Kindle

Discussion in 'Art & Culture' started by Bowser, Nov 27, 2016.

  1. Bowser Namaste Valued Senior Member

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    So downloaded kindle to my laptop which gave me access to a lot of books that otherwise would have been out of reach because of price. I like it. My only complaint is that it doesn't display the page number. Anyone else using Kindle?
     
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  3. Stoniphi obscurely fossiliferous Valued Senior Member

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    Nah, but I have and use a Kindle Fire tablet. It is limited, but fun. Got a ton of books on it now, have even read a few of them. I do get page numbers, among other things.

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  5. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    I have thousands of e-book files, I read my paperwhite daily.
     
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  7. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    Most books I buy these days are e-books, because (a) they are cheaper than paper books, (b) you don't need to have heaps of physical storage space for an e-book, (c) you can carry a whole heap of books around on an e-reader instead of having to lug heavy physical books.

    The exception is picture-heavy books (coffee-table sort of stuff, photographs etc.) and technical textbooks, which often don't translate very effectively to electronic formats.
     
  8. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Kobo reader for me.
     
  9. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    Same here.
     
  10. Baldeee Valued Senior Member

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    I'm a physical copy kind of guy.
    I like my (small but perfectly proportioned) library of sci-if and fantasy books.
    I go through stages of reading, although at the moment I'm in a "not very much" phase.
    I like the tactile experience of books, and there's something about being able to feel how far through the story you are in the way you have to hold the book.
    I'm also very much against breaking the spine, and am loathe to lend books out as a result.
    If it's a second-hand book that's already damaged then no problem, but a new book...
    Never really got used to reading on a Kindle or equivalent.
    Just feels... wrong.
    Plus there's something nice about being able to actually look at what you've read, and what you will read in the future, all laid out on the shelves around you.
    One day I'll compile a list of them all.
    It's not that many, actually, and maybe having them on shelves is a way of making it look like it's more than it actually is!

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  11. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Some people can get by on a bicycle, others need a jet plane.
     
  12. Yazata Valued Senior Member

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    Like Baldeee, I much prefer physical printed books.

    I do have several e-readers but rarely buy reading material for them. There's just too much material out there for free on the internet, ranging from countless academic papers, through unpublished theses and dissertations, to e-books. So when considering an e-reader, I'm always very concerned with whether it will display pdf files and the ease of 'side-loading' files into it from my laptops. (My Kobo does those things very well.)

    To find interesting reading material, just do a search with the name of whatever subject you are interested in and 'filetype: pdf' Or go to Google Scholar which often has links to pdfs of the papers listed.

    In truth, I don't really use my e-readers all that much, and usually find myself reading that stuff on my laptops which have much nicer screens. Pdf scans can be hard to read on small screens.

    A couple of cool things are Google books and archive.org, which have free pdfs of tens of thousands of old out-of-copyright book titles from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Many of the science titles are out of date, though still of interest from a history of science standpoint. (You can look at the late 19th century reception of Darwin's theories, for example.)

    But I often read philosophy or history titles, which don't go out of date nearly as quickly. I've collected hundreds of free books about Greek and Indian philosophy from these sources, some of them classic texts. More books than I can ever read. (If I did read all of them, I'd have the equivalent of a graduate degree in ancient philosophy.)
     
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2016
  13. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Haha. Great slip-of-the-thumb there.

    Speculative Fiction = sci-if

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    (You read it here first)
     
  14. Bowser Namaste Valued Senior Member

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    The Kindle software is new to me. I like it. Spent the day trying to get it to work on my Ubuntu PC, but I couldn't get it to register with Amazon. After talking with a guy at Amazon, he sent me a link to their Kindle Cloud. It's a browser app that connects to your Amazon digital account. Works great.
    I think the price point is the deal maker for me. I've always preferred paper in the past, yet I'm finding the digital content just as good.
     
  15. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Digital readers have t̶w̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶r̶e̶e̶ four "killer features" over dead trees.

