Assimilated
Mrs. Offering got me that Kindle for my birthday and it arrived last night. So far it’s a lot like people say: the text is stunningly clear; the Next Page button on the right is annoying; the interface, I think, pretty clever. And you can read this blog using the "experimental" basic web browser, so there you go. So far I’ve bought two books, one by mistake that I didn’t catch in time to stop the download: The Devil You Know and Vicious Circle, by Mike Carey. Devil is the mistake – I already read it last summer. Circle is the first "space-saver" purchase: I have avoided bringing another book into a house that resembles nothing so much as a Borders stockroom. Where the manager is about to get fired for poor inventory control. (Carey is most famous as a comic-book scripter. If you want to like Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files novels but wish they were better written, Carey’s Felix Castor stories are the books you’re looking for.)
For grits and shins, I tested the experimental PDF conversion on my electronic copy of Evil Hat Productions’ pulp roleplaying game, Spirit of the Century.It was worth the dime the service costs: the text seems to have conveyed okay, though the table-of-contents doesn’t convert into usable format and you can’t set custom bookmarks. This last grieves me: a PDF has extractable text and formatting in it, so you’d think Amazon could at least let you set your own tabs – and really, the converter ought to be able to take a stab at recognizing sections.
The basic web browser shows this blog okay, though there’s no dog picture. UO is not one of the 170-odd political blogs Amazon highlights. Hey, fair is fair: this isn’t anywhere close to being one of the 170 most popular blogs. But the blog list seems remarkably miscellaneous. There are some superstar blogs listed, but also more than a few that I think can justly be called freaking obscure.
But why do they lie about the book cover having a "clip" on the right-hand side to help secure the reader? Why, Kindle, why?
Comment by washerdreyer —
October 22, 2008 @ 10:58 pm
If you want to convert .pdfs to kindle format and save yourself the dime, download the mobipocket creator. I’ve used it exactly once, to convert a .pdf of Lessig’s Code 2.0 to kindle readable format, which seemed fitting. Also, manybooks.net is very good if you fail like reading something on your kindle which is currently public domain.
Comment by Abidemi —
October 22, 2008 @ 11:01 pm
I’ve had a Kindle since May and enjoyed the hell out of it. I’m trying to work out how many books I have to buy at Kindle prices versus (higher) print prices in order for the device to pay for itself.
Comment by Mona —
October 23, 2008 @ 12:02 am
Well, if I’m then in any position to request such an extravagance, come Xmas Kindle is what I want from my kids. But that is a a mighty big if.
Comment by The Modesto Kid —
October 23, 2008 @ 9:30 am
no dog picture
That’s a shame… Is Kindle text-only? Books with illustrations lose them? Or just blogs with illustrations?
Comment by Jim Henley —
October 23, 2008 @ 9:55 am
There are (black and white) illustrations. And some blogs and websites show pictures. I think the issue is how Kindle’s browser chooses to handle page layers. The UO header is in a separate layer from the content column, and the browser is, quite reasonably, deciding that the content column is where the action is. I’m pretty sure that if I look at this post, I’d see the photo of the Kindle on my Kindle. But I haven’t confirmed that yet.
Comment by dhex —
October 23, 2008 @ 10:41 am
so jim, how shitty is reading on it? is it fairly comfy?
Comment by Jim Henley —
October 23, 2008 @ 10:57 am
The text clarity is really nice. And you can set like five or six sizes to suit. THE problem is, as everyone says, the fucking next-page button running the whole right-hand side of the unit. There’s a real issue with clicking it when you don’t mean to. That part legitimately sucks. If the button were even half as long, it would not suck nearly as much.
Maybe that part gets better with experience. And I’ve only got a preliminary impression of how enjoyable it is to absorb a book this way, cause I only unboxed the thing yesterday at lunch. I’ll see how I like it over the next few days and weeks.
Comment by JK —
October 23, 2008 @ 11:44 am
Long time Kindle user here.
First, it’s probably too late now, but I’ve bought books by accident in the past and was able to return them immediately. This is after the download. There was a menu option that said “bought by mistake” or something. It’s probably available within a timeframe that it’s impossible to have read the book within.
Second, on the clip. The cover has a piece that sticks up on the left of the bottom. The back of your Kindle has a slot that snaps onto this. I’ve found the easiest way to attach it is to hold the Kindle at about a 45 degree angle with the left edge down and over the leather piece and then lowering the right hand edge to snap it on. My Kindle never falls out of the cover and I’ve yet to figure out why everyone else has trouble with this. Using it in the cover is what makes the buttons functional. If you hold your Kindle by it’s cover, just like a book, only rarely will you hit the edge keys by mistake.
Lastly, I use web browser a lot, and it does occasionally lock (like always at the Daily Dish if you hit a link), so I keep paperclip on the bottom left leather corner on the inside for hitting the reset. You have to take the back cover off to do this, unfortunately. That usually is all you need, but I have had a couple of occasions where I’ve had to remove the battery to get a full reboot.
