I’m under the strong impression I’ll be getting a Kindle Touch for Christmas and while poking around I found that the USB power adapter from Amazon is $10. I have a few of these floating around from my Androids and a few more from various other devices. Can I use that those to charge a Kindle? I assume they all have the same standard output that matches a computer’s USB output, right?
Also, since I plan to use this in bed, at night, in the dark, I was looking at the lighted covers but they seem to have poor reviews. Does anyone have one and what do you think? Are there better after market lighted covers? If not I’ll probably just save myself the $60 and get a lamp for my night stand.
And now that the question is out of the way…I never thought I’d be a Kindle person. I don’t think I’ve read a single book since High School (I was a hard science guy in college). But a few weeks ago my phone, for some reason, but Google Books on the home screen and poking around in it, I found that there’s some free books. Doing some more poking I found that pre-1923 books are free and I think it’s something like 2 million+ books out of copyright. I just finished The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and I plan to do The Marvelous Land Of Oz soon, but next I’m going to try out a Sherlock Holmes book. Either The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes or A Study on Scarlet…Yes, I like going in order.
A standard Micro USB cable will work, you might have Mini USB cables instead for your other devices (which won’t work). Here is a recent thread about lighted covers, most people seemed to really like theirs, including me. Amazon has some out of copyright books available for free and you can find a lot more on Project Gutenberg that you can download to your computer and transfer to your Kindle.
I’m not worried about the Kindle side. The wire was just part of the picture. As long as it’s a standard USB on one end (and it has to be to plug into a computer) it’ll fit in here. I just wanted to make sure it’s safe to use. I already have one next to my bed for my phone so it’ll be convenient to plug it in during the day when it needs to be charged every few weeks.
I just wanted to make sure that any random USB AC adapter isn’t going to over/under power it and cause a problem. I plan to use the one that came with my Androids. So far the one that came with my Droid and the one that came with my Bionic both work interchangeable, but that’s to be expected even if they weren’t interchangeable in general.
Which Kindle do you have? From what I’ve read the older lighted covers for the older Kindle’s were great, but the lighted covers for the Kindle Touch seem to be…less great. I’m reading a lot of things like this:
“The previous kindle cover had a pull-out light from the upper right corner, and I would go months without seeing the bulb directly.
This Kindle Touch light, you see the bulb burning into your eyes ALL THE TIME as you read”
And
“To be blunt - this is meant to be a lighted cover, but that one function is a huge weakness. The reading light itself should have a shade on it to prevent the intense glare from the LED bulb from shining in the reader’s eyes”
Anyways, I just wanted to mention this because a lot of the negative reviews mention how great the covers were for the older Kindles. So I just want to know if I’m going to be starting at a light the whole time I’m reading in which case I’ll wait until there’s a good aftermarket one.
I use my Android Droid and Droid 3 adaptor plugs (microUSB) and my Kindle 2 and 3 chargers interchangeably between devices with no problems whatsoever. Have been for years.
Kindle 3 (now called Kindle Keyboard), with the light that slides out from the top right corner. The big advantage of the lighted cover is that the light draws power from the kindle itself (and isn’t a huge drain either). Otherwise, any clip-on light would do the job. If the reviews on the lighted cover for the Touch are negative then you might be better off getting a clip-on booklight for $20 or less for now and waiting for a better option.
I assume the OP is talking about this plug that can be used to charge a Kindle from a wall outlet. Older versions of the Kindle came with this included, and I think (but am not sure) that the Kindle 3 (which is now called the Kindle Keyboard) still does. The Kindle Touch, however, does not, which means you have to either charge it from a computer or buy a separate plug.
Since the plug adapter that I’ve linked to here accepts a standard USB cable, I would guess that another, non-Amazon-brand adapter that takes a standard USB plug would work just as well. But that’s just a guess, though some of the User Reviews on the linked page seem to back it up.
I bought the $10 adapter for moms Touch Kindle. We’re having trouble figuring out where to store it. The kindle box with the nice lid won’t close with the adapter in it. A shame because it will be a lot easier to lose that adapter.
I didn’t buy the cover. Mom plans to keep her kindle in the kindle box when she’s not using it. The box has a plastic insert that holds the kindle snugly and it doesn’t get bumped around. Our biggest fear is scratching the screen. Keeping it in the box should prevent that.
Isn’t the whole point of USB that it is universal? Ie that one cable or slot is as good as the next. Are there any examples of devices that will work with one cable/charger, and not another?
Obviously I am excluding the differences between USB 1.0/2.0/3.0.
I don’t think the wall adapter part is universally interchangeable. They all have different mA ratings (commonly 500 mA but I’ve seen 1000 – look closely, what does yours say?). And in fact I have taken a random one and plugged some phone in to charge it, and the phone actually detected this and complained about it.
If I were you I would get a more definitive answer before plugging anything in. It doesn’t seem like anyone in this thread so far knows for absolute sure (including myself). I do assume tho, that if the amperage is the same then it should be fine.
Well, for what it’s worth, I looked at my Amazon plug, and it says it has an output of 0.85A (which I assume is 850 mA).
(By contrast, I have a charger plug that looks somewhat similar to the one in the picture the OP linked to, which I’ve used successfully to charge a couple of different mp3 players, but haven’t tried on a Kindle. It lists an output of 1000 mA.)
Now I’m curious. If these different devices can be successfully charged from the same computer USB port, why can’t they all be charged from the same plug adapter—or can they? Is it because the computer is smarter and can adjust the output of charge coming from its USB ports? Inquiring minds want to know.
I bought a USB power adaptor thing for my Kindle on eBay for $10 as I recall it. I’m Australian and we have 240 v power, so I couldn’t use a US one and Amazon don’t include them when they ship overseas anyway. ETA: I could have purchased a 240v one from Amazon for triple the price of a generic one, of course…
I did do some checking and from what I found you can’t use just any USB power adaptor, some people were saying they’d damaged their Kindles by using the wrong one. No cites, that’s just from my memory. Google the question, that’s how I found the info I needed.
Well as I said, I’m not terribly knowledgeable about this, but the USB2.0 ports on a computer will supply up to 900 mA, from what I read (USB3.0 can supply more). The portable device draws whatever it needs, and I think in some cases there’s even a negotiation between the device and the host where the device tells the host what it wants. This is why some devices, like 3.5" external USB hard drives, need a separate power supply, since the 900 mA isn’t enough.
What I think this means is that if the Kindle normally needs 850 mA but you plug it in to some cheapie 500 mA ebay adapter, you can get overheating as the device tries to draw more power than the adapter can output. OTOH, if you use your 1A adapter, I think it’s fine as the device will only draw as much as it needs.
Don’t make any decisions with your expensive devices based on anything I say here tho, I am by no means an expert. Just wanted to chime in to point out all adapters are not made equal.
