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nemesis wrote:
> yes, but not the screen size.
My kindle screen size is only about an inch shorter and an inch narrower
than a regular piece of paper. Or, to put it another way, it's rather larger
than a standard paperback novel. I can read most PDFs on it comfortably.
Indeed, for some reason, even at the usual font size, it seems easier to
read than paper.
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
Serving Suggestion:
"Don't serve this any more. It's awful."
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Darren New escreveu:
> Invisible wrote:
>> As you'd expect, purchasing books for it from Amazon is... actually a
>> total PITA! Which surprised me. For reasons beyond my comprehension,
>> you *cannot* add Kindle books to your shopping basket. You can *only*
>> purchase them immediately, right then and there.
>
> Add the free samples as you see them. Let them go to the Kindle. Once
> you have looked at them on the kindle and you want it, push the "buy"
> button on the kindle.
>
> > And for every single
>> individual purchase, you have to go through a dozen order processing
>> screens.
>
> No you don't. You just turn on one-click for kindle books.
>
> No, you can't put them in your cart. You can use the kindle as your
> cart. If there's something you see interesting, send the sample chapter
> to the kindle. Then delete it or buy it at your leisure.
awesome!
--
a game sig: http://tinyurl.com/d3rxz9
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Darren New escreveu:
> nemesis wrote:
>> yes, but not the screen size.
>
> My kindle screen size is only about an inch shorter and an inch narrower
> than a regular piece of paper. Or, to put it another way, it's rather
> larger than a standard paperback novel. I can read most PDFs on it
> comfortably.
>
> Indeed, for some reason, even at the usual font size, it seems easier to
> read than paper.
it's got the best screen hands down, aside from no colors and slow
update. But that's no problem for its primary and only use as a reading
device with long battery life.
--
a game sig: http://tinyurl.com/d3rxz9
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nemesis escreveu:
> Darren New escreveu:
>> Invisible wrote:
>>> As you'd expect, purchasing books for it from Amazon is... actually a
>>> total PITA! Which surprised me. For reasons beyond my comprehension,
>>> you *cannot* add Kindle books to your shopping basket. You can *only*
>>> purchase them immediately, right then and there.
>>
>> Add the free samples as you see them. Let them go to the Kindle. Once
>> you have looked at them on the kindle and you want it, push the "buy"
>> button on the kindle.
>>
>> > And for every single
>>> individual purchase, you have to go through a dozen order processing
>>> screens.
>>
>> No you don't. You just turn on one-click for kindle books.
>>
>> No, you can't put them in your cart. You can use the kindle as your
>> cart. If there's something you see interesting, send the sample
>> chapter to the kindle. Then delete it or buy it at your leisure.
>
> awesome!
>
BTW, would you know if the interactive fiction game in my sign or any of
them from
http://parchment.toolness.com/
work in kindle? They are all playable through this javascript
interpreter, which I'm afraid won't quite run...
--
a game sig: http://tinyurl.com/d3rxz9
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> I've got no respect for /real books/, their large volumes messing around
> with home space, their smell and yellow pages as they get old and the
> forests killed to make them.
Uhuh.
Last time I checked, most paper comes from renewable sources these days.
People grow trees as crops, much as they crow wheat or barley as crops.
There's a lot of profit to be made from renewable wood and paper.
Electronics, on the other hand, requires large amounts of energy for its
production, and lots of exotic and usually toxic substances that are
rare and difficult to find, and difficult to deal with once the device
is no longer wanted.
And, uh, /which/ one of these is more sustainable?
As for the rest, I possess quite a few books, and none of them are
yellow yet. Space is a valid concern.
>> Besides, who wants a system that can delete the books you've paid for
>> at any time, for no defined reason?
>
> that's plain FUD last time I heard, both from tree killers and
> traditional book publishers.
Erm, no, it's a documented fact. People actually have had their books
deleted. Twice.
>> Still, it's not without advantages. (Size and weight being the obvious
>> ones, but also the ability to enlarge the text to the point that even
>> my grandparents can read it.) They're just not advances that are
>> especially important to me.
>
> beside all those awesome advantages, you can also simply buy a new book
> in the middle of the night when you see fit.
That is quite neat, but given how often I buy books, hardly persuasive.
Plus there's the utterly tiny range of books available for the Kindle.
(I have no idea about other e-readers, but the Kindle range is very
small indeed.)
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nemesis wrote:
> it's got the best screen hands down, aside from no colors and slow
> update. But that's no problem for its primary and only use as a reading
> device with long battery life.
Yep. And Qualcomm is coming out with one that's fast enough to play video
and full color, that they claim uses even less power than the B&W e-ink
screens. That'll be cool.
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
Serving Suggestion:
"Don't serve this any more. It's awful."
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nemesis wrote:
> that's plain FUD last time I heard, both from tree killers and
> traditional book publishers.
Well, they've done it twice already. My response is that it's so rare you
can just go out and buy the book on paper if it happens to you.
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
Serving Suggestion:
"Don't serve this any more. It's awful."
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> My wife constantly finger-prints up my screen, thinking it's a touch
> screen. Kind of funny, really.
Hee. Yeah, my mum's seen my sister playing with her iPhone, and thought
maybe the Kindle could do the same. (I, of course, realise that its
display technology can't update that fast, and it would waste huge
amounts of power if it tried.)
