Would you buy a K3 now, or wait and see ?

[soulfuldog]

I originally bought one for someone as a gift, and after seeing it in action quickly decided I wanted one of my own, so I've just went through the same decision.

I figured that possible upgrades like a touch screen, the ability to scribble notes on it, and slightly smaller size weren't really important to me personally. So would it really be worth waiting to see if things like the screen, battery life, storage, book management etc will be improved? The current version seems pretty good in those aspects anyway, so perhaps not. The cost might go down, I don't know, were Kindle 2's available cheaper before the Kindle 3 launched? Besides, if you wait to see if the price goes down, the more likely you are to just wait for the new one to be launched and you may well end up paying more!

[cHex]

I also just purchased a Kindle 3, my first eBook reader. I did so knowing a new generation of Kindles is coming Real Soon Now, and after having checked out the Nooks. Here's my reasoning:

Really, I've been waiting and waiting for the perfect eBook reader, and it hasn't arrived yet. I realized I'm looking for a powerful full-power tablet computer with an awesome UI that's light and rugged; as soon as I articulated that to myself, I realized I didn't want to wait long enough for such a device to be released. Wanting to stop wasting money on tree-killing books my wife won't let me keep around when read, I decided to buy something that's out there now.

I already have a powerful notebook computer that can read eBooks, and a terrific smartphone that can read eBooks, but what I wanted was something easy on the eyes (e.g. no radiation, hi res--e.g. e-ink) and light.

I liked the Nook's touch screen, but (perhaps without good reason) I pictured myself regularly accidentally touching the screen and turning the page, going home, etc. This caused me to reconsider the Kindle with all its buttons (I hate buttons), and I learned that the buttons at least were well-engineered and manufactured and the device was solid.

I considered where I'd be buying eBooks. I have a predisposition for liking Amazon, as I admire the way they pioneered the industry and have been happy with their service up until now. I found nothing wrong with B&N, but nothing to pull me away from Amazon, either. Given that free software such as Calibre allows one to convert from any format to any format, I decided to stick with Amazon.

Then I realized I could pay for the Kindle with my American Express points, and the trigger was pulled.

My feeling after going through the process was I probably would have been just as happy (or just as unhappy) with the Nook, and I'm not expecting the new device Amazon comes out with soon to be the same e-ink light reader I'm buying now.

[SteveEisenberg]

I'd say -- assuming you can easily afford it, and will use it -- buy the K3 now.

I just checked K2 pricing on EBay, and isn't a bit less than the K3 via Amazon. Based on that, I don't think release of a new Kindle drives down the old one's price tremendously.

Also, when the currently vaporware promise to support public library borrowing becomes real, late this year, the inherent value of the K3 goes up. This again argues against a price collapse.

I suppose that if the Kindle tablet is an incredible, company-shattering, flop, like the HP Touchpad, it could cause the price of everything Amazon-wise to plummet. But this scenario is very unlikely.

As for waiting and seeing, sure, that's always good. But if the wait is for the tablet, I'd say that it will take many months to know if the hardware has a low frequency of repair.

I bought the K3 a year ago -- pre-introduction! -- and my once-in-a-lifetime venture into the bleeding edge has worked out OK -- for me. But Amazon's had to give me two under-warranty case replacements, and one under warranty device replacement. The new K3 they gave me two months ago seems to have a slightly better keyboard, and surely reflects other subtle improvements to reduce the chances servicing will be needed.

Keeping away from the bleeding edge is almost always the smart move. Go with the old model.

[captkjaneway]

Why wait?

No one has a clue what the new Kindle from Amazon will bring, when it is going to be released and the price - your missus may hate everything about the new one!

If the Kindle 3 appeals to you then get it

[Wordcrasher]

Thanks for all your answers !
I already ordered the K3, and I'm happy to see that you are supporting my decision with the same reasons that drove it.

[Wordcrasher]

New K3 arrived this morning. It's awesome!

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Wordcrasher

New K3 arrived this morning. It's awesome!

I love it when a plan comes together.

[cHex]

My new Kindle 3G reached me at my San Diego County home two days ahead of Amazon's estimate. I enjoyed getting it all set up and loaded with some books I want to read now plus plenty of free stuff for "later." Overall I'm really enjoying it, and excited about getting some of my personal stuff on it, and getting some books from work converted to the Kindle's e-book format.