    1] I can adjust the font size to my current needs (such as while exercising).
    2] I can take 100+ books with me on vacation (I go through about 4 in a week)
    3] Has its own built-in light, so I can read at night.
    4] Is waterproof (as well as Cervesa-proof), so I can (and do) read it in the pool/hottub/surf.
     
    Last edited: Nov 29, 2016
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  16. Bowser Namaste Valued Senior Member

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    I also like the fact that my books are stored on my account at Amazon, where I can retrieve them any time I need.
     
  17. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    Unfortunately, I have an older model that isn't waterproof, so when I'm relaxing in my jacuzzi on the outside deck of my 57th floor penthouse, I have to content myself myself with drinking the champagne and enjoying the view instead.

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    I find the other three features are useful, though.
     
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  18. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Well, get thee a Kobo H2O then!
     
  19. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    The fact is, I'd probably be too paranoid to use even a supposedly waterproof tablet/e-reader in the bath, let alone the surf. I don't trust the seals on those things. I have a supposedly waterproof phone, which is OK if if gets splashed or rained on, but I wouldn't take it swimming.
     
  20. Sarkus Hippomonstrosesquippedalo phobe Valued Senior Member

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    You're surfing with seals??? I wouldn't trust a seal anywhere near my e-reader!

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    I don't use one at the moment, and I'd be loathe to repurchase books I already own for it, but which would you recommend for outdoor viewing, generally in shaded areas, and also when in bed?
    I've seen mention of Kindle and Kobo, so which is better, and are there any others?
     
  21. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    Both the Kindle and Kobo (and others) have e-ink screens. e-ink only uses power when it refreshes, so battery life on an e-reader can be something like a month between charges. e-ink does not require back-lighting like an LED screen on a tablet or laptop, so it is easy to read it even in bright sunlight. Lots of e-readers these days also have built-in lights that illuminate the screen evenly from the front.

    As far as which brand is better, it's largely personal preference, or the desire for a particular feature that one has and the other one lacks. Also, all e-readers try to lock you in to their own ebook store ecosystem. If you buy a Kindle, you're locked into Amazon. If you buy Kobo, the easiest way to buy books is the Kobo store. In both cases, books can easily be bought using the e-reader itself. Amazon probably still has an overall bigger range of ebooks available than Kobo, but new books will generally be found on both stores, and at similar prices.

    One of the main reasons that I chose Kobo over Kindle is that all Kindle ebooks come in a proprietary format unique to Kindle/Amazon. That's not a problem if you don't ever want to get books from any other source. Kobo, on the other hand, can read books in epub format, which is an open standard for ebooks. epub books purchased from Kobo come with digital rights management (i.e. copy protection), similar to Kindle books, but there are lots of free-to-copy epubs available at many places on the internet. There's also some very useful software available that can be used to manage your ebook library using a PC. It's also relatively easy to write/edit an epub-format book, again using appropriate software.

    Many e-readers can also read .pdf files and some other formats. Apart from Kobo, I'm not sure how easy or difficult it is to "side load" other files ("side-loading" means getting ebooks from sources other than the "official" ebook store and putting them on your ereader).

    Additional features of e-readers include various bells and whistles, like inbuilt dictionaries (tap on any word while you're reading to see its definition - useful), and some social-media like sharing of information on books that are being read (annotations, reviews etc.) e-readers also track how much you read, the time spent reading, etc. and will estimate how much time it will take you to read the current chapter, next chapter, entire book etc., based on how often you flip the pages while you read.

    I don't think that any company has a killer feature that would make me recommend one brand over another. I'd recommend looking at the different features of different brands and deciding for yourself. Having said that, I have owned 2 Kobo ereaders so far, and the next one I buy will probably be a Kobo as well, unless something better comes along.
     
  22. Bowser Namaste Valued Senior Member

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    I'm debating whether I want a Fire Tablet. It's only $50.00. I want to learn a bit more about it before I buy. The file formats it can handle are below...
     
  23. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    That's not a real kindle, it's a ipad wanna-be. Just get a freaking ipad.
     

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