Shiny New E-Book Gizmo: The Amazon Kindle


View Full Version : 24hrs with the K.


jacksonunit
02-15-2008, 11:16 AM
I got my Kindle about 10 am yesterday and I can't keep my hands off of it.

My only problem so far is that there are so many other things to do (shop amazon, read blogs, send documents, etc.) that I am not really reading books very much. Mostly because I have the attention span of a gnat. Actually though, I am reading quite a bit, I'm just not reading what I intended to read. I WAS reading Moby Dick but I got a sample of another book from Amazon last night and got so into it that I ended up purchasing the whole thing this morning before I finished breakfast. I guess Amazon Kindle's advertising model is working on me at least. :)

Some things are slower than I would like. I had just imagined the email to me@kindle.com would be as instantaneous as email and Looking up someting on Wikipedia is painfully slow. I think that could be solved with a "no images" option in the wiki browser and the email thing probably just needs to have more hardware thrown at it. At any rate, I am optimistic.

I have quite a few Palm .PDB books that I would like to convert with the TOC and hyperlinks intact to prc and have not figured out how to do that yet.

The point at which I KNEW I had bet on a winner with the Kindle was when I had a brief urge to reach up and turn the page. It really DOES look like a printed page.

Finally, I love the little "Milk and Chrome" scroll bar display but it kind of freaks me out a little because, I mean.... What the hell is that anyway?

TallMomof2
02-15-2008, 12:11 PM
I have quite a few Palm .PDB books that I would like to convert with the TOC and hyperlinks intact to prc and have not figured out how to do that yet.

If you're talking about eReader files see this thread (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20407) If you're talking unencrypted basic PDB files see this wiki (http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_conversion) for conversion tips. Kindle reads the PRC format natively so no further conversion is needed.

Finally, I love the little "Milk and Chrome" scroll bar display but it kind of freaks me out a little because, I mean.... What the hell is that anyway?

It's an LCD over a mirror. I was mesmerized by it the first week I had my Kindle.

bwit
02-15-2008, 02:02 PM
I got a sample of another book from Amazon last night and got so into it that I ended up purchasing the whole thing this morning before I finished breakfast. I guess Amazon Kindle's advertising model is working on me at least. :)

I think the free sample and wireless delivery are major pluses for the Kindle. When I run across a book that sounds interesting I just send a sample to my Kindle. That let's me keep track of them. When I finish a book I pick a sample and start reading, if I like it I just buy the book and continue on. Buying the book and watching it whoosh onto my Kindle is kind of like getting a fix! I'm addicted to it.

Bob

Alisa
02-15-2008, 03:42 PM
When I first bought the Kindle I wasn't really all that excited about the whispernet stuff. I thought Wikipedia search was really cool, but mostly I wanted the Kindle because it had dictionary lookup and content search. Having the Amazon name behind it really helped, too, since I'm a long-time customer and have always appreciated their good customer service. When I actually started using it I really saw what a huge deal it is. It really is so convenient and I think I am buying more books than I would have otherwise. I love the samples, too. I bet you we'll start seeing more ebook sellers doing that soon. I'm surprised it isn't common practice, really.

@jacksonunit

Give it a few days. You're still playing with all the nifty, new toys. Once you're past that point I'm sure you'll be reading tons of books. I did that for the first couple days, too. The novelty wears off and then it becomes just a really amazingly convenient tool for reading.

badgoodDeb
02-15-2008, 04:05 PM
I love the samples, too. I bet you we'll start seeing more ebook sellers doing that soon. I'm surprised it isn't common practice, really.

ereader.com (sells encrypted books for the Palm) has always had a good sample of the book available before purchase. That has been a BIG factor in my being willing to buy a book. I'm so glad that the Kindle has similar sampling.

HarryT
02-16-2008, 10:45 AM
I have quite a few Palm .PDB books that I would like to convert with the TOC and hyperlinks intact to prc and have not figured out how to do that yet.


What format are they in?

jacksonunit
02-16-2008, 06:06 PM
What format are they in?

I guess I kind of thought .PDB WAS a format. Are there different formats of *.pdb files?

DaleDe
02-16-2008, 06:16 PM
I guess I kind of thought .PDB WAS a format. Are there different formats of *.pdb files?

Lots of different formats. Bring up our wiki and type PDB to find out more.

Dale

HarryT
02-17-2008, 02:19 AM
I guess I kind of thought .PDB WAS a format. Are there different formats of *.pdb files?

A PDB file is like a "zip" file. It's just a "container" that could have any data format whatsoever within it.

Let me ask a different question: what book reading software do you use to read these PDB files?