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Kindle

Started by Emma Raducanu, February 13, 2019, 10:04:24 PM

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BritishHobo

I fucking love my Kindle, although I've not used it in a while (more due to not reading a lot then being bored of it). It was an absolute fucking godsend having one during my English degree - getting reading lists and being able to have every book on them within half an hour, usually for about three quid in total, I can't even imagine what the world is like for anyone who's ever had to get physical copies of all their books. I've also been able to fill my Kindle library with digital versions of pretty much every book I own, which is great. I downloaded every Stephen King book, I have every Man Booker shortlisted title since the prize began, every Dickens, every John Steinbeck. About four hundred history books I will never, ever read. Cracking. I've always been properly behind-the-times with technology - last to get a smartphone, tablets passed me by - but holy fuck was I on ebooks the moment I saw an eink screen.

Z

Get a nook glowlight on ebay, you'll find them going for £20 often enough. Good to bring on longish trips, probably really good for a longer commute, and really between that and the Kindle Oasis the gains are only gonna be marginal (I do really want a 7 inch oasis though)
I've gifted a few to people and they always go down a treat.

A well  formatted ebook of something that's heavily annoted can be a very pleasant read. I find not having a constant awareness of how much of the book is left makes it easier to read some longer things too.

You can root it and install Android 1 apps on it if you want, not worth the bother imo.

a duncandisorderly

I use the app.... ipad when I've got enough room to get the bastard out, phone if I haven't. the syncing thing works really well.
I shall have to try the epub/email trick, though, because my addiction to rockstar biographies is getting expensive.

seepage

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on February 15, 2019, 07:14:44 PM
just buy books for pennies from abebooks mostly.
I didn't know you had to pay for stuff on alt.binaries.ebooks

olliebean

Quote from: olliebean on February 14, 2019, 10:05:42 PM
I saw somewhere that if you set Calibre to convert to the new mobi format it has similar advantages to azw3 but can also be emailed to the newer Kindles. Haven't got around to trying it yet, though.

Tried it now but Amazon rejected the email, so apparently that's not possible.

a duncandisorderly

Quote from: olliebean on February 16, 2019, 07:24:08 PM
Tried it now but Amazon rejected the email, so apparently that's not possible.

you have to tinker with your settings & authorise the address you're sending from to be received by the kindle/kindle app (about six instances, in my case, each with a unique but similar email address) .

best thing to do is send it to your own email address first, then forward it from there, or things could get messy. once you've done the authorisation (in the device management page of your amazon account) you'll have to resend the original mobi email.

be warned too, that the formatting of books converted from less-than-ideal sources can be a bit harder on the eye than a 'proper' kindle book. if you're kindling on an ipad, consider using a different reader app (books, pdf reader, whatever) rather than trying to convert things into kindle-speak.

olliebean

Quote from: a duncandisorderly on February 16, 2019, 08:35:30 PM
you have to tinker with your settings & authorise the address you're sending from to be received by the kindle/kindle app (about six instances, in my case, each with a unique but similar email address) .

Did that ages ago, and old-format mobi files are delivered without issues. It's just the new format it has a problem with.

As it turns out, the trick is to select "MOBI file type: both" in the conversion settings in Calibre - this means both the old and the new formats are contained in the file. The old format makes it palatable to Amazon's email-to-Kindle service, and the Paperwhite reads the new format, with the advantages of a more faithful conversion from epub, as well as the ability to choose the font weight (I find the default weight a little skinny for my taste). The drawbacks are it takes longer to convert, and results in a larger file.

a duncandisorderly

Quote from: olliebean on February 16, 2019, 10:11:00 PM
Did that ages ago, and old-format mobi files are delivered without issues. It's just the new format it has a problem with.

As it turns out, the trick is to select "MOBI file type: both" in the conversion settings in Calibre - this means both the old and the new formats are contained in the file. The old format makes it palatable to Amazon's email-to-Kindle service, and the Paperwhite reads the new format, with the advantages of a more faithful conversion from epub, as well as the ability to choose the font weight (I find the default weight a little skinny for my taste). The drawbacks are it takes longer to convert, and results in a larger file.

ah. fair enough. good info. we should start a wiki for it....

chveik

Quote from: BritishHobo on February 15, 2019, 08:11:15 PM
I can't even imagine what the world is like for anyone who's ever had to get physical copies of all their books.

