# Amazon Kindle; A Few Questions **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 24, 2009, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-kindle-a-few-questions/504061 "2009-07-24T00:11:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-kindle-a-few-questions/504061/21 "2009-07-26T16:40:01Z")
> [@shelbo](#): > > Does the Sony have a wireless download option, or is it loaded only through your computer? Friend Shelbo, My content is stored on my computer. The Sony reader does not have wireless capability. Some might see it as a drawback, but I have read a good deal of criticism lately about Amazon deleting your paid for content, and limiting the number of devices to which you are allowed to download your content. The stuff I have purchased is downloaded to a file on my computer, and I own the content. Amazon sells licenses to use the content. ---
**Author:** ![Silophant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Silophant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silophant)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-kindle-a-few-questions/504061/22 "2009-07-26T17:29:52Z")
And of course, you need to take [this](http://xkcd.com/548/) into consideration. ---
**Author:** ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-kindle-a-few-questions/504061/23 "2009-07-26T22:38:58Z")
Do any of the readers, Sony, the new Plastic Logic or the Kindle have color? Is it worth getting magazines on it if there’s no color? Do they show up vividly? ---
**Author:** ![Otter\_Snacks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e8c25b/32.png) [@Otter\_Snacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otter_Snacks)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-kindle-a-few-questions/504061/24 "2009-07-27T03:53:30Z")
> [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](#): > > Do any of the readers, Sony, the new Plastic Logic or the Kindle have color? > > Is it worth getting magazines on it if there’s no color? Do they show up vividly? I can’t speak for the others, but the Kindle 2 displays only sixteen shades of gray. I ordered mine before work today, and picked up the rockin’ leather case for it too. Can’t wait til it gets here. ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-kindle-a-few-questions/504061/25 "2009-07-27T04:34:07Z")
You can purchase books to read on the Kindle from other places that sell Mobipocket-format books, but you have to find out the Kindle’s PID first. There are scripts to do that when it’s plugged in via the USB port. Oh, and of course you can purchase and read non-DRM-protected Mobipocket files from places like [webscription.net](http://www.webscription.net) that don’t use DRM. I like my Kindle 1, but I can’t believe they removed the SD card slot from the newer Kindles. My ebook and Audible-format audiobook collection is already too big to fit on a Kindle 2. ---
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-kindle-a-few-questions/504061/26 "2009-07-27T05:11:18Z")
I really like my Kindle 2 I’ve read more “full books” in recent months then I read in the last five years. Its great for travel. Take whatever books you want and they weigh next to nothing. No need to feel guilty for dragging along the ones you didn’t read. You want today’s NY Times, just bring it up. It’s the details that sell you. When I first got it I had some time to kill by a hotel pool in Florida. The text was as readable as a paper/ink book. Try that with an iPhone. Yes, it needs color for photo books and magazines. I’m still happy being an early adapter. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-kindle-a-few-questions/504061/27 "2009-07-27T16:42:40Z")
There’s an article in the New Yorker that is less than positive: [A New Page | The New Yorker](http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/08/03/090803fa_fact_baker?currentPage=all) it’s made me rethink buying one. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-kindle-a-few-questions/504061/28 "2009-07-27T16:53:20Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > There’s an article in the New Yorker that is less than positive: [A New Page | The New Yorker](http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/08/03/090803fa_fact_baker?currentPage=all) it’s made me rethink buying one. The article is by Nicholson Baker, who can bug the hell out of me even on a subject I basically agree with. He’s also an avowed luddite, who is making a crusade of saving the print of the past. And yet. Did you read to the end of the article? > [@](#): > > Then, out of a sense of duty, I forced myself to read the book on the physical Kindle 2. It was like going from a Mini Cooper to a white 1982 Impala with blown shocks. But never mind: at that point, I was locked into the plot and it didn’t matter. Poof, the Kindle disappeared, just as Jeff Bezos had promised it would. I began walking up and down the driveway, reading in the sun. Three distant lawnmowers were going. Someone wearing a salmon-colored shirt was spraying a hose across the street. But I was in the courtroom, listening to the murderer testify. I felt the primitive clawing pressure of wanting to know how things turned