Entertainment For Lively Minds
Kindle Experience
Posted by Excitable Boy on 30 September 2010 - 12:28pm.
I am just about to buy a Kindle - as much for the newspaper/magazine possiblities as the books. Do any existing Kindle users have any good or bad experience to share in this area before I go ahead ?
(PS Apple fans - please don't try to persuade me to buy an IPad instead - am 100% not interested.)
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Buy an Ipad instead.
Go on go on go on go on go on go on go on go on go on.
My friend has an ipad
but has just bought the Kindle as the back lit display on the ipad gives him eye strain.
He loves the Kindle.
Eye Strain
I use an iPad almost exclusively now to read and I've never noticed even a hint of eye strain. Clearly this must vary from person to person, so try before you buy if you can.
Seems to me to come down to this issue and, of course, the trade off between price and use. Kindle = cheap(ish) but only does one thing, Ipad = expensive but does lots of things.
Your call
It was on the telly
So it must be true...
Magazines might be a less than optimal experience?
My understanding is the Kindle is text-only
They do pictures
They're just black and white
Only used pdfs
I've used the new Kindle to read my subscriber pdf download of Paste magazine and it's very easy on the eye but it's very hard to move around the page sensibly. There doesn't seem to be a "nudge" button to move the page over a little bit, it sort of pages from side to side rather than flows which means that you often get one and a half columns on the page. That doesn't sound like a huge problem but when there are pictures on the page you can sometimes get columns that are just 10 lines long and you are forever jumping around the page. That said, it's more than acceptable and the fact that all the graphics are black and white doesn't detract from the general feel.
Same problem
Same problem with the PDF version of the 'Word' which is sent out to subscribers. It's great that they do it, but since you have to grab and magnify text every few seconds to read it it's not actually readable.
What pdf version ?
Mine is flash, which won't work on the kindle (or an iPad)
Is that so?
I only just subscribed after buying every Word issue over the counter since #1. The main reason was getting a PDF version that i could carry and read anywhere on my iPad, and have a library building up of back issues. I will be a bit miffed if I can't actually read it on my iPad.
I'm afraid so
We've never done a .pdf version, and while we're considering our options regarding an iPad edition, our online issues have always been rendered in flash.
Magazine possibilities
I've not tried the .pdf route for looking at magazines, but have subscribed (via Amazon) to New Statesman and The Spectator. Both work well on the Kindle, but not by directly replicating the magazine experience. For each, the subscription comes without any pictures at all (ok for these two magazines, but might be a problem with more visually-focused publications) and articles flow as full pages of text, rather than magazine-style columns.
Amazon reviews would suggest that the newspaper experience is pretty unsatisfactory, although I've not tried it myself.
Books, on the other hand, are absolutely superb on the Kindle. I would unreservedly recommend buying one as an e-book reader and look upon magazines/newspapers as an 'extra attraction'.
Get a Kindle
Then download free software Calibre to your PC/Mac & enjoy BBC News, the Guardian, Times, the Mail (!) or a whole cornucopia of newspapers & periodicals emailed free to your device every day. I take the Guardian and jolly fine it is too. Calibre also allows you to use other ebook formats on your Kindle with a quick & simple conversion process, so you're not locked in to Amazon's store (although Amazon's prices are great compared to the likes of Waterstones!!)
Thank you
I didn't know you could use Calibre for the Kindle - it's all set up now. Thank you.
Any advice on how to set up this
I have downloaded Calibre and seem to be able to transfer newsfeeds via USB but not email. If you can point to a website that has it explained simply, I would be very grateful.
New boy
I'm a new boy to the Kindle as well and an even newer boy to Calibre but it's simple. It looks like you've managed to download a feed as a book (I saved mine as an EPUB). You then just set up Calibre to email it to your kindle address. It's the same address that you would use to put pdfs on your Kindle (probably yourname@Kindle.com - it's listed in the menu on the home screen of your Kindle). You need to point Calibre at your smtp (ie outgoing) mail server (if you don't know what that is, you'll find it in your email client) if you don't normally use an email client (eg you use gmail) then you'll need to go to your ISPs site for details. Note that you may or may not need a password, it depends on your mail server.
The Kindle will only accept documents by email from registered email addresses so you need to make sure you've added whatever ones you might want to use on your Kindles. Once you've done that, in the box that says who the mail is from, you need to put a registered address.
Press the test button to make sure it works and your set to send them.
Once sent, wait a few minutes and go to your Kindle and check for new files.
I have to admit that I haven't worked out how to get a scheduled download to automatically email the file but I will....
I did that last night on a Vista laptop - today I'll set it up on the Mac (because that's on all the time and more suitable for the task). If there are any big differences, I'll post them.
I was very impressed at the Independent that I downloaded.
Thanks
I've got the email thing going manually. Just need to get it automated and I am in news heaven. I prefer the RSS feeds to the Telegraph I subscribed to under the free trial.
Thanks again.
It's fantastic
and there are shed-loads of free, legal books out there. You'll want to invest in a cover for it though.
I love it
I've had it 3 weeks, haven't had to charge it yet after it's initial charge and it's great for novels and pretty good for newspapers. I haven't really tried to do much more than that so far. I did treat myself to the leather cover with the built in book light that runs of the kindle power which is brilliant.
I think the ipad v kindle debate is like a bicycle versus car debate. One is more flexible but there are certain things the other just does better.
Android Application
I've just got the free Android Kindle application for my mobile (Sony Ericsson Xperia X10). It's really good, though I can't see myself buying a separate Kindle device. I've got a similar view of the iPad - I don't want to carry a number of devices that do a few things each when I can just have one that does everything. The screen is obviously smaller, so this presumably means I turn the page more often, but once you start reading you don't really notice.
I've no intention to stop buying books, paperbacks are cheap enough these days, it's the "free classics" that pulled me in. I'm currently reading "A Study In Scarlet", having never tried a Sherlock Holmes before. I got it from one of the other sites Amazon links to for free books, but I couldn't get it going with the Kindle application so I'm reading this one on "Aldiko", another free Android reader which is basically the same.
I've also grabbed some free Oscar Wilde, David Hume, Thomas Hardy and Jonathan Swift. Any other good finds in the free ones?
You might like this...
'Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds' by Charles Mackay. Written in 18-something but the chapter on, for example, the South Sea Bubble is depressingly contemporary.
Cheers for the tip
I've found the free version and added it to my phone.
Ive just upgraded to this
Ive just upgraded to this service called (L) iBrary. Offers almost every book for free (some you have to pre-order) in a very tactile format. The best thing is they have outlets on almost every high street, staffed by real people (modelled on the Apple Genius format, I suspect) who help you find what you want. Not sure if it will catch on though.