Kindles

[ajay]

I'm looking at buying a Kindle or something similar for the ol' man, anyone got experience, recommendations, other brands?

Before you say they aren't like the real thing or something along those lines, I'm aware of that.

Spill your guts!

Cheers

 

[moorey]

Everyone I know who has one, loves them. Me, I listen to podcasts.....brain too small.
Wait for the new models that apparently let you share and access free books from libraries. I say apparently, because it's what I'm told, but don't know much about.

 

[g-fish]

My dad and I just got one for mum.

Mum (& dad) work in journalism, so she's a big supporter of traditional media as opposed to the shit that makes you stab your eyes with chopsticks.. otherwise known as internet news.

Mum also doesn't know how to work the TV.

Yet, this thing is awesome. It seriously feels like your reading a book or magazine (text only). It's incredibly light. Your eyes don't ever get tired. Great battery life (1 month!). Easy to use. I've never used a better piece of technology. For what its designed to do, it's pretty much perfect.

 

[ajay]

sounds good!

 

[Bjorn]

Darling wife has a Kobo eReader and loves it. It's the early model (doesn't do stuff the new one does?!? No idea what.), but she can store lots of books on it and it remembers her page. Low power use and the screen looks like paper not a screen, so it's pleasant to read. I'd be a convert if she let me touch it.

 

[Moggio]

Got a Kindle for my wife who hates any technology and thought they would be really awful to read as she is a real book purist and mad reader. She tried her first book on it reluctantly, but has been hooked reading it ever since. Great little piece of technology. As others have said, easy to get used to and is easy on the eyes.

Haven't bought many books yet, but found many online and you can convert all the epub books easily and well to Kindle .mobi format. So its very good for finding those slightly obscure texts and also saves having copies of books to start stacking up around the place.

 

[Kizzmtbr]

I can see the benefit with E-Ink screen compared to LCD's and the Perfect? form factor and the essentially limitlessy library in your bag(Unless you have a huge pocket).

But

Why not go to your local library and borrow anything for free? My 2cents anyway.

 

[Steve-0]

I can see the benefit with E-Ink screen compared to LCD's and the Perfect? form factor and the essentially limitlessy library in your bag(Unless you have a huge pocket).

But

Why not go to your local library and borrow anything for free? My 2cents anyway.

Because that requires doing something. Doing something requires effort+time. Just sit back and in under a minute you have any book you want to read right in front of you! Also, some books are damn heavy, bang kindle.

Biggest downside to the kindle is as you say, paying for the books. My sister was looking at one but went the iPad so she can use an app ( I think wattpad?) to download any book for free. Plus you can do more then read on it.

I'm sure if you were techy enough you could get around paying for books.

Edit: Lol Kindle hotlinks itself. Weird. Stupid amazon.

 

[AngoXC]

Certainly see the merit in one of these things for travelling - books take up too much space!

I'm presently OS and have already finished all the books I brought with me!

 

[wotsis]

I'm looking at buying a Kindle or something similar for the ol' man, anyone got experience, recommendations, other brands?

Before you say they aren't like the real thing or something along those lines, I'm aware of that.

Spill your guts!

Cheers

Got a Kindle 3rd Gen. Used to own a Sony. Played with a B&N Nook (pre colour), Kindle DX, iRex Iliad. Not seen the Kindle Fire yet. Got an iPad2 and used a Motorola Xoom.

Basically: Get a Kindle. It's cheap, it's user interface is easy, it's small enough to put into a trouser pocket, and integration into Amazon is dead easy. It's simple enough to use that I bought one for an aunt who still doesn't understand the difference between single and double mouse clicks, and she can use use the Kindle.

The e-ink Nook had a silly user interface, the Sony's have a beautiful aluminium finish but are much pricer and the Sony store sucks (last I checked). Tablets with LCD screens are uncomfortable on the eyes for multi-hour reading sessions, expensive, heavy, easy to break, and have short battery life.

If the person is using it is a 'normal' reader and just likes to read books, and isn't a tech geek who is going to want to want to read manuals in PDF form or play with format conversion programs (Calibre), a Kindle is pretty hard to beat.

 

[wombat]

Timely thread, considering an e-reader for my Mum for christmas. She reads pretty religiously and has been making noises about these things since she's hoping to travel a bit next year. Plus the things are pretty cheap, and buying newish releases seem to be much cheaper than buying physical books. Of course she does use the library a lot too, but I'm sure she'll still find use for the e-reader.

Question is: kindle or kobo (or other?). She'll just be reading books which will most likely be loaded on via the home PC, so I don't see any real advantage to the touch models.
I'm leaning towards the Kindle4, any advice otherwise? $139 I think at BigW, pretty hard to go past.

 

[bluesmurf]

I have just brought my wife a sony e reader for her birthday, and one thing I learnt during researching my purchase is to buy one that supports e-Pub. It is the format that the libraries will be putting their books out on in the near future.

As an aside the sony reader is pretty impressive, albeit slightly pricey at $169 delivered.

 

[wombat]

I have just brought my wife a sony e reader for her birthday, and one thing I learnt during researching my purchase is to buy one that supports e-Pub. It is the format that the libraries will be putting their books out on in the near future.

As an aside the sony reader is pretty impressive, albeit slightly pricey at $169 delivered.

Yeah, I was looking into formats, but it seems that Calibre offers an easy (and free) way to convert epub files for use on a kindle.

 

[Robbiejuve]

Kindle is pretty awesome, I have had mine for a year. I travel a bit and thats when I read the most so it is extremely useful in that regard especially since I am on several books at any one time. I have had it crash on me just before a 24 hour flight and that really pissed me off as I was forced to watch movies on the airline entertainment system. But apart from that, no issues with it.

 

[PINT of Stella. mate!]

+ 1 for the kindle. I'm on my third as I'm a bit careless but I wouldn't hesitate in getting another if I lose or destroy this one (Amazon have been pretty good at replacing them but I wouldn't like to push my luck.)

To put it this way, I spent most of my days on holiday this year lounging around in pools and in spas recovering from hangovers/knocking back cocktails. My kindle with it's handy waterproof pouch, glare-free screen, massive battery life and 600+ books -most of which can be sourced from the internet free-of-charge, those that weren't were purchased at UK prices from Amazon for about 30% of Oz bookstore prices- kept me more than occupied during this time. Given the amount of books I read on holiday, the weight savings were worth it alone!

The icing on the cake is that because i also have .pdf's of all the relevant Australian Standards, Work Procedures, Equipment manuals etc for work stored on it, I could claim it against tax!

 

[buffy]

i held off getting a kindle due to being anti-technology/gadget collector but finally got one and im really disappointed i didnt get one earlier. not only is it way better to read on than paperbacks, it will save you money in the long run if you know where to look online. highly rate them.

 

[schneller schneller]

I don't have a kindle but a Acer tablet and find it great for reading magazines. You can get bike mags from around the world (what is on zinio at least)
I probally prefer a book but if you travel or need space then a pad/tablet/kindle would be more then ideal.