after all the questions i fired here and there and everywhere
i thought i'd provide some feedback about the issues i worried i would have.
so far none of my two major concerns occurred. yey! the black charger in my very first post works just fine (only charged once though, for over 2 hours when i got it. the battery was half empty). i did the test and the lighting bolt duly disappeared when i unplugged the cable.
also, there seems to be no need for a hub. my PC and the K3 are getting along just fine. the K3 started charging when i connected it to the PC but thankfully there have been no shutdowns. big sigh of relief there!
as to the problems others have reported. no rattling inside the K3 but it has restarted 3 times up to now. i think i know why: i was pressing buttons faster than it could process is my guess. eventually it just said "lady, wait up!"
still haven't been able to connect to a wifi source. tried several but i guess the signal was just too weak so no collections yet. also i would have preferred for the most recent books i'm reading to show up on the first page rather than me going to look for them (like they do on my PC). i wasn't aware "most recent" meant "most recently added". i'm hoping this will be solved once i get the collections going.
basically that's it. i'm enjoying and getting used to it atm, since it;s my first e-reader. it's nice to have some independence from the PC!
so a big thank you to all who have been kind enough to advise me on this thread and i hope you're all out enjoying your K3s!
ah, and btw, mark twain has zombie eyes
