I wonder why they still don't sell to Russia and over 100 other countries. Copyright issues?
Amazon: New Kindles Selling at Record Rates
11–20 of 57 posts
Re: Amazon: New Kindles Selling at Record Rates
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was pretty anti on the Kindle as well--I don't like the idea of my book running out of batteries--but the cheaper price (plus, for whatever reason, graphite) had me within one-click of buying one the other day. Right then I read a very convincing case that it will drop below $100 in time for xmas ( http://www.slate.com/id/2263787/pagenum/all/ ). FYI.
The battery life on e-Ink devices is phenomenal. They only draw power when redrawing the page. You can literally go weeks between charges.
(genuine question) don't the wifi/3G draw power? or is your 'weeks' assessment including normal wireless use?
Oddly, i feel must less strongly about Amazon's hold over the the platform the Kindle represents than i do about Apple and its hold over the music platform iTunes represents. Irrational? Probably. Uneconomnical? maybe (i buy far fewer books than i do albums/audiobooks). I can't fathom why but i just somehow feel like, when i've read a book, the ideas it containws stay with me and become mine whereas an album is something that perpetually stays somehow external (apologies for the airy-fairieness of that: i'm not sure how to express it but i feels like a difference thats significant for me and i'm curious whether anyone else feels the same).
Re: Amazon: New Kindles Selling at Record Rates
#13I'm curious how well the Kindle renders tech/scientific books, with graphs, diagrams and formulae. I'd imagine the larger form factor of most printed technical books compared to fiction paperbacks to be an issue. I'd assume the 10" version does better than the smaller one.
Re: Amazon: New Kindles Selling at Record Rates
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
The battery life on e-Ink devices is phenomenal. They only draw power when redrawing the page. You can literally go weeks between charges.
(genuine question) don't the wifi/3G draw power? or is your 'weeks' assessment including normal wireless use? Oddly, i feel must less strongly about Amazon's hold over the the platform the Kindle represents than i do about Apple and its hold over the music platform iTunes represents. Irrational? Probably. Uneconomnical? maybe (i buy far fewer books than i do albums/audiobooks). I can't fathom why but i just somehow f…
Only when you're getting new books over Whispernet. And if you'd loaded up on reading material and were off on holiday, you would just leave it off.
I don't see the iPad and Kindle being direct competitors esp. since Kindle is really just software; an iPad is a "Kindle" with a couple of clicks on the App Store (there are Kindle clients for BlackBerry, etc too) and Amazon makes the same money regardless of what physical device they deliver the file to.
It is vaguely annoying having both iBooks and Kindle apps tho' I've not yet forgotten which one had a particular book in!
Re: Amazon: New Kindles Selling at Record Rates
#15Having ordered several weeks ago, I am anxiously awaiting it's arrival. The wifi only version was a nice move and the price point is really attractive.
Re: Amazon: New Kindles Selling at Record Rates
#16I'm curious how well the Kindle renders tech/scientific books, with graphs, diagrams and formulae. I'd imagine the larger form factor of most printed technical books compared to fiction paperbacks to be an issue. I'd assume the 10" version does better than the smaller one.
I was just speaking to a friend of mine who is a EE/physicist who had just returned a Kindle DX two days ago. He got it specifically to read IEEE journal papers and found that it was unacceptable. His specific beef wasn't with the e-ink or the e-ink page turn speed but rather with the huge delay spent processing PDFs when you turned pages. In other words, page turn delays were no problem when reading a text only document, but when reading a PDF, they were really long, presumably because of the slow processor and an unwillingness to pre-rasterize pages.
I love my kindle, but for technical documents, I just print them out.
Re: Amazon: New Kindles Selling at Record Rates
#17I'm curious how well the Kindle renders tech/scientific books, with graphs, diagrams and formulae. I'd imagine the larger form factor of most printed technical books compared to fiction paperbacks to be an issue. I'd assume the 10" version does better than the smaller one.
The DX does reasonably well if you can handle smaller fonts. I've had no difficulties with mine for computer science papers.
Re: Amazon: New Kindles Selling at Record Rates
#18I just wish flight attendants would stop making me turn it off for takeoff and landing.
Re: Amazon: New Kindles Selling at Record Rates
#19I'm curious how well the Kindle renders tech/scientific books, with graphs, diagrams and formulae. I'd imagine the larger form factor of most printed technical books compared to fiction paperbacks to be an issue. I'd assume the 10" version does better than the smaller one.
I was just speaking to a friend of mine who is a EE/physicist who had just returned a Kindle DX two days ago. He got it specifically to read IEEE journal papers and found that it was unacceptable. His specific beef wasn't with the e-ink or the e-ink page turn speed but rather with the huge delay spent processing PDFs when you turned pages. In other words, page turn delays were no problem when reading a text only docu…
Interesting, thanks. As far as I can tell, it's possible to convert PDFs to the Kindle's native format, any idea if this improves the situation?
I've noticed the PDF delay on the iPad as well, although it's not sufficient to bother me. I'm reluctant to use the illuminated screen for extended periods of reading though, especially in the evening.
Re: Amazon: New Kindles Selling at Record Rates
#20I'm curious how well the Kindle renders tech/scientific books, with graphs, diagrams and formulae. I'd imagine the larger form factor of most printed technical books compared to fiction paperbacks to be an issue. I'd assume the 10" version does better than the smaller one.
It doesn't handle math formulae very well. Not sure if this is a short coming of the AZW format or what at this point. It's hard to find information on whether or not there is an easy work around.