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Amazon Kindle |OT| of eInk superiority

D

dLMN8R

Member
Does anyone have a decent list of deals that have been a part of special offers for the kindle?

If there are enough deals like $10 for $20 Amazon gift cards, I'd happily get one with the offers instead of without.


Heck, even if I bought a full-priced Kindle, I'd like the option to take part in special offers if there happened to be one like that, with the option to otherwise disable them.
 
S

Schlep

Member
dLMN8R said:
And there's no way to get those offers with a regular Kindle instead of the Special Offers Kindle?
Click to expand...
Not at the moment. The Special Offers one has a different firmware, so there's no way to 'enable' the offers.

Honestly I don't know why anyone would go with the full price one at this point.
 
H

HiroProtagonist

Member
Gvaz said:
If I get the Special offers kindle, can I jailbreak it and use custom screensavers and homebrew?
Click to expand...

Yifanlu (the guy who releases the Kindle jailbreaks) has released a temporary solution for jailbreaking the 3.2.1 firmware.

yifanlu said:
I never planned to release a 3.2.1 jailbreak, but I see more and more people asking for it and I heard that Amazon ships 3.2.1 on non-ad kindles now. I'm not ready to release the planned jailbreak as Amazon is slowly closing all the holes so we don't need to play our best hand yet, so here's a "temporary" solution until I release the next jailbreak at the next major Kindle update.

The reason why I call it a temporary jailbreak is because it requires some precise timing. You need to run the update IMMEDIATELY after restarting in order for it to work. I've included some very detailed directions in the readme, but it may still take a few tries (which is bothersome because each try requires another restart).

I only tested it on a Kindle 2 running 3.2.1, so I may not have coded the timings right, therefore if it doesn't work in 3 or so tries, stop and tell me.
Click to expand...
Kindle 3.2.1 Jailbreak (temporary) - MobileRead thread

Kindle 3.2.1 Jailbreak

"Temporary jailbreak" sounds like an endeavor that is bound to end in tears. I would wait for the more 'permanent' solution as it seems to be coming soon.
 
Burger

Burger

Member
I'm getting pretty tired of the quality of Amazon Kindle books I've been purchasing.

The Joe Abercrombie books had atrocious line breaks everywhere, making the books twice as long as necessary, The Shadow of the Wind had major issues with tildes and graves above Spanish names and OCR errors everywhere, The Gun Seller had the odd typo here and there...

...and the latest purchase, The City and The City has weird oversized bitmap characters wherever you see a ź or a Ź.

Honestly it's a fucking shambles that needs to be sorted out. I expect an exact digital copy from the physical copy. Why is it so hard to copy/paste the text from the original digital text sent to the presses and have somebody check it? Why use shitty OCR software and then not even give a shit about glaring peculiarities/errors?
 
D

Deleted member 1235

Unconfirmed Member
Burger said:
I'm getting pretty tired of the quality of Amazon Kindle books I've been purchasing.

The Joe Abercrombie books had atrocious line breaks everywhere, making the books twice as long as necessary, The Shadow of the Wind had major issues with tildes and graves above Spanish names and OCR errors everywhere, The Gun Seller had the odd typo here and there...

...and the latest purchase, The City and The City has weird oversized bitmap characters wherever you see a ź or a Ź.

Honestly it's a fucking shambles that needs to be sorted out. I expect an exact digital copy from the physical copy. Why is it so hard to copy/paste the text from the original digital text sent to the presses and have somebody check it? Why use shitty OCR software and then not even give a shit about glaring peculiarities/errors?
Click to expand...

Probably the volume they have to process makes actual human checking not feasible. I'm all for robots doing it, because I hate wanting to buy a book and seeing it's not on kindle yet, but it sounds like the error checking needs sorting.

I just got robopocolypse and it looks like a great copy.
 
