The Kindle for Christmas Reactions Thread!

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by mlewis78

Gave my K2 to my brother with a whole lot of books on it for Christmas. He seemed to like the idea when he opened it, although he didn't wake it up while I was there. He's not a big reader, so I'm not sure if he will use it. We usually give each other books for Christmas. Also gave him a brand new Mighty Bright Flex2 booklight and a big package of AAA batteries for it.

You won't see him on these boards, so I thought I'd chime in myself.

that works!

[Rick1971]

ok my woman seemed to like it, but didnt jump for joy as she had never heard of a e-reader or ebooks at all

but the is now looking online for books...lol

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by Rick1971

ok my woman seemed to like it, but didnt jump for joy as she had never heard of a e-reader or ebooks at all

but the is now looking online for books...lol

smile and nod

[brendaclark]

Actually, my son got me a kindle for xmas. I am also one of those "not technologically inclined" moms. I've been fiddling with mine all day and have downloaded several free e-books. It's pretty cool, I would NEVER have bought one for myself. Sounds like your mom is enjoying her gift.

I have a question about sharing e-books. My sis has tons of books that i can access on my ipod touch. However, I'm not sure I can use her books on my kindle. Does anyone know if that's an option?

Brenda C

Originally Posted by foreverjuly

So how did the people who got Kindles for Christmas take it? Obviously it's not Christmas, yet I have plenty of cause to get this thread going. I'm giving (or gave rather) my Mom a K3. She's a huge reader but not technologically inclined at all. It also turned out she's got a bit of an impatient streak. All of a sudden I catch her fiddling with the package saying: "You didn't wrap it quite right!" I didn't realize correctly wrapping it involved taking the Kindle out of the box! Her first words were: "There are so many buttons!" But I told her all she really needed to focus on was the one that turned the page.

Since then, it's been several hours since anyone's seen her. How long do I have to wait to file a missing person's report?

So if you got a Kindle, what did you think??? If you gave a Kindle, how did they take it???



--Jason

[Krad]

Originally Posted by brendaclark

I have a question about sharing e-books. My sis has tons of books that i can access on my ipod touch. However, I'm not sure I can use her books on my kindle. Does anyone know if that's an option?

Brenda C

If you know a way to transfer the books off her ipod touch onto the computer, or perhaps she has them on her computer also, you can use Calibre to convert the books to .Mobi (Calibre is free program and not as tricky as it might look upon first use.)

Hopefully you have a way to transfer them from her Ipod touch first.

[basschick]

got my kindle 3 wifi, put the cover i got on it and it feels great. since i had received a strong hint that santa would be putting a kindle in my stocking, i had managed to amass over 140 free kindle ebooks - most of which i'd have happily paid to read. my daughter gave me a gift certificate, so i also bought some ebooks, and am about to go continue one of my old favorites that - to my great surprise - was available on kindle.

[TheKindleWorm]

Originally Posted by basschick

got my kindle 3 wifi, put the cover i got on it and it feels great. since i had received a strong hint that santa would be putting a kindle in my stocking, i had managed to amass over 140 free kindle ebooks - most of which i'd have happily paid to read. my daughter gave me a gift certificate, so i also bought some ebooks, and am about to go continue one of my old favorites that - to my great surprise - was available on kindle.

Kindle works great with the Kindle app for ipod touch / iphone / ipad and you'll be able to sync up all your Amazon books and read whenever you don't have your Kindle around.

[jbcohen]

Actually you can Brenda, the troubble is with the format that the apple uses. Typically apple uses a proprietary format so that you are locked into their stuff. Look at the files that your sister has an look at the format of the books that she has and see if any of the formats are compatible with your Kindle, which I seriously doubt (I'm not slighting Kindle, I'm slighting Apple). I belive your Kindle can read epub and pdf, if any of your sister's books are in either of those two formats she can send them to you, otherwise you will have to get them yourself.

[Daephex]

Both my wife and I received Kindle 3's for Xmas, from my father. Although I'm sure I'd told him many times about my Sony Reader, he must not have realized what it was until I'd spent some time showing it to him on Xmas eve, whoops! Luckily, I'm far too geeky to be unimpressed with another e-reader, and have been happily comparing strengths of the two devices since ripping off the wrapping paper.

As far as reactions go, I'm still a little early in the game. I CAN say that I'm impressed with the Kindle 3 display. Nice dark blacks, and a great refresh rate between "pages". I'm a bit spoiled by my Reader's touchscreen, so the Kindle's many buttons seem strange, but I'm getting used to them. I'm absolutely perplexed as to why I'm saddled with four page turning buttons, though-- it would be a nice feature to be able to assign two of these as chapter/bookmark buttons, once you decide which two will be your regular page turners. The menus are kinda deep, and the lack of a paper manual is bothersome. But on the other hand, the wireless connection has been more interesting than I would have guessed. I used the social media sharing feature to link out to Twitter-- this was the impetus that got me to finally move forward with a little project I've been wanting to do, sharing sound/listening/noise-related quotes from literature.

