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[HiroProtagonist]

So I was thinking about buying a Kindle for my wife for Christmas since she's a big reader. Kind of not sure which one I should go with... She loves Angry Birds so that would indicate Kindle Fire, but it's def. more important that she's able to use all her old .TXT, .PDF, .MOBI, and .DOC eBooks she already has. Is the Kindle Keyboard the only one of the 'old' ones I should look at? I know for a fact she doesn't care about 3G or Wifi type stuff.

Just looking for an idea of what models to start looking at. Thanks!

.mobi, .txt, and .pdf can all be viewed on the Kindle out of the box, and the .doc can be converted and delivered to the device wirelessly by Amazon - for free. This thread is full of eInk fans, and if your wife is a big reader I can tell you she (or her eyes) will appreciate an eInk device over the Fire's IPS LCD. If she has a bunch of pdfs (yuck) you probably want to look at the touch devices because (while the K3 and K4 both support them) they are a huge pain in the ass to navigate/zoom with the toggle button.

 

[Genesis Knight]

Thanks, man! That's some great info.

 

[moojito]

What the hell, the cheaper ones don't even come with a charger? That's really stingy. I'm looking to get one of these for my mum for christmas, but I really dislike companies that pull stuff like that.

 

[dLMN8R]

What the hell, the cheaper ones don't even come with a charger? That's really stingy. I'm looking to get one of these for my mum for christmas, but I really dislike companies that pull stuff like that.

Just charge via USB.

 

[Manics]

What the hell, the cheaper ones don't even come with a charger? That's really stingy. I'm looking to get one of these for my mum for christmas, but I really dislike companies that pull stuff like that.

You can buy a cheap USB wall charger.

 

[Pachimari]

Will I be able to listen to mp3 or songs while reading on a Kindle Touch?
Would be nice to have some moody melody on. =)

 

[bob page]

Does anyone know how to change fonts through Calibre? I've been searching in the program but haven't been able to find a way to do so (am I retarded?).

 

[Curufinwe]

I live in the US and my mother lives in New Zealand, and I want to buy her a Kindle for Christmas so I was hoping to get some advice on the best way to do that.

She doesn't have internet access at home and just does all her internet stuff at work, but I want her to be able to browse the store and buy books from home, so I think the 3G version is worth getting. And she doesn't have any experience with touch devices so I was planning on ordering this.

Kindle Keyboard 3G, Free 3G + Wi-Fi, 6" E Ink Display, 3G Works Globally - for international shipment

If I get this Kindle sent to me can I set up her new Amazon account and set New Zealand as the home country even though I'll be doing that in the US? Then I'll apply a $50 Kindle Store gift card.

I just want to be able to send it to her with her other Christmas presents, and have her be able to take it out of the box and immediately be able to access the store using 3G. Where she lives is does have 3G coverage according to the map on Amazon, so I'm just wondering if there's any detail I'm missing that would screw up my plan.

 

[B.K.]

I was thinking of buying an Ebook reader and I was wondering which store had the larger selection of books: Amazon or Barnes & Noble?

 

[VistraNorrez]

Amazon has a larger selection of books.

 

[AndyD]

Amazon easily. And now with library lending it really has superior access overall.

 

[TheChewyWaffles]

Why can't I update to 3.3 OTA?

edit: nm I just manned up and transferred the file via USB

 

[Polari]

I live in the US and my mother lives in New Zealand, and I want to buy her a Kindle for Christmas so I was hoping to get some advice on the best way to do that.

She doesn't have internet access at home and just does all her internet stuff at work, but I want her to be able to browse the store and buy books from home, so I think the 3G version is worth getting. And she doesn't have any experience with touch devices so I was planning on ordering this.

Kindle Keyboard 3G, Free 3G + Wi-Fi, 6" E Ink Display, 3G Works Globally - for international shipment

If I get this Kindle sent to me can I set up her new Amazon account and set New Zealand as the home country even though I'll be doing that in the US? Then I'll apply a $50 Kindle Store gift card.

