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It's probably been said, but using Mobipocket Creator to convert PDFs to texty PRCs isn't perfect, but it's a darn sight better than reading the PDF on the Kindle directly. e: What I'd like to know, though, is what all do you need from the mobibook output to make the document read properly, with images and such? So far I think it's ok to just use the PRC, I'll update if I find out more. doctorfrog fucked around with this message at 05:24 on Feb 5, 2011 |
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Feb 5, 2011 05:15
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Can anyone recommend a weekly news summary? I want something that I can download once a week and read on my Kindle on the weekends to get caught up. Every news site I see of any merit only seems to deliver up-to-the-minute news, where anything older than six hours won't show up on an RSS feed. The obvious would have been Newsweek, but that seems to be more article-based rather than headline-based. CNN, BBC, etc. all focus on up-to-the-minute stuff. No left/right leanings, just the top news headlines from the past seven days, U.S., World, Business, and Culture will do fine.
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Feb 7, 2011 22:07
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For those who are loathe to use a USB connection to put books on your WIFI Kindle, I've found that using the Everything search engine as an HTTP server works quite well. HFS also works, but lacks Everything's search feature. Rough steps: 1. Download Everything or HFS. 2. Point them at your books directory. Everything indexes all your disks by default, but you can include/exclude what you want searched/served. It's probably also a good idea to set a username/password combo, especially with Everything. 3. Futz with your firewall or router to get the ports to work properly. 4. (Optional) Use a free DNS service like no-ip.org to give yourself an easy-to-remember URL. 5. Browse and download with your Kindle, from just about anywhere, as long as you have WIFI and your PC is on. Caveat 1: You may be leaving some stuff open to haxxor attack. HFS appears fairly secure, but the site recommends SSH tunneling for maximum security, and Everything by default exposes every file on your computer for download. Neither uses HTTPS. Caveat 2: Personally, I'm still ironing out the kinks in using Everything. HFS is a bit more kludgy, and has no search, but it serves the files with less fiddling. Note: Calibre also has a built-in server, though I haven't tried it out yet. doctorfrog fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Feb 8, 2011 |
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Feb 8, 2011 01:51
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Judging from this video, the case does look a little bulky, and the lighting is uneven. This would irritate me too much as well. It does look like something you could toss into a bag, but I'd feel that too much of the sides of the Kindle are exposed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=2sINv06Wss4#t=215s I use a simple zipper pouch with a foamy interior that I bought from a nearby Asian import shop called Daiso. It cost a buck thirty. The lighted case is a stunning $60. I've fiddled with use-while-in-the-case designs on different electronics for years, they're all bulky, overpriced, and usually rob the device's design of any slimness. Slip-out cases are much cheaper and protect about the same. OTOH, if I commuted with my Kindle I might want something more protective, because I can see that thing clattering on the floor of a full train, out of its case. Worth the gamble. fake e: Here's a slip-in case that's under $10: http://www.amazon.com/AMAZON-KINDLE-Black-Carrying-Sleeve/dp/B002DV5ZDQ
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Feb 11, 2011 17:49
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Optimus_Rhyme posted:Is any one using Instapaper? I tried it and it seems really great. Yep, and yep! I wish there was an easier way to download the Instapaper from my Kindle, though. Navigating to that tiny kindle button on the Kindle browser is a bit of a pain.
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Feb 13, 2011 09:05
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Sideshot complaint: Kindle needs a waay better method of categorizing titles on the device. ~3GB of storage, and only three ways to sort titles, with a maximum of 10 titles on the screen at any time. I'd really like to be able to type out a title/author/etc. and have the list sort accordingly. Am I missing a way to search metadata only, or is the only way to search on the Kindle a full-text bazooka search? I also played around with a Sony reader at my local Fry's. It has a touchscreen e-ink display. Very slow to respond, though it is a massive improvement upon the Kindle's terrible clickity click 5-way controller, and anyway the refresh rate on the e-ink display is incredibly slow. doctorfrog fucked around with this message at 00:58 on Feb 15, 2011 |
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Feb 15, 2011 00:51
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Optimus_Rhyme posted:Huh? Do you mean to get the actual content? I just have it setup to sync daily when there's new content (or I click the sync button on Instapaper). And send it to my wifi kindle account. Then all I need to do is sync my kindle with content. Unless you're talking about getting it through 3g.. then I guess you're right. Not to belabor it overmuch, but Calibre sometimes messes up the download, and it also won't download articles contained in folders. I'll have to check out the sync feature for Instapaper, but I'm really leery about linking my account to this Kindle, since it's already been shown that it transmits detailed usage data to Amazon. (Yes, yes, I know, who cares, but I just don't like my Kindle being a datamining device.)
