E-Readers, do you have one?

Snakeblood

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

I like having a physically copy of whatever I'm reading and find the E-Reader quite impersonal. Then again I'm a self confessed Technophobe ( friends refer to me as the caveman) so I don't think its marketed towards the likes of me.

Have you read a book with one?

DEFTLEFTHAND

Snakeblood wrote: »

Have you read a book with one?

No, I suppose if I gave it a chance its something I could get into as I do read alot. I'm just a bit stuck in my ways though.

Jimoslimos

Kirby wrote: »

I have a Nook. It's heavier than the kindle....and its battery is slightly weaker. But it has an SD card slot, a touch screen, and most importantly....it feels better in your hands.

I find the kindle to feel plasticy and cheap. The nook feels more expensive than it is.

The SD slot I can understand, not sure I see the attraction of touch screen. Apart from the display getting grubby is there not the inconvenience of having to move your hand over the page to change it?

As for build quality the Kindle feels fine to me - although I haven't picked up a Nook so would be interested in the difference there.

Kirby wrote: »

One thing I would recommend for anybody buying any e-reader......buy a light for it. E-ink technology is great because there is no shine....but contrast is awful. The page is grey instead of white. Do your eyes a favour and buy a light that clips to the top of it.

I don't see traditional book-sellers recommending you purchase a light with your books. I find the contrast on the kindle perfectly fine. Kindle and Sony use the latest pearl e-ink display, in fact I think both of their screens come from the same manufacturer - not sure what Nook are using.

Also does the kindle/nook have white or pale device edging. If you compare a white kindle to a graphite one, contrast looks a lot worse on the former - there isn't actually a difference in fact.

trishasaffron

Columbia wrote: »

I have a Kindle with 3g, and it is great. I do a lot of travelling and now working abroad, so not having to worry about which books to bring is amazing. The 3g has worked fine (fine = enough to check email/Facebook) everywhere I've been so far, even my current little village in the Republic of Georgia! The power here is off about 40% of the time, so having the Kindle spares me a lot of boredom.

It's not perfect, but it's a damn nifty little thing.

My experience exactly - am off over Christmas for 10 days hols - looking forward now to loading the Kindle with my reading material and so happy knowing that if I get bored or read them all (even Proust!) I'll be able to download immediately with 3g. Brill.

The Jammy dodger

Right so I got the Amazon Kindle this afternoon in Curries. I have some questions for you.

The guy in the store said I can only download books to my kindle from Amazon kindle store. Is there any way I can download e-books from other stores without Amazon kindle shop?

I have the 3g version. But heard some of you guys saying you can browse the internet on it and yet I can only browse the kindle store with it.

Thats really all the Q's I have. If you have any other advice let me know.

Jam

jam_mac_jam

The Jammy dodger wrote: »

Right so I got the Amazon Kindle this afternoon in Curries. I have some questions for you.

The guy in the store said I can only download books to my kindle from Amazon kindle store. Is there any way I can download e-books from other stores without Amazon kindle shop?

I have the 3g version. But heard some of you guys saying you can browse the internet on it and yet I can only browse the kindle store with it.

Thats really all the Q's I have. If you have any other advice let me know.

Jam

You can browse the internet by going into the menu and then experimental and then launch browser. You can download from other sites.

The Jammy dodger

jam_mac_jam wrote: »

You can browse the internet by going into the menu and then experimental and then launch browser. You can download from other sites.

KEWL!

I just did that and I can browse facebook and everything on the kindle thats AMAZING. Love this Kindle thing especially the whole month long battery life on it. Just amazing piece of technology.

I also find it amazing that the 3G internet is free no matter where you are. Crazy.

frisbeeface

I love my Kindle. Loads of little advantages: being able to highlight passages or leave bookmarks without damaging the book, look up any word instantly, click on any footnote number to go to that reference, get out of copyright works for free...those things more than the obvious advantages are what I like about it.

Jimoslimos

The Jammy dodger wrote: »

KEWL!

I just did that and I can browse facebook and everything on the kindle thats AMAZING. Love this Kindle thing especially the whole month long battery life on it. Just amazing piece of technology.

It won't be close to a month battery life if you keep 3G/wifi switched on!

chicken fingers

Chinafoot wrote: »

I'm a library assistant (almost finished my masters) and personally I don't like the idea of ebooks.

amazon has made your job irrelevant, no?

The Jammy dodger

Jimoslimos wrote: »

It won't be close to a month battery life if you keep 3G/wifi switched on!

How do I turn 3G and Wi-fi off on it?