I go to public libraries or I buy second-hand books. it's not that difficult, and it's much more pleasant.

pigamus

If you want a 500-page book straight away, it's a fucking godsend. Don't get people who moan about them.

mothman

There was another thread about e-readers a while back, probably in the Books forum.

Anyway, yeah, I'm on my second Kindle (the first, a 3rd Gen aka keyboard model, had the screen go after 3 or 4 years). I love it. I do use Mobilism for ebooks, but you have to be careful about the file sharing sites books are hosted on. And use Calibre to convert and upload to the device.

My concern is what happens when my second one (a 5th gen I think) dies. All the current Kindles are touchscreen and I don't want that. I like having the buttons on the side. I guess I'll either have to get a second-hand one, or try a Nook or whatever.

Twed

The touchscreen Kindle I have lets you disable the screen and just use the button on the side.

mothman

Really? Any idea which version it is? As far as I can tell from pics, the recent basic (non-Paperwhite, non-Oasis) models with touchscreen don't have buttons...

Twed


mothman

Ah well. Don't really see the attraction of those, given the price...

Jobey

Looks lovely. And a fucking fortune.

ToneLa

Just get the new waterproof Paperwhite, it's basically most of the Voyage's features and waterproof, but no extra physical buttons

touchingcloth

A waterproof paperwhite? I don't know how I'd manage to bathe properly without the sense-sharpening peril of fucking up my kindle by dropping it in the bubbles.

buntyman

I still have the Kindle Keyboard which I'm amazed the free almost worldwide 3g internet still works for. The browser is borderline unusable on some websites but you can still punch out a short email if necessary and it works brilliantly for downloading books and newspapers. It plays audiobooks too and the screen still seems great to me after all these years. Never felt the need for an upgrade.

touchingcloth

Free worldwide internet? Wut

studpuppet

My interest has been re-piqued by this thread, so I bought a Sony Reader on eBay last night for £8 including the postage. I usually use an iPad for ebooks but Lordy am I easily distracted from reading by it. Thought I'd try a dedicated reader and this one even has an SD slot because hey, I'm bound to plough through the 350 books the internal memory holds before I next connect it to my computer...

Ferris

Quote from: studpuppet on February 18, 2019, 11:37:38 AM
My interest has been re-piqued by this thread, so I bought a Sony Reader on eBay last night for £8 including the postage. I usually use an iPad for ebooks but Lordy am I easily distracted from reading by it. Thought I'd try a dedicated reader and this one even has an SD slot because hey, I'm bound to plough through the 350 books the internal memory holds before I next connect it to my computer...

I love my knackered old kindle for exactly this reason - there's no internet connection so I can't get distracted. The iPad is useless for that - I google something, then read a Wikipedia article then that's my whole day.

Quote from: touchingcloth on February 18, 2019, 02:09:41 AM
Free worldwide internet? Wut

The Keyboard Kindle came with a 3G SIM built in that works basically anywhere, for free, primarily to let you buy and download books anywhere, but can also be used with a rudimentary web browser.

I got hospitalised in Poland back in 2012 and was stuck there for three weeks recovering so it was a Godsend for me. There was no free roaming data back then.

Cuellar

Yeah, I had one of those. Came in handy a few times, then the battery inflated.

Might get a new Kindle, seems a good idea for foreign language books which can be pretty expensive to buy in physical form.

hermitical

Still got my 3G wünderkind-le

imitationleather

That 3G Kindle is an impressive piece of 1980s design. Right up there with the Sinclair C5.

Twed

It's the Hitchhiker's Guide.

hermitical

Quote from: imitationleather on February 18, 2019, 05:09:15 PM
That 3G Kindle is an impressive piece of 1980s design. Right up there with the Sinclair C5.

Hey, I remember the wonders of a 16K RAM pack....

Sebastian Cobb

I wonder if you can extract the sim and take the piss with mobile data.

QDRPHNC

I love my Kobo, it'll handle whatever you throw at it. Anyone else use libgen.io?