Last night we, along with most other San Diegans, suffered a long-lasting power outage. I was easily able to find news about the outage via my Kindle's web browser (Internet was out at work and home...routers need electricity). I found the light built into my Kindle's cover worked great.

Some negative observations:

1. I find navigating with buttons kludgy, making a touchscreen seem more attractive. But I also find I accidentally hit the page turn buttons more often than I thought I would, and wonder how often I'd be accidentally hitting hot spots on a touch screen. Hmm.
2. I'm astounded at the poor quality of most e-books on Amazon (remember, I've been "buying" a lot of the free and 99 cent stuff). But even some of the full-price stuff seems to be scanned PDF's, or doesn't have a linked table of contents, or just obviously was not edited by a real person before being put up for sale. But I find that when I start actually reading a book, I manage to forget about what a bad scan job was done as I get immersed into the content.
3. With all the talk about how e-ink screens don't suffer from glare like backlit screens do, I thought there would be less glare.
4. I'm frustrated at how complicated it is to create content for the Kindle, and how complicated it is to convert documents. I'm doing all kinds of google searching, downloading, trying to find instructions for using tools, etc. Please share info on your favorite HTML wysiwyg+code view editors!

Just because I'm lovin' it, doesn't mean I haven't experienced those negatives! I still recommend buying the Kindle now rather than waiting for the new models, unless there's some specific feature you want the current models don't have (e.g. color screen, touch screen). I've changed over the years from owning bleeding-edge technology to owning tried-and-true stuff; as 4G smart phones started coming out, I snatched up the most successful 3G model, I like to buy one or two generations from the latest, etc., and I'm happy with the current "mature" Kindle model.

[Readmoore]

My K3's free return period will end in a few days and I'm still not hearing anything about the new Kindle E-INK reader... All I've been reading about is the tablet. I seriously don't see how attractive it can be. Just look around the market, what tablet other than the iPad has been selling well, other than the HP $99 fire sales? I really wish Amazon would keep focusing on the E-ink and bring us more news about it!!! Anyway, I'm debating with my conscience if I should return this one (that's in perfect condition) and buy a new one just to keep the 30-day return policy available... in case the new E-INK kindle comes out next month or so. I think the lowered K3 prices and the Promo offer widely available on the K3 covers do give hints that the K4 is coming out soon... Besides, all the Ebook competitors have released/will release a touch screen device and that puts Kindle really behind the era, though I like the keys and just would like to get it at a lower price....... but when will the new release happen...?

[blue_skies]

Originally Posted by cHex

...Last night we, along with most other San Diegans, suffered a long-lasting power outage. I was easily able to find news about the outage via my Kindle's web browser (Internet was out at work and home...routers need electricity). I found the light built into my Kindle's cover worked great.

Some negative observations:

1. I find navigating with buttons kludgy, making a touchscreen seem more attractive. But I also find I accidentally hit the page turn buttons more often than I thought I would, and wonder how often I'd be accidentally hitting hot spots on a touch screen. Hmm.
   
2. With all the talk about how e-ink screens don't suffer from glare like backlit screens do, I thought there would be less glare.
3. I'm frustrated at how complicated it is to create content for the Kindle, and how complicated it is to convert documents. I'm doing all kinds of google searching, downloading, trying to find instructions for using tools, etc. Please share info on your favorite HTML wysiwyg+code view editors!

I was living in North Alabama this spring when we lost power throughout the area for almost a week. I didn't have a Kindle then and no way to access the internet for news and email. I felt very isolated. That was a big reason why I decided to get the Kindle with 3G. It would have made a huge difference to have internet access during that ordeal, especially with a device that has such a long battery life. (Plus they sell chargers that work by solar or hand crank.)

When I got it, I was extremely frustrated by the page turn buttons and it took quite a while for me to stop accidentally turning the pages. Now I really like them and where they are located because I read in bed on my side with the Kindle turned to landscape view and hold it at the top or bottom while one edge is balanced on the bed.

It took me the whole 30 days to decide to keep it because I thought I might return it and wait for a touch model. I was frustrated by the lack of new about that too. Ultimately though, I don't think the touch screen will work well for me due to the way I hold it, lying on one side or the other, if it turns out that one side of the screen has to be tapped for forward and the other side for backward. I think that would make it very awkward to turn the page with one hand when I'm lying on my side.

