Got one for my birthday and I’m absolutely loving it so far The readability is great, the wireless link for buying books is super easy with decent price points. I’ve got a business trip coming up next week and am looking forward to brining it instead of a couple of books.

The page refresh was a bit off putting at first, but I soon found a rythm of hitting the next page button as I’m reading the last line of the current page, so now the refresh happens as I’m moving my eyes back to the top of the page and I don’t really notice the refresh anymore. The one weak spot I’ve noticed so far is that you can’t add a folder structure to organize your reading material. All your books go in to you books folder. Not a big deal now as I’ve only downloaded 10, but I can see that getting cumbersome as I add more titles.

I learned about those in my Media and Modern Society course. I didn’t like the sound of them too much, but hey whatever works for you really. I guess it isn’t so convenient to carry around a bulky book every so often, especially if you are always on the go.

How many books fit on it?? Do the books cost money?
With the built in memory it will hold about 200 books. With a SD card it will hold a few thousand. Books I’ve bought ranged from $2.99 to $9.99. All were less than I would have paid for the paper equivalent. I believe there is some free content available, but I’m just using it to read books I would have bought otherwise.
are you able to upload books on your own or do they need to be purchased from amazon?
I think Barnes and Noble or Borders offers books online for Kindle. I’m not sure though.

I know you can get content from other sources, but everything I’ve bought has been from Amazon. It’s definitely set up for Amazon to be the easiest content provider — you can shop wirelessly at Amazon directly from the device.

im saying lets say i have a bunch of ebooks on my hardrive, can i convert the format and upload them?
The Kindle can’t read PDFs or un-protected eBooks, and the format it can read is proprietary, so Amazon can discontinue support for it at any time and you can’t read your books anymore.

Therefore, it’s a piece of shit. End of story.

I know there is a way to send in documents (including PDFs) and get them converted and uploaded to your kindle. I believe the cost is $.10 per file, so the suggestion was to zip a bunch of stuff and send that in. I don’t honestly know much about that as it wasn’t a concern for me.

For me this is essentially a replacement for buying and reading dead tree books and for that, I’m finding it to be excellent. I’m on vacation right now, so it saved me the trouble and weight of packing several books. In the airport yesterday I saw a new book that I wanted. Rather than pay $25.00 at the airport bookstore, while waiting for my plane to take off I fired up the wireless, connected to Amazon and bought the book for $9.99.

Yes, I realize I’m wed to Amazon for content, but since I buy the majority of my books from them anyway, I’m not overly concerned with that. And yes, there is a bit of risk in Amazon deciding to pull the product, but I think it’s a pretty good business model for them and likely to succeed, so I’m willing to gamble that my $399 bought me more than just a future paperweight. Even if Amazon pulls support in the future, I should still be able to use the device to access and read all the books I’ve purchased up untill that point. A more realistic concern is that 6 months from now version 2.0 is going to be out and cost $100 less. That’s the price of being an early adopter, and for how much I’m enjoying the device now, I find it a small price to pay. When that happens, I’ll give this one to my wife and buy version 2.0 (and, BTW, you can share books with multiple devices, up to 6 I believe — it’s not quite loaning out a book to anyone you want, but it certainly meets my needs).

All in all, no, I don’t find it to be a piece of shit. Rather, I think it the best thing since my first digital camera.
Is there anything of a decent size that can read PDF files? doesn’t have to be in color, but I use a lot of protected pdf files for work and school so it needs to have internet connectivity or the capability to crack.

why dont you try one of those new asus super small form computers.

Amazon isnt going to offer the free internet it uses forever…. I’m waiting to see what the second generation looks like

I’m not going to fucking pay for the device and for some bullshit service to convert files that I own into a format that their device supports. They can stick their cute marketing gimmick where the sun don’t shine.

Even the iPod, made by Apple (THE most proprietary company on earth, to the point of changing the plugs for standard devices just to be a pain in the ass), supports playing unprotected MP3 and AAC files, though you have to use their free software to copy the files onto the device. The Kindle isn’t even that flexible.

Also, why were you reading books on your vacation? You can read books at home.

Not only can it read PDFs, you can write on it too, or type, or surf the web. It costs 6x as much as a Kindle, but at least it’s good for more than one thing.

Also, I dunno how much the Kindle weighs, but if it’s more than 2lbs, this thing has it beat.

I just saw a kindle today at work and I have to say it was pretty slick. I read constantly and have tons of books stacked up taking up space. This would certainly help with that. The whole e-paper thing is pretty cool. Oh and to deus, reading is very relaxing. Sitting on a beach or at a pool reading is awesome.

Yes, I understand, that 10 cents is a bit out of your reach. But again, you could zip up 1000 files you wanted converted and it would still only cost 10 cents for the 1 attachment.

If I wasn’t clear ealier, I have no interest in having PDFs, technical documents, whatever on this device. I have a laptop and a PDA for anything like that. This is quite simply, a replacement for the book.

I read 2-3 books a week. I also travel a lot for business, which means lots of time in airplanes and hotel rooms. Just got back from a 1 week trip to Mexico (business, working 12 hours a day, but with lots of down time while I worked), read 3 books during the span of the trip. It was nice not to have to carry 3-4 books with me.

With some improvements in the dsiplay technology, I think this would really be great for textbooks. Imagine as a kid only having to lug one lightweight device around instead of a backpack full of heavy textbooks.

I find this akin to my first digital camera — taking an activity I’ve always done and making it better.

It’s to a point now where I’m tempted to buy the Kindle version of some books I own but haven’t read yet because I’d rather read them on the Kindle.