If you're interested, my Twitter name is "Litnoise".

Anyhow, definitely enjoying the Kindle 3 so far. Calibre is awesome as usual, Kovid needs a medal!

[desertblues]

Originally Posted by brendaclark

Actually, my son got me a kindle for xmas. I am also one of those "not technologically inclined" moms. I've been fiddling with mine all day and have downloaded several free e-books. It's pretty cool, I would NEVER have bought one for myself. Sounds like your mom is enjoying her gift.

I have a question about sharing e-books. My sis has tons of books that i can access on my ipod touch. However, I'm not sure I can use her books on my kindle. Does anyone know if that's an option?

Brenda C

Originally Posted by jbcohen

Actually you can Brenda, the troubble is with the format that the apple uses. Typically apple uses a proprietary format so that you are locked into their stuff. Look at the files that your sister has an look at the format of the books that she has and see if any of the formats are compatible with your Kindle, which I seriously doubt (I'm not slighting Kindle, I'm slighting Apple). I belive your Kindle can read epub and pdf, if any of your sister's books are in either of those two formats she can send them to you, otherwise you will have to get them yourself.

Brenda: Did you get a Kindle 3, 2 or 1?
You won't be able to share those books wirelessly with your sister on the Kindle, but you might be able to transfer those books.

Ask your sister in what format the books are that she has. Important question is wether these books are protected with DRM (digital rights management). If that is the case, than you won't be able to read those books on your Kindle. (apart from removing that DRM, but that's a bit complicated).
If the books are not protected with DRM; ask your sister to put them in a file. You then can convert them with the easy-to-use program Calibre to mobi…….and send those books to your Kindle with that same program.

jbcohen: No Kindle can read epub without converting it first to mobi (or pdf txt).

[3bayjunkie]

HOLY CRAP! i got a kindle 3g for christmas. I asked my wife for one so i was soooo happy when i unwrapped it and could not wait to start reading it. I downloaded my first book; Stephen King's "IT" and I am loving this thing! I am thinking of getting a dx for reading magazines. I love the ability to surf the web on the kindle and have had lots of fun testing its limits.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by brendaclark

I have a question about sharing e-books. My sis has tons of books that i can access on my ipod touch. However, I'm not sure I can use her books on my kindle. Does anyone know if that's an option?

Brenda C

It depends. What application on the iPod Touch do you use to read the eBooks?

BOb

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by Daephex

Both my wife and I received Kindle 3's for Xmas, from my father. Although I'm sure I'd told him many times about my Sony Reader, he must not have realized what it was until I'd spent some time showing it to him on Xmas eve, whoops! Luckily, I'm far too geeky to be unimpressed with another e-reader, and have been happily comparing strengths of the two devices since ripping off the wrapping paper.

As far as reactions go, I'm still a little early in the game. I CAN say that I'm impressed with the Kindle 3 display. Nice dark blacks, and a great refresh rate between "pages". I'm a bit spoiled by my Reader's touchscreen, so the Kindle's many buttons seem strange, but I'm getting used to them. I'm absolutely perplexed as to why I'm saddled with four page turning buttons, though-- it would be a nice feature to be able to assign two of these as chapter/bookmark buttons, once you decide which two will be your regular page turners. The menus are kinda deep, and the lack of a paper manual is bothersome. But on the other hand, the wireless connection has been more interesting than I would have guessed. I used the social media sharing feature to link out to Twitter-- this was the impetus that got me to finally move forward with a little project I've been wanting to do, sharing sound/listening/noise-related quotes from literature.

If you're interested, my Twitter name is "Litnoise".

Anyhow, definitely enjoying the Kindle 3 so far. Calibre is awesome as usual, Kovid needs a medal!

the main reason for the multiple page turn buttons is so you can change hands frequently

[mikemc2]

Originally Posted by AbFabGab

I'm part of the Kindle Club now.. woohoo!


It's taking some adjusting after using my Sony 505
and I can see why everyone complains about the
Collections..hehe.

I'm loving the screen, contrast, page turns!

Does it count if I bought for myself for Christmas (K3 Wi-Fi, Targus Truss case/stand)? I too am adjusting to differences from the Sony 505 and also love the Pearl screen and fast page turns.

[foreverjuly]

I'm so glad some people decided to share their stories! I was worried this thread was going to be a dud. It sounds like everyone is loving their new Kindles though. My mom certainly is. I also loved the story here about the guy in the peace corps getting one for easy access to books while abroad. That's great!