First Time E-reader Owner's Week With Kindle

branchedout · 09-26-2010, 11:16 AM

Hi there! Two weeks ago or so, I was finally in the possession of the money to get me a device. I wanted to be able to read Japanese comics on it, and comics in general! And then, I supposed, the occasional book would be alright too. But, I hated battery life on most devices. So short! So, after research, I supposed the Kindle was very attractive. And at a nice price, too!

I got it in last Saturday. Amazon pre-registered it to my account. Awfully nice of them! I turned it on, and checked out the eInk. It was so nifty! It was like looking at a book with menus and stuff! Granted, I was in the menu and not reading anything, but it was nifty. Felt really futuristic.... An electronic book.

Immediately, I went to my favorite section on any device. Settings. I began setting stuff up. Then, I booted up Calibre, a program I've been adjusting myself to for a few months. I had a comic I had converted to .mobi. Very small file size, so I liked it!

Transferred it over, and booted it up. Text was extremely small because the picture wasn't taking up the full screen! I had a toolbar up at the top, and the tool bar at the bottom. I swear I was losing a clean inch and a half due to those toolbars, with no full screen button in sight! I sighed, and put the Kindle in the box. I said to myself, "15 minutes with it, and I'm already ready to return it."

But, I'm a computer guy. And what us computer guys do is.... We tinker. And tinker.

I began converting to PDF. But calibre didn't want to convert them into PDF. Fine! So, I decided to use Mangle. Converted them all into pictures. I was able to full-screen them, and 95% of it was readable! Hurrah! But then I ran into another problem.

I like organizing things into groups and stuff. I wanted a "Manga > [Title] > [Chapter]" setup. But, I couldn't figure out how to group it. Only 1 'collection'! If I put all the chapters of the comic into seperate folders, I'd spend forever scrolling through which I want to read. So, I lumped all the pictures into a single folder, and let Kindle remember where I left off.

I couldn't bookmark a picture, so when I let a friend see it, I told them to not lose my place! Else I'd have to fiddle around and remember where I was by picture, as there was no visual representation of where I left off. No "location" or "picture name" to remember. One time I accidentally set something on the "next page" button. IT scrolled a good 200 pages into the future.

Rather than click hte button 200 pages, I plugged it onto the computer. Mangle creates a "manga.save" file. I often wondered what those files were. I opened it up in notepad++, and sure enough it, it tells the manga where I last was! So, I went into window's explorer and found the picture number I was on, and edited the file. Turned on the Kindle and it was there! Manageable, but cumbersome. Wish there was a bookmarking feature for pictures!

I read that comic for the past week, and finally finished Friday. I decided, "Well, might as well try reading...A book?" Now, I'm not much of a book reader. I went to the kindle store and downloaded one of my favorite books from junior high, "White Fang." and I was amazed. It was just like reading a book! There and everything!

I went to feedbooks and set up an RSS feed, though wasn't happy with it.
Then I set up feedbook's "Kindle User's guide" and mobileread's online schmeal.
But ran into hte problem. I had no idea what I wanted to read. Everything it had was the old pre-1923 book which interested me none.

So, these past two days, with my comic finished, I've been thinking.
I'm more than likely going to return the kindle. There's nothing wrong with the device aside from no bookmarking of pictures, or mobi can't be full-screened, and converting to PDF is finicky.. Those are my only qualms.

But, it's more so that... Well... I don't read enough to warrant such a device! I'd be better off waiting on a sub-$200 7" android tablet running 2.1
The Cruz reader looked promising... Looked.
It's a slow clunker. Blast it!

Archos home tablet's running android 1.5. What a trip! Another one down.

And anything that DOES meet my 2.1 requirements and is speedy... Is either over $300 or just not out yet (or ever will be out.) Why can' they cram a 1 GHz processor into a 7" 2.1 tablet and make it $200? I'd pay up to $230 at this point.

But yes. The kindle has been fun. I've still got 3 weeks to play with it. Maybe I can breathe new life into it. But, I don't quite know how. It's not a multi-purpose device. It reads! So, unless I can motivate myself to read, I don't quite know if I'll be able to use it to it's full potential. Once again, the Kindle's a fabulous product. It's moreso a user-related deficiency!

Also, slightly off topic...
Friday, I found that the kindle does games. so I downloaded "every word." Level 1. The letters were ELADKE. I had to make the longest word to continue?! Shenanigans! I spent 30 minutes trying to figure it out. I had to meet up with a friend to do something right quick. I began telling him about the long word requirement. Then I said, "The letters are something like ' L-E-A-K-E-D'"

I paused..... And wondered if that was an act of some higher power. Went back to my kindle and typed it in, and sure enough. I laughed to myself.

netsyd · 09-26-2010, 11:34 AM

As a recommendation - if you're returning the Kindle anyway, check out the WITS A81E. Is a $200(ish) Android tablet running 2.1 or 2.2. Plenty of power and battery life.