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Feb 16, 2011 02:45
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Ziir posted:I really hope this means they'll have a firesale or something cause they've got some really good quality Moleskin knock-offs. Their Moleskine knockoffs are pretty darn good, but they've been less than half the Moleskine price forever. I paid about $4 for a pocket version, $6 for the full-sized one, compared to $12/$17, respectively. How much cheaper do they need to be for you? (Not that I won't be there ready to snap up some of them.) Also, their Paperchase store had some fantastic blank books. This sucks in general, since this almost means zero bookstores in the tri-city area that I live in. A Barnes and Noble just shuttered suddenly January 1st as well. A couple independents will still be around, thank goodness for Half Price Books. Hope they're solidly in the black. Borders might want to shrink the sizes of their stores a bit, move back from the "huge frickin' warehouse of toilet trivia books, calendars, and a wall full of manga that teenagers read but never buy" and back down to a more respectable book place, darn it.
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Feb 18, 2011 07:50
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Mine hasn't been updated, but I did unlink it from my account. To again bring up a sticking point with me, Amazon does kind of treat the device as though it is theirs, including spying on how you use it. See also: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51371 This post indicates that even location data is sent regularly to Amazon.
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Feb 19, 2011 21:38
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fishmech posted:And that's one reason why I decided from the start to just ignore online "libraries" altogether. Except, possibly, one: http://www.archive.org/account/login.createaccount.php And of course, you don't need to have a 'card' to share in most things.
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Feb 26, 2011 11:09
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withak posted:You could switch to the far more robust method of word numbering and be singlehandely responsible for dragging your academic field kicking and screaming out of the 17th century. Let's rejigger the whole biz because of ereaders, which will be around forever. e: to put it more constructively, rather than come up with a new pagination standard, the ereader/document itself should be flexible enough to use multiple forms of pagination at once: word counts, line counts, "standard page length," originally published pagination, etc. This would allow for "far more robust methods" while not obsoleting older documents/criticisms/works that use the old schemes. Consider also translated works (particularly poetry), which would not retain the same word count as the original (due to translation), but will still likely retain the same line count. Then, there are translations and updated translations, with their various differences. Maybe I'm not with the times, but line numbering is probably going to remain the better way to reference poetry and Shakespearean stuff. doctorfrog fucked around with this message at 23:06 on Mar 9, 2011 |
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Mar 9, 2011 22:54
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npd2004 posted:http://www.amazon.com/Acase-Classic-Generation-Protector-Invisible/dp/B004EHJQBY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300919823&sr=8-1 Now we're talkin.
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Mar 24, 2011 07:03
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If you do the above, let me know if it works. Calibre hasn't successfully delivered an Instapaper to my Kindle since after the first week of trying, and I'm not sure if the recipe is busted, my Calibre install, or if Instapaper changed their delivery method. e: checking out Wordcycler.
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Apr 8, 2011 10:21
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Rastor posted:Best way to get free stuff on your Kindle is with a "guide" (basically an index you store on your Kindle). Just access one (or both) of these URLs from your Kindle's web browser: The pg MagicCatalog is just a weirdly-ordered list of all their books, and from my experience it's something you search, rather than browse. Also, I think all the links (at least the ones I've used) do not connect to books with illustrations (which kinda takes the fun out of the Oz books and Lewis Carroll). If you have the WiFi connection anyway, I suggest trying Gutenberg's mobile site http://m.gutenberg.org instead. It's going to be a bit slower to move the damned cursor around and load, but it's much better organized, and has links to illustrated works.
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Apr 11, 2011 23:29
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As an aside to the whole library/publisher/pirate discussion, if I worked at a library at all, I would download half of Gutenberg.com, ask for a small portion of the library budget, and start offering DVDs chock full of public domain content for donations. As in, "hey, sorry publishers are only allowing us to lend out one e-copy of Twilight at a time, but would you like to donate a couple bucks and take home a DVD with 2500 books on it?"
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May 2, 2011 07:35
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cLin posted:I picked up a Kindle 3rd gen and noticed in the first post that reading PDF files suck, how does it suck though? Do the files just not render properly? Besides calibre, are there any other solutions people use to convert from PDF to a readable format for the Kindle? As I see it, here are the good bits:
and, here are the bad bits in my experience:
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May 5, 2011 02:04
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A contrary viewpoint: I hate the turn page buttons on the Kindle, because they're exactly where my thumbs want to hold it. So I have to either hold it from the bottom, or form my hand into a crab claw to avoid pressing them accidentally. In my view, it's a terrible design having them right on the edge. The 5-way controller is a pain in the rear end for browsing as well, since I also use it to read the news online. I'd much rather have a touchscreen, fingerprints or not. At any rate, I wouldn't be surprised to see the keyboard on the Kindle eventually take the old heave-ho. It's nice to have when you use it, but I can't help but feel like it's just wasted space when I'm not clicking something out. BTW, am I missing a simple trick to just search titles on the Kindle? Or must it search every piece of text in every file? For something designed to hold a thousand books, the Kindle has a horrible way of organizing them.
