

Kindle: The Power Reading Device - deepakjois
http://nimbupani.com/kindle-the-power-reading-device.html

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ja27
I got a 3G Kindle 3 several weeks ago.

I find that I mostly use it to read fiction. I'll probably eventually find it
good for nice linear nonfiction like autobiographies. That's good because I've
really gotten away from reading fiction, instead spending my reading time
reading short-attention-span junk online. I love getting back to really
reading.

I've tried it for a number of technical books, but it's just not that useful
for that. It does an ok job displaying an unconverted PDF and a pretty good
job working with a Calibre-converted PDF or CHM. I haven't tried an actual
Kindle-formatted technical book, which could have better navigation. It's not
displaying the page that's a problem. It's that when I'm reading a technical
book, I need to flip around a lot. Search helps a bit, but flipping back and
forth between sections is really cumbersome. Even with highlights and
bookmarks, it's still tremendously slower than sticking a few post-it notes or
thumbs in an actual print book. And most of the time that I want to look at a
technical book, I'm already in front of at least one computer.

I haven't tried RSS feeds to the Kindle, but Instapaper is awesome for it and
will only get better.

I rarely use the wireless at all. I struggled with buying the 3G vs. the wifi-
only model. In the end I thought the 3G feature would extend the usefulness
enough to make it worthwhile. In a pinch it's a decent email client and
Wikipedia renders well. If I didn't have an Android and iPod Touch with me
most of the time, I might use the Kindle wireless more.

One really important thing about the Kindle wifi: it won't connect to ad-hoc
networks. This would have burned me if I'd bought the wifi-only model because
I'd figured I could wifi tether it to my Android phone, but that runs in ad-
hoc mode, so no connection.

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CodeMage
Nice Kindle review. I'd like to offer a few additional points, though.

1\. For document conversion and for library management, I haven't found
anything that beats Calibre. I recommend it to any Kindle user who isn't
intimidated by having lots of options in the UI ;)

2\. Books on Kindle are not really organized into folders. Kindle collections
are more like tags than folders. I do agree that we sorely need the ability to
bulk update collections and to filter by more than one collection at a time.
The "smart collection" idea is also great.

3\. Be careful with the "article mode" and the browser in general. This is
still an experimental feature and I've had my Kindle freeze and stop
responding on more than one occasion. This is not really such a big deal, as
it can be solved using hard reset. There's no loss of data involved at all,
but it _will_ scare the living daylights out of you when it first happens :P

All in all, I'm extremely pleased with Kindle.

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drats
"Due to local restrictions web browsing is not available for all countries" is
what I get when I try the web on my Kindle 3G bought a few weeks ago here in
the EU.

Outside of getting books off whispernet Wikipedia works and that's it. Not
really worth my paying extra for the 3G at all. Read the fine print, I should
have. I know dealing with mobile carriers is a complete nightmare but Amazon
is very crafty in calling the browser "experimental" and burying the
information about browsing deep in their pages (I looked hard for it on
purchase but only found it on the page now looking again).

All that said, if the browser is there you will probably get distracted. They
could easily add tons of features to it but that would move it away from being
a single purpose device. The more features are added to the Kindle the less
you will see people raving about it. Kindle will have trouble selling against
a colour e-ink device with some kind of android that's been modded for that
type of screen at the same price point. I suspect what will happen is that
features will stay largely the same but the price of the kindle will dive down
amazingly. Thus you will see a kindle 4 and kindle 5 wifi for $80 then $50.
Perhaps university editions, branded to particular universities, will gain the
colour e-ink, a more advanced browser and more features like email and push
the collaborative/community features more as there is compulsion connected to
that reading. But for just reading, getting the device as cheap as possible
and into as many hands as possible is a better option for them than adding
distractions.

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davidw
Huh... which country? Mine works ok in Italy, but I did buy it from the US
with my US address...

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drats
Nimbupani's link contains 9 countries in the EU where it's not available, so
it seems it's not so uncommon.

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nathanwdavis
I use Instapaper and have it configured to send me a digest of my active
Instapaper pages. All I have to do is click once the 'I' icon provided by the
Instapaper Chrome extension. Then they send my active items to my Kindle email
each day (if I have new items). Very Nice!!

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nimbupani
I wrote the post and I did look into the Instapaper digest. The main drawback
for me was it costs money to send it. It is not much now $0.15 cents per
delivery but it might rise and if so, I won't remember to stop it!

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smackfu
The only time I could see myself wanting the 3G feature is if I am traveling
and out of books. OTOH, is that worth $50, as a just in case? I don't travel
THAT much.

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mattmaroon
He's right that the 3g Kindle is worth it, but not because of web browsing.
Using the browser will make you want to stab yourself in the eye. It's because
if you're reading somewhere that doesn't have free Wi-Fi it will still sync
your last place read, so that if you then pick up the Kindle app on your phone
or iPad or wherever it will be synced.

Also on any OS, Rekindle.it is a much easier way to send articles to your
device.

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dmix
I absolutely love my Kindle, I used it 1-2 hours each day.

One issue I have with it though: sometimes when I email the kindle address and
ebook, or instapaper sends an email, it doesn't get downloaded to the device.
When I hit sync it says "No new downloads".

There should be a better way to sync it over the internet besides email.

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newt
I agree, my kindle allows me to read long form articles that are just too
intensive for a tea-break.

I bundle them up using instapaper ( <http://www.instapaper.com/> ) which the
article does not mention, but which is excellent.

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epynonymous
i use my kindle 3 with 3g in china just fine. whispernet works fine, the
browser works fine (just tried www.google.com). you have to go to the manage
kindle web page and change your region to usa.

then again, i don't really care for the browser, if i wanted browsing, i'd
have bought an ipad or used my laptop, web is about color.

the kindle to me is just an excellent reading device, the battery life is
excellent, the form factor is excellent. i can't complain about anything
really and the thing i like the most is the e-ink display, it's easy on the
eyes.

added bonus is all the free classics you can download from amazon such as
charles dickens and mark twain, i literally downloaded 100 classics.

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constant_change
"You are not authorized to access this page."

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russgray
I got that too. Google cached it though:

[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sourceid=chrome...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=cache:http://nimbupani.com/kindle-
the-power-reading-device.html)

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dan00
Instapaper + calibre (news) + sony prs-650

