31–40 of 45 posts
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.
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.
You basically need a DX for PDF's. The smaller screen requires more zooming and navigating, which is a pain due to the performance lag. Of course, this can be avoided if they are not PDF out of neccesity. If the book is all text, not heavily formatted, and you just have it in PDF for convienience, look into getting an eBook copy. Note: I use a 2nd gen Kindle. The newer models might be a little snappier.
You know, this is probably a really ridiculous gripe, but that silvery plastic look makes the new Kindles look cheap. It reminds me of the cheap silver plastic they use for "As seen on TV" products. I much preferred the slate gray and white colors of the Kindle Keyboard.
It looks cheap because it is cheap. It's a $79 Kindle, what do you expect?
"These are high-end products"
That's the first phrase of the first paragraph after the product image.
I'm not saying they need to cover them in alcantara, but the old smooth-matte finish is much better than this.
Price of this Kindle in the UK: £89 = $139. ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kindle-Wi-Fi-6-Ink-Display/dp/B0051Q... )
Europe gets the ad-free version, which costs $109 in the US. Add 20% UK VAT and that becomes $131 or £84. Amazon's price is pretty reasonable.
Price of this Kindle in the UK: £89 = $139. ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kindle-Wi-Fi-6-Ink-Display/dp/B0051Q... )
Though my other half (who I bought a K3 for then) thinks losing the keyboard basically breaks its search function and is happy she got the one she has.
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 had posted a similar comment earlier today about this.
I love the keyboard for note taking when reading technical books on the kindle. That way I can come back months or years later and just read my notes to refresh my memory.
The hi-lighting option is also great for this. It's like instant cliff's notes.
if you don't want to read the book then you can just search amazon for the hi-lights that people have made public for the book and you've got your cliff's notes without having to read the text yourself:)
It's just a shame that there's no text-to-speech, which would be really killer on this, the lightest model in the lineup. I find TTS really useful, especially for non-fiction, essays and news (conveying the nuances of fiction, particularly dialogue, can be awkward with TTS). I think the feature's been buried by way of being awkwardly placed in the text-size menu of previous Kindles. I'd say %90 of Kindle owners I talk to have never used it or don't know the functionality is even there.
At the very least, I hope Amazon puts it in their iOS/Android apps.
As someone that's been on the Kindle since the 1st gen, I love the march to something cheap and light/small enough to be held in one hand. It's just a shame that there's no text-to-speech, which would be really killer on this, the lightest model in the lineup. I find TTS really useful, especially for non-fiction, essays and news (conveying the nuances of fiction, particularly dialogue, can be awkward with TTS). I thi…