$$ for the built-in light, or just buy a standard one and buy a case that has a built-in light? (seen a few Kindle cases that have a light for night reading).

Anyone own one with a built-in light? Recommend it? Any downsides?
If you read a lot in bed, I'd definitely recommend the Paperwhite (built-in light). You can read with very low light settings in the dark and it's very convenient if you don't want to bother your SO. Also, while I do own a leather case, I usually take it off when reading in bed as without the case the Kindle is lighter and easier to hold with one hand - I don't think I'd like to depend on a case for the lighting.

I also like the touch screen - the non-lighted version doesn't have one. Considering that a lighted case is more expensive than standard cases anyway, I think the extra features on the Paperwhite are worth the price difference.
 

yyzjohn

Banned
I can't help but think Amazon will put out a new and improved Paperwhite this fall. They usually release a new line of kindles every year so if they can take all the criticisms from the paperwhite and improve upon it, I'd be interested to see that. I'm still using the button push Kindle 4 and it's fine for me.
 
All this talk about the Paperwhite, and actually testing one out, has me wanting one.

Should I get one now, or wait until a refresh?
 
I'd personally say get one now but thats because the Paperwhite has addressed all my previous concerns and I cant imagine what more could really be improved upon.
 

kharma45

Member
It was probably whatever they use to stick the different layers of the screen together. My guess is you got a freshly manufactured device. I've heard of some screen issues going away within a week.

That would be nice if that was the case.

The mark has totally faded away at this stage and whilst the screen isn't quite as white the lighting is much more even and no stuck pixel in the middle of the screen.
 

Nymerio

Member
All this talk about the Paperwhite, and actually testing one out, has me wanting one.

Should I get one now, or wait until a refresh?

At this point I don't even know what they could improve upon. Sure, they could maybe speed up page turns but, for me at least, that wouldn't be worth the wait. As Maklershed said, every concern from the previous versions has been addressed.

The next Kindle I'll buy will probably be a color version, whenever that comes.
 

PriitV

Member
Well, they could add mechanical buttons for page turns for the Paperwhite, I know I'd upgrade from my Kindle 4 just for that.
 

Nymerio

Member
Nah, I was really reluctant to get a paperwhite because I wanted mechanical buttons, now I don't know why I was thinking that. Took me like 5 minutes to adjust. People need to accept that the buttons are gone and are likely to stay gone.
 
Going from the Kindle 2 to the Paperwhite the lack of mechanical button threw my off big time for a few days but I got used to it and now love not having a button. Its so much faster turning pages.
 

Ledsen

Member
I'm thinking about getting a Paperwhite. Are these things ever on sale? What are some good cases?

Depends on what you mean by case? Do you mean one that holds the PW while reading? I personally have a £8 Dussel neoprene sleeve case that holds the PW beautifully, I've never felt the need to protect it while I'm reading and it's so light and small without a bulky case.
 

kottila

Member
I fucking hate country restrictions. I just want to buy your goddamn book and not even the german stores want to sell it to me! WTF is the point of globalisation if I can't by the books I want. There is no problem buying hardcover books from other countries, so why make so much trouble with the digital ones?

edit: had to resort to buying a paperback instead
 

kottila

Member
A CS rep suggested I try this (and did), so it should not be a bannable violation.

Isn't that what happened to her? http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/oct/22/amazon-wipes-customers-kindle-deletes-account she got her books back at the end, but too much hassle for me.

Ps. They didn't have the book on any of the amazons, but I found it on kobo, barnes and noble, sony store, a german only store etc. Spent over an hour making different accounts only to be refused at the credit card check over and over again. Stupid publishers
 
Isn't that what happened to her? http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/oct/22/amazon-wipes-customers-kindle-deletes-account she got her books back at the end, but too much hassle for me.

Ps. They didn't have the book on any of the amazons, but I found it on kobo, barnes and noble, sony store, a german only store etc. Spent over an hour making different accounts only to be refused at the credit card check over and over again. Stupid publishers
What book is it?

Maybe you can buy a gift card for one of the other stores and get it that way?

However, you should know that books from Sony, BN, etc. are Epub files and can't be read natively on a Kindle. There are ways around that, but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to mention it on GAF, so I won't. Google is your friend.
 

kottila

Member
What book is it?

Maybe you can buy a gift card for one of the other stores and get it that way?

However, you should know that books from Sony, BN, etc. are Epub files and can't be read natively on a Kindle. There are ways around that, but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to mention it on GAF, so I won't. Google is your friend.

Calibre and the plugins are described in the OP so I'd say it's fair game :) i had to resort to buying the paperback even though I've tried to give up on paper books, but going 100% digital can be surpisingly hard work
 
You get used to it in about 10 mins. I don't miss them to be honest.

I was immediately used to no buttons, and I thought it would take some adjusting. The big sell for me was that it didn't limit how I griped the device because so much space is available to turn the page.
 

Ledsen

Member
I was immediately used to no buttons, and I thought it would take some adjusting. The big sell for me was that it didn't limit how I griped the device because so much space is available to turn the page.

