Kindle 3G - Better than books!!

[Jamesuk]

Hi All,

I have been allowed use of a 3G Kindle for this next Atlantic trip, so far I have had a little play around with it and I am wildly impressed. I beleive this is thee ulitmate present for any mariner/yachtie who likes to read while they are off sailing. It is amazing being able to buy a book pretty much anywhere using 3G signal which is paid for by Amazon no top up/no contract.

I would say I do like reading a paper book but when travelling being so close to the 20kg mark pretty much every time I travel it just makes sense to take a Kindle.

Kindle sales of eBooks surpassed that of paper books recently in the USA.

Check them out, I am buying one when I get back to the UK or possibly might get one in the USA if I have that option..



Happy sailing campers!

 

[agurney]

Agreed. I received one from Santa and am well pleased. I have well over a hundred books from a variety of sources and plenty of space for more. I had a good chuckle over Para Handy and Hurricane Jack today on a long haul flight and it didn't make a dent in the battery.

There's a usable web browser that can be used with the free 3G, however it appears to be dependent on operator and can't be relied on .. e.g. didn't work in CDG airport despite a strong signal, but is OK in SLC. Uses Vodafone in the UK so good coverage).

It's great with a little web page that I created for current charts optimised for the Kindle.
If you have one, have a look at the following in a rotated view: http://agurney.com/kindle/charts.htm (and the links to the inshore and shipping forecasts are worth following)


Alisdair

 

[Pete R]

Nice link.

Thanks

 

[Blue5]

Agreed. I received one from Santa and am well pleased. I have well over a hundred books from a variety of sources and plenty of space for more. I had a good chuckle over Para Handy and Hurricane Jack today on a long haul flight and it didn't make a dent in the battery.

There's a usable web browser that can be used with the free 3G, however it appears to be dependent on operator and can't be relied on .. e.g. didn't work in CDG airport despite a strong signal, but is OK in SLC. Uses Vodafone in the UK so good coverage).

It's great with a little web page that I created for current charts optimised for the Kindle.
If you have one, have a look at the following in a rotated view: http://agurney.com/kindle/charts.htm (and the links to the inshore and shipping forecasts are worth following)


Alisdair

I bought one for SWMBO for Christmas, will probably save a good few KG of weight while we are cruising as she manages a book a day!!

Agurney, that is cool, how did you manage to get them onto Kindle?

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

But an iPad is better than a Kindle

Same Kindle interface, same books, but so much more.

 

[AliM]

There is a long thread on just this subject on liveaboard forum. They are split between iPad and Kindle, but the Kindle is winning, because of its very long battery life.

I love my Kindle - I have downloaded loads of out-of-copyright books, free, and am ploughing through them at a huge rate - Gullivers Travels at present.

 

[macd]

There is a long thread on just this subject on liveaboard forum. They are split between iPad and Kindle, but the Kindle is winning, because of its very long battery life.

Long battery life is certainly a huge asset, but many posts (mine included) praise the Kindle in particular because its display is so much better for reading...as daylight-visible as a book, no eyestrain. The iPad is certainly far more versatile but lacks those qualities. To compare the two is in large measure to compare apples with oranges.

 

[Poignard]

'Scuse my ignorance but are old books only available as photographs of actual old books (.pdf?) or are they retyped for use with Kindle.

 

[macd]

'Scuse my ignorance but are old books only available as photographs of actual old books (.pdf?) or are they retyped for use with Kindle.

No, not photos of old books. Kindle files are in 'mobi' format. I don't know exactly how they're made, but imagine they're scanned then go through some sort of character recognition process (then, one hopes, a final edit). There's a full text search facility, so they're more than just 'pictures' of words. Kindle will read pdf documents (not always very conveniently, since the page sizes are often so different).

Set to a font size comparable with a typical paperback, Kindle displays around 200 words per pag, about two-thirds that of the same physical book.

 

[AliM]

"Set to a font size comparable with a typical paperback, Kindle displays around 200 words per pag, about two-thirds that of the same physical book. "

You can set your own font size - very useful when you've forgotten your glasses! You can also get it to read to you (odd, but surprisingly good).

 

[Leighb]

Check them out, I am buying one when I get back to the UK or possibly might get one in the USA if I have that option..

From my reading in the Amazon Kindle forum you need to be careful about where you buy your Kindle. If you are mainly resident in the UK you should get a UK Kindle and register it at your UK address, otherwise you cannot buy books from the Amazon UK site, which are generally cheaper, also the 3G set up is apparently different in the US and UK versions.

