Supermallet

Neat. Shit, now I may have to upgrade to a Kindle. Why do you guys do this to me? Now the question is, is the 3G worth an extra $50? I'm leaning towards no as I can turn my phone into a wifi hot spot if I really have to download a book on the spot.

xmiyux

I bought a 3G for me and a Wifi for my wife. So far I have downloaded one book over 3G (rather than wifi) and I easily could have waited till I had wifi access. Even before I bought mine I assumed that would be the case.

That being said...

I still paid the extra 50$ and got 3G for one big reason: It was insurance against a future irritated me. I knew that sometime in the future there was a decent chance I would be stuck without access and for some reason really want a new book. That future me would be pissed that the past me didn't drop the extra 50$ up front for that convenience.

Since it isn't a recurring fee I just swallowed it and paid - even knowing I probably won't need the 3G.

The overpriced lighted case on the other hand... I hate the fact it is 60$ but damn that case is super nice. I really think that case alone should be considered a fantastic feature for the Kindle. My wife didn't want one (complaining about the price) until she borrowed mine for a couple days. The convenience factor completely sold her and now she has a pink lighted case to match the black one on my Kindle.

Supermallet

Well, if the lighted case is that much of a must have, I'll skip the 3G and put that money toward the case. My room is pretty low light as it is, so a book light case is something I should have anyway (and one of the big reasons I read more on my iPad than on my Sony at this point). Again, I can always turn my phone into a wifi hotspot for the few minutes it takes to browse, purchase, and download a book, and since my phone is always with me, I can't imagine that would be a problem.

If I knew I was going somewhere where I'd want a few new books, I could stock up beforehand from Amazon or Fictionwise.

xmiyux

Oh my reasoning didn't make sense. Like I said, it was purely insurance against my own irrationality. Your plan makes significantly more sense!

Supermallet

OK, I'm going to bite the bullet. I've been doing a shit ton of work lately, so I'm going to treat myself. My last thought is should I get the lighted case or get a Dodo Case and a separate book light (which could also be useful for real books). I have a Dodo Case for my iPad and I adore it. Decisions, decisions.

xmiyux

I used to use a rechargeable book light with regular books. It cost me 25-30$ and worked well in the beginning (it was an LED light). After a few months it ended up having a short somewhere and would flicker sometimes and drive me batty. Several times I also would choose to not read because the book light was in another room or left in the car etc.

Now I have a Kindle and the light is built into the case. Since it draws on the Kindle's battery I never have to worry about running out of juice since I naturally monitor how much battery is left on the e-reader itself. Since it is built into the case it is obviously never ever separated from the device itself. I will never then not have a light when I need it. I also like the fact it slides right back into the case (more or less undetectable) so my daughter (or any of my pets for that matter) won't bother it.

Get other folks' opinions as well (since I know many hate the cost of the case and rave about other light solutions and other cases) but imo it is well worth it. The regular unlit case is 35$. My previous book light was 25 or 30$. So 60$ for the lighted case seemed reasonable enough to me. I also assumed Amazon would hardcore support their own products. Overall I couldn't be more pleased. In a given week I would easily estimate at least three times I have found a few minutes here and there to read that only worked because I had a book light right there. Stupid times like my wife needs to run into the grocery to just pick up one thing so I am waiting in the car with the little one.

Typically I would fool around with my phone, check email, play a game etc. Now I find myself reading a couple pages - simply because it is so damn convenient (and my absolute love of reading).

Supermallet

Yeah, I mean something like this is getting stellar reviews on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Mighty-Bright-...2129234&sr=8-2

And that's less than $20. You're right about the convenience, but I do have a huge collection of physical books, and it would be nice to sit in bed and read them without worrying about having the appropriate amount of light. Also, those Dodo Cases are so nice.

This is the Dodo Case for Kindle: http://www.dodocase.com/collections/...ase-for-kindle

The only thing is I don't think I'll ever need it laying at a slant the way I do my iPad.

The other question is, if the light goes out, will Amazon replace the whole case? How long do you have before Amazon says "Sorry, them's the breaks?"

meglet

Those Dodo cases are cool, but they look kind of bulky to me. That's one of my favorite features about the K3, its sleekness. The Amazon case with light doesn't add much to that bulk, and that built-in light is amazingly convenient.

That said, I use an M-Edge Platform Jacket with the complementing M-Edge e-Luminator light for my K3 and Kindle DX. The Platform isn't the sleekest jacket, but the stand-up-on-its-own feature is great, and having the e-luminator always tucked into the case is handy.

Supermallet

OK, I ordered the Kindle. Since there was no discount for adding the case at the time of purchase, I figure I could look at my case options more closely before deciding on that.