I just want to be able to send it to her with her other Christmas presents, and have her be able to take it out of the box and immediately be able to access the store using 3G. Where she lives is does have 3G coverage according to the map on Amazon, so I'm just wondering if there's any detail I'm missing that would screw up my plan.

Just make sure you select the gift option so instead of tying it to your Amazon account she will have to create one of her own when she first starts it. Vodafone are the 3G carriers for Kindle here, you can check her address for 3G coverage at their website.

 

[HiroProtagonist]

Does anyone know how to change fonts through Calibre? I've been searching in the program but haven't been able to find a way to do so (am I retarded?).

The Calibre GUI plugin called Kindle Collections has a place where you can adjust the font, but it's the same options that are available on the device. I'm not sure why it exists really.

Here is the hack-less way to add you own fonts:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=99355

 

[Tribes of Trusty]

Amazon customer service is terrific, I'm so glad to have bought from them (I have received my replacement kindle 3 days after chatting with an operator online).

 

[VistraNorrez]

Why can't I update to 3.3 OTA?

Updates roll out slow. I expect everyone to be updated OTA by the Touch's release.

 

[Curufinwe]

Just make sure you select the gift option so instead of tying it to your Amazon account she will have to create one of her own when she first starts it. Vodafone are the 3G carriers for Kindle here, you can check her address for 3G coverage at their website.

Thanks. I will select the gift option, but I plan on setting up the account for her, then mailing it to NZ myself at the end of November.

 

[Snaku]

New Kindle e-book format, KF8, supports HTML 5 and CSS to display more elaborate layouts.

The previous format, Mobi 7, will be replaced by Kindle Format 8, aka KF8, according to an Amazon announcement yesterday.

"As showcased on Kindle Fire, KF8 enables publishers to create great-looking books in categories that require rich formatting and design such as children's picture books, comics & graphic novels, technical and engineering books, and cookbooks," Amazon said in its announcement. "Kindle Format 8 replaces the Mobi format and adds over 150 new formatting capabilities, including fixed layouts, nested tables, callouts, sidebars and Scalable Vector Graphics, opening up more opportunities to create Kindle books that readers will love."

 

[Manics]

New Kindle e-book format, KF8, supports HTML 5 and CSS to display more elaborate layouts.

What does this mean for existing Kindles? Firmware update that will support this format?

 

[LProtag]

I'm debating getting one but I'm not really sure which to get. Is there anything amazing about the touch screen one compared to the non touch screen one?

Edit: I should say I'd love to be able to mark specific passages or pages for reference, dunno if one is better suited for that or not.

Double Edit: Also, how intrusive are the 'special offers', is it worth the money to get it without them? You can pay to remove them later on?

 

[CueTheMusic]

If you want to jot down some notes on those passages, then the touch interface would be much better, as you won't have to type things out with the directional pad thing.

The special offers aren't intrusive at all. Offers for the screen saver, and a banner on the bottom of the home menu. None when you are reading.

 

[Manics]

Double Edit: Also, how intrusive are the 'special offers', is it worth the money to get it without them? You can pay to remove them later on?

Non intrusive, they're only on the screensaver and the bottom of the home screen. Also you can pay $30 later to get rid of them. So you could theoretically keep the ads until you redeem $30 worth and then cancel it if it bugs you.

 

[LProtag]

Rad. I'm assuming the tablet they're coming out with doesn't have the fancy e-ink screen or whatever which is really the selling point for me on this so I don't think I'll take that into consideration.

I think I might step in line for that 100 dollar touch one, wonder how long the 'first come first serve' is going to take me to actually get it though.

 

[mrklaw]

I was thinking of buying an Ebook reader and I was wondering which store had the larger selection of books: Amazon or Barnes & Noble?

which device has access to a larger number of books? Amazon (amazon only) or various epub compatible devices and multiple stores?