Oh, it’s definitely worth the $1.99 or whatever it is for the book on how to get the most from your Kindle. It has tips like, where ever you are, you can hit search, and type @web or @wiki plus a search string to tell it it search the web or wikipedia for what you’re looking for.
Anyway, enjoy!
Comment by Jim Henley —
October 23, 2008 @ 11:48 am
Oh!
Oh!
Thanks, JK. My Kindle is now successfully slotted. And your other tips are awesome.
Comment by The Modesto Kid —
October 23, 2008 @ 1:38 pm
I’m pretty sure that if I look at this post, I’d see the photo of the Kindle on my Kindle
Better not dude — you could get sucked into a vortex of infinite repeitition.
Comment by Jon Hendry —
October 24, 2008 @ 12:54 am
I believe you can avoid the ten cent fee using a different amazon email address. They convert the file and mail it back to you, and then you put it on the device by USB or flash.
Comment by Jon Hendry —
October 24, 2008 @ 12:55 am
I’d like it better if the screen was more black-on-white, rather than dark-grey-on-light-grey.
Comment by JK —
October 24, 2008 @ 12:28 pm
Glad to help!
Comment by Joe Strummer —
October 24, 2008 @ 4:56 pm
I was looking forward to getting a Kindle possibly for Christmas. But then today I found that my Macbook’s trackpad decided to stop working. So I took it into the Apple Store, where they asked whether I had spilled anything. I had not. They said, in that case it would be covered under the warranty.
I got a call an hour later saying that in fact when they opened up the thing, they smelled the strong odor of ammonia, and did I, by any chance, have any dogs in the house? Turns out that I do have an very adorable French Bulldog – Grover Cleveland – who apparently did piss on the Macbook at some point, and the ammonia is wearing away the circuitry. Momentary joy for Grover, cost of a repair: $750.
I don’t know I’m writing this all here, except to say, I’m exceedingly bummed about having to buy a new Macbook when what I wanted as a Kindle. Oh, also the government just added a trillion to the budget this year and we’re in for a 3-5 year recession.
Comment by Jim Henley —
October 24, 2008 @ 5:01 pm
Joe, I am so sorry, man. That’s a total drag.
Jon: I don’t think you’re alone in that preference. Right now I personally am grooving on the fact that the lack of anything resembling glare is very very easy on my eyes.
Comment by Jon Hendry —
October 24, 2008 @ 8:27 pm
Joe wrote: “I got a call an hour later saying that in fact when they opened up the thing, they smelled the strong odor of ammonia, and did I, by any chance, have any dogs in the house?”
They seem to get a lot of spill-damaged computers.
They’re starting to put moisture-senstive dots in a few places in MacBooks, so that they can tell when a laptop has been intimate with a liquid.
Comment by Anodyne —
October 25, 2008 @ 3:36 pm
I learned to lay off the next-page button for the most part, but I still have occasional mishaps. A friend decided to slip a piece of rubber band under the RHS next-page button to disable it. I have considered doing the same thing with the Back button, which is far more trouble than it’s worth for me.
I agree with JK, pay the $1.99 for the tips manual (it’s elementary but a time saver) and keep a paper clip around just in case the web browser locks up and you have to reset the device. Also, you can place the elastic ribbon on the cover over the length of RHS of the kindle to hold it in place when you’re reading.
Email works decently with Outlook mobile as well as Gmail, and I’ve even found ways to instant message using yahoo messenger mobile with the Kindle.
If you wish to translate pdfs with graphs, pics or equations, don’t expect to maintain document integrity with any conversion application, even mobipocket. I’ve had reasonable success converting technical pdfs into image files using PDFread
The image file fonts for 1-to-1 conversions are very small and can’t be altered on the Kindle, so you have to cut up the output pages to render them readable. I typically cut pages in half and produce them in landscape, but you can divide original pages into more sections to meet your needs. You won’t be able to use the highlight and notes features of the Kindle on image files, but overall the image file approach is superior to any other I’ve tried.
Comment by Karen —
October 27, 2008 @ 9:18 pm
You can return any book within seven days of purchase – just email or call Kindle tech support (use the 866 number on the kindle support page or just try regular amazon support). They’ll take it off your account and the next time you have whispernet on the book will disappear from your Kindle (no doubt if you abuse this a lot, they’ll stop doing it, but that is the current policy).
And for free conversion, you can use mobicreator OR email the document to youremail@free.kindle.com instead of youremail@kindle.com and when it comes back to your registered email account, just save the attachment to the kindle using the USB cable (same for the mobi created file). Right now, though, Amazon is apparently not actually charging the 10 cents per email to the Kindle – but no telling when that will stop or if they’ll catch-up bill everyone for the last few months of transfers when they do.