Kindle DX, much bigger display. PDF capability. Now we're talking.
Now all it needs is a whiter background and European availability. Please.
Mmmm, and 19 ounces, over half a kilo, is perhaps a little on the heavy side. I like something which is comfy to read holding in one hand.
... Update: I weighed some of my books, and it's actually not so bad. Forget I said anything. :-)
13 comments:
So how has your gen 1 kindle been doing? Do you even use it anymore?
I'll admit I wanted one, but I knew it would end up in the big box in my closet with other nifty little gadgets I hoped I would use more often, but never did. Especially since I couldn't benefit from the whispernet outside of the USA. Stuff like old PDAs, mini-camcorders, and other computer peripherals.
While on the topic of asking for updated reviews on products now that you've had them a couple months I'm also curious how the embody chair has been treating you.
thanks!
The Kindle does not find much use, partly because of the lack of online capabilities.
The Embody chair must be the best I've had, since I don't find myself thinking about it.
Okay, happy to oblige. All done and forgotten. :-)
I once weighed the glossy paper videogame magazines that I'm following. An issue is about half a kilo, which you wouldn't suspect from looking at it, and barely from just holding it.
And I'm rather used to reading big books. :-)
Not just because of my medical studies. :-|
My new Asus Eee is also quite enjoyable as a "more than just for reading" machine. I'll be composing my novels on it. Maybe even some of my future blog posts...
Though these can benefit from some of the image manipulation I have available on my current PC. The only thing the Eee lacks is a free built-in good image editor. Oh, and it doesn't read MIDI music files.
I almost owe you thanks for this Eee, BTW. "Almost", because AFTER having decided to buy it, I found out while sorting my old files in the "Eolake Stobblehouse blog" folder, that it's actually the Western world version of the XO "$100 laptop".
So, turns out I "serendipitifully" fulfilled a fond dream of mine. And even though I took the decision after having forgotten about the XO images, I almost owed my decision to you.
So, "almost thank you, Eolake". ;-)
It really is quite a nice machine, too.
Cost $400. I wonder how much I could've saved had I know it included a Windows XP disc, which I don't want.
But there's little hope of getting that one refunded, in Lebanon. :-P
Ah well, I just hope that by buying it I did fund a free one for some African schoolkid.
Say, the Eee is actually cheaper than the Kindle. Not as big a screen [9 or 10" diagonal], not as hi-tech and all, but excellent for, say, reading Sugar Domino again or storing my collection of Domai images. For a "basic" PC, it's in fact awesome.
And runs on Linux, so no hordes of Windows viruses to dread. Has its own -free- antivirus, anyway. In case I do some day use it for websurfing.
But enough advertising a product on which I don't even receive a commission. :-)
Hey, I say the best advertising, is spontaneous word-to-mouth! When real-life customers do the praising by themselves.
Still, that washing powder box, all white with a big red X on it, does look rather cool. Elegant, simple, with a contestative note to it... So, yeah, I *would* try it out for free, mister TV man. ;-)
Besides, I always wondered what this Other™ brand was like. So far, I haven't heard THEM lay off their employees or outsource abroad!
Yes, I think that brand rocks.
As soon as I find it, I'm also gonna buy that brand of beverage with a black X on it. You know, it has a skull just over the X.
There are better e-book readers out there. Less ugly. Less heavy. And I really don't want some weird-ass keyboard on any e-book reader of mine. That's just stupid.
Which ones do you recommend?
The Kindle DX is aimed at the professional user or textbook user... it has native PDF support and a large enough screen to view A4-size pages without scaling/clipping.
I have the first generation Kindle and it is great for reading books that I really don't care too much about (novels, that sort of stuff), but I've hesitated to buy expensive technical or reference books, or any book that I might want to lend to others, for it. I've pre-ordered the Kindle DX for reading technical documents, and hope I'll be very happy with it (otherwise it goes back).
Pragmatic Bookshelf is a company that does it right; you can buy the hardcopy book and they'll give you an ebook version (PDF, ePub, or MOBI format).
Re using a Kindle outside the US, you can download books from Amazon, or from non-DRM MOBI sites such as MobileRead.com directly to your USB-connected Kindle. I purchased a Palm-specific cable off of eBay that lets me charge my Kindle and/or connect it as a USB drive to my computer ($10 including shipping) and this is what Amazon should have shipped in the box. I also must have 200 open-source MOBI-format ebooks for the Kindle, and have greatly enjoyed reading the classics.
"Pragmatic"...
I should check, maybe they're the same ones publishing books I've recently seen in Lebanon. Classics adapted in comic book form, like Treasure Island. For $10, you get the book, plus a CD with the story in PDF format.
Sounds perfectly legal to me. ;-)
Still, for reading my many classics downloaded from Project Gutenberg, I don't feel the need for a Kindle. My Eee laptop will do just fine.
Also sprach Pascalustra!
'Tis night: now do all gushing fountains speak louder. And my soul also is a gushing fountain.
'Tis night: now only do all songs of the loving ones awake. And my soul also is the song of a loving one.
Now, this makes you want to carry the rest with you and read it leisurely.
We talk about the technology details, like this or that kewl machine. Perhaps we should reflect also on the technology in general. You know, like, not just compare the PS3 with the Wii. ;-)
I'm pretty sure there are deeper things to say about that than "yeah, technology's real nice, I dig today's modern world". Like, know what I'm sayin'?
For instance, speaking of the classics in digital form, Project Gutenberg's real nice, I dig today's modern world.
Wikipedia's real nice too. Like, you know. And all that.
I'll be composing my novels on it.
I write mine in crayon, but I haven't had any of them published.
I once weighed the glossy paper videogame magazines that I'm following. An issue is about half a kilo, which you wouldn't suspect from looking at it, and barely from just holding it.
That thing must be as thick as a phone book!
"I write mine in crayon, but I haven't had any of them published."
Oh, you've chosen the same style as a famous former US President? Wise of you : it exponentially increases your chances.
Me, I've made a very dumb mistake, trying to be "creative" and "original", and "make up my own style", yatta yatta.
Explains why I'm still stuck writing on obscure blogs. Mine being the most obscure of all the internet!
(Modesty aside...)
"That thing must be as thick as a phone book!"You'd think, but NO, au contraire. Less than 1 cm, probably about 5 or 6 mm tops.
It's just that glossy paper appears to be dense.
(No, Aunt Euphrasia, not "because you have to be dense to write in them or to read one"! And neither is the case for my Spiderman comics, so let it go already.)
On the contrary, it's because with such light reading, you have to compensate, in order to give more weight to your arguments.
Or some fancy philosophy of that sort à la Kierkegaard. Unless it was Kant, or Nietzche?...
No, I think it was Aristotle. Definitely the style of Aristotle.
Me, I've made a very dumb mistake, trying to be "creative" and "original", and "make up my own style", yatta yatta.
You're one crazy mofo.
Pascal said...
"On the contrary, it's because with such light reading, you have to compensate, in order to give more weight to your arguments."
Uhhh...good one, Pascal! I like! :-)
Joe Dick said...
"You're one crazy mofo."
Ignore JD, Pascal. I think it's more that you are brilliant. I suspect JD might be thinking with the...uh...latter *appendage* of his name...as usual! :-(
I wouldn't worry too much, TC. Pascal is luckily a bit more on the ball than you give him credit for.
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