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Amazon reveals $79 Kindle

engadget.com

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Re: Amazon reveals $79 Kindle

#21

Post by jamesbkel »

raju wrote: post #14

Does anyone use the Kindle for technical books? If so, how does it fare? For the $79/$99 it's not a big price to pay, but I have 10s, if not 100s of PDFs that I would like to keep and read (reading on the iPad isn't working out for me). Any thoughts? Update: Just saw fribblerz's comment about the DX. But I am still curious about the other Kindles.

I have a Kindle 3. It's fantastic for fiction/nonfiction/Instapaper. Technical papers are my one major gripe. It's essentially hit or miss, but mostly miss.

I've found that most technical PDF papers are non-trivial to convert to Kindle. It would be one thing if they were scaled down to a format that only required vertical scrolling, but as it stands unless the author/publisher makes an effort, most technical PDFs require horizontal and vertical scrolling. Certainly possible, but hardly convenient.

Re: Amazon reveals $79 Kindle

#22

Post by [deleted] »

raju wrote: post #14

Does anyone use the Kindle for technical books? If so, how does it fare? For the $79/$99 it's not a big price to pay, but I have 10s, if not 100s of PDFs that I would like to keep and read (reading on the iPad isn't working out for me). Any thoughts? Update: Just saw fribblerz's comment about the DX. But I am still curious about the other Kindles.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon reveals $79 Kindle

#23

Post by [deleted] »

raju wrote: post #14

Does anyone use the Kindle for technical books? If so, how does it fare? For the $79/$99 it's not a big price to pay, but I have 10s, if not 100s of PDFs that I would like to keep and read (reading on the iPad isn't working out for me). Any thoughts? Update: Just saw fribblerz's comment about the DX. But I am still curious about the other Kindles.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon reveals $79 Kindle

#24

Post by [deleted] »

raju wrote: post #14

Does anyone use the Kindle for technical books? If so, how does it fare? For the $79/$99 it's not a big price to pay, but I have 10s, if not 100s of PDFs that I would like to keep and read (reading on the iPad isn't working out for me). Any thoughts? Update: Just saw fribblerz's comment about the DX. But I am still curious about the other Kindles.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon reveals $79 Kindle

#25

Post by [deleted] »

raju wrote: post #14

Does anyone use the Kindle for technical books? If so, how does it fare? For the $79/$99 it's not a big price to pay, but I have 10s, if not 100s of PDFs that I would like to keep and read (reading on the iPad isn't working out for me). Any thoughts? Update: Just saw fribblerz's comment about the DX. But I am still curious about the other Kindles.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon reveals $79 Kindle

#26

Post by runn1ng »

tom_b wrote: post #17
raju wrote: post #14

Does anyone use the Kindle for technical books? If so, how does it fare? For the $79/$99 it's not a big price to pay, but I have 10s, if not 100s of PDFs that I would like to keep and read (reading on the iPad isn't working out for me). Any thoughts? Update: Just saw fribblerz's comment about the DX. But I am still curious about the other Kindles.

I actually read PDFs pretty frequently on my Kindle. I usually set it to landscape mode. I used briss to convert some big pdf books (On Lisp and I think a free version of SICP) so they would be a little more readable. briss does some clipping of the margins. I love tech books in print form, but I prefer a tech book I can drop on the kindle now. The raw convenience of the kindle wins out for me. If the DX gets cheap,…

I agree. It works fine enough in landscape mode.

Re: Amazon reveals $79 Kindle

#27

Post by yatsyk »

raju wrote: post #14

Does anyone use the Kindle for technical books? If so, how does it fare? For the $79/$99 it's not a big price to pay, but I have 10s, if not 100s of PDFs that I would like to keep and read (reading on the iPad isn't working out for me). Any thoughts? Update: Just saw fribblerz's comment about the DX. But I am still curious about the other Kindles.

Kindle uses 600x800 screen. eInk HD which is used on new Sony and iRiver readers would be better for pdf reading.

Re: Amazon reveals $79 Kindle

#29

Post by culturestate »

shoota wrote: post #12
jonknee wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was still the publishers, Apple just made themselves into a poker chip the publishers could use to play against Amazon.

Sure ultimately it was the publisher's decision to go to the agency model but if Apple and Amazon held firm it would have been a win for the consumer. Apple decided to take a swipe at one of its competitors which in the end hurt consumers by allowing for ebooks to be priced artificially.

eBook prices were artificial to begin with. Amazon was known to take a loss when necessary to set the price ceiling at $9.99, which (as you can imagine) would hurt competitors who couldn't absorb losses like that.

Re: Amazon reveals $79 Kindle

#30

Post by gte910h »

raju wrote: post #14

Does anyone use the Kindle for technical books? If so, how does it fare? For the $79/$99 it's not a big price to pay, but I have 10s, if not 100s of PDFs that I would like to keep and read (reading on the iPad isn't working out for me). Any thoughts? Update: Just saw fribblerz's comment about the DX. But I am still curious about the other Kindles.

I use kindle technical books, but read them on the iPad and Mac.

The small kindles aren't really appropriately sized for them, and the Kindle DX isn't cheap enough to me not just buy another iPad.

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