Kindle Questions

[Frontier]

So I'm considering getting a Kindle, and just have a few Q's and figured someone here might be able to answer them for me.

Can I put any kind of text content on it? Like, different document types? .doc, .rtf, .txt and such? Or do they have to be fancy special formats?

How long does a charge usually last on the newer ones (specially the $139 one)?

Saw a Q someone asked, but couldn't find the answer; are kindle books abridged at all, or complete text same as paperback/hardback?

Anyone who has had experiences with the device, lemme know your thoughts on them. I've never bought anything like this, but I love the concept of reading books off of such a device.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

I got the first gen one and this latest one. I liked the original well enough, but I'm really, really pleased with this new one. I like the sleekness of it, the improved contrast, and the crazily improved battery life. I got the $189 one with WiFi, but they're basically the same device.

I've had the new one for almost a month now, and I've charged it twice. The only real drain on it is when you browse the store from the Kindle itself, or you're just downloading tons of samples and books. Once you're just reading and you've got the wireless switched off, the charge lasts for weeks.

You can put all of the document types you've listed on there. There's a cool little tool called Calibre you can use if you want to play with formatting. If you download a public domain book, for example, and it's got no paragraph indentations and the quotes are like "this" instead of “this”, Calibre will fix all of that. You can even add covers, if you want.

As for the books in the Kindle store, it's up to the individual publisher, but I've never seen a difference between editions. I imagine if something like that were to happen, there'd be complaints in a book's Amazon reviews.

The one thing I think sucks about it is that the newest generation doesn't come with a case; you have to buy it separately. I got one of these, which is much nicer than the one that came with the first Kindle, but it's kind of lame that you have to drop an extra $35 for one.

That quibble aside, I'm very happy with it.

 

[cultcross]

Does the Kindle connect to your PC then for transfer of e-books etc? and can you back up the content of it in case its lost/stolen/dropped in the bath ???

 

[B.J.]

I've been wondering if there's any electronic equivalent to the public library for these devices? (Not sure if that sounds like a stupid question or not.....)

 

[scotpens]

I never heard of a Kindle. What is it? Another electronic gadget that tech geeks simply can't live without?

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Does the Kindle connect to your PC then for transfer of e-books etc? and can you back up the content of it in case its lost/stolen/dropped in the bath ???

The plug on the power cord comes off to function as a USB cable, just like an iPod or iPhone. You can transfer books that way, or you can email them to your Kindle. When you register the device, Amazon assigns it an email address along the lines of cultcross[at]free.kindle.com. If you want to transfer documents to it, you can go either route.

Your purchases from the Kindle store are saved on the site. If you're a Kindle owner, when you log in to Amazon, you have a link to your digital library. You can re-send those books at any time. As far as I'm aware, there's no limit to how many times you can re-send the books to yourself. I think they limit it to five devices, in case you want to read on your computer, phone, or an older Kindle.

When I got my Kindle 3 and registered it, there was a link on it called "Archived Items." From there, I downloaded all of my purchases in just a few minutes over WiFi.

By the way, when I want to read it in the bath, I just put it in a Ziplock bag. It works!

I've been wondering if there's any electronic equivalent to the public library for these devices? (Not sure if that sounds like a stupid question or not.....)

Not really, as far as new releases are concerned. Public domain books can be downloaded for free from sites like Feedbooks, though most of what you'll find there is available for free in the Amazon store, anyway. Here's Frankenstein, for example, and you can see the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" section at the bottom of the screen.

 

[Guartho]

I know e-ink is much better on your eyes than backlit displays, but is there any kind of lighting system in it at all? I have an occasional need to read in the dark.

 

[B.J.]

I've been doing a lot of research over lunch about e-readers, the Kindle and Nook especially. One thing I can't seem to find out is what does Amazon.com offer in the way of e-book file formats? I'm not registered on there (yet), so I can't log in to try and download any of their free books. For that matter, what do the other online bookstores offer? The only definite answer I can find from any of them is Books-A-Million, which uses the EPUB format.

 

[JiNX-01]

I never heard of a Kindle. What is it? Another electronic gadget that tech geeks simply can't live without?

Kindle is an electronic library where you can download books. It's a book version of the iPod, only bigger.

 

[FordSVT]

I never heard of a Kindle. What is it? Another electronic gadget that tech geeks simply can't live without?

Kindle is an electronic library where you can download books. It's a book version of the iPod, only bigger.

The essential difference, of course, being that iPod and iPad have back-lit LCD screens that make reading a chore on the eyes after a prolonged period of time, whereas the Kindle has an electronic paper display that looks about as close to the real thing as possible.

You can barely see an iPod screen outside in the sun, a Kindle works great. Then again, with no back-light, you're SOL in the dark without a lamp. For the price, and if you plan on spending a lot of time reading e-books, it's superior to the iPad, but it obviously doesn't have the multi-functionality of that device (at a fraction of the cost, natch).

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I've been doing a lot of research over lunch about e-readers, the Kindle and Nook especially. One thing I can't seem to find out is what does Amazon.com offer in the way of e-book file formats? I'm not registered on there (yet), so I can't log in to try and download any of their free books. For that matter, what do the other online bookstores offer? The only definite answer I can find from any of them is Books-A-Million, which uses the EPUB format.

