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qupie
Chickadee
Registered: 11-2011
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Re: To Kindle, or Not to Kindle (or Nook for you Crazy Canukians)
Frank needs the font to be as large as it is in Words with Friends. 
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4/30/2012, 11:22 pm
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ChunkyC
Heron
Registered: 11-2011
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Re: To Kindle, or Not to Kindle (or Nook for you Crazy Canukians)
*snortgiggle*
Frank, the e-ink screens on the current crop of e-readers don't need backlighting, they look like paper. And you can zoom in, which is a feature I find pretty cool. 
Last edited by ChunkyC, 5/1/2012, 1:29 pm
--- "The first five days after the weekend are the toughest." - A. Nonny Mousse
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5/1/2012, 1:27 pm
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Slick2097
Blackbird
Registered: 04-2012
Location: Warrington, UK
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Re: To Kindle, or Not to Kindle (or Nook for you Crazy Canukians)
My kindle arrived the other day, i've been busy loading it up with books the past few days, I hope to get some time to actually do some reading on it shortly. I'll then post a review
Ste.
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5/1/2012, 3:15 pm
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altheat
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Registered: 04-2012
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Re: To Kindle, or Not to Kindle (or Nook for you Crazy Canukians)
Silkie I'm definitely interested to hear what you think...I'm thinking about getting a Kindle soon. I'm not allowed to read books for now, so I'm holding off for a bit.
Then again, I'm also thinking about getting an iPad or something like that.
I don't know!!
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5/1/2012, 9:09 pm
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Slick2097
Blackbird
Registered: 04-2012
Location: Warrington, UK
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Re: To Kindle, or Not to Kindle (or Nook for you Crazy Canukians)
quote:
altheat wrote:
Silkie I'm definitely interested to hear what you think...I'm thinking about getting a Kindle soon. I'm not allowed to read books for now, so I'm holding off for a bit.
Then again, I'm also thinking about getting an iPad or something like that.
I don't know!!
Why not get both?
Ste.
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Born from an egg on a mountain top.
--/
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5/2/2012, 1:29 am
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Frank Baron
Old Crow
Registered: 11-2011
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Re: To Kindle, or Not to Kindle (or Nook for you Crazy Canukians)
quote:
Slick2097 wrote:
Why not get both?
Ste.
Spoken like a true gadget guy!
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You can observe a lot just by watching - Yogi Berra
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5/2/2012, 11:06 am
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Slick2097
Blackbird
Registered: 04-2012
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Re: To Kindle, or Not to Kindle (or Nook for you Crazy Canukians)
Here goes.
Kindle 4th Gen. A Review.
After many months of ponder and deliberation I decided to take the splash and get an eBook device. I considered the many available in the UK and decided on the newly release Amazon Kindle 4th Gen (Link) (rrp £89.99) but being both English and more importantly "Northern" I could not rightly pay full price for something so I sat about waiting on eBay for one more in my price bracket.
After about a week or so, one was listed that I could afford £50 + £4.99 postage but the description was vague and it only had a stock photo on the listing, so it was risky. However, something in my gut told me to go for it so I snapped it up. Turns out it was a real bargain as it came with an official amazon leather case as well (rrp £30.99). My eBay-fu paid off that time for sure.
The guy had put some free books on there, nothing that took my fancy so I reset it back to factory defaults to get the whole "new kindle" experience.
Setup
Setup was incredibly easy, it found my home WiFi and after some jiggery pokery with the WPA2 key using the virtual keypad (i'll get to that later) it was on the wireless and registered to my Amazon account. Easy as peas. Browsing the kindle store is pleasant enough, the pages are well laid out and purchasing is very easy, just simply click and it is delivered in a few seconds.
Screen
This was the first time i'd used an e-ink screen in anger, and I have to say i'm suitably impressed. The inner technology of the way it renders the page gives me that warm fuzzy geeky feeling inside you get when you understand new technology and the actual screen display is quite frankly excellent.
In reviews, a lot of people had complained about the visual "flicking" as the page is turned while it redraws the next page and this has been partially amended in the latest version as it stores the information for a few pages in the buffer so as to make the redraw a little quicker. Having not used an earlier version, I cannot comment on whether it is markedly better or not but I can say that after a few pages of reading, you really don't tend to notice it at all.
Controls
I suppose I brought this on myself with not buying the kindle with a keyboard, or plumping for the one with a touchscreen but the on screen virtual keyboard is slow and clunky. Not a problem when using it for the odd WiFi password (my password is 20 characters of mixed case and numericals) but a pain when searching the store and using it for the experimental web browser support is plain daft, just don't bother.
The 5 way key used for navigation is responsive and precise. The use of the buttons on either side for next / previous page is great, they are positioned easily for use by either arm so great if you are one of those weird lefties. Overall, if a keyboard is necessary for you, don't plump for this model.
If you are planning on using a web browser on your pc to make purchases or transferring books using the usb cable, then you'll be ok.