If you're willing to spend a bit more, in a month or less Archos will let go of the Archos 70 and 101 - 7" and 10" - which will sport an A4 processor (think iPhone) and run Android 2.x

KlondikeGeoff · 09-26-2010, 11:34 AM

Dude, I love hackers like you. Not many people could have tweaked so much in such a short time. Good work.

I'm glad you liked reading one book. You must remember that the main purpose of the Kindle, from the beginning, was to be a book reader.

There are so many thousands of wonderful books available, many that are free, that you really ought to consider shunning the comics for a while and start reading books. Who knows, you may get hooked like the rest of us. There is no other addiction that is so good for you.

I do hope you will try as many books as possible before your 30 days runs out, and then maybe consider keeping the Kindle. Some of the free classics are wonderful, even if some in HS you were forced to read, did not convince you, try some others.

And Amazon's great deal of getting samples lets you try each book available to see the first few chapters. Then if it does not hit the spot, just delete it.

Something to think about.

branchedout · 09-26-2010, 01:09 PM

@netsyd

Thanks! This looks like a promising device. now to find someone with a good return policy! This "MIDnite" place will even throw in a built-in GPS module for $15. I've been looking for a new GPS! And a 7" deal? All for under $230?! It may be resistive, but I've never had a capacitive device. I had a Nokia N800 which I loved to pieces, but the abandoned OS made me sad.

@Klondike.

Nah, I'm no hacker. Although, I did put custom screensavers within the first two hours. Emily Dickinson is -not- a pretty lady.

I HAVE read a bit into Treasure Island, the original book to my favorite movie "Treasure Planet." I checked it out in 7th grade, but I couldn't have been less interested. Though I've made it through 15% of the book according to the kindle! I do love that feature of the kindle. When I read books, I want to know how quick I'll get through it. If I see that I go through 8% in 10 minutes, I'll then calculate and such. It's a little quirk I have.

I just may have to pay a visit to the recommendation section. Even if I don't keep the kindle, I can still read! My eyes are still quite young and not bothered by LCD screens. Between my job and what Id o at home, I probably look at LCD screens for over 10 hours a day. I get a headache maybe once every month and a half. And a quick aspirin clears it up in 15 minutes.

But thank you guys for reading that massive wall of text!

KlondikeGeoff · 09-26-2010, 01:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by branchedout

I'd ask for reccomendation

Anything by Jules Verne and Joseph Conrad. Or, you might like SciFi books, many of which are free.

branchedout · 09-26-2010, 01:35 PM

Whups, Klondike!

I appreciate the recommendations, I do! It's just I forgot to delete that text. My cursor ran off somewhere, and I forgot I typed that. I had retyped it.

Sorry for the flub. I often get lost in my own wall of texts.

Esquire1 · 09-26-2010, 01:49 PM

Sounds like an iPad would suit your needs best. The Android tablets are a joke as of now. Shame because my cell is a Nexus One.

But it also sounds like an iPad isn't in your budget. Save up

Purge · 09-26-2010, 02:08 PM

Aye, the iPad is hard to beat for comic / manga viewing. The IPS display is a thing of beauty.

It's just very pricey for what it gives.

pagansoul · 09-27-2010, 02:35 PM

I have thousands of comic books on my Goodreader app. All of them are off my CDroms and are PDFs.

branchedout · 10-10-2010, 06:57 PM

Well, I had a misfortune today. I brought my kindle with me to wallmart with a loaded grocery list. I HAD decided to keep it, but...

I took it out of my large pocket, and the upper left section of my screen has been "frozen" in place. Like, nothing I do will change it, not even cutting it off.
But, I'm not blaming the kindle. I probably roughhoused it. So, I'll probably return it and buy something else that's a little bit tougher.

Will Amazon take back a Kindle that's had custom screensavers put on it?

But, I really enjoyed my experience with the kindle! No doubt about it!

desertgrandma · 10-10-2010, 07:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by branchedout

Well, I had a misfortune today. I brought my kindle with me to wallmart with a loaded grocery list. I HAD decided to keep it, but...

I took it out of my large pocket, and the upper left section of my screen has been "frozen" in place. Like, nothing I do will change it, not even cutting it off.
But, I'm not blaming the kindle. I probably roughhoused it. So, I'll probably return it and buy something else that's a little bit tougher.

Will Amazon take back a Kindle that's had custom screensavers put on it?

But, I really enjoyed my experience with the kindle! No doubt about it!

I doubt Amazon will take back a Kindle thats been "roughhoused".......but let us know if they do!

branchedout · 10-12-2010, 03:28 PM

Success!

I called them, and the conversation lasted all of 5 minutes. They're one-day shipping me a new one that'll get here tomorrow.

