Firmware 6.3 and its bugs!

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

Have you compared prices of those 8 ePub novels with Amazon's prices? I used to always compare prices between Amazon, Sony and Barnes&Noble. Amazon always came in lowest and I stopped comparing prices now for a year.

Those pDocs seem like eBooks as well the way folks are referring to them. I have a hunch they overpaid a lot compared to the same eBooks on Amazon.

If price is really a factor, one can just borrow without any additional cost from the Amazon Lending Library if one has Amazon Prime which also offers free 2 day shipping on all other Amazon products for one year.

I certainly have no idea why folks would pay higher prices from non-Amazon sources and then convert them with Calibre to an Amazon format or use other eReader Apps to read them on the Fire.

You obviously aren't not familiar with our Deals and Freebies forum. There are other places to shop at like Kobo, Fictionwise, Smashwords and Books on Board to name a few places.

Fictionwise has coupons everyweek! Last week is was 50% off and this week it's 45% off! Kobo has coupons mostly 20% off but sometimes up to 40% off and Smashwords is a indie bookstore where the author sets the price and coupons. Books on Board is one of my favorite places to shop because say I buy a book for about $5 I get $1 back and they are usually up to 99 cents cheaper than Amazon plus I get reward money back towards my next purchase. Then you have free places like the Baen Library and authors who give away books on their site.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Jessica Lares

You guys could also take advantage of things like Book Lending: http://booklending.com/

They never have any books available other then previous Amazon freebies I already own.

[sirmaru]

Originally Posted by Blossom

You obviously aren't not familiar with our Deals and Freebies forum. There are other places to shop at like Kobo, Fictionwise, Smashwords and Books on Board to name a few places.

Fictionwise has coupons everyweek! Last week is was 50% off and this week it's 45% off! Kobo has coupons mostly 20% off but sometimes up to 40% off and Smashwords is a indie bookstore where the author sets the price and coupons. Books on Board is one of my favorite places to shop because say I buy a book for about $5 I get $1 back and they are usually up to 99 cents cheaper than Amazon plus I get reward money back towards my next purchase. Then you have free places like the Baen Library and authors who give away books on their site.

I only read 800 to 1,000 page history and biography eBooks. None of those sites seem applicable to my tastes.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

I only read 800 to 1,000 page history and biography eBooks. None of those sites seem applicable to my tastes.

Ah See I only buy fiction. Romance, ChikLit, Urban Fantasy and Cozy Mysteries is what I read. I've bought 1500 ebooks in the past 3 years and that doesn't count the freebies which I've lost track of.

[salsaguy]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Actually with Lithium batteries it is best to charge at 50% or greater remaining charge as it will prolong the battery's lifetime. periodically you can let it discharged nearly all the way, but I wouldn't do that too frequently.

We had a discussion recently here on the MR forums about this and someone said charge it at 40% no less no more.

So which is correct

I agree a FULL refresh charge is needed every once in a while

[sirmaru]

Originally Posted by salsaguy

We had a discussion recently here on the MR forums about this and someone said charge it at 40% no less no more.

So which is correct

I agree a FULL refresh charge is needed every once in a while

I went to a Lithium battery manufacturer site and this is what they say:

"The typical estimated life of a Lithium-Ion battery is about two to three years or 300 to 500 charge cycles, whichever occurs first. One charge cycle is a period of use from fully charged, to fully discharged, and fully recharged again. Use a two to three year life expectancy for batteries that do not run through complete charge cycles."

Here is the link: http://www.newark.com/pdfs/techartic...onix/LIBMG.pdf

The 15% signal set by Amazon in the Kindle Fire prevents a full discharge which could damage the battery if it happens too many times. Occasional full discharge can re-calibrate the battery meter. I've noticed all my devices do this on their own about once every couple of months. I never had to do that intentionally.

Lots of small cycles could end the battery life before its time.

Within 12 to 18 months Amazon will have a newer eReader on the market. At that time most of us will upgrade to the new eReader. Thus, in all probabilty, we will never see our Lithium battery die unless it is defective and dies within the first 6 months.

I don't own any Lithium battery devices older than 3 years. They have all been discarded.

Obsolescence will destroy our gadgets, not battery death.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

Obsolescence will destroy our gadgets, not battery death.

You really should only presume to speak for yourself. I find that disposable mentally distasteful.
And just because you choose throw money at new stuff every 18 months in no way means the old stuff was obsolete.

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by ApK

You really should only presume to speak for yourself. I find that disposable mentally distasteful.
And just because you choose throw money at new stuff every 18 months in no way means the old stuff was obsolete.

I agree. And there are also many of us with aging DX/Gs that, at $359, are certainly not disposable.

