The Official eBook & eReader Thread

[Supermallet]

I have a Kindle Keyboard, got a $20 case for it that had an optional $10 light that runs off a single AAA battery and is adjustable to any angle I want. I don't need to buy a whole new Kindle just for a light.

[xmiyux]

Well I am assuming that a new version would have some other tweaks/improvements. I probably wouldn't upgrade simply for a light.

Unless it was an excuse to pass the older Kindle down to my daughter.

[Cusm]

I will upgrade mine but if I was in the market for one I would consider it. I love my $60 case, actually cost twice what I paid for the Kindle w/ my Target trade in, the light built in and running off the Kindle battery is nice.

[shadowhawk2020]

For anyone who is considering jumping into ereaders cheap, WalMart has the basic Kindle for$79 get a $30 WalMart giftcard. Not a bad deal.

[Cory02]

Originally Posted by shadowhawk2020

For anyone who is considering jumping into ereaders cheap, WalMart has the basic Kindle for$79 get a $30 WalMart giftcard. Not a bad deal.

Wow. That's a great deal.

[Trevor]

^ I bought one for my wife last night. Refresh my memory, what's the best way to make sure she and I can share books? I have about 600 books on my Kindle Fire/ Cloud. We should attach this new Kindle to my account, right?

[jack999]

Yes, kindles on the same account get access to any book in the account.

[Groucho]

Originally Posted by jack999

Yes, kindles on the same account get access to any boo in the account.

Except Boo Radley because To Kill a Mockingbird is not available in eBook form!

[davidh777]

Yep, wife and I have three Kindles (plus my phone) attached to the same account. So I can read her chick-lit, and she can read my public-domain pulp fiction. Even when I buy and have it sent straight to my device, it shows up on her Fire menu scrolly thingy.

[Trevor]

Thanks all. But know I'm seeing that Best Buy has a $40 gift card with Kindle Touch 3G purchase. So an extra $40 gets her text-to-speech and MP3 capability, along with 3G and the touch screen. Any other benefits?

How do books with pictures look on Kindles? Besides the Fire, they're all B&W, right?

Edit to add: Fixed my DX versus Touch mistake.

[davidh777]

Originally Posted by Trevor

Thanks all. But know I'm seeing that Best Buy has a $40 gift card with Kindle Touch 3G purchase. So an extra $40 gets her text-to-speech and MP3 capability, along with 3G and the touch screen. Any other benefits?

How do books with pictures look on Kindles? Besides the Fire, they're all B&W, right?

Edit to add: Fixed my DX versus Touch mistake.

Yes, the $40 GC is for the Touch 3G, plus they have an offer to get $40 off the $80 Kindle if you purchase a Fire at the same time. Goes with their commercial of showing the bikini girl with three different Kindles.

The Touch also has better battery life and more storage (4GB to 2GB, though it seems unlikely that you'd really need to carry that many with you when you can redownload any time). Plus the X Ray feature, I guess.

And correct that the Fire is the only color one. I think the pictures look pretty good but I haven't read a graphics-heavy book either. I don't know if you'd want to read a 500-page Marvel Essentials on it.

[wmansir]

Big news for the e-book market today. MS announced they will be investing $300M in B&N to form a NOOK e-book and college textbook subsidiary. B&N execs say they are looking into splitting the new company off and as of right now it is unclear what relationship the Nook company will have with it's retail stores.

I know B&N stock has been hurting since the DOJ filed the suit against Apple and publishers would likely allow Amazon to resume undercutting B&N on e-book prices. Stock nearly doubled on the announcement of this deal.

[Tommy Ceez]

I just turned my 3G kindle back on and I dont see any (non wifi) connection working and its not syncing last page read to my iOs kindle apps.

Any ideas?

[shadowhawk2020]

Thinking about upgrading from the basic Kindle to the Nook Simple Touch. Can grab one for about $56 right now...

From what I understand you can root it and use the kindle app. It would be best of both worlds. Anyone have experience with that?

[KirstenS]

Originally Posted by Tommy Ceez

I just turned my 3G kindle back on and I dont see any (non wifi) connection working and its not syncing last page read to my iOs kindle apps.

Any ideas?