09-26-2010, 11:16 AM	#1
branchedout Member Posts: 20 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: Soon-to-be K3	First Time E-reader Owner's Week With Kindle Hi there! Two weeks ago or so, I was finally in the possession of the money to get me a device. I wanted to be able to read Japanese comics on it, and comics in general! And then, I supposed, the occasional book would be alright too. But, I hated battery life on most devices. So short! So, after research, I supposed the Kindle was very attractive. And at a nice price, too! I got it in last Saturday. Amazon pre-registered it to my account. Awfully nice of them! I turned it on, and checked out the eInk. It was so nifty! It was like looking at a book with menus and stuff! Granted, I was in the menu and not reading anything, but it was nifty. Felt really futuristic.... An electronic book. Immediately, I went to my favorite section on any device. Settings. I began setting stuff up. Then, I booted up Calibre, a program I've been adjusting myself to for a few months. I had a comic I had converted to .mobi. Very small file size, so I liked it! Transferred it over, and booted it up. Text was extremely small because the picture wasn't taking up the full screen! I had a toolbar up at the top, and the tool bar at the bottom. I swear I was losing a clean inch and a half due to those toolbars, with no full screen button in sight! I sighed, and put the Kindle in the box. I said to myself, "15 minutes with it, and I'm already ready to return it." But, I'm a computer guy. And what us computer guys do is.... We tinker. And tinker. I began converting to PDF. But calibre didn't want to convert them into PDF. Fine! So, I decided to use Mangle. Converted them all into pictures. I was able to full-screen them, and 95% of it was readable! Hurrah! But then I ran into another problem. I like organizing things into groups and stuff. I wanted a "Manga > [Title] > [Chapter]" setup. But, I couldn't figure out how to group it. Only 1 'collection'! If I put all the chapters of the comic into seperate folders, I'd spend forever scrolling through which I want to read. So, I lumped all the pictures into a single folder, and let Kindle remember where I left off. I couldn't bookmark a picture, so when I let a friend see it, I told them to not lose my place! Else I'd have to fiddle around and remember where I was by picture, as there was no visual representation of where I left off. No "location" or "picture name" to remember. One time I accidentally set something on the "next page" button. IT scrolled a good 200 pages into the future. Rather than click hte button 200 pages, I plugged it onto the computer. Mangle creates a "manga.save" file. I often wondered what those files were. I opened it up in notepad++, and sure enough it, it tells the manga where I last was! So, I went into window's explorer and found the picture number I was on, and edited the file. Turned on the Kindle and it was there! Manageable, but cumbersome. Wish there was a bookmarking feature for pictures! I read that comic for the past week, and finally finished Friday. I decided, "Well, might as well try reading...A book?" Now, I'm not much of a book reader. I went to the kindle store and downloaded one of my favorite books from junior high, "White Fang." and I was amazed. It was just like reading a book! There and everything! I went to feedbooks and set up an RSS feed, though wasn't happy with it. Then I set up feedbook's "Kindle User's guide" and mobileread's online schmeal. But ran into hte problem. I had no idea what I wanted to read. Everything it had was the old pre-1923 book which interested me none. So, these past two days, with my comic finished, I've been thinking. I'm more than likely going to return the kindle. There's nothing wrong with the device aside from no bookmarking of pictures, or mobi can't be full-screened, and converting to PDF is finicky.. Those are my only qualms. But, it's more so that... Well... I don't read enough to warrant such a device! I'd be better off waiting on a sub-$200 7" android tablet running 2.1 The Cruz reader looked promising... Looked. It's a slow clunker. Blast it! Archos home tablet's running android 1.5. What a trip! Another one down. And anything that DOES meet my 2.1 requirements and is speedy... Is either over $300 or just not out yet (or ever will be out.) Why can' they cram a 1 GHz processor into a 7" 2.1 tablet and make it $200? I'd pay up to $230 at this point. But yes. The kindle has been fun. I've still got 3 weeks to play with it. Maybe I can breathe new life into it. But, I don't quite know how. It's not a multi-purpose device. It reads! So, unless I can motivate myself to read, I don't quite know if I'll be able to use it to it's full potential. Once again, the Kindle's a fabulous product. It's moreso a user-related deficiency! Also, slightly off topic... Friday, I found that the kindle does games. so I downloaded "every word." Level 1. The letters were ELADKE. I had to make the longest word to continue?! Shenanigans! I spent 30 minutes trying to figure it out. I had to meet up with a friend to do something right quick. I began telling him about the long word requirement. Then I said, "The letters are something like ' L-E-A-K-E-D'" I paused..... And wondered if that was an act of some higher power. Went back to my kindle and typed it in, and sure enough. I laughed to myself.