Amazon uses a proprietary AZW format which is based on the Mobipocket standard. It has DRM and such, which allows for such things as remote deletion.

If you want to see what's out there, look here.

Kindle supports Mobipocket since AZW is based on that technology. It also directly supports plain text. I think the newer ones also support PDF.

 

[Kirby]

I know e-ink is much better on your eyes than backlit displays, but is there any kind of lighting system in it at all? I have an occasional need to read in the dark.

There is no internal light source, so you need to provide some sort of illumination. I have a lamp beside my bed for reading, but you can buy those little book lights for a couple of bucks to clamp onto the Kindle cover.

 

[B.J.]

I've been doing a lot of research over lunch about e-readers, the Kindle and Nook especially. One thing I can't seem to find out is what does Amazon.com offer in the way of e-book file formats? I'm not registered on there (yet), so I can't log in to try and download any of their free books. For that matter, what do the other online bookstores offer? The only definite answer I can find from any of them is Books-A-Million, which uses the EPUB format.

Amazon uses a proprietary AZW format which is based on the Mobipocket standard. It has DRM and such, which allows for such things as remote deletion.

If you want to see what's out there, look here.

Kindle supports Mobipocket since AZW is based on that technology. It also directly supports plain text. I think the newer ones also support PDF.

Maybe I should have said it outright, but I do understand that Amazon would use AZW since it's their own proprietary format (and only Kindles or Kindle software can read them), but do they offer e-books in any other formats like PDF or EPUB?

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Amazon uses a proprietary AZW format which is based on the Mobipocket standard. It has DRM and such, which allows for such things as remote deletion.

It allows for it, but as far as I'm aware, there's only been one instance where they removed a novel that was on the store illegally. They reimbursed the people who'd bought it, and they said they won't be doing it again.

There have been a few books that I've bought where the book is no longer listed in the Kindle store, which makes me think a copyright holder may have complained to Amazon about their content being uploaded illegally. I once bought an older Bradbury book on there, surprised to see it, knowing that Bradbury's not keen on publishing older works on ebook readers. The book disappeared from the store a few days later, but not only does it remain on my Kindle, but it's still in my digital library on the site. So I can still re-download it on any device, but I can't buy it again, which is sort of funny.

As for the question about booklights, I just clip a cheap one onto the case if I'm reading somewhere where I can't turn on a regular light.

 

[Arrqh]

Maybe I should have said it outright, but I do understand that Amazon would use AZW since it's their own proprietary format (and only Kindles or Kindle software can read them), but do they offer e-books in any other formats like PDF or EPUB?

Amazon only sells books in AZW. The Kindle doesn't support ePub at all without using 3rd party conversion software and I don't believe it will support DRM'd ePubs from other eBook stores.

Alternative readers, such as the B&N Nook and the Sony Readers support DRM-free ePub as well as DRM'd ePubs from other stores... for instance, with my Nook I can purchase from B&N's store as well as Sony's store. The result is that the Kindle is more "locked in" then most of the other eReaders... which may or may not be an issue depending on one's priorities.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Amazon uses a proprietary AZW format which is based on the Mobipocket standard. It has DRM and such, which allows for such things as remote deletion.

It allows for it, but as far as I'm aware, there's only been one instance where they removed a novel that was on the store illegally. They reimbursed the people who'd bought it, and they said they won't be doing it again.

There have been a few books that I've bought where the book is no longer listed in the Kindle store, which makes me think a copyright holder may have complained to Amazon about their content being uploaded illegally. I once bought an older Bradbury book on there, surprised to see it, knowing that Bradbury's not keen on publishing older works on ebook readers. The book disappeared from the store a few days later, but not only does it remain on my Kindle, but it's still in my digital library on the site. So I can still re-download it on any device, but I can't buy it again, which is sort of funny.

As for the question about booklights, I just clip a cheap one onto the case if I'm reading somewhere where I can't turn on a regular light.

I was just pointing out that the ebooks Amazon sells are DRMed and they have the ability to remotely delete them. Anyone who buys a Kindle should be aware of that.

I'll probably get a Kindle but I doubt I'll buy much (if anything) from Amazon's store just because I don't care for the whole DRM thing.

 

[Kirby]

I don't like the pricing structure of some of their books. The free ones are awesome, no doubt about that, and the new books are typically $9.99 which is usually a bargain, but a month ago I wanted a specific book and was ready to download it for $9.99 and noticed that the paperback version was $5.68.
Needless to say I bought that physical copy, but I'd like to see them discount the older books to be more in line with the cost of the paperback. I assume that they had too much stock sitting on the shelf and wanted to unload them. But still, they should adjust the e-prices too.

 

[Snaploud]

I have a lot of e-books from Baen.com. Their books are less expensive and can be downloaded in multiple formats (including the kindle format).

 

[RJDiogenes]

I think the newer ones also support PDF.

That's what I want to hear. I've got about a million PDFs.

 

[Venardhi]

Anyone considering getting an eReader in the near future would do well to wait til we get closer to the holiday season. I think it is safe to say Barnes and Noble will be making an announcement very soon about their next device. Even if all they do is throw in some faster hardware, a longer-lasting battery and the new eInk screens, I can't think of a single season not to get one over the Kindle. I suspect we'll see more than that though.