Its odd that its the convenience thats preventing me buying a Sony T1 or other overdrive/epub device. Simply being able to email books to my kindle means its entirely wireless and not dependant on a computer. Most others, even if they have wifi, don't let you do that so its out with the USB cable.

 

[dr3upmushroom]

The Calibre GUI plugin called Kindle Collections has a place where you can adjust the font, but it's the same options that are available on the device. I'm not sure why it exists really.

Here is the hack-less way to add you own fonts:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=99355

Wow, you can change fonts on Kindle books with Calibre? How do they look? The other font option you get on the Kindle looks pretty crappy.

That's my one pet peeve with ebooks in general, I really, really wish that they came with the same font you'd get in the physical book. Whenever I read a book on Kindle I think it's interesting to check out the physical version if I see it at Target or Costco or whatever just to see what font it has.

 

[LProtag]

Well, I just put in an order for the touch. Going to see if my grandparents will be willing to make it a Christmas gift or something.

I'm probably going to need a case for this thing too if I don't want it scratched up, huh?

 

[Totakeke]

Using my Kindle 4 a few days now and I really like it. The contrast isn't as good as I hoped it would be, makes reading in dim situations kinda difficult. Also definitely needed refresh per page or the text had a lot of missing pixels which is terrible. There's also a bug when viewing pictures and turning back a page (I put a volume of manga on this), 1/5th of the screen from the right won't refresh at all.

Is it worth to get magazines on this thing? The reviews for the Kindle version of Economist is pretty terrible.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

What does this mean for existing Kindles? Firmware update that will support this format?

Yes and no. They say support will be added to "our latest generation Kindle e-ink devices", which I assume means everything announced recently and not the Kindle 3/Keyboard. Older readers will continue to get old format files with less fanciness.

 

[LProtag]

Oh no, I just realized touch=fingerprints. How bad does an e-ink screen show fingerprints? Is it mostly something you wouldn't notice?

 

[Captain Pants]

Is there any way to get a Kindle 3 or the Kindle Cloud Reader to display page numbers? I need to cite some sources for this paper I'm writing and I have a feeling that 'locations' aren't going to cut it.

edit: Nevermind, I sorted it out.

 

[HiroProtagonist]

Okay...It turns out you can change the fonts with the plugin Kindle Collections, but it looks to be a pain in the butt.

Fonts
The Kindle does allow you to use a different font for your books without jailbreaking and without installing a font hack. But you need to follow a few steps so that the plugin can find your font and the Kindle can use your font.

1. Find some fonts to use.
   • The font must have 4 Truetype or OpenType files - one each for Regular, Bold, Italic, and BoldItalic variants
   • For example, DroidSerif is popular and free, available from http://www.google.com/webfonts/famil...ly=Droid+Serif (you will need to extract the 4 files from the zip file, and rename DroidSerif.ttf to DroidSerif-Regular.ttf)
2. Go to the Home screen of your Kindle, then connect your Kindle to your PC
3. Create the directory "fonts" on your Kindle at the top (e.g. E:\fonts) if it isn't there already
4. Copy the 4 font files to your Kindle's directory - you must use a specific name format, e.g. if your font is called "DroidSerif", then the 4 files in the font directory must be named as follows (use "-" not "_", and use ".ttf" even if its an OpenType font):
   DroidSerif-Regular.ttf
   DroidSerif-Bold.ttf
   DroidSerif-Italic.ttf
   DroidSerif-BoldItalic.ttf
   
5. Run the plugin - your font should be visible in the drop down menu for fonts. If it is not visible then check that the 4 file names are correct and in the right directory
6. Select your font, and click Save
7. Eject and Restart your Kindle

Notes:

• If you get the message "The selected item could not be opened" when you try to open a book, it means the font you selected is not compatible with the Kindle for some reason. Go to the Home screen of your Kindle, reconnect it to your PC, use the plug to select a default font, and restart your Kindle.
• You can copy any number of fonts to your Kindle's font directory. The plugin will show a list of all fonts it finds (but each font must have the 4 files with the name pattern above, e.g. MyFont-Regular.ttf, ...). Only 1 font can be used by the Kindle at a time - you will need to use the plugin and restart the Kindle to change fonts.
• To change back to a regular font, just use the "Aa" key to select "std". To use your custom font select "alt" (if "alt" is no longer available, use the plugin to reselect your custom font).
• The plugin actually copies the 4 font files to the names alt-Regular, alt-Bold, etc. It sets the preferences to use the font name you gave, but when the Kindle restarts its automatically changed to "alt". The Kindle only seems to recognize the "alt" name and not other names, so the plugin just copies your font files to the "alt" name when you select it.
• If you have only 3 of the 4 variants of a font, you could copy/rename one of the others, but this does not always work or look right.

Kindle Collections.zip (77.8 KB)

 

[VistraNorrez]

Oh no, I just realized touch=fingerprints. How bad does an e-ink screen show fingerprints? Is it mostly something you wouldn't notice?

They will bother you as much as glare does, which is to say not much.

 

[Muskweeto]

Oh no, I just realized touch=fingerprints. How bad does an e-ink screen show fingerprints? Is it mostly something you wouldn't notice?

I assume the screen is exactly the same as the Kindle keyboard, I touch the screen all the time to hold my place or just picking it up by the screen and it still looks brand new.
It's not like the super glossy tablets with a back lit screen, it'll look just fine.

 

[Kammie]

Okay...It turns out you can change the fonts with the plugin Kindle Collections, but it looks to be a pain in the butt.

It's actually very simple. Rename the four font files, copy them to the Kindle, click the Kindle Collections button, select the font name, OK, eject Kindle and restart it. Done.

The pain in the butt is that if you select the original font after, you will lose the new one. So if you make the change you'll have to stick to the new one, or else have to repeat the whole process.

At first I was excited to change fonts.... but the problem is that all the fonts I've tried have varied widths/strokes, and these don't look good on the Kindle. If you look at the default fonts on the Kindle, you'll realize that every single stroke is of the same width. It's actually pretty smart. I didn't like the original font at first, but it really lends itself to ease of reading.

 

[Eric C]

Oh no, I just realized touch=fingerprints. How bad does an e-ink screen show fingerprints? Is it mostly something you wouldn't notice?

don't e-ink touchscreens use an ir touchscreen.

An infrared touchscreen uses an array of X-Y infrared LED and photodetector pairs around the edges of the screen to detect a disruption in the pattern of LED beams. These LED beams cross each other in vertical and horizontal patterns. This helps the sensors pick up the exact location of the touch. A major benefit of such a system is that it can detect essentially any input including a finger, gloved finger, stylus or pen. It is generally used in outdoor applications and point of sale systems which can't rely on a conductor (such as a bare finger) to activate the touchscreen. Unlike capacitive touchscreens, infrared touchscreens do not require any patterning on the glass which increases durability and optical clarity of the overall system.

I've never used an IR touchscreen. But if your anal about fingerprints, you don't have to touch the screen do you?

CNET's review of the Nook Touch says

The basic idea behind it is that small infrared sensors are built into the inside of the border around the screen and can sense where you finger is touching on the screen. In fact, you don't really have to touch the screen and can let you finger hover just a hair over the screen to get a response.

Read more: http://reviews.cnet.com/e-book-read...uch/4505-3508_7-34748399-2.html#ixzz1bYBCRGqt

Does the kindle touch work the same way?

 

[bob page]

I've accidentally touched my new 4G Kindle a few times and fingerprints definitely are noticeable when the device is off. I don't think it would really impede text legibility, though.

 

[Manics]

I've accidentally touched my new 4G Kindle a few times and fingerprints definitely are noticeable when the device is off. I don't think it would really impede text legibility, though.