[Anabran]

"just because you choose throw money at new stuff every 18 months in no way means the old stuff was obsolete."

Must agree with this!!!
I am still doing Commercial work for freelance clients on my white 2007 Macbook with external 24 inch LCD I have had two of its lithium batteries Die but the laptop itself is remains fully functional.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Anabran

Must agree with this!!!
I am still doing Commercial work for freelance clients on my white 2007 Macbook with external 24 inch LCD I have had two of its lithium batteries Die but the laptop itself is remains fully functional.

My hubby's Acer laptop with Vista was bought in 2006 and still going strong and used as his primary PC. The same battery still works.

[beej231]

Originally Posted by Blossom

My hubby's Acer laptop with Vista was bought in 2006 and still going strong and used as his primary PC. The same battery still works.

I bought a Windows laptop with Vista on it in 2009. It works fine but I had to replace the battery. Once I installed the new one, I realized the first battery had to be defective. Wish I had thought of it sooner.

[sirmaru]

The fact that EVERYONE posting in this thread owns a Kindle Fire means all of us went for the new "toy."

Print books from 1900 to 1930 are still available. Why aren't we reading those?

One can still buy 1980 IBM PC's running DOS. Why are we not using those?

I loved my TRS-80 from 1978 IN 1978 but wouldn't dream of using it today.

Just wait until Kindle Fire 2 is introduced at half the weight, a dual eInk / LCD screen and a new generation battery lasting a year until a re-charge. Would anyone really still use the Kindle Fire when that new toy is introduced?

Finally, replacing the Lithium Battery in the Kindle Fire was not made easy by Amazon. If they wanted to prolong the useful life of the Kindle Fire, they would make the battery easily replaceable or use NIMH long lasting batteries such as these new generation Sanyo rechargeables:

http://www.amazon.com/Sanyo-Capacity...=1KCDE5NQNPYV9

I still own a Sony PRS-500 eReader but rarely touch it. I still own a Kindle 3rd Generation eReader but my wife uses it mainly for Amazon Loan eBooks (detective stories, etc) and I mainly use the Kindle Fire for my 800 to 1,000 page history eBooks.

I replace my PC every 4 years when the extended warranty runs out. Each new PC makes the old one look like a dinosaur in terms of speed and hard disk space. My latest Dell has 2 Terrabytes of hard disk space. My first TRS-80 and IBM PC did not have any hard disk space I can remember. The TRS-80 ran on cassette tapes. The IBM PC ran on a very low memory space CD (very modern compared to the TRS-80). Their RAM was infinitesmally low compared to my 2010 Dell PC.

Obviously, Amazon has built in obsolescence in mind. They like our money on a regular basis and, at least in my case, I like the latest and greatest toys they can sell me.

[jduck]

Originally Posted by salsaguy

We had a discussion recently here on the MR forums about this and someone said charge it at 40% no less no more.

So which is correct

I agree a FULL refresh charge is needed every once in a while

This is the problem... nobody really knows, though a lot of people think they do. There is a lot of good information on batteries out there but even the advice from manufacturers varies. The reality is that what we should do depends on the battery charging circuitry and software, not just what's best for the cells themselves. And all too often, the hardware designer is well-separated from the software.

Let's take an example... when the Fire says it's at 15%, is that 15% of safe operating capacity, or 15% from a damaging level? Many assume the latter, but I can't believe they would design it that way.

Another example - what constitutes a charge cycle? Manufacturers differ on this.

I certainly agree with the idea of making the most out of our batteries, but I can't take anyone's advice on this as gospel!

[jduck]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

The fact that EVERYONE posting in this thread owns a Kindle Fire means all of us went for the new "toy."

You're making a big jump there. Me buying a Fire last year says nothing about my gadget-buying habits and I'm sure the same is true for almost EVERYONE else on this thread too! My Fire didn't replace any other e-reader or tablet, and I really doubt I'll replace it before it's dead.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by jduck

You're making a big jump there. Me buying a Fire last year says nothing about my gadget-buying habits and I'm sure the same is true for almost EVERYONE else on this thread too! My Fire didn't replace any other e-reader or tablet, and I really doubt I'll replace it before it's dead.

Exactly. I got a Fire because it was a good deal on a tablet. It did not replace anything.
My reader is a K3 and I hope to get several more years out of it's current battery.
My MP3 Player is an iPod Video 5.5G that's at least 5 years old, which I've replaced the battery in once already. My son uses a 3 or 4 year old Sansa with a battery that still works well. (2-3 years for a Lithium battery is an appropriately conservative estimate, I'm sure, but far from a hard limit.)
My 10 year old P4 laptop has had it's battery replaced once, and is serving well for the stuff I use for (I do have a newer laptop also for work stuff).