The kindle way 10.3 ounces. The non-backlit display is much easier on your eyes. Also has about 2 weeks of battery life. Guessing that might be slightly better than the laptop…

Plus, the Kindle doesn’t run on Vista, so it’s got that going for it…

When you work on your car, do you have just an adjustable wrench, or do you have a set of tools and use the appropriate tool for the appropriate task? If I want to surf the internet, I use my laptop or my smart phone. When I want to read a book, I use my Kindle.

I’m guessing you’re wrong, the free internet will probably continue simply becuase "free" is only an illusion — I’m sure the cost is built into the price of downloads you purchase.

Good news, you can get your PDFs and stuff on to your kindle for free. Here’s an excerpt from Amazon’s website:

There’s also been a great deal of confusion about Amazon charging for the conversion and delivery of our own content into our own Kindles. Amazon *only* charges for wireless delivery, the conversion is 100% free. If you eMail your content to it’s converted and downloaded into your Kindle for 10 cents. But if, instead, you eMail your content to it’s converted and a link to the converted file is eMailed to your registered eMail address at NO charge. You can then download it and use your PC’s USB connection to transfer the content to the Kindle.

Moreover, the FREE MobiPocket v4.2 Creator will convert many formats — HTML, MS Word Docs, Text, and Adobe PDF into .PRC files — nicely compressed and encrypted if you wish — which, when transferred into the Kindle are directly readable. I have converted two large eBooks which I already had in PDF format into native Kindle format and they work perfectly — no cost and no Amazon involvement at all. And I’m sure that quite soon there will be all sorts of free Kindle content converters popping up all over the place.

wow, that’s good. that takes away one fear about the Kindle being worthless if Amazon drops their service. you still have ways of getting your own stuff over there.

i think any haters of the kindle haven’t actually seen one in person and don’t really understand what they are talking about. i was in the same boat until i saw one at work. epaper makes no sense until you see it. without seeing it, you can’t comprehend that it is not an LCD display, that the lack of backlight is actually a benefit because it is incredibly easy to read in bright light. on top of that, it is made to be used in situations where you would use a book, not a computer.

the guy at work who had one showed me his and said it is awesome to use on the train to work. while standing he only needs one hand to read, switch pages and everything.
It’s also great at the gym doing cardio. You don’t have to try to keep it propped open, and turning pages is a snap. I also like being able to adjut the font size. I normally use the smallest size, but at the gym I bump it up a couple of notches to make it easier to read while moving.
Here, since a picture is worth 1000 words, this pretty much sums up why I love my Kindle. I currently have 19 books on the Kindle. Here’s the Kindle next to 19 books.

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Give me some suggestions, guys. Any ideas for sticky threads? I’m thinking maybe one for where people can post a recipe that they are going to follow, and then take pictures of the process would be fun. Also, a sticky with helpful links and resources would be a good idea, too.

On the liquor aspect.

A few ground rules:
1. Keep all discussion tasteful and relevant.

2. This is not the place to come for frat party tips. Nothing along the lines of “We’re having a kegger tonight, which beer will get us all drunk for cheap?” or “What’s a good jungle juice recipe?” Feel free to discuss microbrews or homebrewing recipes: the more refined facets of beer.

3. Say more than, “I love brand X of wine.” Tell us why you like it, what foods complement it well, how much it costs, where you can find it, etc. The more information you can give us, the better.

Any other suggestions? Any topics that would be good for a sticky? Perhaps homemade cocktail recipes? Let us know!
oh shi… i’d have to actually clean my cooktop if i were gonna take pics
the picture thread idea is good. I’d participate if I owned a digital camera. I’ll be sure to hot-link this forum whenever there’s a food thread in the main forums too
Thanks for the input, any more suggestions?

I think that I’ll make that picture thread as soon as I have time to make a decent meal. I’ve been swamped with work and school lately, so cooking has been shafted. However, if someone makes a picture thread, I can sticky it and we can keep it going from there.
i tried to make a thread a little while ago for someone to come up with the best dish using a certain ingredient.
i was gonna send the winner a prize too…
but it died in the ass & no-one participated, so…

maybe you could try a similar thing & sticky it? – just a suggestion…- i’ll volunteer to send the winner a jar of Vegemite from Australia.

sounds like fun – I’d rather have a sleeve of kingston’s biscuits though
(my sister lives in sydney)
i could do that…

but i feel its my duty to inflict Vegemite on an unsuspecting OT member living outside Australia.
I finally tried vegemite for the first time last night. Horrible, horrible stuff. Guess some things really ARE comfort foods.

That being said, I think a links page wouldn’t be a bad idea. Recipe sites, general cooking tips, etc. – this will help clear out some of the most common questions. (Like “I’m in college, what can I cook that’s good and cheap?”)
don’t be soft… Vegemite is a man’s food…
Fuck that, chili is a man’s food…vegemite is for the roos.
Although, if you wanted to be a real bastard, you could join the OT secret santa and send someone $35 worth of vegemite

If shipping wouldn’t be such a motherfucker from Oz, I’d do it
i wouldn’t mind seeing some thread with easy “geared for the poor college student” favorites from the OT crowd. i could use some help in the “eating regularly and well” department. can i get an amen?
culinary student checking in… any questions, feel free to ask
I’m a a culinary student at Johnson & Wales University, ask away!
can you cooking guys recommend any good recipe sites? Whenever I’m actually in the mood to cook something I end up spending an hour on google trying to find a recipe that I have the ingrediants for.

foodtv is usually good for me.
I’m going to be posting a different bbq recipe every day. They’re recipes I’ve taken/modified from other places, but I have used them all.
Here’s some serious thread ressurection: I know that we are supposed to manage cocktail recepies, or be more informative than “X is awesome for getting you smashed”, but could we post the generally known recipies for say Cosmos and other fun party drinks? Just wondering.
sticky thread on equipment, 1 for cookware, 1 for machines, 1 for knives and acccessories

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