H

Husker86

Member
How do all books not have a digital copy already at the publisher? Why is OCR used at all? My latest books have been mostly fine, but sometimes I wonder if a word is supposed to be the word (or name, usually) it is. Tam or Tarn, did I just get introduced to a new person or are they talking about the familiar one? Confusing!
 
Z

Zaraki_Kenpachi

Member
Burger said:
I'm getting pretty tired of the quality of Amazon Kindle books I've been purchasing.

The Joe Abercrombie books had atrocious line breaks everywhere, making the books twice as long as necessary, The Shadow of the Wind had major issues with tildes and graves above Spanish names and OCR errors everywhere, The Gun Seller had the odd typo here and there...

...and the latest purchase, The City and The City has weird oversized bitmap characters wherever you see a ź or a Ź.

Honestly it's a fucking shambles that needs to be sorted out. I expect an exact digital copy from the physical copy. Why is it so hard to copy/paste the text from the original digital text sent to the presses and have somebody check it? Why use shitty OCR software and then not even give a shit about glaring peculiarities/errors?
Click to expand...
Sadly, some publishers still refuse to not be lazy with it. Some have none or really shitty chapter marking too to move around in he book. I guess you could try telling the publisher about t and see I they respond to you. I know the publishers I've sent emails about typos and stuff in print books have updated but I don't know how valuable they see ebooks yet.

Also you could gt a refund within 7 days of purchase or start downloading samples first to see the formatting.
 
M

Manics

Banned
Burger said:
Honestly it's a fucking shambles that needs to be sorted out. I expect an exact digital copy from the physical copy. Why is it so hard to copy/paste the text from the original digital text sent to the presses and have somebody check it? Why use shitty OCR software and then not even give a shit about glaring peculiarities/errors?
Click to expand...
I've seen some issues with ebooks but a "shambles"? That's a bit over dramatic. Blame the publishers for not formatting the types of books you read with more care. I've read lots of ebooks and there's no issue with formatting. Maybe fiction and bestsellers have more eyes checking them? I dunno.
 
H

HiroProtagonist

Member
Husker86 said:
How do all books not have a digital copy already at the publisher? Why is OCR used at all? My latest books have been mostly fine, but sometimes I wonder if a word is supposed to be the word (or name, usually) it is. Tam or Tarn, did I just get introduced to a new person or are they talking about the familiar one? Confusing!
Click to expand...

WoT? I especially enjoyed how it would switch back and forth in the same paragraph.
 
H

Husker86

Member
HiroProtagonist said:
WoT? I especially enjoyed how it would switch back and forth in the same paragraph.
Click to expand...

Yep! Doesn't help that so many names of secondary characters in that series are similar anyway...
 
Burger

Burger

Member
Manics said:
I've seen some issues with ebooks but a "shambles"? That's a bit over dramatic. Blame the publishers for not formatting the types of books you read with more care. I've read lots of ebooks and there's no issue with formatting. Maybe fiction and bestsellers have more eyes checking them? I dunno.
Click to expand...

It's a common enough occurrence for me to label it a shambles. If the books were free then I wouldn't complain, as I would have little reason to. But when I'm paying good money for a recent book I expect a certain level of quality. I can also usually find a version on the internet where the pirate has done a better job than the publisher, and they don't get paid for their work.

It's not as if they are even second rate books by second rate publishers, they are all popular and contemporary.

It's like me complaining that there is a sandfly in my $5 beer. You wouldn't say "Oh but it's only a sandfly" or "Well blame the brewer not the bar."
 
M

Manics

Banned
Burger said:
It's a common enough occurrence for me to label it a shambles. If the books were free then I wouldn't complain, as I would have little reason to. But when I'm paying good money for a recent book I expect a certain level of quality. I can also usually find a version on the internet where the pirate has done a better job than the publisher, and they don't get paid for their work.

It's not as if they are even second rate books by second rate publishers, they are all popular and contemporary.