09-26-2010, 01:09 PM	#4
branchedout Member Posts: 20 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: Soon-to-be K3	@netsyd Thanks! This looks like a promising device. now to find someone with a good return policy! This "MIDnite" place will even throw in a built-in GPS module for $15. I've been looking for a new GPS! And a 7" deal? All for under $230?! It may be resistive, but I've never had a capacitive device. I had a Nokia N800 which I loved to pieces, but the abandoned OS made me sad. @Klondike. Nah, I'm no hacker. Although, I did put custom screensavers within the first two hours. Emily Dickinson is -not- a pretty lady. I HAVE read a bit into Treasure Island, the original book to my favorite movie "Treasure Planet." I checked it out in 7th grade, but I couldn't have been less interested. Though I've made it through 15% of the book according to the kindle! I do love that feature of the kindle. When I read books, I want to know how quick I'll get through it. If I see that I go through 8% in 10 minutes, I'll then calculate and such. It's a little quirk I have. I just may have to pay a visit to the recommendation section. Even if I don't keep the kindle, I can still read! My eyes are still quite young and not bothered by LCD screens. Between my job and what Id o at home, I probably look at LCD screens for over 10 hours a day. I get a headache maybe once every month and a half. And a quick aspirin clears it up in 15 minutes. But thank you guys for reading that massive wall of text! Last edited by branchedout; 09-26-2010 at 01:32 PM.

09-27-2010, 02:35 PM	#9
pagansoul Fanatic Posts: 509 Karma: 1098204 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Earth Device: iPhone5, iPad Gen3, Kobo, Kindle Fire, Kobo Vox. Samsung Galaxy Tab 7	I have thousands of comic books on my Goodreader app. All of them are off my CDroms and are PDFs. Attached Thumbnails

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09-26-2010, 11:34 AM	#2
netsyd Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2010 Device: iPad	As a recommendation - if you're returning the Kindle anyway, check out the WITS A81E. Is a $200(ish) Android tablet running 2.1 or 2.2. Plenty of power and battery life. If you're willing to spend a bit more, in a month or less Archos will let go of the Archos 70 and 101 - 7" and 10" - which will sport an A4 processor (think iPhone) and run Android 2.x

09-26-2010, 11:34 AM	#3
KlondikeGeoff Wombat Aficionado Posts: 481 Karma: 733 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Arizona Device: Fire, Kindle1, Sony PRS-500 Reader, Rocket 1100 eBook	Dude, I love hackers like you. Not many people could have tweaked so much in such a short time. Good work. I'm glad you liked reading one book. You must remember that the main purpose of the Kindle, from the beginning, was to be a book reader. There are so many thousands of wonderful books available, many that are free, that you really ought to consider shunning the comics for a while and start reading books. Who knows, you may get hooked like the rest of us. There is no other addiction that is so good for you. I do hope you will try as many books as possible before your 30 days runs out, and then maybe consider keeping the Kindle. Some of the free classics are wonderful, even if some in HS you were forced to read, did not convince you, try some others. And Amazon's great deal of getting samples lets you try each book available to see the first few chapters. Then if it does not hit the spot, just delete it. Something to think about.

09-26-2010, 01:35 PM	#6
branchedout Member Posts: 20 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: Soon-to-be K3	Whups, Klondike! I appreciate the recommendations, I do! It's just I forgot to delete that text. My cursor ran off somewhere, and I forgot I typed that. I had retyped it. Sorry for the flub. I often get lost in my own wall of texts.

09-26-2010, 01:49 PM	#7
Esquire1 Banned Posts: 34 Karma: 90 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: Kindle 3 wifi; PRS-500 (gone); iPad NOT for reading e-books ;)	Sounds like an iPad would suit your needs best. The Android tablets are a joke as of now. Shame because my cell is a Nexus One. But it also sounds like an iPad isn't in your budget. Save up

09-26-2010, 02:08 PM	#8
Purge Enthusiast Posts: 31 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2009 Device: None	Aye, the iPad is hard to beat for comic / manga viewing. The IPS display is a thing of beauty. It's just very pricey for what it gives.

10-10-2010, 06:57 PM	#10
branchedout Member Posts: 20 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: Soon-to-be K3	Well, I had a misfortune today. I brought my kindle with me to wallmart with a loaded grocery list. I HAD decided to keep it, but... I took it out of my large pocket, and the upper left section of my screen has been "frozen" in place. Like, nothing I do will change it, not even cutting it off. But, I'm not blaming the kindle. I probably roughhoused it. So, I'll probably return it and buy something else that's a little bit tougher. Will Amazon take back a Kindle that's had custom screensavers put on it? But, I really enjoyed my experience with the kindle! No doubt about it!

10-12-2010, 03:28 PM	#12
branchedout Member Posts: 20 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: Soon-to-be K3	Success! I called them, and the conversation lasted all of 5 minutes. They're one-day shipping me a new one that'll get here tomorrow.

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