Call or email the Kindle department at Amazon. They'll be able to help you fix it, and if their troubleshooting tips don't work, they'll replace it free of charge. Don't worry if you're past the warranty period. Their customer service is amazing.

[wmansir]

Originally Posted by shadowhawk2020

Thinking about upgrading from the basic Kindle to the Nook Simple Touch. Can grab one for about $56 right now...

From what I understand you can root it and use the kindle app. It would be best of both worlds. Anyone have experience with that?

I've rooted my NookST and while it's not very difficult or particularly risky it's also not very reliable.

You will need a microSD card and a MicroSD card reader other than the Nook to write the root image file to it. Then it is just a matter of getting the software to write the image and so on.

After I applied the root I got the android launcher, but most programs didn't work. I eventually rooted it a second time and got most stuff to work but Android Marketplace and Gmail still don't work. Also while the standard B&N library and reader apps continue to work it broke the B&N Shop and perhaps even syncing books with my B&N account. The good news is that a lot of apps work, including Amazon's Market app. The Kindle app works great except they added animated page turns, which can look messy on e-ink, and I've yet to find the setting to turn it off.

Also, my battery life was killed until I installed some apps to tweak power consumption. Now it seems a lot better, but it still uses more power than a plain Nook.

Here's the best source for Nook Rooting info: http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1198

Check the dev forum for rooting methods and the latest developments.

[TheBigDave]

Kindle is adding the Harry Potter series to the Kindle Lending Library next month.

Starting June 19, Amazon.com is adding all seven Harry Potter books (in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish) to the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. Harry Potter is the all-time best-selling book series in history, and Amazon has purchased an exclusive license from J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore to make the addition of these titles possible. The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library is a benefit of Amazon Prime membership—Prime members also enjoy free two-day shipping on millions of items and unlimited streaming of more than 17,000 movies and TV episodes. The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library has now grown to over 145,000 books that can be borrowed for free as frequently as once a month, with no due dates.

FULL ARTICLE - http://www.businesswire.com/news/hom...-Kindle-Owners

[davidh777]

Amazon Local deal for refurbished Kindle, $49 (usually $69, which is $10 less than new)

http://local.amazon.com/seattle/B00847GICK

[LASERMOVIES]

Originally Posted by shadowhawk2020

Thinking about upgrading from the basic Kindle to the Nook Simple Touch. Can grab one for about $56 right now...

From what I understand you can root it and use the kindle app. It would be best of both worlds. Anyone have experience with that?

I don't know if this would work for you, but I have a NOOK ST that was not rooted loaded with Kindle books. I'm using calibre software with a unswindle plugin. It lets me keep my NOOK in its stock configuration, and allows me to read both Kindle and NOOK books. I use my PC to purchase the books, and the software to load them onto the NOOK. I don't even bother using wifi on the ST because I'm only using it for a book or news reader.

[Jippy]

Thinking of picking up either the Kindle Fire or Kindle 3G for my daughter (she's 11). As this would be my first ebook purchase, can I restrict access to buying books and other apps so it prompts the user for a password first? Very new at this and I'm sure she'll be showing me stuff in a couple of weeks that I didn't even know about.

[aintnosin]

Originally Posted by Jippy

Thinking of picking up either the Kindle Fire or Kindle 3G for my daughter (she's 11). As this would be my first ebook purchase, can I restrict access to buying books and other apps so it prompts the user for a password first? Very new at this and I'm sure she'll be showing me stuff in a couple of weeks that I didn't even know about.

You can on the Fire. It has parental controls. The standard Kindle only has a password to keep strangers from using your Kindle at all.

[Jippy]

Originally Posted by aintnosin

You can on the Fire. It has parental controls. The standard Kindle only has a password to keep strangers from using your Kindle at all.

Excellent. Thanks!

[Sean O'Hara]

Just bought a book from the Amazon webpage and noticed the receipt page now contains a banner telling people to activate their kindle's wireless and make sure the battery's charged if they want to download their purchases.I wonder how many complaints they got from idiots who didn't know to activate WiFi/3G?

[argh923]

I really wish the Fire had 3G.

[WallyOPD]

According to this story from zdnet:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/amazon...controls/79056

There is an update coming for the $79 Kindle that will allow more parental controls, including locking the Kindle store.