It's like me complaining that there is a sandfly in my $5 beer. You wouldn't say "Oh but it's only a sandfly" or "Well blame the brewer not the bar."
Click to expand...


Fair enough, but again more people have to complain directly to the publishers. Look at the Ice&Fire books as an example, the original eBooks release was apparently riddled with spelling/OCR errors. With a huge new audience that was expected because of the HBO show they went back and cleaned up those books and now the re-releases are great. Publishers will only care when a great many people demand it.
 
Burger

Burger

Member
Manics said:
Fair enough, but again more people have to complain directly to the publishers. Look at the Ice&Fire books as an example, the original eBooks release was apparently riddled with spelling/OCR errors. With a huge new audience that was expected because of the HBO show they went back and cleaned up those books and now the re-releases are great. Publishers will only care when a great many people demand it.
Click to expand...

I've complained to several publishers, but they don't even have the courtesy to respond with a simple thanks.

I understand and even agree with you, but I think it's bullshit. Put out a shitty product until enough people complain? Why not put out great products and prove you publishing house is the best in the business?
 
M

Manics

Banned
Burger said:
I've complained to several publishers, but they don't even have the courtesy to respond with a simple thanks.

I understand and even agree with you, but I think it's bullshit. Put out a shitty product until enough people complain? Why not put out great products and prove you publishing house is the best in the business?
Click to expand...


I know man, and I agree with you. eBooks are really taking off in popularity now, recently Amazon said eBook sales outstripped all other book sales, so maybe publishers will finally start taking it seriously. The newer books that I've gotten seem fine in formatting, I guess we'll see going forward.
 
Photon

Photon

Member
Manics said:
Fair enough, but again more people have to complain directly to the publishers. Look at the Ice&Fire books as an example, the original eBooks release was apparently riddled with spelling/OCR errors. With a huge new audience that was expected because of the HBO show they went back and cleaned up those books and now the re-releases are great. Publishers will only care when a great many people demand it.
Click to expand...

This is great, but why the hell haven't they updated the original releases?
 
G

Gvaz

Banned
HiroProtagonist said:
"Temporary jailbreak" sounds like an endeavor that is bound to end in tears. I would wait for the more 'permanent' solution as it seems to be coming soon.
Click to expand...
I might as well get the standard one then. It doesn't reset the jailbreak on the standard kindle 3 does it when you go online?
 
H

HiroProtagonist

Member
Gvaz said:
I might as well get the standard one then. It doesn't reset the jailbreak on the standard kindle 3 does it when you go online?
Click to expand...

I forgot to mention that both the Special Offer Kindle, and the regular $139.00 Kindle, are each shipping with 3.2 and 3.2.1 firmware.

Amazon only plugs the jailbreaks with firmware updates, so going online won't affect it. Well, that was their way before the Special Offer Kindle...we will have to wait and see if they are going to crack down on hacks now that ads are involved.
 
A

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Quick Q:

I thought sleep mode on the Kindle was supposed to last a while. I'll just flip it on with 80% battery left or something and then come back a week later and I have the zero battery remaining screen. Has happened about three times so far. Thought the Kindle was supposed to have a god-like DS sleep mode, but that is more 3DS-like so I figure I must be doing something wrong....
 
S

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
AstroLad said:
Quick Q:

I thought sleep mode on the Kindle was supposed to last a while. I'll just flip it on with 80% battery left or something and then come back a week later and I have the zero battery remaining screen. Has happened about three times so far. Thought the Kindle was supposed to have a god-like DS sleep mode, but that is more 3DS-like so I figure I must be doing something wrong....
Click to expand...

I think if you leave Wireless on, it keeps running the whispernet stuff in sleep mode. So that'd explain lasting a week.
 