Supermallet

I ended up going for the M-Edge executive jacket: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00..._ya_os_product

And also picked up the M-Edge e-luminator book light: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00..._ya_os_product

I opted not to go with the Amazon one for a few reasons. For one, I didn't like the way the case uses hooks to connect to the Kindle. After reading reviews, it appears some people have had problems with cracking when using this system. For another, I didn't like the fact that the light used up the Kindle's battery, as a big part of the appeal of an e-reader is the long-lived battery.

Finally, I didn't like the the reading light would only work on the Kindle. If I bought that, I'd have to either buy a separate light for regular books, or a new lamp for my room. The M-Edge light slips into the case I purchased, so it's not a clip on, and I should be able to lay it between the back cover and the last pages of regular books, from the look of it. It also takes a single AAA battery, and I have two AAA eneloops that aren't being used currently, so that works out as well.

The Executive case is a little larger than I might have liked, but it was the only M-Edge case I found in which you could store the light when not in use, and I it has a nice strap for keeping it closed, and also for keeping it open while reading. And given it was only $5 more than the other M-Edge cases, many of which had no straps at all, and no place to store the light, it made sense to get the executive. And, of course, it doesn't use the hooks.

Now I just need to figure out if I can import the books I've got for my Sony into Calibre for conversion to the Kindle. Thanks for the help!

Edit: Was very easily able to import my Sony library into Calibre. Good times. Now I just have to wait for the device to show up!

xmiyux

Calibre is some fantastic software. I am continually impressed with how easy it is to use. The guy also seems to update it every couple days so it is continually improving.

Sean O'Hara

If you want a cover, go ahead and splurge on an Oberon leather case.

xmiyux

I've never seen an Oberon case (other than on a computer screen) but I don't understand the love they engender. The are pretty but I would be way more worried about something marring my case if it had a design rather than just a plain pebbled leather cover. They are also so expensive.

Supermallet

$70 for one of those? No thanks. If I were going to get a case without a light, it would have been the Dodo Case, which is $20 cheaper than those.

Quake1028

The Oberon's are amazing quality and well worth the money. My Black Dragon case is L-O-V-E.

Supermallet

Man, I just saw the latest Kindle at Best Buy. I had no clue how sharp the text looks. Blows my Sony completely out of the water. It's like night and day. Very glad I opted to upgrade.

marka351

Which Sony reader do you want, I have the Sony Reader touch and the text looks fine. But then I have never seen the kindle, is it that much better?

Supermallet

I have the Sony Reader Daily Edition. The text looks faint and murky in comparison to the Kindle, which is honestly one of the sharpest displays I've ever seen.

Supermallet

Got the Kindle, M-Edge executive case and light today. The Kindle is awesome, very intuitive and easy to use. The case is smaller than I expected, as all the advertising materials made it look quite large, and seems very well put together. The light is very bright and stays in the case when not in use.

I transferred most of my ebooks to it already using Calibre, but it seems the ones I bought from Fictionwise have DRM on them, and Calibre won't touch them. Does anyone know how to strip DRM from ebooks using a Mac? I found a program but it says it's not compatible with my brand of OS X.

Medspeaking

Suprmallet, I currently also have a Sony Daily Edition and your posts are prompting me to go to BB sooner rather than later to look at the text on the Kindle. But you're not finding that keyboard on the bottom of the Kindle distracting or intrusive in any way? Are you not missing turning pages by touch?

TheBigDave

We have a couple Kindles. And after trying some different of cases, we ended up using the M-Edge Latitude jacket with the M-Edge e-Luminator. Both are very highly recommended.

stp115

I know this was addressed to Suprmallet, but I meant to reply to him earlier and forgot. Sony has new readers with the new Pearl e-ink screens as well. They look just as good. Everything I've seen states that the screens are the same as the Kindle 3. Some holiday cash may prompt me to upgrade my Sony Daily edition too, even though I feel weird having already bought a 500, 505 and 900 and only having the 500 die on me.

Supermallet

I rarely ever used the touch elements of the Daily Edition to begin with. I didn't like getting fingerprints on the screen, and found it more responsive when I used the buttons.

I haven't seen the new batch of Sony Readers. Is the reflective glare from the touch screen layer gone?

Tommy Ceez

Mobi's? Theres a calibre plug in that does it

pagansoul

I use my Kindle3 for text and my iPad for comics and magazines. I admit I use my iPad more but I travel with both in my bag and I love that I don't have to charge my Kindle very often but plug in my Pad every night. I used to read on my phone but don't do that any longer.