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Jun 11, 2011 19:01
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torgeaux posted:Hey, it doesn't matter. We've reached a time when the ereaders are all pretty much great devices. Agreed. Little details aside, I still really enjoy my Kindle.
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Jun 11, 2011 19:44
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Arnold of Soissons posted:I take notes (in serious and non-fic books) or leave a running commentary/predictions/sarcastic comments/talk to the characters (in less serious novels) I did this for the first week or so of Kindle ownership, but the keyboard is anything but a joy to use for meaningful note taking. I just went back to taking no notes at all or just using pen and paper. On the other hand, it's good for the word games available for it, as long as I look at the keys. But it's nice to have around for the moments you want to type something small out.
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Jun 13, 2011 18:26
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A bath lasts for less than half an hour, unless you're "otherwise occupied." You can use your first world electronics after that, christ.
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Jul 12, 2011 10:03
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Vertigus posted:Will you stop with the annoying "First world problems" meme? It's running rampant, and I suppose the inevitable conclusion is that every single thing people talk about if they're not actually a starving Somalian boy will have to come equipped with a disclaimer so they don't appear to be selfish. I didn't mean it to that ludicrous a degree, and I'm sorry that you are seeing that a lot on the internet, I guess.
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Jul 12, 2011 22:52
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Mu Zeta posted:BN should be more worried about the $80 Kindle. Most customers won't give a crap about the touch screen and just want something to read stuff. At $80 it's almost an impulse purchase and they should have a product like that. Agreed. From Amazon's perspective (and BN's), the Kindle is a storefront that happens to read books occasionally. From the consumer's perspective, it's a Christmas want list gadget and they'll buy the cheapest thing they can get their paws on.
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Sep 30, 2011 02:41
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The eReader Megathread: Calm Down and Use Calibre
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Dec 11, 2011 19:47
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I've read the engadget review of the Kobo Mini, and I still kinda want one. Even if it basically has the same quality screen as my Kindle 3, and is smaller, the idea of having an ereader in my pocket is horribly appealing. Any hands-on experience, anyone?
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Dec 14, 2012 09:46
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TheEye posted:You guys are crazy. See the LEDs and shadows on the bottom? No, you don't, because the stripes on the side are so bright that it drowns them out in the photo. You don't think it's a problem that reflected light is making a pattern on the screen that's brighter than the light source? It objectively is, but go ahead and believe what you want. I think it's partly your bad luck, plus sounding a bit anal, plus turning this thread into your personal Paperwhite Return Tumblr. But, my own anal retentive purchasing experience: I couldn't wait any longer and ran out and bought a Kobo Mini. I hated it at first:
But I kept it anyway and am using it as my light reading device. The Kindle Keyboard retains the job of the hardcore studier, with better dictionaries, better note-taking abilities, and the bigger screen. With the Kobo working as a satellite reader, it's a lot more satisfying to use:
doctorfrog fucked around with this message at 02:56 on Jan 15, 2013 |
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Jan 15, 2013 02:53
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With regard to the password thing: I'm a privacy freak, and I take tons of notes when I read, and I'd just as soon keep that stuff private. But also on the Kindle, you can buy books straight away without further authentication... I think. Not sure if it's the same on the Kobo, or if they ask for a password. But also if someone steals my ereader, or any other device I have, I may as well make it as difficult as possible for them to use it. Hey, some of us are anal about frontlighting, some are anal about privacy! Let's all be friends and stuff
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Jan 15, 2013 09:13
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I have a Kobo Mini which I loved very gently for two years, and then its battery went to poo poo. It runs for about ten minutes before using its battery to flip most pixels to black and declare itself in need of a charge. I have an older Amazon Kindle Keyboard that I used equally as much and its battery is still great. I really liked the font choices of the Kobo, I really like using Pocket with it, and I liked being able to thumb my nose at Amazon, but I wonder, are other Kobo ereaders as horribly lovely in long-term battery life, or perhaps did they just cheap out on the Mini? I do realize what an odd question I'm asking, who in their right mind would expect to use an electronic device for more than two years? Me, that's who. doctorfrog fucked around with this message at 09:56 on Oct 1, 2015 |
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Oct 1, 2015 09:53
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I'm actually a little curious about this, I have an old keyboard Kindle, and wonder if the current Kindles allow you to still just take the device out of the box, load it with books, and start using it without ever activating it or even using it online. I'd also like to know about Kobo. One major downside of the Kobo Mini that I had (other than the poo poo battery that quit after less than two years) was that it required online activation AND didn't have a password lock option, which is really dumb if you ever lose the device to a thief. (I'm a weird dude who hates having required storefronts on every device I own, that's why.)
