Is the Kindle really such a mediocre reading device?

[abookreader]

Originally Posted by Serpentine

You can try using the PDF reflow in Duokan; it's pretty solid. It might not be the best solution, but it might be worth it in this case. You also gain 'native' epub support. Anyway, just a shot in the dark.

You want a "senile" 60 year old to install Duokan? The horror! The horror!

What is relevant however, is the devices ability to read e-books in various formats regardless of how those e-books were obtained. Not everyone reads e-books in English, and there are other websites to get them other than Amazon or B&N.

And that is exactly why people are poking at you. You recommended a device to a friend, supposedly based on a bunch of reviews that told you it was a good device.

But still -- you apparently did absolutely nothing to research the specifications of a Kindle. The Kindle is a good device, when you use it to read text based books. One of the best, if not the best, for that purpose.

To put it in other terms, you recommended to your friend that he buy a device that is not suited for his primary purpose that he wanted to use the device for. You told him to buy a rowboat to take deep sea fishing. What??? Rowboats don't do so well on the open seas? What do you mean? They said it would float on water!!!!!!

And now you are pissed at all the other people who like the device, because it works for what they want it to do.

Maybe you should apologize to your friend and offer to buy him something else that has PDF re-flow, since the error is totally on your head and all that.

[howyoudoin]

Originally Posted by ibex333

And I don't see how the Kindle or Nook stores are relevant for someone who simply doesn't use them. What is relevant however, is the devices ability to read e-books in various formats regardless of how those e-books were obtained. Not everyone reads e-books in English, and there are other websites to get them other than Amazon or B&N.

And I don't see how the epub format is relevant for someone who simply doesn't use them. What is relevant however, is the devices ability to read e-books from my bookstore of choice, Amazon, regardless of the format Amazon supplies it in. Not everyone reads e-books in epub, and there are other formats to read them other epub.


Seriously man, you're angry because you made an uninformed recommendation, and want to shift the blame from yourself to the device.

[HarryT]

ibex,

If you want some practical advice: assuming that your friend has bought his Kindle within the last 30 days, he should return it for a full refund to Amazon. He should then buy a device which meets his needs - an ePub device such as a Sony T1 or the Nook STR.

[BearMountainBooks]

I've been trying out my new kindle and it works great for me. ePub aside (which hopefully someday they will support, I don't really need it now. For any non-DRM book I can convert it anyway.) I don't need reflow either (and don't particularly care for it--although I'm not positive I understand what you mean by the term so I could be wrong.)

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by ibex333

The person I recommended this reader to, called me complaining that they are trying to read a Russian book and the text is too small. Just increase the font I said, and you are good to go! The reply was that now the page is cut off and the have to scroll horizontally to see the other half... WHAT?! I thought my friend was just being stupid, so I said I'll come over and help them out. But I quickly found out that unfortunately they were right!

The VAST MAJORITY of Russian ebooks are distributed as FB2, not PDF, and not EPUB... something smells fishy here. It's an easy conversion from FB2 to mobi using Calibre. If this 60 year old man can figure out how to find the books in PDF, I'm sure he can just as easily find them in FB2 format.

(and how do I know? I've given three kindles to Russian speakers, one of which is older than 60 and doesn't speak any English.)

[spellbanisher]

Originally Posted by ibex333

The person I recommended this reader to, called me complaining that they are trying to read a Russian book and the text is too small. Just increase the font I said, and you are good to go! The reply was that now the page is cut off and the have to scroll horizontally to see the other half... WHAT?! I thought my friend was just being stupid, so I said I'll come over and help them out. But I quickly found out that unfortunately they were right!

I have a lot of two column PDF's on my kindle. I find that the maximum I can zoom without having to scroll horizontally to see an entire column is 200%. The right column get's cut off unless I hold down the shift key (the arrow pointing up) when navigating from the left column to the right column on the page. Holding down the shift key centers the column. Changing the contrast to the darkest setting also helps with readability. For most PDFs landscape view makes a big difference.

Originally Posted by ibex333

I also found out that I couldn't jump to a certain page in a PDF document. When I selected "Go To" nothign would happen...

Hmmm...I've never had this problem. No matter what kind of pdf I'm reading, I am always able to jump to a page with the go to feature.