There are some books not available in the UK which are on the US site I gather. If you regularly move between the two and have addresses and bank accounts in both countries, I gather it is possible to re-register your Kindle, but life must get a bit complicated?

This is just my understanding and may not be totally accurate.

I am still eagerly awaiting my Kindle, birthday on Sunday, not long now.

 

[Fantasie 19]

Thought about it, but to be honest I'd rather have a NetBook than a Kindle... probably for much the same reasons the iPad folks give, but at a considerably cheaper price... I can run the Kindle app on the Netbook, but I can also watch DVD's, run GPS/plotter s/w, in colour, better interweb browser etcetc... and yes I know the battery life is not as long, but the functionality is in reverse proportion....

...and to top it all little'un bought her new Compaq netbook from Tesco's last weekend for only £175 - preloaded with Windows 7/Microsoft Office Starter versions.... amazing..

 

[agurney]

Thought about it, but to be honest I'd rather have a NetBook than a Kindle... probably for much the same reasons the iPad folks give, but at a considerably cheaper price... I can run the Kindle app on the Netbook, but I can also watch DVD's, run GPS/plotter s/w, in colour, better interweb browser etcetc... and yes I know the battery life is not as long, but the functionality is in reverse proportion....

...and to top it all little'un bought her new Compaq netbook from Tesco's last weekend for only £175 - preloaded with Windows 7/Microsoft Office Starter versions.... amazing..

I use both. They are very different.

Alisdair

 

[agurney]

I bought one for SWMBO for Christmas, will probably save a good few KG of weight while we are cruising as she manages a book a day!!

Agurney, that is cool, how did you manage to get them onto Kindle?

The charts? They are just links from a web page, not downloaded as books to the kindle.

 

[jimi]

I've got a Kindle3G, I love it

 

[agurney]

'Scuse my ignorance but are old books only available as photographs of actual old books (.pdf?) or are they retyped for use with Kindle.

They can be both. Anything in PDF format retains pagination and graphics. Text (such as downloaded eBooks or documents that you send via Amazon's converter) are more convenient to read with scalabale fonts and layout, but there's no graphics and you lose the original layout.


Alisdair

 

[AHoy2]

Bought the standard (non-3G) version some months ago with boat use being one of the main considerations. The screen readability and battery life are major benefits but the "handling" aspect is also a clear benefit over other devices where it effectively feels just like a book. Much handier for the slumped/relaxed reading position.

Apart from books it is also a good repository for cruising and techie documents.

Didn't see the sense in the 3G option as downloads are infrequent and I normally have a more versatile internet connection available either with a laptop or an Android phone.

 

[stiknstring]

Just bought the wifi only version for my bookworm son - he is really thrilled with it. Uses it to download from our home wifi. I am seriously considering ditching my Sony ereader which is heavier, more expensive, less reliable, slower and uses books that are more expensive than you get on Amazon downloads (I can sure recognise a bargain when I see one!).

What advantage do you get with the wifi/ 3G unit? Is it a matter of not being constrained to a wifi zone and the 3G giving the flexibility of telephone access to the bookstore? Are there other advantages? The price differential is substantial between the two units.

Grateful for any views - thanks!

 

[alant]

Thought about it, but to be honest I'd rather have a NetBook than a Kindle... probably for much the same reasons the iPad folks give, but at a considerably cheaper price... I can run the Kindle app on the Netbook, but I can also watch DVD's, run GPS/plotter s/w, in colour, better interweb browser etcetc... and yes I know the battery life is not as long, but the functionality is in reverse proportion....

...and to top it all little'un bought her new Compaq netbook from Tesco's last weekend for only £175 - preloaded with Windows 7/Microsoft Office Starter versions.... amazing..

"I can run the Kindle app on the Netbook,"

Is this on any netbook?

If so, how do you get kindle app & can you then get books?

 

[Bosun Higgs]

From my reading in the Amazon Kindle forum you need to be careful about where you buy your Kindle. If you are mainly resident in the UK you should get a UK Kindle and register it at your UK address, otherwise you cannot buy books from the Amazon UK site, which are generally cheaper, also the 3G set up is apparently different in the US and UK versions.

There are some books not available in the UK which are on the US site I gather. If you regularly move between the two and have addresses and bank accounts in both countries, I gather it is possible to re-register your Kindle, but life must get a bit complicated?

This is just my understanding and may not be totally accurate.

I am still eagerly awaiting my Kindle, birthday on Sunday, not long now.

That smacks of the sort of manipulation exercised by Apple. If true I wouldn't buy a Kindle for that reason alone.