Why I hate the Kindle
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Why I hate the Kindle
1–10 of 66 posts
Re: Why I hate the Kindle
#2I have yet to buy any ebooks from amazon, just downloaded most of mine through "3rd parties", and the kindle is a wonderful device for that, thus I can share my books with whoever I like.
Re: Why I hate the Kindle
#3I am at the Borobudur temple right now : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borobudur
I brought nothing on my long walk but water and Kindle.
Stopped for a couple hours. Reading an amazing book, with the temple in the background. Highlighting the most important bits as I come across them. The stuff I don't want to forget. The Kindle saves all of these to a file called "My Clippings.txt", which I'll later transfer over to my laptop, for memorizing and sharing on my site. This feature alone saves me hours of re-typing.
The next 55 books I want to read are all queued up on the Kindle. I could change my plan and stay here for months, and I'd have everything I need. I can sit in queues for hours, thrilled that my next 55 books are already in my pocket.
Filled with appreciation for life and my Kindle. It's topped my cellphone as my most important "don't go without it" device.
I was just actively appreciating all this an hour ago on my walk. Then came back to see this article. So there's my counterpoint, for what it's worth.
Re: Why I hate the Kindle
#4"You can’t cut and paste quotes from an e-book."
Pretty sure you can highlight things and then they would appear on Amazons new kindle social network to copy and paste? Although doing so one the kindle itself is fairly clunky.
Re: Why I hate the Kindle
#5I am at the Borobudur temple right now : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borobudur I brought nothing on my long walk but water and Kindle. Stopped for a couple hours. Reading an amazing book, with the temple in the background. Highlighting the most important bits as I come across them. The stuff I don't want to forget. The Kindle saves all of these to a file called "My Clippings.txt", which I'll later transfer over to m…
I just got a Nook SimpleTouch that I'm looking forward to carrying to Everest Base Camp next month. There's simply no way I could carry a physical copy of Infinite Jest (2.8lbs) with me.
Re: Why I hate the Kindle
#6"You can’t cut and paste quotes from an e-book." Pretty sure you can highlight things and then they would appear on Amazons new kindle social network to copy and paste? Although doing so one the kindle itself is fairly clunky.
but on the other hand it's even "clunkier" to copy and paste from a paper book.
Re: Why I hate the Kindle
#7These are all very valid points. Several of them (the ones related to DRM, mostly) kept me from buying a Kindle for a very long time.
However, I love my Kindle.
First and most importantly, it means that books can now compete with the internet in convenience, and that's meant that I've read more in the last few months than I have in the several years before that. Thinking "I want to read " and being able to start reading minutes rather than days later is awesome.
Second, I find the Kindle to be much nicer to read than cheap trade paperbacks. The text is higher-contrast and crisper, and only having to push a button rather than turn a page means I can read more comfortably. That there's less text on each screen was an issue at first for me (because, like the author, I read very quickly), but I've since gotten used to it and don't even notice anymore.
It has its downsides, and I really do hope they're resolved at some point in the future, but my Kindle has become something I really wouldn't want to live without, at this point.
Re: Why I hate the Kindle
#8I too have started to hate my kindle, but not for any of the reasons the author lists. Mine are:
- Availability. Within the US (and only within the US/Canada) book availability is great, but it isn't perfect..outside the US/Canada it sucks. Amazon once had books 1,2 and 5 of a series I wanted, but not 3 and 4 (I know, i know, this isn't amazon's fault)
- Price. Kindle books are often more expensive than their physical counterparts
- Quality. Not only are you paying more, but you'll get OCR errors in every book.
- DRM.
The above 4 combined make it so I rather donate to Calibre (http://calibre-ebook.com/) and find other ways to get ebooks onto my device.
Additionally:
- KDK. The KDK isn't public yet, and it seems imposible to get into the beta. On top of that, the KDK is lacking some basic APIs (like collection management)
- Indie support. It's my understanding that you can't publish a free book as an independent author to the kindle store.
My plan is that when it's time to upgrade (hoping for a new batch of options for xmas), I'll buy whatever has the best screen/battery/dimensions/weight/price. Because, really, once you don't care about the Kindle store, there's no reason to not simply get the best device. Amazon doesn't do any value-added with the Kindle....there's no reason to be loyal or stick with it.
Re: Why I hate the Kindle
#9I am at the Borobudur temple right now : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borobudur I brought nothing on my long walk but water and Kindle. Stopped for a couple hours. Reading an amazing book, with the temple in the background. Highlighting the most important bits as I come across them. The stuff I don't want to forget. The Kindle saves all of these to a file called "My Clippings.txt", which I'll later transfer over to m…
I've just bought one myself and have experienced the same kind of joy that you have with it, very much similar to getting my first iPhone.
I think your choice on iPad/Kindle will always fall down to e-ink. I get mentally exhausted at looking at backlit screens for too long, picking up the Kindle I get none of that nagging feeling of strain.
It's a wonderful device and I wish I'd got it sooner.
Re: Why I hate the Kindle
#101. I can spill most things on my Kindle, or leave it in sunlight; I have a cover.
2. Amazon allows Kindle book lending, but the majority of publishers do not enable it on their books. But this isn't a problem with the Kindle specifically.
3. There's less of a second hand market for e-books, this is true. This is like complaining about how you can't resell games purchased via Steam.
4. You can save quotes via the highlighting feature. If I were allowed to copy/paste directly from the kindle app, I'd have a script which allowed me to dump the entire text of a book in a few hours.
5. Amazon added real page numbers in the latest Kindle update.
6 & 7. Now he's just venting.