out. > > I began pressing the Next Page clicker more and more eagerly, so eagerly that my habit of page turning, learned from years of reading—which is to reach for the page corner a little early, to prepare for the movement—kicked in unconsciously. I clicked Next Page as I reached the beginning of the last line, and the page flashed to black and changed before I’d read it all. I was trying to hurry the Kindle. You mustn’t hurry the Kindle. But, hell, I didn’t care. The progress bar at the bottom said I was ninety-one per cent done. I was at location 7547. I was flying along. Gray is a good color, I thought. Finally, I was on the last bit. It was called “A Postcard from Cuba.” I breathed an immense ragged sigh. I read the acknowledgments and the about-the-author paragraph—Michael Connelly lives in Florida. Good man. The little progress indicator said ninety-nine per cent. I clicked the Next Page button. It showed the cover of the book again. I clicked Next Page again, but there was no next page. My first Kindle-delivered novel was at its end. How is that a vote against? ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-kindle-a-few-questions/504061/29 "2009-07-27T17:21:50Z")
The lack of books was a big turn off, the poor images, and the ugly screen. All of it said to me that I should wait for future generations of the Kindle that have color and better screens. Plus more titles will be added. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-kindle-a-few-questions/504061/30 "2009-07-27T18:18:55Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > The lack of books was a big turn off, the poor images, and the ugly screen. All of it said to me that I should wait for future generations of the Kindle that have color and better screens. Plus more titles will be added. When I got my Kindle 2 about four months ago, Amazon was claiming 230,000 titles. Today it’s 300,000. AFAIK, this is vastly more than any other e-book reader, to say nothing of the fact that it can also read HTML, Word, and PDF files. Of course, if you’re in Afghanistan, it’s moot anyway, since its wireless network is only available in the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Ed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Just\_Ed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Ed)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-kindle-a-few-questions/504061/31 "2009-07-27T23:32:42Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The article is by Nicholson Baker, who can bug the hell out of me even on a subject I basically agree with. He’s also an avowed luddite, who is making a crusade of saving the print of the past. > > And yet. Did you read to the end of the article? > > How is that a vote against? That’s what I was going to say, although I was not previously aware of Baker’s history. But also, Baker spends an inordinate amount of time in that piece slamming the device for things it does not promise to do - the lack of color, the paucity of images, the indistinct charts and graphs. The thing is made for simple text reading, and even though newspapers and magazines are available, it’s obvious (and stated by Amazon) that pictures and such will be reduced or omitted. And I don’t know what was wrong with the devices he tested, but I’ve had both Kindle 1 and Kindle 2, and, though the screen is not white (it _is_ gray, but I would say a pale gray), the text has never been anything but clearly black and eminently readable. I haven’t ever had a problem with contrast. So if you’re looking for something to read simple text and can forgo the need for flashy photography, graphs, and tables, the Kindle works amazingly well. It’s not yet ready for that other stuff, but it’s not supposed to be. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-kindle-a-few-questions/504061/32 "2009-07-28T05:25:21Z")
> [@Silophant](#): > > And of course, you need to take [this](http://xkcd.com/548/) into consideration. Is that true? You can browse the web with it? Wireless and free? :dubious: (If so, I might be sold.) ---
**Author:** ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-kindle-a-few-questions/504061/33 "2009-07-28T05:29:52Z")
> [@Otter\_Snacks](#): > > I can’t speak for the others, but the Kindle 2 displays only sixteen shades of gray. Thanks, that’s a big help. I hope you have a great time with your new Kindle 2. ---
**Author:** ![BaconAndEggs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f4b2a3/32.png) [@BaconAndEggs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaconAndEggs)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-kindle-a-few-questions/504061/34 "2009-07-28T15:14:38Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Is that true? You can browse the web with it? Wireless and free? :dubious: > > (If so, I might be sold.) If you can browse the web wireless and free AND you can find a site to download free books,magazines,newspapers then I’ll buy it. I don’t want to buy $10 books to add to it. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-kindle-a-few-questions/504061/35 "2009-07-28T15:53:24Z")
1. Take any file into Word. 2. Save the file as a .txt 3. Plug Kindle into the computer. 4. Drag and drop the .txt file onto the Kindle “Documents” ffolder. 5. Enjoy. ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-kindle-a-few-questions/504061/36 "2009-07-28T16:53:30Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Is that true? You can browse the web with it? Wireless and free? :dubious: > > (If so, I might be sold.) Yes, as long as you have coverage, you can browse the web wireless and free. Of course, Amazon reserves the right to terminate that service or start charging for it, but they haven’t so far. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-kindle-a-few-questions/504061/37 "2009-07-28T18:40:14Z")
