yay got a kindle 2 refurb

[paperwastage]

the $139 price was too good to pass up, will be keeping this for the summer for reading fiction books, then maybe looking at a Kindle 3 DX for school in the fall(pdf would be better)

seeing that there isn't that many videos of the kindle 2 v2.53 (albeit my refurb is US edition), i have a list below where i'll make pics and videos of my kindle 2, and try to persuade other hold-outs to get one

-web browsing
-pdf zoom in-out on different pdfs
-folders

anything else?

[JaneD]

Wow, that's a sweet deal! You're gonna love it!

[kindlekitten]

yAy! congrats! enjoy!

[HaggisMacJedi]

I bought a refurb Kindle 2 a year ago for about $250 and after I saw your post I immediately bought my wife one for $139. Thanks!

[jj2me]

Originally Posted by paperwastage

the $139 price was too good to pass up

Ditto, just pulled the trigger myself.

Originally Posted by paperwastage

-web browsing

I'll be interested in web browsing "best practices." I tried Kindle 2 web browsing once on a friend's Kindle and was disappointed. It seemed to crash too much, and its speed seemed like 14,400 baud. But I didn't really know any tricks, like perhaps:
- disable images?
- enhanced vs. basic mode--which is better?
- stick to mobile sites when offered?
- creating bookmarks
- any other tricks.

I'm not expecting you to cover all this of course, but I'm very interested in getting to a point that I know how to get the most out of the Kindle's browser, and know its limitations (e.g., what sites the Kindle 2 cannot browse acceptably). Maybe after a couple of months of ownership, we can make such a thread. (Or the Kindle 3's browser will make such a thread moot.) I'm hoping the Kindle 2 can perform as a limited vacation-home browser (where I intentionally don't have broadband).

P.S. My first test on receiving the Kindle 2 will be to take it in the sun and turn pages for about 10 minutes, in order to be sure I didn't get one of the bad (fading) screens.

[paperwastage]

Originally Posted by jj2me

Ditto, just pulled the trigger myself.



I'll be interested in web browsing "best practices." I tried Kindle 2 web browsing once on a friend's Kindle and was disappointed. It seemed to crash too much, and its speed seemed like 14,400 baud. But I didn't really know any tricks, like perhaps:
- disable images?
- enhanced vs. basic mode--which is better?
- stick to mobile sites when offered?
- creating bookmarks
- any other tricks.

I'm not expecting you to cover all this of course, but I'm very interested in getting to a point that I know how to get the most out of the Kindle's browser, and know its limitations (e.g., what sites the Kindle 2 cannot browse acceptably). Maybe after a couple of months of ownership, we can make such a thread. (Or the Kindle 3's browser will make such a thread moot.) I'm hoping the Kindle 2 can perform as a limited vacation-home browser (where I intentionally don't have broadband).

P.S. My first test on receiving the Kindle 2 will be to take it in the sun and turn pages for about 10 minutes, in order to be sure I didn't get one of the bad (fading) screens.

well, right now my new apartment doesn't have internet for a few more days, and the walk to the library(for free wifi) takes 15 minutes, so i hope that the kindle 2 can tide me over for a few more days of email-viewing

and thanks for the sun-fading thing... haven't kept up with kindle issues since dec 09... any other things I should look for?

[=X=]

congrats

[jj2me]

Originally Posted by paperwastage

and thanks for the sun-fading thing... haven't kept up with kindle issues since dec 09... any other things I should look for?

Here's a mobileread thread about things to watch for in the K2. And another on K2 problems.

I believe the fading is because of a bad batch of LG-manufactured Vizplex screens.

See #13 of this Amazon customer review.

and see this Amazon customer review about the fading, where it took two replacements to get a good one.

Although both of the above Amazon customer reviews were of U.S. wireless Kindle 2s, like we bought, the fading e-Ink screens have been installed in other models and brands (e.g., Sony) as well.

Luck of the draw, and persistence in getting replacements until you get a good one, I suppose. [EDIT: IIRC, people have been successful in getting replacements by referring to the Amazon advertisement where they say you can read in sunlight.]

[pboss]

Not a bad deal. Congrats!

[paperwastage]

got it today, was on 2.0.4, updated manually to 2.5.3

will post more pics/videos next week when I have a stable network connection

in the sun, sometimes the right side of the screen seems lighter than the left, and also sometimes the remnants of the previous pages' words remain on the screen... hmm... might have to break in it, or get an exchange later

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by paperwastage

got it today, was on 2.0.4, updated manually to 2.5.3

will post more pics/videos next week when I have a stable network connection

in the sun, sometimes the right side of the screen seems lighter than the left, and also sometimes the remnants of the previous pages' words remain on the screen... hmm... might have to break in it, or get an exchange later

Seems you may have one with a defective screen. Yes, go on and exchange it.

[paperwastage]

these pics are pretty clear what the problem is right? the unit itself and packaging looks new and unused to me
(Click for larger pic)

(indoor, charging under a lamp, no problem)


(outdoor, under sun, small problem... can still see the battery bar on top right, right side a little faded)


(outdoor, under sun, problem... can't see the battery bar... right side is lighter than left)


(if you zoom in, you can't see the words on the graphics properly)

[Sischa]

Thats 100% a defective unit.

[paperwastage]

yeah, contacting amazon customer service to try an exchange

playing around with the browser right now... full bars with the Sprint network... preliminary speed tests says 0.5mbps connection(this is not really a true test seeing that its 1: dependent on the other server's speed, 2: think that everything on the kindle is proxied through some server, 3: might be limited by the refresh/browser rate on the kindle



also, while browsing on the web for a long time, it says web browser out of memory, requires a restart(didn't take a photo, will take later when it comes back up)... i'm pretty abusive to my devices(abusive meaning that I want it to work to the best of its potential... if you see me surfing the internet on the library's old machines, most of the time their fans will be spinning loud as i'll open like 10+ tabs)

EDIT: just kidding.... if you try to go onto usps.com on the browser (after a clean restart), it'll complain about RAM... probably because of the image downloading and other stuff... need to disable images, or go to their mobile sites...

[paperwastage]

^^ right now, the screen fading issues seems to have gone away.... and since my email to
kindle-feedback@amazon.com bounced(might be due to me attaching 4 images to it), don't think i'll try to get a replacement, seeing that this one works quite fine enough(unless the fading issues come back up)

now, that I have internet back at home and a HD video camera, I'm looking to post a PDF-test... below are a few (different formatted) PDFs that I will test out

1) (Text) Report 2-column
2) (Text) Report Regular with text/graphics
3) (Text) Report irregular
4) (Image) Scanned text
5) (Text) Bus Schedule with Tables
6) (Image) (5) printed to image
7) (Text) Train Schedule with Tables
8) (Image) (7) printed to image
9) (Image) Comics in PDF form
10) (Text) Magazine
11) (Text) Manual

anything that should be added?