The Jammy dodger

chicken fingers wrote: »

amazon has made your job irrelevant, no?

I dont know whats wrong with him. Libraries will be all Ebook and paperback too so I dont see how he is going out of the job.

Firetrap

The Jammy dodger wrote: »

Right so I got the Amazon Kindle this afternoon in Curries. I have some questions for you.

The guy in the store said I can only download books to my kindle from Amazon kindle store. Is there any way I can download e-books from other stores without Amazon kindle shop?

Well, I've bought books off Amazon for my Kindle and was able to download them to my PC and transfer them across by USB I've also bought books elsewhere so it's not as if you're tied to Amazon.

I heartily recommend Calibre if you're going to be reading books from different sources. It converts different file formats (including pdf) so that they'll work on your device

Professey Chin

PDFs work natively on Kindle now (although it does just handle them like big pictures)
I find Calibre can screw up the formatting a bit

jam_mac_jam

The Jammy dodger wrote: »

How do I turn 3G and Wi-fi off on it?

Just hit the menu button and its the first option

jam_mac_jam

I love the dictionary on it as well, no longer will I just skim words I am not sure of. Especially useful when reading Dickens which is another bonus in that all the out of date copyright ones are free you can get some great stuff for nothing.

The Jammy dodger

jam_mac_jam wrote: »

Just hit the menu button and its the first option

Got it thanks. Where do you go to download free e-books? are the freebies in the kindle store?

Biggins

The Jammy dodger wrote: »

Got it thanks. Where do you go to download free e-books? are the freebies in the kindle store?

The Kindle store has a few but see post 74 for further help.

jam_mac_jam

The Jammy dodger wrote: »

Got it thanks. Where do you go to download free e-books? are the freebies in the kindle store?

Yep. Think of old authors, Dickens, Kipling that sort of thing. Do a search, If you look at the people who bought this also bought you should find some more stuff. depending on what you like, you can get Tolstoy, Oscar Wilde, Hugo, Bram Stoker.

The Jammy dodger

jam_mac_jam wrote: »

Yep. Think of old authors, Dickens, Kipling that sort of thing. Do a search, If you look at the people who bought this also bought you should find some more stuff. depending on what you like, you can get Tolstoy, Oscar Wilde, Hugo, Bram Stoker.

Nice one. Must try that alright.

Looks like the poll is just about 50/50 on people who have them and dont. And...the only criticism of them in this thread came from Librarians.

any stories out there from people who dont like them? and why?

Tar.Aldarion

most people assume they wont like them because they like books. Hell, I love both :cool:

Toby Take a Bow

Biggins wrote: »

Absolute rubbish.

Ebook sales by the way has over taken the sales of paper books now with a number of international book sellers.

I mentioned it previously in a different thread, but there's some dispute over the way Amazon (if that's who you're referring to) are portraying the sales of ebooks over hardbacks (I was aware they had apparently outsold hardbacks, but wasn't aware they were outselling paperbacks AND hardbacks: that's pretty impressive when you consider it also accounts for second hand books, abebooks and new books in comparison to the 2 million titles available in e format): Amazon make a lot more money on ebooks than they would on paperbacks, so the claim is that it is in their interest to promote the kindle aggressively (which is why they were giving away the kindle at one point).

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

most people assume they wont like them because they like books. Hell, I love both :cool:

Some people do, some people don't. I worked in a bookshop many moons ago, and ever since we started selling eReaders, we'd have people buying them for their significant other because 'they like books'. Now, I'm sure the vast majority of them did, but we also got a lot of returns because some people didn't like them. One of the customers said she'd have preferred actual books for the money the reader would have cost. I'd kind of feel the same mostly, but I definitely like the idea of having a built-in dictionary and if you do a lot of travelling, they can make a lot of sense. The having thousands of books at hand at all times doesn't really appeal to me though: I would only ever have one, maybe two books on the go.

Kerrigooney

my father in law has one and he calls it his "kindling machine",which always makes me smile...

Aishae

But wonder did many of the customers who returned the ereaders actually gave the thing a go - not just deciding they didn't like it without trying - seeing as you have to return stuff unopened (usually) - fair enough if that's how they feel but I wonder how many people would have found they liked the e reader had they tried it.
I've a friend who got two things from family one Christmas : a touchscreen phone and a kindle. Both off which she sold (unopened) cos she said shed never get used to touch screens or reading on an e reader.

Now she has an iPhone she loves. Still adamant on the kindle. You never know....

Firetrap

And following on from Biggin's post #74

http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/50-places-free-books-online.htm

Chinafoot

chicken fingers wrote: »

amazon has made your job irrelevant, no?