D

Deleted member 1235

Unconfirmed Member
AstroLad said:
Quick Q:

I thought sleep mode on the Kindle was supposed to last a while. I'll just flip it on with 80% battery left or something and then come back a week later and I have the zero battery remaining screen. Has happened about three times so far. Thought the Kindle was supposed to have a god-like DS sleep mode, but that is more 3DS-like so I figure I must be doing something wrong....
Click to expand...
something isn't right there.

As far as I understand e-ink, the system is only working during page turns, it doesn't draw any (or almost 0) power when it's displaying something, it's only page turns/screen refresh that makes it work, so when it's a page of text it is essentially off.

sounds like you have a bung battery/firmware something.

My kindle lasts longer than a book does most times before I have to recharge and I never turn it all the way off and make liberal use of the reading light as well.
 
M

Manics

Banned
AstroLad said:
Quick Q:

I thought sleep mode on the Kindle was supposed to last a while. I'll just flip it on with 80% battery left or something and then come back a week later and I have the zero battery remaining screen. Has happened about three times so far. Thought the Kindle was supposed to have a god-like DS sleep mode, but that is more 3DS-like so I figure I must be doing something wrong....
Click to expand...
Do you have the 3G model and leave 3G on?
That'll kill your battery. Wifi will drain it as well but not that quickly. Either way ensure you have any wireless receiving turned off. My Kindle lasts weeks on a charge.

Edit:Hmm so just researching it seems like there's no option to turn 3G off directly?? I guess you just turn wireless off if you have the 3G model?
 
V

VistraNorrez

Member
Check if anything is indexing. Sometimes a book gets stuck in the index process and that wears down the battery. To check just search for gibberish on the home page. This should show books that haven't indexed, the book displaying in light gray is the current one indexing. Usually this occurs with non-amazon books. Delete the book from the device and then try putting it back on. It might not work. If you upload a ton of books at a time the index process can take a long time, days even if you put a lot of books on there at once.

If it's not that then like others have said it could be the wireless. If not that, it's a bad battery.
 
M

Manics

Banned
Socreges said:
I will venture to jailbreak this weekend. Wish me luck.
Click to expand...


Hold off on jailbreaking if the Canucks lose tonight, don't want you messing up your Kindle because you're in a rage.
 
M

Manmademan

Member
AstroLad said:
Quick Q:

I thought sleep mode on the Kindle was supposed to last a while. I'll just flip it on with 80% battery left or something and then come back a week later and I have the zero battery remaining screen. Has happened about three times so far. Thought the Kindle was supposed to have a god-like DS sleep mode, but that is more 3DS-like so I figure I must be doing something wrong....
Click to expand...

I'm absolutely positive I left my kindle under my bed for over a week and came back to it with a full battery.

i DID turn wireless off before I did this, though.
 
H

HiroProtagonist

Member
Socreges said:
I will venture to jailbreak this weekend. Wish me luck.
Click to expand...

Are you sure? This is on his download page under installation:
Installation

Since this jailbreak is time and luck based, I’ve included very detailed directions on the exact timing for doing things in the readme.
Click to expand...

Time and luck based? Good luck! Apparently it's required. :|
 
A

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Thanks for the advice; looks like I'll have to try to turn wireless off. I suppose there's not too much need for wireless other than downloading books and the occasional syncing.
 
S

SpudBud

Member
I was thinking about buying a kindle and If I should buy the ad supported version or just get the regular wifi version. Are the the ads that big of a deal?
 
M

Manics

Banned
AstroLad said:
Thanks for the advice; looks like I'll have to try to turn wireless off. I suppose there's not too much need for wireless other than downloading books and the occasional syncing.
Click to expand...


Unless you're using the Kindle to surf, there's no need to keep wireless on. Transfer a few dozen books you want to read and you're good to go for a while.
 
S

Sleepy

Member
SpudBud said:
I was thinking about buying a kindle and If I should buy the ad supported version or just get the regular wifi version. Are the the ads that big of a deal?
Click to expand...

