Hoping for a quick answer.....

[desertgrandma]

Im ready to add an SD or SDHC card....I'm over halfway full on my kindle. Thinking 4 G, but should it be just a plain SD or should it be SDHC? Thanks......

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Im ready to add an SD or SDHC card....I'm over halfway full on my kindle. Thinking 4 G, but should it be just a plain SD or should it be SDHC? Thanks......

OK .... here's what I know. Amazon "says" that SDHC is "unsupported" ... but they sell an 8GB SDHC specifically for use in the Kindle. The thing is, the SDHC will work, it's just that it won't give you the additional speed that it will in a system that supports it.

I spoke with Amazon, and they actually talked me out of an 8GB SDHC and into purchasing a 4GB SD card instead. When you think about the fact that the 4GB is about 4000 books .... it will probably be enough space for most people ... especially if you don't plan to dump a ton of mp3s on there.

So ... SDHC will work, but if the SD only card is cheaper, then go with plain SD. You won't get the benefits of having it be HC, so no point in paying more for it. If the better deal is SDHC, then go for it.

[slayda]

I use a 1GB card with my Cybook. 154 books on it right now and I don't really want many more added. Problem is it is much easier to buy & store ebooks that I get carried away. When my credit card bill comes in I might really get carried away - by my creditors.

[desertgrandma]

Knew I could count on you for a plain answer.

Have you noticed a difference in your kindle whispernet service? WHen I first got mine, early June, it would connect, but barely......I never got more than one or two bars. I checked my area and am totally in the strongest one. I was able to download books, but it took a while. Never had that "download in under a minute" experience Amazon promised. Just this last week or so, I've noticed a distinct improvement. Getting 4 and 5 bars consistently. Life is good again.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

So ... SDHC will work, but if the SD only card is cheaper, then go with plain SD. You won't get the benefits of having it be HC, so no point in paying more for it. If the better deal is SDHC, then go for it.

One caveat: 4GB is the largest available size for non-SDHC cards. If you want larger than that, SDHC is your only option.

SDHC doesn't necessarily provide higher speed. All cards are based on flash memory, and thre are four supopliers I know of that actually make it: Hitachi, Panasonic, Sandisk, and Toshiba. The other manufacturers buy flash memory from them on an OEM basis and put it in their own packaging.

I have cards from Lexar Media, Patriot, PNY and Sandisk for my PDA. Speeds are roughly comparable. The fastest benchmarks are turned in by the LExar Media card, which uses Panasonic media. The odd man out is the PNY card, which has Toshiba media. Most speeds are comparable to the other cards, but write speeds are an order of magnitude slower. One benchmark I ran on the PNY card took so long I thought the device had hung and was about to reset it. The test wrote a 1MB file to the card, and measured how long it took.

That wasn't a deal breaker for me, since I put data on the SD cards with a USB reader, and the card would hold data that would be read from but not written to on the device. But I wondered about folks with digital cameras who needed fast cycle times, and resolved to avoid cards with Toshiba media if possible. (The manufacturer probably won't state whose media they use.) There are faster cards, intended for applications like cameras where speed is necessary, but the speed isn't a function of the fact the card is SDHC.

I have two 2GB cards in my PDA (which has two SD slots). I also have 3,500 ebooks, occupying not quite 2GB, spread between the two cards, so I'm looking at non-SDHC 4GB cards as an upgrade.
______
Dennis

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Knew I could count on you for a plain answer.

Have you noticed a difference in your kindle whispernet service? WHen I first got mine, early June, it would connect, but barely......I never got more than one or two bars. I checked my area and am totally in the strongest one. I was able to download books, but it took a while. Never had that "download in under a minute" experience Amazon promised. Just this last week or so, I've noticed a distinct improvement. Getting 4 and 5 bars consistently. Life is good again.

What the bunny in the spacesuit said is correct. I remember that the "speed" they were referring to was the write speed, and further, that they said it really would not make a bit of difference except in the digital camera scenario.

And, I have absolutely noticed a difference. The first week I had the Kindle, I had a hell of a time trying to get it to connect to the Kindle store, even though I had plenty of bars showing. But lately ... it's been a dream. The only thing I need to be aware of is having my book plugged in if I plan to do much with the net.

One thing I noticed ... and it seems a little odd to me, but maybe it's normal ... say I've got what shows as a full battery. I go on the net for a few minutes, then turn off Whispernet entirely. It shows as OFF on the screen ... so it's definitely off. Now, after using it for a few minutes, the battery is down one bar. Then, I read for about an hour, put the book to sleep, and that's it for the night. The next morning, the battery is down to a single bar.

That makes me wonder whether using the Whispernet causes the battery (for some unknown reason) to drain at a faster rate. It doesn't make sense that it would, but it's the only explanation I can come up with, because if I just charge the battery up and do nothing but read ... it lasts about a week.

Ah well .... mysteries of life I suppose.