They see me trollin'. They hatin'.

I'd give that a D-. Must try harder.

RichieC

Wouldnt mind one, I love that digital paper tech, it's really cool.

Biggins

Firetrap wrote: »

And following on from Biggin's post #74

http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/50-places-free-books-online.htm

Nice one - cheers Firetrap.

fortwilliam

Yakult wrote: »

Buying one for myself and the mother as she read's all the time. She isnt mad into technology so I hope it clicks with her!

If it doesn't, Just go to Settings>Audio>Click On/Off>On>Save

Easy.

Spunge

What i hate about books is when you're reading a big fat one its a pain in the balls holding it open while you're reading it lying in bed or whatever.

Also i read you can put manga comics on kindles and they read perfectly. The only way id read them coz they cost a bomb on paper.

pajunior

How good is the kindle with magazines that include images such as the economist of national geographic.

I obviously don't expect it to display the pictures mostly just the graphs and diagrams and such.

Toby Take a Bow

Aishae wrote: »

But wonder did many of the customers who returned the ereaders actually gave the thing a go - not just deciding they didn't like it without trying - seeing as you have to return stuff unopened (usually) - fair enough if that's how they feel but I wonder how many people would have found they liked the e reader had they tried it.
I've a friend who got two things from family one Christmas : a touchscreen phone and a kindle. Both off which she sold (unopened) cos she said shed never get used to touch screens or reading on an e reader.

Now she has an iPhone she loves. Still adamant on the kindle. You never know....

Is she using an iPhone for reading books over a Kindle? That's just nuts!

Yeah, people returning the eReaders wouldn't've have even tried them, but there would've been people (trying) to return them that had opened them, used them but didn't like them. Obviously selling them, we had to mess around with them, and while they're nice things, and I would never rule out getting one for myself, the book I have on me at the moment does everything else the reader does (bar the dictionary) and doesn't result in me carrying around an extra 100 euro or so of hardware, which suits me just fine.

Guill

Had Kindle 3, had it for a year, loved it, then i got 20K books off a friend, was loading them onto it when the wife knelt on it breaking the screen!

Snakeblood

Spunge wrote: »

What i hate about books is when you're reading a big fat one its a pain in the balls holding it open while you're reading it lying in bed or whatever.

Also i read you can put manga comics on kindles and they read perfectly. The only way id read them coz they cost a bomb on paper.

I read comics on my touchpad, books on the kindle. Everyone's happy.

Doc Ruby

I recently bought an ebook reader after a lot of hemming and hawing, and researching the various different types available. Its really hard to buy anything other than a kindle in Ireland, which to my mind is a pity since its not the best option. What I got was the Nook from Barnes and Noble, and I'm quite satisfied with it so far.

Its a nice size to fit into a pocket, like a very slim paperback, and it has buttons on the sides to go forward and backwards in a book, which the kindle doesn't have. Also in terms of formats, it deals with a wider range and you aren't stuck in Amazon's walled garden, which for me was one of the most important elements. Also the interface is simple, taking notes and leaving bookmarks a matter of a couple of taps. B&N don't ship to Ireland, so I had to buy it from ebay, which was the first thing I ever bought from ebay, but I was satisfied with the result.

Its a nice neat little machine. Advertised battery life is two months, which so far I've found to be untrue, only about three weeks to a month, and I turn off the wifi, having no need for it. The screen is the Pearl display, the same as they all use, which doesn't have as good a contrast as say a normal book, but its acceptable under a good light. The next generation will be perfect I'm sure.

The whopper of an advantage I find is that I can store all of my hundreds of books in this tiny little thing and read them without the eyestrain of a brightly lit screen. I calculated you could store, on a €20 memory card, books equivalent to the volume of two four-bedroom semi detatched houses. That's how many books I can bring with me on holiday, on the bus, anywhere I go. That is amazing.

As to the future, libraries in their current form will be gone within 20 years, data repositories of ebooks will replace them, and authors are going to have a hard time making any sort of a living, what with piracy, although the early adapters are cleaning up with self publishing.

Aishae

Are you talking about the new kindle? My wifi/3G one has side buttons

And I get books everywhere then convert to mobi format on the free calibre programme.
You aren't restricted to amazon. But they probably don't highlight that. It is easy to get the amazon books though. Buy on computer and they're automatically sent to your kindle next time you turn it on (if it's registered) or browse the kindle store with wifi or 3G on the kindle and you can access books that way.

