Be Excellent To Each Other

So I'm actually a little pleased to be told that the screen on the Fire won't be as good for reading. I probably don't need one quite so much now...

Even Amazon haven't managed to harness the power of miniature black holes yet, have they?

Uhh, Meems, if true, you won't be able to see anything on the screen at all...

Pedantry over the wording aside (I understand why you mentioned it, not adhering to the physics of light,but I think you realise what it was intended to convey in layman's terms), I hoped it meant that the device does not throw light into the surroundings so does not give off a glow into a darkened room, which would be a wonderful way to solve any bedtime reading woes. It was more a response to the intended meaning of the words you quoted. I hope it's as good as it sounds Need release date now please, Amazon!

Please help my brain, it's underpowered and not working at the moment.

I want a replacement for my Kindle as I got a big scratch on it and it isn't enjoyable to read any more, but I miss it

I am looking at the new kindles due to, and i just don't know what is best for me.

Kindle buttony thing like I had, kindle touch, kindle fire (I don't even know what one of these is, really, i tried to research them but I am just confused even more...) or to wait for the paperywhite one.

I know some of you have tried the Touch and maybe fire (Grim...? perhaps) so what are the best uses for each?

Fire is a tablet like an iPad but worse because it runs that horrible budget Android thingy - best to avoid.

Touch is a touchscreen Kindle - can't see the appeal myself, but is still eInk so easy to read. Kindle Keyboard and Kindle are like the old style ones. Paper white may be good, but the jury's out until we see them in the wild.

I can vouch for the "Kindle". i.e. the one with buttons but no keyboard. If you read in the dark, I'd be tempted to wait for the new one, but if you're not bothered, I can't really see how they'd better the current one by much to make the wait worthwhile - especially if you're desperate for a new one ASAP. We still don't have a release date for the Paperwhite in the UK yet, do we?

Don't think we have one yet, no.

I'd mostly be using it for reading books but also displaying knitting patt

... Stupid phone... Knitting pattern PDFs, and I'd considered the Fire because it would display them in colour... I think. If it displays PDFs at all.

But then is it horrid to read books on? Hmmm...

It does display .pdfs, and in colour, but it's not for reading on.

No. Kindle Touch was about a six month delay before we got them, so it could be a while yet. Although I'd love one for Christmas, for sure.

I'd be astonished if it couldn't display PDFs. But: PDFs are always generated at a given paper size, and quite often, it's A4 or letter sized (if the person is usually going to print them). The Kindle Fire is about 7" across the diagonal, so it's going to suffer from the same problem that viewing PDFs on an eink Kindle suffers from; either you need to pan around the display, or the display is going to be teeny. Imagine putting your document in a photocopier and hitting "reduce: 60%".

Edit -- So for knitting patterns, you'd be better off with a larger screened device, like the Kindle Fire HD or an iPad. These devices are typically too large and too heavy for one-handed reading, however, so they're probably not what you'd want to read books on.

It's not the size so match that is a worry witht he PDFs. I used tyo use my normal kindle with PDFs and it was fine for what I needed, but it was no good for colourwork charts, as any tonally similar shades were indistinguisahble, but as you say it is not the best choice for a device to read books on, so from the looks of it there isn't one device that will do both things well.

I think I may get a Kindle touch and think about how best to go about finding something to display the patterns at another time, as having them on my laptop screen is awkward and not portable. Maybe I should buy a printer instead...

A printer would most likely be the cheapest and best option...
If all you really need is something to display pattern PDFs then a second hand iPad 1 or 10" android tablet would do you. Then you can get a proper kindle for proper reading.

If the only thing that you would use a tablet for is knitting patterns then it would probably be a bit of an expensive way round it and a cheap inkjet printing on low quality would almost certainly be better. I reckon you'd probably use it for loads of other stuff too, though.

Also lots of people have no problem whatsoever reading off normal tablet screens except perhaps in bright sunlight, so there's that to consider too.

I don't get eyestrain from reading using a tablet, but an eInk screen is a much better experience, imo.

What everyone else has said.

"Proper" Kindles are the best things in the world for reading books on (and I include paper in that list), but they only have very basic tablet skills (you can get on the Internet with them and they'll play MP3s, but only just*).
A tablet is great for consuming other media - websites, films, music, and sure you can read your books on them, but they don't do books anywhere near as well as a Kindle.

In my opinion there's no crossover at all - they are completely different devices.

*Or at least you can on my old Kindle 2. Do they still do that?