Yeah fingerprints aren't too bad on it. Since its non touch you don't touch the screen on purpose so they're minimal (unless you have massive sausage fingers lol). I find you carry around one of those micro cloths that are used to clean glasses and youre good to go in wiping the Kindle screen.

 

[LProtag]

Cool, I guess I don't have to worry about my touch getting all smudgy and what not.

I'm looking around the Kindle store and it looks like a lot of the free stuff is sadly terribly formatted and filled with errors. I also see that there's a lot of pretty cheap collections available for some authors.

Can anyone recommend the best collections for: Sherlock Holmes, H.P. Lovecraft stories and the works of Dostoevsky?

 

[Therion]

Can anyone recommend the best collections for: Sherlock Holmes, H.P. Lovecraft stories and the works of Dostoevsky?

This is the best Lovecraft collection I know of, but you'll have to transfer it on to your kindle manually.

 

[HiroProtagonist]

Cool, I guess I don't have to worry about my touch getting all smudgy and what not.

I'm looking around the Kindle store and it looks like a lot of the free stuff is sadly terribly formatted and filled with errors. I also see that there's a lot of pretty cheap collections available for some authors.

Can anyone recommend the best collections for: Sherlock Holmes, H.P. Lovecraft stories and the works of Dostoevsky?

The first place I look to find books in the public domain is: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/ebooks.php?ltr=ALL&pp=30&genreid=&sort=ebook&order=asc&forumid=128

You can tell they are constructed by people who love books.

 

[Lissar]

Cool, I guess I don't have to worry about my touch getting all smudgy and what not.

I'm looking around the Kindle store and it looks like a lot of the free stuff is sadly terribly formatted and filled with errors. I also see that there's a lot of pretty cheap collections available for some authors.

Can anyone recommend the best collections for: Sherlock Holmes, H.P. Lovecraft stories and the works of Dostoevsky?

Project Gutenberg also has a lot of public domain works. That is where I get all of mine.

 

[LProtag]

Rad. I didn't know Project Gutenberg did that, I've used them before for just reading stuff online for classes.

I guess I can compare the formatting and stuff with the things I find on amazon and see which I prefer. I'd be willing to pay a little bit for a nicely formatted book.

 

[elrechazado]

manybooks.net

 

[DiscoJer]

Project Gutenberg also has a lot of public domain works. That is where I get all of mine.

Yeah, but they aren't formatted, really, they are just basic conversions of text dumps.

 

[demon]

Question about Kindles (or I suppose e-books in general but I'm interested in the $79 Kindle because of price). I'm really not interested in one because of e-books as I prefer physical books, although I'd probably take advantage of that at some point, but I'm honestly more interested in getting something like this for reading articles. I hate printing articles out all the time, and reading them on my computer or on my tiny Droid both kinda suck. Being able to read any article I want in e-ink form would be awesome. How well does the Kindle work with PDF files? I read that you can e-mail PDF files to your Kindle.....how does that work?

And on that note, are there any good programs out there that convert online articles/web pages to pdf files that would work well on a kindle?

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

You know how PDFs look on your Droid. Now imagine there were about 2-3 more inches to that and it's all gray and turning pages sucks.

Kindles suck at everything that isn't reading books.

 

[demon]

I don't give a shit about color, and I prefer to do extensive reading on e-ink screens over LCD screens. And an e-book is a shit ton bigger than my Droid screen.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

A Kindle is a shit-ton smaller than letter-sized PDF pages.

If you're really set on a Kindle, Instapaper would be your best option. Still, Instapaper is better on an iPad, even if reading in general is best on the Kindle.

 

[VistraNorrez]

I don't give a shit about color, and I prefer to do extensive reading on e-ink screens over LCD screens. And an e-book is a shit ton bigger than my Droid screen.

If all you are concerned about is reading text articles then conversion from PDF is no problem. If you want to read articles from the Internet instapaper them.

 

[Lissar]

Yeah, but they aren't formatted, really, they are just basic conversions of text dumps.

What really? All the ones I have are really nicely formatted. Do I just have good luck?