Reading Experience
I put the 20 book series on that i'm currently reading (The Aubrey Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian) which I also have in paperback and set about setting up the kindle to how I like my books to look. I chose a font size that suited me (the range of font sizes ranges from miniscule to frank-friendly 6 characters a line fonts) and changed the default line depth to something more suitable. The changes are made on the fly so you can see what you are getting without going back and to in the menu's which is a good feature.
Once I was happy with the way the books looked, I settled in for an hours reading last night getting to know my good friends Capt Jack Aubrey and Dr Stephen Maturin once again. The unit is lightweight enough to hold comfortably in one hand and read, even with the leather case on (this adds extra weight due to the protective rubber / plastic holder) and the next and previous pages are placed excellently for this purpose. After 10 minutes or so I had forgotten I was looking at an e-ink screen and was just engrossed in the book, which is exactly as it should be. Well done Amazon.
The only downside I could see is that when the light fades (as with normal books) you need to start adding illumination to continue reading. I believe that Kobo have developed a phospherescent e-ink screen which will be in new readers in a year or so's time and you can be that Amazon and Nook will also be working on this as well so hopefully that will be another technical problem solved (I just hope its not bright yellow).
Amazon specifics
Amazon provide a few services that you can use with your kindle which are great additions in my eyes. You can purchase books in your web browser on your PC and they will be sent to your kindle automagically which is great, one click shopping at its easiest. The range of free books is also good, most of the classics are there that are out of copyright, and they have a special book of the day which is reduced in price.
They give you an email address with which you can send files to (doc, docx, pdf, html etc) and it will deliver and also convert them to native kindle format for you if you so desire. This is provided free of charge unless you deliver over the 3g mobile network in which case they will charge you a small fee. Also provided is 5 GB of personal storage where any documents you have emailed to yourself are stored "in the cloud", ready to be delivered to your kindle again.
Also, you can get the excellent "Send to kindle" program for both windows and (released last week) for Mac, which allows you to send anything that can be printed in any normal program to your kindle by simply clicking a button which is a great little feature in my eyes. As you'd expect any books previously purchased can be re-sent to the kindle and even borrowed to other kindle users (you cannot access the book whilst it is on loan though) as you would lend your paperbacks to friends.
Overall
Minor niggles about the virtual keyboard aside, I am very happy with my purchase, especially for the bargain price I got it at. I've had a go on the kindle keyboard and I find it just a little bit too big even for my unweildy man-hands to hold comfortably in one hand ... I've not had the pleasure of tackling the kindle touch or the kobo touch yet.
The technology behind the current generation of eBook readers is amazing, most will give you a months usage (based on an hour's reading a day) per 4 hour charge if not more and with base models such as mine coming with 2GB of storage (around about 1.3GB is available for books) I doubt anyone would get close to filling it up. The cloud storage of documents, the excellent and easy to use kindle book store and the ease in which it "just works" when hooking up to the wireless means it is pretty much a very easy device to use and live with.
For me, its ideal as I don't like carrying round paperbacks when on holiday as it adds unneccessary weight to the luggage and anything that enhances my life by performing a specific purpose is good with me. I can see myself keeping my kindle for years to come for business trips and holidays.
Will I ever get rid of all my books? I doubt it, especially as most of my technical reference books for example are still not available on *any* ebook format so there will always be a place for both books, and a kindle in my life.
So, how does it stack up to using the kindle app on an iPad?
I love my iPad, its great at doing what it does but an eBook reader it is not. You'll be lucky to get 5 hours of eBook reading out of it due to the backlighted screen being on all the time and compared to the kindle its about as light as a hippo sat on top of a tank and when it is on for long periods of time, it can get toasty warm.
One of my main gripes is in strong sunlight (think of on holiday at the beach) the iPad screen can get washed out and you will struggle to read anything on it for any length of time. The kindle app gives you all the same (more or less) functionality of the dedicated kindle but the weight, and limited battery rule it out of being a suitable eBook reader for me.
Cheers,
Ste.
---
/--
Born from an egg on a mountain top.
--/
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5/5/2012, 6:26 am
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ChunkyC
Heron
Registered: 11-2011
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Re: To Kindle, or Not to Kindle (or Nook for you Crazy Canukians)
Excellent review, Slick.
Much of what you like/dislike about the Kindle resonates with my experience with my Kobo. The 'beta' web browser is a joke, the Kobo folks are smart to tell you in no certain terms that it is indeed a work in progress. Also, the on-screen keyboard, while handy, is like typing in mud compared to a standard keyboard. Still, it allows you to do what you need to do when you need to do it. I just wouldn't want to write a lengthy email on it.
--- "The first five days after the weekend are the toughest." - A. Nonny Mousse
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5/5/2012, 10:20 am
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Frank Baron
Old Crow
Registered: 11-2011
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Re: To Kindle, or Not to Kindle (or Nook for you Crazy Canukians)
Great stuff, Slick. Thanks.
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You can observe a lot just by watching - Yogi Berra
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5/5/2012, 1:53 pm
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