I don't read as much as some but I've read plenty of books on my iPad now, I agree that my wife's Kindle is slightly nicer and you can read outside and the battery life makes it much better for trips away etc. but really once I'm a few paragraphs in I'm not thinking about the screen, it makes precisely no difference to me at all.

The iPad weighs 650 g. The e-ink Kindles weight about 170 g. How are you reading that a 3.5 times increase in weight isn't noticeable?

Usually sat back with the bottom of the thing resting against my tummy and my hand just sort of stopping it from falling backwards. I really don't find the colossal weight to be an issue when reading, in precisely the same way as it isn't when I'm doing anything else with the thing. I've read actual printed books that were heavier still and never really found any problem with those either. In fact I can't see how it would be unless you read by sitting bolt upright and holding your books directly in front of your face.

I read a lot on the bus to work. No any way would I flash my iPad about on that.

Ah, well. No way would I go on a bus.

It makes my commute zero cost to me, so I'm not going to complain.

I also do most of my reading on the bus. Would you look at that... common ground between myself and Myp.

*marvels*

That, and you're a cunt.

Just to be clear I'm not trying to argue here that people should not ride on buses and that Kindles are shit.

Mimi's situation seemed to come down to a choice between a Kindle and a tablet. Personally I would choose the tablet every time because I don't find the actual experience of reading to be all that much different once I've got past the "ooh it looks a bit like paper" thing and because I really like all the other stuff that iPads do. I know they don't compare price-wise but I've had a play with a Nexus 7 too and I'd even choose one of them over a Kindle if I had to. Although I also agree that it would be nice to have both.

More of a DC man, myself.

markg: you seem to be in the minority though, so I'd be careful recommending someone something on that basis.

The correct thing for Mimi to do is of course go out and try them for herself. Everyone is different.

I don't think Mimi is as muscle bound as Mark so she should just stick to light reading devices like our puny Doc. Unless of course she can bind Russ up with her twine into some kind of techno pulpit.

I'm not sure really, if people could have either their iPad or their Kindle then which would it be?

I definitely agree that Mimi should try them out, though. Or just get Russell to buy her both, the tight git.

I'm happy with the weight of a tablet unless I'm reading in bed, when I tend to lie down and hold the device in the air above my head.

I'd rather have both devices hit me in the face simultaneously as I doze off than the Necronomicon.

That's a completely different question to the one I answered. We were talking about quality of reading books on each device.

Of course I'd have an iPad over a Kindle if I could only have one device, but it would just mean I wouldn't read as much.

Hehe, I'm more confused than ever!!

I'm really feeling how much I miss my kindle today after the third week of coming hope to realise that The Book Depository have not delivered my book, then to find a message from The Book Depository to tell me that they won't even START to look into if my book is lost until the 15th, which would be a full six weeks after I bought it.

I could have bought the Kindle version and it would arrive in ten seconds.



I think I might get a standard Kindle (touch, perhaps, so it's a bit different from my broken one, which makes me sad) and read my patterns off the laptop for the tie being (which means Russell can't use it) and think of getting something like a Fire or a printer after Christmas, maybe.

Unless I win the Euromillions tomorrow in which case I'm getting a iPad (carried by my unicorn-riding robot butler)

How did you scratch your first one so badly? Did you forget to clip Russell?

Kindle for me. My iPad obviously does a lot more, but my Kindle gets used a lot lot lot more.

Something like that

Let's not forget the Sony PRS-T1 ebook reader.

As that's what I've got.

I reckon we can go ahead and forget it, actually.

Next you'll be suggesting Android tablets.

I still maintain it's the best gadget I own.

Have you contacted amazon? When Kate bust hers, they replaced it for £50 or something close to that.

I absolutely love my Kindle. The only drawbacks to it are the impossibilities of passing a book onto someone else once I've read it, it's tricky to flick through trying to find a reference, and if the book contains a map it's most likely going to be unreadable.

Kindle + http://www.gutenberg.org = WIN!

I've finally begun to catch up with all the classics I should have read years ago.

All of

I have had a kindle for just over a year now. I have read ALL OF THE BOOKS and I love it so much I could shit out of my nose.

Oh, and the other downside is that the local library service's small e-book collection is incompatible with it. Heigh-ho.

If their e-book service doesn't work with Kindles, then it is pointless and doomed to fail.

Bought an Kindle

Which one did you get (he asked knowingly)?

Should have got a Sony PRS-T1.

Then we could have been ebook reader buddies.