Kindle



  • I just wanted to post that I just received a Kindle from Amazon, and it has no WTFs at all:

    * It comes in easy-to-open, recyclable packaging.

    * The instructions are in cute little pictographs, and you don't need them anyway.

    * The power cord is a bog-standard USB cable you can get at any convenience store.

    * When plugged in to USB, it mounts as a HD on your computer so you can just drag files to it.

    * Since the screen doesn't need refreshing, when you turn it "off", it draws a pretty little picture on the screen and keeps it there until it's turned back on.

    * You don't even have to type in a username or password, if you order it from Amazon it's pre-connected to your Amazon account.

    * And this is the 3G version, so whenever it needs to use the Internet to buy books or whatever, it's just magically connected to it, no matter where you are.

    Basically, Amazon got everything right on this product. Everything. I'm impressed. Even my iPhone and Zune* weren't as good.

    (My only beef, almost entirely trivial, is that when doing full-screen refreshes, the screen flickers black. Also I haven't yet figured out how to hide books from my home screen... but I'm sure there's a way.)

    *) Yes, people mock Zune, but it had an amazing unboxing experience, and was a very slick and well-designed device that excelled at showing movies. At least the 80GB Zune I used was.


  • Garbage Person

     It is vaguely WTFy in that if it can see what it perceives as a usable wifi connection (but actually isn't exposing it to the real Internets), it'll try to use it instead of 3G. That's the only complaint I've heard about it.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    * When plugged in to USB, it mounts as a HD on your computer so you can just drag files to it.

    The only nuissance i found is that the books have to be dragged to "documents", so the context menu "Send to..." does not work ...


  • 🚽 Regular

    The best thing about the Kindle, IMO, is the battery life and the fact that the screen is easy to read on. Other "e-readers" with a backlight are harder to read in the sun and use a shit load of battery life.

    I don't own a Kindle, though, but if I ever desire to get an e-reader, I think the Kindle wins just for that reason alone.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    * Since the screen doesn't need refreshing, when you turn it "off", it draws a pretty little picture on the screen and keeps it there until it's turned back on.

    Huh, I wondered how the ad-supported version that my wife got kept from draining the battery.


  • @Sutherlands said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    * Since the screen doesn't need refreshing, when you turn it "off", it draws a pretty little picture on the screen and keeps it there until it's turned back on.

    Huh, I wondered how the ad-supported version that my wife got kept from draining the battery.

    Yeah it's real slick. That's how the battery lasts so long in the first place. Right now mine has a old illustration of fish from some textbook or something, but it's different each time. I dunno how many images there are, but this thing has 3 GB of memory, so it could be hundreds.



  •  @blakeyrat said:

    Yeah it's real slick. That's how the battery lasts so long in the first place. Right now mine has a old illustration of fish from some textbook or something, but it's different each time. I dunno how many images there are, but this thing has 3 GB of memory, so it could be hundreds.

    I'm not an expert on e-books, but wouldn't it be more useful to display the last page you were reading, instead of some picture? This way, one could continue reading/look up notes even without power.

    (well, unless you were reading some questionable literature you found on the internet.)



  • @PSWorx said:

     @blakeyrat said:

    Yeah it's real slick. That's how the battery lasts so long in the first place. Right now mine has a old illustration of fish from some textbook or something, but it's different each time. I dunno how many images there are, but this thing has 3 GB of memory, so it could be hundreds.

    I'm not an expert on e-books, but wouldn't it be more useful to display the last page you were reading, instead of some picture? This way, one could continue reading/look up notes even without power.

    (well, unless you were reading some questionable literature you found on the internet.)

    "That's how the battery lasts so long in the first place"


  • @Sutherlands said:

    "That's how the battery lasts so long in the first place"
     

    The screen doesn't need power while it's turned on, yeah, but I'd think some other components still do. Very long battery life is nice and all, but it doesn't sound that impressing if your hardware could actually support virtually unlimited battery life.

    (Disclaimer: I don't own a Kindle and I have no idea how its power management actually works. Probably it does a pretty good job. Still, requiring that you turn it on, even if you just wanted to look up the page you were reading, seems like a waste of perfectly good e-paper.)



  • If the page you want was the last one you read, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to read it.  (Unless you're on an ad-supported Kindle) (But I don't know what other Kindles do when they turn off)



  • @blakeyrat said:

    * And this is the 3G version, so whenever it needs to use the Internet to buy books or whatever, it's just magically connected to it, no matter where you are.
    And Amazon can remotely delete books from your Kindle whenever they want, which they have already done at least once.  Other than that, yes, I would say no WTFs at all.



  • @El_Heffe said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    * And this is the 3G version, so whenever it needs to use the Internet to buy books or whatever, it's just magically connected to it, no matter where you are.
    And Amazon can remotely delete books from your Kindle whenever they want, which they have already done at least once. Other than that, yes, I would say no WTFs at all.

    They made a mistake, they apologized, they made amends. Doesn't bug me.

    But I'm not a paranoid crazy anti-DRM loon. And if I was, Amazon would probably be the last company I'd give grief over it, considering they lead the charge selling DRM-free MP3s.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    They made a mistake, they apologized, they made amends. Doesn't bug me.
    The problem is not that they made a mistake.  We all make mistakes and Amazon was pretty decent in their handling of it.  The problem is not DRM.  Amazon has been pretty decent with that too.  The problem is that the ability to remotely delete things should not exist..  If I bought a real book from a book store and then the author sued the publisher, claiming that they had no right to publish the book, does somebody break into my house and take back the book?.  Even if they later give me back the price I paid for the book, and apologized for breaking into my house,  I think most people would have a big problem with that.  I'm sure there's something in the impossible to read fine print Terms of Service which says that they can do it, but that doesn't make it right.



  • @El_Heffe said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    They made a mistake, they apologized, they made amends. Doesn't bug me.
    The problem is not that they made a mistake.  We all make mistakes and Amazon was pretty decent in their handling of it.  The problem is not DRM.  Amazon has been pretty decent with that too.  The problem is that the ability to remotely delete things should not exist..  If I bought a real book from a book store and then the author sued the publisher, claiming that they had no right to publish the book, does somebody break into my house and take back the book?.  Even if they later give me back the price I paid for the book, and apologized for breaking into my house,  I think most people would have a big problem with that.  I'm sure there's something in the impossible to read fine print Terms of Service which says that they can do it, but that doesn't make it right.

    Amazon has stated that they've removed the ability to remote-delete books without asking user permission. I trust them. Maybe I'm an idiot, but, eh.


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