I just put down my Kindle 2 out in the screen house outside the RV to come in and make a sandwich and check the Dope. My wife and I both have one and have been traveling for the past two months. We couldn’t connect in Canada, of course, but no problems most other places. Not having a bunch of books really cuts down on both weight and space requirements and I have no real issues with Kindle. Minor annoyances are words that are oddly hyphenated at times and difficulty seeing illustrations because of the small screen. Otherwise, it’s a little miracle for travelers The battery lasts a long time, as long as you keep Whispernet turned off. ---
**Author:** ![Otter\_Snacks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e8c25b/32.png) [@Otter\_Snacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otter_Snacks)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-kindle-a-few-questions/504061/38 "2009-07-31T04:34:13Z")
I got my Kindle a couple of days ago and I’m very happy with it. It feels sturdy in my hand, yet light all the same. The screen is clear and easy to read. The battery life is also excellent. ``` If you're going to do anything more substantial than buy a title you already know of, than the interface can feel a bit clunky. The screen doesn't refresh very fast, so you'll leave behind streaks of the cursor as you zip across the page (until it refreshes a second later). I don't count that against the Kindle; I know it's not a Netbook. I think the fact that you can browse stores and even websites at all is awesome and a bonus. One thing I found massively convenient was the built in dictionary. So often while reading I just wanted a word clarified and refreshed in my mind, and this makes it trivially simple to do. The Kindle has already increased the amount I read by just making it so damn convenient. Any story I have at my fingertips, bookmarked automatically right where I left off. The only negative things that I would mention when recommending it to other readers is the price tag, and possibly gaps in the online library, which I've started noticing as I've dug deeper. Nothing major, and to me, it is well worth the price. Thanks for the feedback. ``` ---
**Author:** ![Prepaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@Prepaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prepaid)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-kindle-a-few-questions/504061/39 "2009-08-04T00:14:22Z")
A few things about earlier posts: Amazon does not back up your Kindle. They just keep track of what they sold you. They only keep a few issues of magazines - no idea on newspapers or blogs. You can copy stuff between the Kindle and your computer via USB. Backup whatever you want. Buy ebooks from anywhere and put them on your computer. Freeware convert to a public format. Copy to the Kindle via USB. Pictures are in B&W so magazines are not as good as printed versions. If you what PDF format you should get the new big Kindle. The free Sprint wireless is just OK. My phone is much better. Page refresh is slow. The only thing I bookmark is weather radar since the screen is bigger than on my phone. I use the Kindle a lot. Buy one now and you will use it. In a few years when color e-ink readers are affordable, buy one. Copy everything to your computer, use freeware to convert Amazon format to public format then use them on your new device. Your ebooks are yours forever (until the courts take them away). Like all electronics, there will be something better in a few years. Enjoy it now or do without - it’s your choice. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-kindle-a-few-questions/504061/40 "2009-08-04T03:01:12Z")
I bought my Kindle in mid-June and have already read over 10 books on it. I also cancelled my Chicago Tribune and Newsweek subscriptions because I now have them delivered on my Kindle. But here’s the best thing. Several times already I have been watching a documentary on TV and an author of a book related to the subject of the documentary is interviewed. I have literally downloaded his book on to my Kindle before the next commerical break. Also, I read a fantastic book about time travel called Axis of Time. Upon finishing it, I realized it was just the first book of a trilogy. I downloaded book #2 and was reading it 5 minutes after I finished the first book. How cool is that? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-kindle-a-few-questions/504061.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-kindle-a-few-questions/504061.md?page=3)