I'm somewhat puzzled has to how the iPhone can actually work. Why the
screen isn't scratched to pieces yet, or covered in a 4-inch thick layer
of skin oils. (Or how my sister can afford to own one, for that matter...)
> I find it disturbing to fall asleep reading and wake up the next morning
> with Agatha Christie staring at me from the next pillow over.
That would be disturbing indeed. O_O
>> It's also not especially easy to determine whether the device is
>> actually switched on or off;
>
> Not sure what you mean. If it's showing the screen saver or nothing,
> it's turned off. If it's showing a book or a menu, it's on.
>
> Hit the switch hard once, count to five, see if you have a book showing.
Well, with most devices, either there's a bunch of status lights and
stuff lit up, or it's all blank. The Kindle is /never/ blank. And the
power light only comes on momentarily, so you can't use that as an
indication either... It takes some getting used to.
>> As you'd expect, purchasing books for it from Amazon is... actually a
>> total PITA! Which surprised me. For reasons beyond my comprehension,
>> you *cannot* add Kindle books to your shopping basket. You can *only*
>> purchase them immediately, right then and there.
>
> Add the free samples as you see them. Let them go to the Kindle. Once
> you have looked at them on the kindle and you want it, push the "buy"
> button on the kindle.
Do all books provide a free sample? I thought it was only a tiny
minority of them. (In particular, I don't recall seeing a button for it
anywhere on the website...)
>> And for every single
>> individual purchase, you have to go through a dozen order processing
>> screens.
>
> No you don't. You just turn on one-click for kindle books.
Like I say, I clicked the big yellow "1-click order" button, and waded
through a dozen screens to make the purchase. I assumed that would be
just the first time, but... no. /Every/ purchase was the same.
> No, you can't put them in your cart. You can use the kindle as your
> cart. If there's something you see interesting, send the sample chapter
> to the kindle. Then delete it or buy it at your leisure.
As I say, that only works if every book has a sample chapter.
>> On the other hand, it's surprising (indeed, perplexing) how almost
>> anything you do on the Amazon website somehow affects the Kindle
>> /instantly/. I don't know how that's possible, but still.
>
> It's called a "network". ;-)
Yes. And it's intractably expensive to build one. And virtually
impossible to build one with good coverage. So....... how?
>> Apparently it's supposed to be possible to make purchases from the
>> Kindle itself. I haven't tried this. (God only knows how you
>> repeatedly type in your credit card number on a device with keys
>> significantly smaller than a human finger...)
>
> Don't be silly. You link it to your account once (which they do for you
> when you buy it) and you just buy books by asking for them.
Well, given that I'd already linked the Kindle to the account and I was
logged into Amazon with that account, I had expected "1-click order" to
immediately order the thing... but no.
>> It's certainly a nifty little toy. And it's /almost/ trivial enough to
>> operate that my grandparents might actually figure it out eventually.
>
> Yeah, I like how the new electronics are getting sophisticated enough
> they can be easy.
I presume I'm not the only person to appreciate the sheer irony.
>> Unfortunately, like all electronic devices, it has to scream "I can
>> also do X! And Y! And Z! And J, L, R, F, Q and I!" just to confuse
>> people.
>
> I didn't see that at all, really. It's totally out of your face. You
> turn it on, you get a list of all your books. You cursor to a book and
> click, and you're reading the book where you last stopped.
>
> There's a lot of functionality, but it's not on screen. Indeed, it can
> be difficult to find sometimes.
Well, as soon as it came out of the box, everybody [except me] seemed to
be pouring over the quick-start sheet, trying to figure out the meaning
of every individual sentence and memorise each individual feature. We
switched it on, bought some books and got the pages to turn, and people
are still asking me "so how do you work it then?"
(In particular, apparently it has a web browser. Why you'd want that, I
don't know. But I'm being urged to find out how it works - I'm guessing
"badly". :-P )
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Invisible wrote:
> Erm, no, it's a documented fact. People actually have had their books
> deleted. Twice.
Actually only *deleted* once. The second time, it was just removed from the
store. It was unclear from the articles I read whether it was actually
removed from the devices that had already purchased it as well. (I.e., if
you read exactly what the article said, the answer is "no". If you assume
the reporter was typing exactly what Amazon said, the answer is "no". If you
read all the rhetoric surrounding it, the answer is "yes".)
> (I have no idea about other e-readers, but the Kindle range is very
> small indeed.)
It's different. There are wads of tech papers you can get electronically
that aren't for sale on paper, for example.
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
Serving Suggestion:
"Don't serve this any more. It's awful."
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On 13/01/2011 4:23 PM, nemesis wrote:
> Stephen escreveu:
>> On 13/01/2011 3:50 PM, nemesis wrote:
>>> or to
>>> read ebooks in tiny letters...:)
>>
>> With E Books, you can change the font size.
>
> yes, but not the screen size. Which means you can read in big letters
> and scroll all the time to see more text... :p
>
Scrolling is easy, just keep your thumb on the scroll button and press
it when you want to change page or flick the screen with your thumb nail.
starter, and I took to it like a duck to water. One of the things I like
is the weight, no more sore wrists when reading a tome in bed.
--
Regards
Stephen
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