Yeah I really like that. No matter where my thumbs are I can always turn the page.
 
Got a question if you guys can help. I have a friend who published his own e-book. I read between my ipad/iphone and my paperwhite. Since this wasn't purchased via amazon, is there no way I can sync it with what's on my kindle?
 

yyzjohn

Banned
Got a question if you guys can help. I have a friend who published his own e-book. I read between my ipad/iphone and my paperwhite. Since this wasn't purchased via amazon, is there no way I can sync it with what's on my kindle?


Haven't done it in a while but I think if you email it to your @kindle.com email addy it becomes a personal document and can sync across devices.
 
Haven't done it in a while but I think if you email it to your @kindle.com email addy it becomes a personal document and can sync across devices.
How do I find out what that email is?

*edit* NM, I got it.

I do have another question for you kindle folks out there. My wife has the kindle app for ipad. Could we send her books the same way? She has a Kindle email address.
 

yyzjohn

Banned
How do I find out what that email is?

*edit* NM, I got it.

I do have another question for you kindle folks out there. My wife has the kindle app for ipad. Could we send her books the same way? She has a Kindle email address.


Yes. You can also sync them through iTunes I believe
 

SickBoy

Member
I'll apologize in advance for not reading the thread closely, but I'm curious about library management.

My father-in-law bought his wife a Paperwhite for her birthday -- it's replacing a well-worn early-model Kindle, and it falls to me to set it up. I'd like to get it all sorted sooner than later, but I also want to be sure that there are no library management tools on her existing reader that would give up the fact that there's another Kindle registered to her.

I know she might be able to see that information on Amazon.com or her email, but I set up the email account her Kindle is linked to and know for a fact she rarely/never accesses it... and I'm pretty certain the same goes for the Amazon website -- almost everything is bought through the Kindle itself.
 

womp

Member
I was actually looking to maybe update my 3rd Gen Kindle I got in 2010 to a paperwhite, but is Amazon planning to drop a newer model than currently available sometime soon? If so I would obviously just wait.
 

kottila

Member
I'll apologize in advance for not reading the thread closely, but I'm curious about library management.

My father-in-law bought his wife a Paperwhite for her birthday -- it's replacing a well-worn early-model Kindle, and it falls to me to set it up. I'd like to get it all sorted sooner than later, but I also want to be sure that there are no library management tools on her existing reader that would give up the fact that there's another Kindle registered to her.

I know she might be able to see that information on Amazon.com or her email, but I set up the email account her Kindle is linked to and know for a fact she rarely/never accesses it... and I'm pretty certain the same goes for the Amazon website -- almost everything is bought through the Kindle itself.

All kindles are linked to an specific amazon account, but there's no problem havong multiple devices on one account. My account is linked with three devices atm. Deregistering it just one click on amazon.com, or you could simply share an account and use her credit card to buy books with.
 
D

Deleted member 12837

Unconfirmed Member
So I woke up this morning to discover that all of the books on my device had disappeared. Under My Items the count was 0. I had nothing under Books either, but oddly (even though My Items was 0), under Docs I found all of my .mobi and .PDF files. None of my .azw3 files are in there.

I plugged the device in and all of the files are still there. I tried restarting and a hard restart (hold power button for 30 seconds) and neither fixed the issue.

I backed up my documents, reset my entire Kindle, and then transferred them back over. Everything seemed normal, but then I switched to Docs view and back to My Items and they disappeared again! I even tried again but switched to the clean, original files (not the ones I backed up from the Kindle, but the ones I have archived on my hard drive)

What's going on?

edit: it seems like transferring a small # of books over works fine (even .azw3). I wonder if there are a few corrupt files or something?
 

Bboy AJ

My dog was murdered by a 3.5mm audio port and I will not rest until the standard is dead
I was actually looking to maybe update my 3rd Gen Kindle I got in 2010 to a paperwhite, but is Amazon planning to drop a newer model than currently available sometime soon? If so I would obviously just wait.

Historically, yes.
 

jayb

Member
Figured much, but I wasn't sure if there was any actual news out there that I may have missed. Anything shown yet that is....

Maybe I will wait another month or so.

The last two years, the new e-ink kindles were announced in Sept. So I'd wait until then - especially since you can still use your 3rd Gen kindle while you wait.
 

yyzjohn

Banned
The last two years, the new e-ink kindles were announced in Sept. So I'd wait until then - especially since you can still use your 3rd Gen kindle while you wait.

Yeah probably start getting rumors at some point in August like last year when the paperwhite news leaked.
 

SickBoy

Member
All kindles are linked to an specific amazon account, but there's no problem havong multiple devices on one account. My account is linked with three devices atm. Deregistering it just one click on amazon.com, or you could simply share an account and use her credit card to buy books with.

Yeah, my concern - and I was probably unclear - was that she might get some hint that she's getting this Kindle as a birthday gift if I register it before her birthday. Emails, etc. are irrelevant -- it only really matters if she'll see it on her existing Kindle, where she does all her buying, etc.
 
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