What's it like using the Kindle without Amazon?

[TortoiseAvenger]

Originally Posted by FrustratedReader

The main reason to have a Kindle is buying books from Amazon. Otherwise a Kobo is better.

I'm interested in buying the oasis 3 for the hardware... seems well built and sleek. I also am interested in the auto brightness feature. I can't seem to nail it on the kobo I'm trying out, and according to reviews, the oasis does a great job.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by FrustratedReader

The main reason to have a Kindle is buying books from Amazon. Otherwise a Kobo is better. That's why I have both. Because I buy some books from Amazon, some from Smashwords and most are PD or ones that I'm proofreading and annotating (the Kobo Utilities is better than Annotations from Kindle on Calibre).

You don't need a Kindle to buy eBooks from Amazon. I can buy eBooks from Amazon without a Kindle and read them on my Kobo. It's not a big deal. I just download as KF8 or Mobi (if need be), remove any DRM, format shift or convert, clean up anything needing cleaning up which is very easy and load on my Kobo.Simple really.

But some prefer to buy and sync which is why they have a Kindle.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

The ability to email non-Amazon books to a Kindle is a great feature. If Kobo offered that, I might have stayed with using a Kobo device.

I disagree. There's so much wrong with emailing to a Kindle that it's not worth the hassle.

It's easier to plug in and let Calibre put the books on my Kobo because it works better and I get my covers.

[Deskisamess]

There is no hassle emailing a book to my Kindle. It's a feature I would have appreciated on my Kobo.

To each his own.

[Lparsons21]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

There is no hassle emailing a book to my Kindle. It's a feature I would have appreciated on my Kobo.

To each his own.

For those of us that read on multiple devices for convenience or other reasons, it is great. Problem free? No, but then what is?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by TortoiseAvenger

I'm interested in buying the oasis 3 for the hardware... seems well built and sleek. I also am interested in the auto brightness feature. I can't seem to nail it on the kobo I'm trying out, and according to reviews, the oasis does a great job.

Auto-brightness doesn't always work well. Why turn up the light when there's enough light to not need the light? Seems a bit silly to me. I find I can get my Kobo set no problem. I use 4 or 5 and that works well for me.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Auto-brightness doesn't always work well. Why turn up the light when there's enough light to not need the light? Seems a bit silly to me. I find I can get my Kobo set no problem. I use 4 or 5 and that works well for me.

Kindle users want enough light to read by, the kindle manufacturer wants enough light to make the background look whiter. The manufacturer (tries to) control the software.

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

...There's so much wrong with emailing to a Kindle that it's not worth the hassle ...

I will probably regret saying this, but I'm trying to fathom what terrible experience you've had that would make you say "there's so much wrong". Also, what hassle?

I find Send-to-Kindle much easier than the hassle of connecting my Kindle to a computer and transferring via USB. And then there's WhisperSync across all my devices, which is I love.

Granted, no covers in Cover View, but since I use List View it's a non-issue for me.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Kindle users want enough light to read by, the kindle manufacturer wants enough light to make the background look whiter. The manufacturer (tries to) control the software.

It's just silly to up the brightness when there is plenty of external light to be able to easily read the screen. I would have the light off because it's not needed. When there is not enough external light is when I turn on the light.

If the auto light allowed the user to set how bright in a given external light condition so it know what the user wants, that would be good. But it doesn't do that so it's not all that good.

And Amazon wanting to make the Kindle background look white with too much light is just wrong.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It's just silly to up the brightness when there is plenty of external light to be able to easily read the screen. I would have the light off because it's not needed. When there is not enough external light is when I turn on the light.

If the auto light allowed the user to set how bright in a given external light condition so it know what the user wants, that would be good. But it doesn't do that so it's not all that good.

And Amazon wanting to make the Kindle background look white with too much light is just wrong.

I agree with all that, but those are opinions. I was stating facts that answered your questions.

Speaking of facts, amazon does provide for user adjustment of auto brightness for different conditions. I adjusted my Voyages response in the dark and that went well. But when I found out how the 7" Oasis behaves in bright light, I turned off aut brightness on that and have not turned it back on. I was just not willing to have to jump through all kinds of hoops when I would much rather edit a table.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I disagree. There's so much wrong with emailing to a Kindle that it's not worth the hassle.

What's wrong with emailing books to Kindle? I do that even with books I buy from Amazon because I have a lot of Kindles and phones and I lose track of which device a book is on and run into the 6 device limit. If I remove DRM, convert to mobi and email it to my Kindle there's never a problem.

I don't think I've read a book I've bought from Amazon on my Kindle without mailing it to my library first for years. It takes about a minute to do a book. I often wait till I have about 5 of them to do and do them all at once, which takes about 3 minutes. It's trivial to do.

Barry

[barryem]

I always keep my light at about 11 or 12, depending on the device, and it's always just fine regardless of light. I don't read in the dark. It's just one less thing to worry about.

Barry

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by barryem

What's wrong with emailing books to Kindle?

No covers, just Mobi, doesn't always work with eBooks converted with Calibre

There are a number of threads where someone's trying to convert to Mobi and it's a fail and the answer is to convert to KF8.

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

No covers

That actually depends on the format and device. I get covers on Kindle for iOS, and if I recall correctly, people who send old mobi format do get covers. But if you send mobi-both (dual mobi), you do not get covers on eink Kindles.

... just Mobi

Not true. I get KF8 on all books I email. The key is to use mobi-both (dual-mobi), which contains both old-mobi format and KF8. When you send a dual-mobi, Amazon will accept it and send KF8 to all KF8-capable readers.

... doesn't always work with eBooks converted with Calibre

True. And since the OP wants to use Calibre exclusively, this is an important point. For those not wed exclusively to Calibre, Amazon's Kindlegen/Kindle Previewer software provides more reliable results for sending ebooks via email.

[dordale]

Regarding the auto brightness feature on my Kindles (Voyage that I've had for a number of years and Oasis 2 that I purchased recently)--I find I really like the auto brightness after using it for awhile. After initially turning it on, I make manual adjustments when I don't like the light level and the Kindle adjusts to my preferences so that eventually I don't need to make any adjustments.

My Kobo Aura One also has an "auto brightness" setting that I finally ended up turning off. It just didn't work as well as it does on the Kindles and would often adjust to levels that made it difficult, if not impossible to read.