I'm in the same boat. :)

The screens I have seen do not seem too intrusive; it specifically states on the Amazon page that the ads do not interfere with reading. The ads seem to be worthwhile, as well. Hell, if you can jailbreak the ad-Kindle, you could even get rid of the main "screensaver." I guess it comes down to: Do you want ads or not? Personally, I don't.
 
E

Evlar

Banned
Strangely, my battery lasts for weeks with wi-fi on. I don't have a 3G model, though; my wife does and she has to turn it off to save the battery.
 
S

Socreges

Banned
I just turn the Kindle off when convenient. Has made a difference, I think, but I left it on/sleep for weeks at the beginning and it took a while to die.

Manics said:
Hold off on jailbreaking if the Canucks lose tonight, don't want you messing up your Kindle because you're in a rage.
Click to expand...
Don't worry. If that's the case, I'll leave the Kindle at home and trash some Mom&Pop stores instead.
 
D

Dupy

"it is in giving that we receive"
Manics said:
Unless you're using the Kindle to surf, there's no need to keep wireless on. Transfer a few dozen books you want to read and you're good to go for a while.
Click to expand...

What about syncing your current location? I bounce between my Kindle and iPhone a lot so this is pretty handy. Not a big deal but that still needs wi-fi/3G.
 
Z

Zaraki_Kenpachi

Member
Dupy said:
What about syncing your current location? I bounce between my Kindle and iPhone a lot so this is pretty handy. Not a big deal but that still needs wi-fi/3G.
Click to expand...
You can leave it off until you're about done reading and then just turn it on to sync.

Edit: On a similar note, is there a way to delete furthest sync? I was checking something in the appendix and no matter how much I read from that day when I do the "sync to furthest read page" it brings me to the appendix. Kind of frustrating.
 
V

Vyer

Member
The wifi doesn't really matter much; I leave mine on and my battery life is great.

Astrolad, I'd consider that something might be wrong with the battery. If you got it through amazon, you could probably contact their customer support and have a new kindle within a few days.
 
M

Manics

Banned
Dupy said:
What about syncing your current location? I bounce between my Kindle and iPhone a lot so this is pretty handy. Not a big deal but that still needs wi-fi/3G.
Click to expand...
Yeah I suppose so but I only ever read on my Kindle so that sync doesn't apply for me.
 
UltimaKilo

UltimaKilo

Gold Member
I also leave my WiFi Kindle on and I usually get up to a month (sometimes more) of battery life while reading 7-10 hours a week. I've had my Kindle since January/February and I've probably charged it 5-6 times at very most (probably 4 times).

EDIT: What the hell is going on with the jailbreak? Why are so many people having problems with it? It's very simple. Did Amazon release a new firmware? If so, will it remove the jailbreak and delete my screen-savers?
 
D

Drewsky

Member
Enco said:
Thinking about getting a Kindle but it won't be before August.

Any news on a new version coming out?
Click to expand...
Pretty sure there's not gonna be one for a while, like at least 2012. They're waiting for a e-ink update or something. Don't quote me on that.
 
A

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Evlar said:
Strangely, my battery lasts for weeks with wi-fi on. I don't have a 3G model, though; my wife does and she has to turn it off to save the battery.
Click to expand...
that's pretty interesting. i wonder if the 3g model drains more in wi-fi mode than the wi-fi model does. seems to be the case, anecdotally.
 
M

Manics

Banned
AstroLad said:
that's pretty interesting. i wonder if the 3g model drains more in wi-fi mode than the wi-fi model does. seems to be the case, anecdotally.
Click to expand...
On Amazon's own site the wifi and 3G model both are rated with the same battery life with wifi OFF. With wifi ON however they list the wifi only model with 3 weeks battery and the 3G with only 10 days battery.
 
G

Gvaz

Banned
I'm probably going to get a kindle 3 for my birthday soon (22nd here), though I doubt it will come with a case.

What is the best case to get, and how cheap can I get it for? (less than $50 perferably)
 
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