Also wanted to mention that the Kindle 3G with Special Offers has saved me a huge amount of money already... so if you're on the fence about waiting for the next model, it may be worth while to get one of these now, enjoy reading with it and save enough money to justify buying the K4 later if you're not satisfied with the K3.

CHex, I also was very surprised at the amount of glare off the Kindle. Shocked even. But I eventually learned to set my light a certain way to minimize that. Now I really love reading with it.

I recently downloaded Sigil to edit my ebooks and was surprised how easy it was to use. I procrastinated about using that program after reading something that made it sound too complicated... but it really wasn't, even though most of the technical stuff about ebooks discussed on this site goes over my head.

You have to convert your book to Epub before using Sigil to edit it. I used it to add a table of contents to a book I made. This book started as a RTF first, and I had to open it in Open Office Writer and use that to save it as a HTML in order to keep all of the pictures in the finished book. Then I dragged it into Calibre and converted it to an Epub, which I was able to open in Sigil and edit. I am no expert at this process - not by a long shot - but even though it was a little frustrating to have to go through all these steps, it was pretty straightforward.

I used this tutorial which helped a lot: http://code.google.com/p/sigil/wiki/BasicTutorial

The beginning of this tutorial gives instructions to convert to EPUB, which should work fine if your book only has text. (Like I said, mine had photos so I had to take extra steps and use OpenOffice.)

There is a whole forum here on mobileread dedicated to Sigil if you need help.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by cHex

[*]I'm frustrated at how complicated it is to create content for the Kindle, and how complicated it is to convert documents. I'm doing all kinds of google searching, downloading, trying to find instructions for using tools, etc. Please share info on your favorite HTML wysiwyg+code view editors![/LIST]

I use MS Word for my HTML editor for books. I just save it as filter Webpage then import into Calibre and convert to Mobi. It works well If I need to edit or view the html code I use Notepad2 which is free.

I love using Word as it's powerful for cleaning up a badly formatted books by using regular expressions, I can fix broken sentences, Find problem words, do a good spell check if needed, add emdashes...etc. I also love Word has a Find & Replace for formatting like Bold, Right, left or Center Align, Font Size...etc and the Styles feature you can batch edit all text of that particular style. So if all Chapters use one Style I can edit them all at one time changing the Size, Bold and so forth.

Most people own a copy of Word as mine came with my PC. It's an old version 2003 but it does what I need and quickly. I'd never recommend it for designing websites but it's great for ebooks, specially the bad formatted ones you find on Smashwords or Amazon.

[cHex]

My problem with Word is it leaves all kinds of extraneous code. I just hate the mess. I'm trying out SeaMonkey, let's see how that goes.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by cHex

My problem with Word is it leaves all kinds of extraneous code. I just hate the mess. I'm trying out SeaMonkey, let's see how that goes.

I am the same way about messy code as I use to be a web designer back in the old days. It really doesn't matter with Kindle books. I have found most retail books were made using Word. If it was a webpage you were designing it would be different. You would want the code optimize but this is an ebook not a webpage. Messy code or clean code doesn't change anything once it's on the Kindle. It displays the same with no speed change.

Once you import it in Calibre, Calibre will clean it up alot and change it to it's own code anyway. So it really doesn't make a difference what you use to make your Book.

Book Designer 5 works well but You have a few shortfalls. You will need to clean the code up in notepad2 before importing into Calibre. I use it still sometimes when I need styles removed and converted to it's html entities. I do recommend if you use BD5 to get the Book Cleaner files here or you will loose your emdashes. I usually open the file up and replace the DIV tags with paragraph tags. Remove the Justification it uses before importing into Calibre.

I buy alot of backlist titles from Smashwords and Amazon and I have to fix them up before I read them on my Kindle.

These are the tools I use most. Word 2003, Notepad2, Book Designer 5 and of course Calibre for converting. Sometimes I use Mobipocket Creator if I am dealing with a very stubborn PDF file and Acrobat can't convert it to html. I then take the html file and clean it up in either Word or BD5 before using Calibre to convert it.

[OtterBooks]

Originally Posted by Readmoore

All I've been reading about is the tablet. I seriously don't see how attractive it can be. Just look around the market, what tablet other than the iPad has been selling well, other than the HP $99 fire sales?

Ah, that's the big question the entire industry is asking. We're gonna have to wait for the answer.

[gimpy]

Will there ever be a Kindle Touchscreen?