Amazon Kindle

[#1]

No I settled on burnt brown.....it's so 2011

[#2]

I have an i pad but am considering also buying a kindle.  Can someone give me some statistics such as how heavy is it, can you put it in a jacket pocket, I have the Times and Sunday times apps on the i pad can i access these on the kindle or would i have to buy another lot of apps anything else that you kindle owners may think of interest and what i may need to know before buying thank you in anticipation.  Also is another new kindle due out any time as the i pad is putting out another version shortly

[#3]

I Know nothing about the ipad so I can only give you information about the Kindle. It measures 7 and a half inches by 5 inches and is quarter of an inch thick........The exact measurements are on the Amazon website in millimeters (whatever they are) It weighs next to nothing and could go in your pocket but remember it is advisable to keep it in some sort of case, these come in both hard and soft cases (mine is a soft one at £6.99) but the other cases are not cheap at £20 plus, so you need to consider if it will fit in you pocket when in a case.
It only does black and white so I guess it may not be much good for reading the times as all the pictures will appear in black and white.
This is the third version of the Kindle so I guess there will be more updated versions in future but it's hard to see what can be added (except colour) The Menu includes an experimental section which allows you to connect to google & your e-mail but in my opinion it's very poor and you are unlikely to use it for that purpose, so that might be something that sees improvement in the future.
Battery life is excellent.........3 weeks between charges.
Finally check out the reviews of the Kindle on Amazon as they might help you make up your mind but for around £100 it's good value in my opinion.

[#4]

It makes a couple of chapters at bed-time very easy for me and I don't need a bookmark or folded page as it remembers where I last left off.
I've downloaded a couple of Sci-Fi books for free but Amazon has over 1/2 a million available titles on a whole range of subjects.
There are loads of newspapers.

[#5]

I just got and Amazon flyer for a book that I own, a Kindle version.
My book is full of colour pictures, cant imagine it in black and white

[#6]

Please, have any of the Kindle users tried reading PDF's on it?
I read a lot of academic papers, and these days most are downloaded from databases in PDF. Currently I use a 12" (1024 x 768) Tablet PC, which is very usable as a reader in portrait format - but its getting long in the tooth, battery life is getting short and its a bit heavy to hold.
I have looked at the Kindle, and its ilk, as a possible replacement, but have only ever seen them demonstrated with the amount of text/page you get in a typical paperback (A5?). I would like to know how well they deal with - and the readability of - an A4 PDF page. Do you end up scrolling around the page as you tend to have to do with a normal landscape laptop . Could I also mark up the page as I'm reading it as I can with the tablet? Presumably I would need to download them to a PC and transfer them across.

[#7]

Yes, I read .pdf's on it. It takes a bit of experimenting with it as the Kindle will enlarge the whole thing and then you have to scroll around for each part. It is best if the pages are in two or three columns.

[#8]

Thanks - sounds like something I will avoid.
Scrolling around is bad enough on a conventional landscape monitor.

[#9]

The Kindle displays 4 ways so take your choice, I often switch from vertical to horizontal and back again when reading different things. I prefer horizontal for my maps. If I am reading my Full Circle Magazine, as it's in columns, I use the vertical view.
Edit: Another source of free books is the Gutenberg Project, you need the .mobi files.

[#10]

The screen is e-ink, rather than traditional LCD-type displays - there's no backlighting (a good thing) and power is only used to change the display. When you open the Kindle the first time, it has a diagram over the screen on what looks like the sort of acetate protective sheets you might find on other electronic equipment... except it turns out the acetate is just clear, with the diagram actually displayed by the Kindle. The lack of backlighting and light greyish background makes the display easily readible outdoors without the problems of reflection and glare common to laptops, for example.
One of the best features is the synchronisation element - you can read some on the Kindle, then later continue reading where you left off on the PC, and then switch to the iPhone (and I was really surprised by just how readable the Kindle app is on the iPhone) - as long as each has some form of connectivity, there's no messing about with bookmarks, etc.
There's a rudimentary browser included, but whilst it's ok for (very) basic use, don't expect 100% support of modern web standards - e-ink transition isn't really fast enough yet to support moving graphics, for example.
The Kindle has it's own email address to send files to. In fact, it has two:
user@kindle.com - converts the attached file and sends it to your Kindle, but you will incur a charge if it goes over 3G.
user@free.kindle.com - does exactly the same, but restricts to only sending over Wifi, so you don't incur any charge.
A useful application is Calibre which enables you to build a library of ebooks, download book data from the web, convert formats and load onto your Kindle. It also has a scheduler which will pull down from a wide selection of periodical-type websites, convert the formats and transmit to your Kindle.
I'm sure other devices will come along in the future, but for now at least, the Kindle is way out in front as an ebook reader.

[#11]

Quote from: wisty

Thanks - sounds like something I will avoid. Scrolling around is bad enough on a conventional landscape monitor.

The latest firmware update to 3.1 which my Kindle has just this minute installed for itself is supposed to offer, amongst others, easier scrolling around large documents.

[#12]

Calibre works (i.e. displays) on a proper PC.

[#13]

Quote from: Bob

Chris already has one of these, and I was looking to pick one up for my birthday in a couple of month's time. Interested in hearing peoples' feedback.

Picked one up a couple of weeks back. Not had much time to play around with it yet though. I still have about five conventional books to get through first!

[#14]

Quote from: A

What's wrong with trying to read a real book?

Think of the trees!
B.

[#15]

Well, I have a Kindle now!  BUT, I cannot get it to connect wirelessly via my router [sorry folks my router is a Sagen provided by SKY not PN] but have been to a friends home who has one and it worked fine there and have downloaded some free/very cheap books [classics].  My router network states MER and according to the Kindle support page it should be 802 [?].  I have alread posted on the Sky User Forum [which is not as good as this one!] about this problem.  Amazon just state that it is something to do with the router though.
When I have got this wifi bit sorted I will be very pleased with it.