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Oct 10, 2015 00:21
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A luddite's upgrade experience, nothing insightful here otherwise: Though I kinda wanted a Kobo to replace my Kobo Mini, $50 for a Kindle (Black Friday sale price for the ad-laden version, and I'm ok not getting Paperwhite) was a decent price for a kickaround reader, and the screen is a decent upgrade to what I'm used to, with better contrast and response (Kindle Keyboard and Kobo Mini with the same generation screen tech). On startup it wanted to connect to the internet and didn't give an option for not connecting to the internet, so I just connected it to a disconnected router, then flipped on Airplane mode to disable wireless. Haven't seen any ads yet. In principle, yes, I really loathe ads that much, but I might register the thing to access some of the disabled options. With a fake account of course. Cheap, but solid feeling, scads faster than the much-older readers. I do recommend it if you want to cheap out and not get the Paperwhite. Also I ordered it last night, good grief Amazon let your people take a day off.
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Nov 28, 2015 03:52
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Call Me Charlie posted:Why are you so terrified to connect it to the internet and use your Amazon account? If you hate ads that much, it's only $15 to remove them (or you can try to sweet talk their customer support into removing them for free) Why deal with ads or spend money if I don't want to? Like, I say, maybe I'll register in the future, but until then, I'm not seeing any ads or having to do any other workarounds. Probably most don't care to go to this length, but maybe someone's curious. e: removed some optional assholishness doctorfrog fucked around with this message at 06:48 on Nov 28, 2015 |
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Nov 28, 2015 06:38
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Lovable Luciferian posted:Yeah if I plan on sitting down an reading for over an hour I use my old e-ink nook.
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Dec 30, 2015 10:02
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Did they get rid of list view? edit: never mind, looks like it's buried.
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Feb 3, 2016 02:57
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SymmetryrtemmyS posted:The 5.6.5 Kindle jailbreak is out! Sweet! Time to jailbreak my first Kindle.
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Feb 7, 2016 08:05
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I went from a Kindle Keyboard to a Kobo Mini, and I super dug how small the screen was. The whole thing was about the size of a small paperback. It was flexy and plasticky, but that was ok because the KK was too. Then the battery took a poo poo after 2 years and only ran for 15 minutes before demanding a recharge. Kindle Keyboard still works great and it's five years old and has seen more use. Then I bought a current entry level Kindle over Xmas, and the build quality's much improved. I'll never buy a Kobo again.
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Feb 7, 2016 18:38
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hope and vaseline posted:Kobos are also a pain to buy in the states. I don't think any major retailers stock them, nor amazon, and the Kobo site I've heard has awful, awful customer service. I got my Glo a few years ago from an independent bookseller. I got mine in a Best Buy when my wife was clothes shopping. This was a couple years back, not sure if they still stock them (I doubt it), because I really don't have many reasons to step into a Best Buy.
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Feb 8, 2016 06:27
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At a certain point, you just want to read a goddamn book already.
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Feb 28, 2016 07:52
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Just a gentle reminder to you, the consumer, that your device is our storefront, on loan from us to you. I have a Kindle Keyboard that I haven't turned on in a while. I can check it out and report back. And you're not alone in wanting an e-reader that just e-reads and everything else can gently caress off.
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Feb 28, 2016 21:14
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smackfu posted:I don't get the idea. If you have a case, you are already way thicker than the bare reader, so why do you care how thick the non case part is? Hello, person who thinks like me. I am a weirdo who prefers slipcases rather than things that permanently live attached to devices, though. If I'm being a paranoid conspiracy theorist, I'd suggest it's because "it's time for a new Kindle" on the brand management calendar, and there's no way to sexify the device without making the battery life poo poo or the device less profitable, so you make the external battery a pack-in. That way, you get your media glamour shots of your pencil thin device, and alo get to claim the case as some sort of wonderful innovation. On the plus side, it's a Kindle with a (sorta) replaceable battery.
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Apr 7, 2016 01:30
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I think it looks neat, a reason to get a new Kindle if you're kind of in the mood for a new one. About fifteen years ago I was like that with minidisc players, lol, a new one every year and a half or so as they got thinner. 
doctorfrog fucked around with this message at 18:53 on Apr 11, 2016 |
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Apr 11, 2016 18:37
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 15:46 |
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That's a hilarious price, and with special offers. Good lord. I don't even think I paid $300 for every book I currently own, digital or otherwise. And they don't compile usage statistics or try to actively sell me other things. What's the strategy here? Make the other Kindles look cheaper by comparison and give the new one an Apple Watch elite kinda glow about it?
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Apr 13, 2016 16:47
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