Doc Ruby

Theres a good review comparison here, probably not much between them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkE1mY3qLyE

Blazer

After buying books for so many years I'd hundreds of them taking up a ****load of space...
Gave them all away and bought an ipad and I've about 4,000 on it
It's the way to go

nibtrix

Doc Ruby wrote: »

Advertised battery life is two months, which so far I've found to be untrue, only about three weeks to a month, and I turn off the wifi, having no need for it.

It's strange that they advertise the battery life like that as surely it depends on usage? Normally you see something like "battery life : 4000 page turns" or similar. I know my Astak EZReader lasts only about 10-14 days but I use it for minimum 2 hours every day.

One good thing about the Astak is that you can replace the battery yourself. After about 18 months my battery wasn't holding a charge properly, I was having to charge it every day. I was able to order a new battery from the supplier and switch it myself. I think most of the ereaders have to be sent away for battery replacements.

Toby Take a Bow

Doc Ruby wrote: »

As to the future, libraries in their current form will be gone within 20 years, data repositories of ebooks will replace them, and authors are going to have a hard time making any sort of a living, what with piracy, although the early adapters are cleaning up with self publishing.

in 20 years you'd still have a significant percentage of the population still reading paper books, imo. IF things go the way Amazon etc want them, then this scenario may be plausible in 40 years or so. In this world, authors would definitely have a hard time making a living, as they wouldn't have the equivalent of playing live as musicians would. Having to rely on self-published authors would, for the most part, be disastrous for the general reading population: there's a reason there's a whole industry built around editing, and that's primarily to sift through all the sh*t to save us the hassle and also to clean up the stuff that's good, but not fit to publish in the current form. Also, that Amazon have invested so heavily, and so early, in this being the big new thing, the chance of them becoming the only company in town is deeply disturbing (an example would be them eating up any of their competitors like thebookdepository and abebooks).

Libraries would definitely have to adapt to this changing situation, if and when it arrives. Having said that, libraries (at least good libraries) seem very good at changing to meet the demands of the population. It'd be sad to have to rely on a huge monopoly to get my books, while - if what you're saying is true - having the option of free (in the case of libraries) or near free (second hand books) taken away. But then I've always thought that one of the reasons Amazon is so keen on advancing the electronic book is that it does away with those unprofitable 1p books.

A brave new world, and all that. Having said that, we'll always have the free classics to read (and in 40 years or so, copyright would extend that to even more books). I reckon they would keep me happily reading for the rest of my life.

kowloon

I haven't much space in my place for anything, but I'll be moving back home next year and there's plenty of space there. If there's ever a complete collapse in the book market I'll be there to buy them up by the truck load.

Doc Ruby

nibtrix wrote: »

One good thing about the Astak is that you can replace the battery yourself. After about 18 months my battery wasn't holding a charge properly, I was having to charge it every day. I was able to order a new battery from the supplier and switch it myself. I think most of the ereaders have to be sent away for battery replacements.

That can be done with the nook as well, I think B&N know they are the underdogs in this fight so they opened all the doors.

Toby Take a Bow wrote: »

A brave new world, and all that.

Ain't that the sad truth. Its not looking good, all told. I never thought I'd find myself arguing for DRM, but in the case of authors, its hard to see a better way.

pickarooney

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBgkCtWcKpQ

pajunior

Baxter you know I don't speak Spanish.

The Jammy dodger

Hey! Looks like the Poll is almost 50/50. Thats not bad, looks like some people dont bother with it at all and plenty do. A nice average.

Joe Exotic

Just got a kindle as a present and then got 1300 + ebooks online.
Will convert them as i want them using calibre to the mobi format.
i think its great so far really easy to change page with the side buttons very lightweight and a good size would reccomend it to anyone.

having said that i do love the feel of a book in my hands so when a book i am looking forward to comes out (the last Wheel of Time book for instance) i will definatly purchase a paper copy.

jam_mac_jam

I still buy paper ones as well as Kindle books. Hardbacks in history books that I want to keep I will still buy in paper form. You can do both.

Colonel Panic

Same here, I buy a lot of hardback reference stuff, technical books and sometimes stuff by my face authors or impulse buys in paper form instead of on Kindle. It doesn't have to be all or nothing!

Tar.Aldarion

what are peoples opinions on the kindle with a keyboard and one without? is not having one really annoying?


I am thinking of getting one but i dont want to waste the money on the keyboard one with 3g, do places even sell the keyboard one with just wifi any more?

Biggins

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

...I am thinking of getting one but i dont want to waste the money on the keyboard one with 3g, do places even sell the keyboard one with just wifi any more?

Amazon does still I think.
I prefer one with the keyboard to be honest - but thats just me.