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Amazon: New Kindles Selling at Record Rates

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Re: Amazon: New Kindles Selling at Record Rates

#31

Post by callahad »

glhaynes wrote: post #27
mdh wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(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…

... but Kindle books are DRMed and iTunes music isn't.

Only if you're buying them from Amazon. There are plenty of wonderful texts available in the public domain, and already formatted for the Kindle: http://manybooks.net/

That's actually why I placed my order: I won't abide by the DRM, which will force me to read older works to get value out of the device. A goal I've had since reading a quote dubiously attributed to Einstein: "Somebody who only reads newspapers and at best books of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely near-sighted person who scorns eyeglasses. He is completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of his times, since he never gets to see or hear anything else."

Re: Amazon: New Kindles Selling at Record Rates

#32

Post by charlief »

tvon wrote: post #3

Some records are easier to break than others. Of course, if I read more I'd probably have one by now, at $190 for the free 3G model it's very tempting. Relatedly, has anything come of the SDK?

Slow refresh rate of e-ink (1.35 Hz), limited contrast and shade resolution, no touch screen yet and a book-centric context make the immediate scope of apps a lot less varied than say the iPad. Better colour gradience, resolution and refresh rate means a greater variety of books, games and media. We'll see what happens as app development actually starts and matures as future Kindle iterations come out. Kindle's future success is tied to E-ink's viability in cost versus quality and right now, one could only guess beyond reading and reference-type apps.

I think E-Ink is exciting in the sense of how little power it consumes in static display. The Kindle 3 supposedly lasts up to a month if the wireless radio is turned off. Lowering e-ink cost regardless of the quality combined with a few solar panels here+there, and the technology's use cases in advertising, retail, consumer, and corporate stuff etc go up drastically.

Re: Amazon: New Kindles Selling at Record Rates

#33

Post by glhaynes »

unfletch wrote: post #28
glhaynes wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... but Kindle books are DRMed and iTunes music isn't.

but Kindle books are DRMed and iTunes music isn't. ...anymore. iTunes books have DRM. iTunes music had DRM for years. DRM is the way you get big media to shift business models. Without DRM they'll happily forgo the new revenue stream and die slowly. So you first concede on the DRM point and restrict content just to begin the transition to the new model. 10 years after Napster major labels finally allow (most of) thei…

Oh, I completely agree. The earlier post was specifically talking about "the music platform iTunes represents" so I didn't understand what the comparison there was and how it ended up with happier feelings toward Kindle.

Re: Amazon: New Kindles Selling at Record Rates

#34

Post by davidw »

pmjordan wrote: post #13

I'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 day one of these things does Knuth's books perfectly is the day when I think they've well and truly won.

Re: Amazon: New Kindles Selling at Record Rates

#35

Post by kroger »

pmjordan wrote: post #19
MichaelSalib wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"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?"

Yes. I use mobipocket creator [1] to convert pdf files to the mobi format. It's free and works pretty well for documents with one column. For papers with multiple columns (like those from journals) I use papercrop [2] to slice the pdf in smaller parts so I can read in my (non-dx) kindle 2.

[1] http://www.mobipocket.com/en/downloadsoft/productdetailscrea...

[2] http://code.google.com/p/papercrop/

edit: small fixes

Re: Amazon: New Kindles Selling at Record Rates

#36

Post by lallysingh »

MichaelSalib wrote: post #23
jemfinch wrote: post #18

I just wish flight attendants would stop making me turn it off for takeoff and landing.

Yeah, but remember, your Kindle is a much bigger threat to the navigation system than the 30 or 40 cell phones in people's pockets that they forgot to turn off. Plus, reading a Kindle might distract you in an emergency, which is why they don't let anyone read books or magazines during takeoff and landing either.

I was under the impression that the cell phone shutoff was to prevent the towers from freaking out about dozens of phones coming in & out of range at 650mph+.

Re: Amazon: New Kindles Selling at Record Rates

#37

Post by utnick »

pmjordan wrote: post #13

I'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.

Its not good. I love my kindle, but for textbooks it kind of sucks. Granted I have the smaller one.

Formulae are ok from what I have seen, but graphs and charts are almost impossible to read.

Also its annoying because often times a paragraph on one page will refer to a graph on the next page and switching back and forth is very tedious.

Re: Amazon: New Kindles Selling at Record Rates

#39

Post by PidGin128 »

lallysingh wrote: post #36
MichaelSalib wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but remember, your Kindle is a much bigger threat to the navigation system than the 30 or 40 cell phones in people's pockets that they forgot to turn off. Plus, reading a Kindle might distract you in an emergency, which is why they don't let anyone read books or magazines during takeoff and landing either.

I was under the impression that the cell phone shutoff was to prevent the towers from freaking out about dozens of phones coming in & out of range at 650mph+.

I was under the impression that towers had some type of signal baffle to prevent reception from devices a certain number of degrees from the horizon.

I have no merit or citation to exert with this claim.

Re: Amazon: New Kindles Selling at Record Rates

#40

Post by Luc »

pmjordan wrote: post #29
MichaelSalib wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd actually suggest that you try out a DX and see for yourself. I think they're free to return within the first N days. Or at least see if you can find other opinions by people who read sci/tech papers. For all I know, my friend's particular field has really heavy journal PDFs that other fields might not have. If I was reading a lot of papers, the appeal of a DX would be so great that I'd want a second opinion befor…

Returning the Kindle is probably fine if you're in the US, but for us in Europe it would be an expensive experiment. I doubt I'd get a customs & VAT refund, plus the postage is probably steep, too. I still don't get why they only sell it from amazon.com, not amazon.*. I might be able to eBay it off, assuming it's possible to sever the tie to my amazon account.

Thankfully there's no customs fee when you buy a Kindle from Europe, just VAT. Don't know about other territories.
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