How easy is it to read the Kindle in a dark room (at night if I can't sleep but can't turn on a light). Does it have a background/ink brightness adjustment, or would I have to get a cover with a light on it?

You'd have to get a light. That's probably the biggest weakness of the Kindle, but it's readability at all other times more than makes up for it.

yeah, the one amazon sells is great

Yeah, the case is pricey (like $60 or something ridiculous) but it is well worth it. The light slides out of a corner of the case and lights the screen perfectly. It draws power from the Kindle itself (not much, though) so it never needs any batteries or anything like that.

I agonized for a good time on whether or not to buy it, but I'm really glad I did.

When people say "It looks just like paper!" it's because it really looks just like paper. The screen isn't pixels, it's an opaque medium that the e-ink gets oriented in. The e-ink looks just like real ink. The opaque nature of the display makes backlighting impossible in the same way that putting a light behind a thick piece of paper would. It's impossible to understand until you actually see it.

I was expecting a traditional display that sort of captures the "spirit" of printed paper. I was wrong. It looks just like paper! A very slightly glossy paper, but if you compared a kindle side by side to a printed book and a non-glare laptop screen, it would look much more like the book.

Any traditional book light will work just fine. I researched the crap out of it and decided to go with the Amazon kindle lighted cover. Primarily because it's the only one I found that uses the kindle battery for power, but also because it has nothing but stellar reviews. It is a hefty chunk of change for a slab of leather with a flashlight sticking out of it, but it has been worth every penny.


TLDR: Get the Amazon lighted cover.

Thank you — it did indeed turn out to be incredibly easy. The CS rep (who was adorable) upgraded to next-day shipping when I explained that it was my boy's and he doesn't live with me. They're sending the (prepaid) return label separately, but mailing it because my boy doesn't have printer access. And she said that if I have problems getting him and his mother to return it (I intimated, correctly, that his mother and I do not see eye to eye on much) that she imagines they'd surely make an exception once I explained the situation...

Obviously I wish the thing hadn't failed, but I can't imagine them handling it any better.

I have the same problem. Do I need to worry about sending back my kindle full of books, I happened to some how get for free.

Re: Public Domain Books - as an e-reader noob (I just use my iPad as an e-reader and download books from the Kindle/iBooks store when I want something FTL) - what are the best resources for public domain books for Kindle use? (Outside of your public library system.)

Also - as a general question - how have you found your library system epub selection to be?

Re: Calibre - huh, so you just download this software on to your Kindle, and it's a simple drag-and-drop to convert from epub to mobi (and mobi is readable on Kindle)? Is there any other DRM that needs to be handled? If it's really this easy, pretty sweet - any word on software security measures being developed on this in the future? Or is it generally accepted that Calibre can do this, and no one really cares?

-Al

Project Gutenberg is fantastic. I'm not 100% it's "the best," but they have a huge library in every format.

al,

+1 on Project Gutenberg. I get all my public domain books from there. Calibre is installed on your PC not on the kindle itself. Can't speak to conversion format as I am a nook-er

Calibre doesn't crack DRM. It just converts unprotected books from an unreadable format (epub) to mobi (or other supported) file type.

Getting rid of drm is something you'll have to find on your own.

Skimming this thread again, sorry if this has been answered. Does anyone know if any of the eReaders have the capability to highlight pdf files? I have a million journal articles I have to read for my PhD program and being able to store them on a reader would make life a lot easier (and kill a few less trees). Not being able to highlight would defeat the purpose of it for me though.

Any suggestions?

so everyone still views kindle > nook? any view it the other way?

Ignoring money (duh).

I rank them:

Ipad ($500) > Nook Color ($250) > Kindle ($140)

But the real answer is super subjective and based on what you want to do with the machine.

one benefit of the nook allows you to check out library books. as said in this thread you can read them on the kindle if you crack the drm and convert, but that is stealing imo

the kindle has a lot more books available and is more user friendly. I love my nook but if i had to replace it i would probably lean towards the kindle. I get around the lack of titles by buying kindle books and cracking the drm and converting

(and before someone says that hypocritical, I will point out that there is a big difference in cracking the drm on a file I purchase and own and doing the same on media borrowed from a library)

I would recommend to anyone that they buy the kindle over the nook unless they planned to be a heavy library borrower rather than purchaser

Not at all — the stuff is on your kindle account, not just your kindle. You put the new one the send you on your account (you can have up to five), take the old one off, and download the books. Takes just a couple minutes, and you lose nothing.

(The amazon people told me they'd actually register the new machine to the account for me, but it arrived unregistered. But even walking my thirteen year old through the registration over the phone only took a couple minutes.)

+1
I just recieved my Kindle 3 earlier this week and am 95% pleased with it. The only complaint I have is that I have to order the case and light seperately, but its incredibly easy to use, read ect. Much more so than my sisters Nook.

That case with the light is a must have imo. It's seems a little much at $60 but it's worth it.

I just bought a kindle 3 for the GF, bought the lighted case as well.
Anything you can offer in advice or resources for using this would be great.

Have found:
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/
http://www.archive.org/
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

Re the case things, I just got a Kindle and ordered a cheap case with a light on Ebay. A few people at work have the Ebay cases and they look fine, for about 30% of the cost. Prob not quite as nice if you really will use the thing a lot I guess, but definately an option.

Not sure if it's any good, but this site seems to have a lot of books - http://www.free-ebooks.net/authors.php

You need to subscribe to download the Kindle versions, but can get 5 free pdfs a day I think and these can be converted it seems using free software.

If you root the Nook you can download the Kindle app from the Android store

Just picked mine up a few days ago and love it. Been reading for about four hours a night with almost no eye strain.

Best gadget iv bought in a while.

I has Kindle 3 (Wifi only). Just arrived in my office.

Question - does the Kindle have issues connecting to wifi networks when the battery is <10%? I can't connect, therefore have not much to say about this product right now (actually not exactly true - do love the screen).

-Al

I'm going to guess it was a battery issue - wifi works fine now!

Recommendation: I searched the thread and didn't see any mention of Instapaper (one of my favorite iOS apps).

Anyway - as I use it on iPad/iPhone all the time, I set up my Instapaper account to push articles every day to Kindle 3 - works great, pretty psyched to see it supported. Also highly recommend if you're not using Instapaper right now.

Go here to set up took about 2 minutes:

http://www.instapaper.com/user/kindle

-Al