David Lock

Was thinking about getting daughter a Kindle for Xmas so anyone here use one and have any comments please?

She has finished uni and just starting a career in NHS working on kids language development so would she be able to use Kindle to access technical stuff/research papers that you could get on 'net?

Can you download lightweight magazines - journey on bus reading material and things like that?

Can she download stuff and print articles?

What accessories might I need?

Anything else I should be asking?

Cheers, David

Chip

Mrs Chip has one and loves it.

billythekid

How much do books cost?

boxst

The kindle is very good as a book reader. The 'ink' is outstanding and provides a better reading experience than the iPad.

It pretty much sucks at anything else though. Not real net browsing, a pain to print something (it isn't that painless on the iPad either).

The kindle fire alleviates some of those problems but not available here yet.

Steve

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

Any idea when the Fire is due out in the UK? Looks potentially interesting as a quick way to surf the net without having to boot up a PC.

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

...........I'm waiting for the fire too

The present kindle would be pretty hopeless at surfing the net and reading articles from research sites like NIH or PubMed etc TBH.

Shaun

David Lock

Thanks guys - that's most informative.

Put me off a bit tbh. Hmmmm.

Is the Fire stuff an add-on or a whole new machine?

Billy - research books can be v expensive, more than the cost of a Kindle itself.

David

hodgy0_2

funny

just ordered one today £89.00 - can't be bad

tired of reading PDF,s from my laptop

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

How would you read a PDF on a kindle ? or are you tired of reading books on the laptopp.........

Shaun

Dunk

iTrader: (1)

Mrs D is in love with hers, think of it as a pure book reader forget about browsing capability. The whole point is it's cheap and so you don't get too precious over it.

D

Nimbus

+1

I've had a Kindle for about a year and use it everyday. It's great when being used for it's primary purpose (reading mostly text books like Fiction). 1 month battery life, light, very natural eInk screen means it's pretty much replaced buying paper books for me (at least for text ones). And if if you use caliber you can pretty much convert anything else into the kindle format.

I tried the web browsing on it but it really was a chore so don't bother. Not tried MP3 playback or text to speech.

hodgy0_2

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/32987...dle-version-3/

and yes, tired of reading PDF docs on laptops/PC's

David Lock

OK, so could you download a daily on-line paper to read on Kindle during the day?

d

Chip

Yes you can.

Chip

PaulJC

iTrader: (1)

I love my kindle, also use it on a daily basis and it gets thrown from vehicle to vehicle quite often aswell, does what it says on the tin and as already mentioned cheap enough that you dont get all precious over it

Trout

iTrader: (1)

Kindle is excellent and can do many of the things you describe. My wife loves her Kindle and uses it every day.

+
Battery lasts forever
Ink is fabulous - a different league to iPad
lots of books available
some papers and magazine material
great for travelling - lots of books in a very lightweight device

-
not all books are available for Kindle - you can request through Amazon
general reading material not that available for Kindle
books can be more expensive as VAT is applicable as Kindle reader is a service not a book
browsing experience is not the best

Chip

Agree with Trout that browsing is not very good at all and I think to charge VAT is wrong as well. Some books are cheaper via Amazon whereas other are more expensive than their paperback versions, but generally I think they are a little cheaper, even with the VAT, than the paper version.

We bought the 3g model but in hindsight would not do so again as we download books via wi-fi, and have only used the 3g once in about 9 months of having one due to the fact that anything you want to do webwise is better and quicker via your mobile.

Chip

Jaybird-UK

Don't view it as a tablet but as a book replacement and you'll find it excellent.

Jamescsti

Both my parents have Kindle's and love them, i've seen loads of people on my daily train commute using them too recently, certainly seem to be taking off

boxst

Mmmm ... a surprisingly not good review of Kindle Fire: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11...e_google_apps/

I expected a bit more, even for $199.

David Lock

OK, thanks again. So taking an example Mrs L is fascinated by Paleontology so say I found a book on Amazon on the evolution of Whales how do I find out if is available for Kindle use? If it is do I just plug Kindle into Internet and download? What should I be looking to pay say for a £30 book? Sorry about basic questions.

d

Trout

iTrader: (1)

If you go to Amazon it will tell you if it is available on Kindle on the sales page.

If not there will be a button requesting it on Kindle.

I would suspect the majority of reference books will NOT be available on Kindle and if they were you may end up paying more for the cost of porting it to the Kindle will be spread across few readers.

Trout

iTrader: (1)

Here is a worked example




In the middle of the page it shows formats available - no Kindle format.

Bottom left - you can see the request button for Kindle - when they get enough requests they will convert.

David Lock

Thank you Trout. That makes it a lot clearer. Shame as she devours these books but on the other hand I know she would prefer to have the actual book in her mitts.

But gone are the days when any reasonable library, ouside of a uni, holds a decent selection of reference books.

d

Geezer

As well as downloading directly, you can mail them to your kindle, so if for any reason you cannot connect, it's quite handy.

Amazon then converts documents that are mailed into a Kindle friendly format and you can download them. I don't really use it, but I have set it up and tried it and it's very good.

Geezer

TingTongPJ

iTrader: (24)

I've just got a fire, my friend has brought it back from the states for me.

Should recieve it tomorrow so will report back what it's like, 1gig dual core processor and 8 gig internal memory for $199 can't be bad

Markus

One downside to Kindle is that it uses a proprietary DRM system. You can read the books on any device / system that has a Kindle app, however, if you were to get a non-kindle e-Reader / Tablet, you won't be able to read your books on it.

Apple is the same with iBooks, uses their own system, so if you wanted to buy on iBooks and copy the file over to your Kindle, it won't work.

Not a massive issue, but if they decided to stop selling eBooks (pretty unlikely) then unless they remove the DRM, you would not be able to move the books to another device.

mervil

iTrader: (5)

I bought one for the Mrs a few months ago and she loves it! Bought it from Currys and got the chance to get insurance with it, no need!

My mrs knocked a glass off the bedside table and fell on the Kindle, cracking the screen. A 10min phonecall to Amazon Kindle Support and a new one was on it's way, pre registered to her email/Kindle account and ready to go! They gave 30 days to send old one back too great customer service

Luan Pra bang

I would get one of the cheaper 200 quid andriod tablets, you can then use the kindle app for amazon books and still have access to other book formats. This gives you a much larger selection of books as well as music video web access etc. A kindle looks very expensive for what it can do.

Trout

iTrader: (1)

I read my Kindle on my iPad ;