Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
My daughter was given a Kindle by her grandfather, who has no idea how ebooks or ebook readers work.
I don't like it. I'm one of those "rant about the evils of Amazon, DRM and the Kindle" people. (Thought I should put the disclaimer up front.) She doesn't like it, but at least some of that is just carryover bias; mom doesn't like it; mom knows All About Ebooks, ergo, there must be something wrong with it.
It'd seem rude at best to just sell it and get an ebook reader I understand. Maybe I'm overlooking the Kindle's good features? Besides, I would like to know how they work.
I'd *love* some advice on how to use this thing, so she could at least give it a fair test before deciding whether or not she likes it. Issues:
1) We don't do DRM. At all. Of any sort. Won't be buying from Amazon.
2) We won't be setting up an account at Amazon. (Am not giving access to my credit card to a 14-year-old and whichever of her friends she decides to share the thing with.) I gather this may hamper some of the Kindle's more nifty features.
3) The button arrangement makes no sense to me. Advices here would be VERY VERY WELCOME. The manual is, like most manuals, something that will obviously make a lot more sense after I understand how the device works.
4) Have not yet connected it to a computer. When I do, what can I expect? Will I see a nice little collection of folders into which I can start throwing .pdb files?
5) Any general-overview, getting-started advice would be welcome. All the Amazon instructions are focused on "here's how you start buying books, which we won't be doing. (At least, not from them.)
I'll try to be polite in my responses, and I promise to actually consider what people say about the benefits of the Kindle.
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Well - assuming it's a recent gift you have a Kindle2 - or what Amazon calls the Kindle. If you don't register it to an account, you won't have access to any updates (and the 2.5 update coming this month has folders for organization) to the firmware.
You need to get used to using the joy stick to navigate within books and to enter other menus.
There are non-Amazon sources to purchase books (pick non-DRM mobi or prc formats). There are scripts in the wild to remove DRM from Amazon books. There are scripts in the wild to remove DRM and shift formats to be readable on the Kindle. There are a lot of sites with free PD books to download (starting here at MR) - check the Wiki.
Currently calibre is the only way to organize content. When you hook it to a PC you will see 3 folders: books are stored in the documents folder. You simply drag books from the PC to the documents folder.
Hope this helps as a starter!