I picked one up today and think it’s great.
Calibre sounds like a good idea for newspapers so I’ll be getting that. Having a samples folder to dip into sounds like something I’ll be doing to.
Just got to train myself to stop trying to select things by touching the screen!
Amazon frequently sells some books for $0.00. I get a daily blog on my Kindle (0.99/mo) that keeps me informed of which books are free.
You can sign up at ereaderiq.com to get an email whenever free books show up in the Amazon Kindle store. The site can also monitor a particular Kindle book and notify you if its price drops.
There’s a blog here that posts daily about free and bargain-priced Kindle books. You’ll also get quite a lot of commentary - that I don’t always find convincing - about the entire e-publishing industry.
The Books on the Knob blog is my favorite source of info about free and bargain e-books.
Open Calibre, click on the “fetch news” button (it has an orange circle with an “N” in it), then browse for the news you want. It is sorted into languages and sometimes country, I think the US stuff is all under the generic “English” heading. You can choose how often it downloads and you can set it to automatically put the news on your Kindle when it is connected (or I think it can send it wirelessly via the Kindle email address but that may cost money.)
What happens if you drop one. :smack: On the hard kitchen floor? In other words, how sturdy are they?
I thought I should come back to this thread and mention that Amazon just sent out an announcement about a software upgrade for the K3 that, among other things, allows page numbers (that correspond to those in the paper version of the book).
Question for everyone - I got a kindle right after Christmas and never registered it with Amazon. I was looking at my dad’s kindle over the weekend and discovered that by registering, there’s a lot of interesting but useless stuff (including a clock!) that gets unlocked. Is there anything IMPORTANT that gets unlocked by registering which I am missing out on? The reason I haven’t registered or turned on the wi-fi on mine is because I don’t want Amazon messing with my settings or deleting stuff (or sending me a million BUY/DOWNLOAD THIS! messages)
I don’t know, since I don’t know what an “unregistered” Kindle looks like (I bought mine directly from Amazon.com, so it came already registered to my account). But (from my experience) Amazon won’t send anything to your Kindle except books that you buy from them or documents that you (or someone you authorize) e-mail to your Kindle. I also don’t expect them to mess with your settings or delete stuff, since they caught so much flak from the one or two infamous incidents when they did delete stuff from people’s Kindles.
How do you buy anything with an unregistered kindle?
I’m not worried about them sending spam to my KINDLE, I’m worried about getting twice as much email from them in my regular account - they send me a damn email EVERY DAY and I can’t add them to my spam filter because then when I actually order something, I won’t get my invoice.
I load stuff onto my kindle with Calibre and a USB cable.
I only ever get a receipt email when I actually buy an eBook. It’s the same as when I buy a physical item.
(I actually get way more when I buy a physical item: the “we placed your OneClick order! You have 30 minutes to change it!” email, the receipt email, and then a “We shipped your item!” email.)
Of course, I have Gmail set up to automatically filter Amazon’s emails into various labels (or folders) and skip the inbox. So I have them for my records, but usually don’t have to see them.
If you’re getting marketing emails from Amazon, go to your Amazon account page (the “Your Account” link on any Amazon page), find the “Settings” section, click the “E-Mail Preferences & Notifications” link, and check the “Do not send me email” option.
That should keep their emails limited to the important stuff like receipts.
That said, the biggest advantage of registering my Kindle (aside from being able to shop for Kindle books) is that I set Calibre up to email the Kindle a copy of the NYT every morning for free.
Got my kindle, downloaded World War Z and I’m loving it so far!
I read at a very fast rate, so my Kindle has been a back-saver at tournaments. Now I carry it instead of a stack of books. The Websubscriptions from Baen books are thrifty and get me exposed to a number of authors I wouldn’t ordinarily read.
Thank you willa, you made my day. There are about 25 marketing categories, and my account had every single one of them checked!
When I get home from work tonight, I will try registering my kindle. The new update that actually shows page numbers rather than that “position 1000 of 10000” thing is worthwhile enough!
Getting back to the OP - one good reason to get one. In the 1 month I’ve had mine, I’ve completed 4 books (My Year of Living Biblically, 1001 Arabian Nights—who knew that Aladdin wasn’t one of them!, The Bedwetter, and The War for Late Night). I’m lucky if I finish 4 books a YEAR. The Kindle just makes it SO easy to read anytime, anyplace where you’ve got a couple free minutes. And if you aren’t in the mood for classical literature, you can read a memoir or a humor or an almanac or history book or whatever.
Also, have I mentioned how fabulous it is for PDFs, and how I no longer need to print out handout instructions for my job anymore?
Jesus Christ, Amazon just sent me an email to say they’d stop sending me marketing emails.
Got mine --third gen w/3G free worldwide Amazon downloads – last week and I’m lovin’ it. Living as I do in a non-English speaking country, I’d mostly rely on trips to the US for my literature. Two weeks ago found myself re-reading my library and sent for the Kindle; have about 40 new, Amazon e-books in it and with this handy utility, Calibre, I can convert just about any read-file format to the Kindle mobi – pdf included.
Other than that, I’ve found the menu functions well thought out – bookmark, note, highlight, sync, etc. – the screen is outstanding even in the harshest light & it worked flawlessly out of the box, great built-in dictionaries (you can add more), it’s still running on first charge (about 10 days of mid to heavy use now) and I couldn’t be happier.
That said, nota bene, it’s a B&W electronic reading device, and for that sole purpose I don’t know of a better one out there. Not interested in Ipads, Iphones, BBs or Netbooks, do my surfing from my 'puters (13" laptop is my travel mate – not a road-warrior mind you) as I hate tiny screens & puny keyboards for any kind of extended use. Thus the Kindle hits just the right note for moi.
Convince you? Nope. You’ll have to that yourself.
Good luck.