Kindle DX on sale for $239. Still worth it?

[fearindex]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I agree with you to a certain extent, but I think it's important to point out (for the benefit of other people) that (to the best of my knowledge), there's no clause in Amazon's TOS which says that you can't read content not purchased from Amazon on a Kindle. As you say, there are numerous places other than Amazon from which Kindle-format books can be obtained. In addition to buying Mobi-format books from sites like Baen, personally I take advantage of special offers at other bookstores and buy numerous books in ePub format, which I then convert to Amazon's KF8 format using Calibre.

If you're comfortable using tools like Calibre (and it's not at all difficult to use), owning a Kindle doesn't tie you to Amazon's infrastructure at all. Of course, most people don't give a damn about that - they buy a Kindle, buy their books from the Kindle Store, and are perfectly happy doing so.

Fair point. No, I don't think the Kindle TOS (necessarily) denies reading such converted files, but I merely used the TOS here as a general wording of e-book stores TOS probably denying the removal of DRM - and some local legislation too. Some may even deny basic conversions, although that is rarely illegal (removing DRM is more often illegal).

Of course to read Amazon books on Kindle you don't have to remove the DRM (because Kindle supports Amazon DRM), so maybe Amazon doesn't care what you do, but if you read DRMed books from somewhere else on Kindle you have to strip the DRM and that probably is at least against the TOS of the selling bookstore. Amazon also would probably object you to removing DRM from Amazon books, whether you read them on Kindle or anything.

[SoCalReader]

With regards to limitations of reading books on a Kindle, if I said book, I was incorrect. However, my intent was, and always has been, and what appears to be in rereading my posts, the point of purchasing licenses. You do not purchase a licence when reading data from Gutenberg.org. Gutenberg is not an example of a licence seller. However, I am glad to hear that there is some other mobi licence sellers and I will admit finding another. However, relative to Amazon, Google, etc, these sources of licences are minor. (Microscopic? On the order of 10^(-6) of Amazon?)

My personal view is that this issue is irrelevant. At some point there will be lawsuits to question the entire DRM model. And simultaneously, unless e-ink develops a faster refresh and color mechanism, it too will be relegated to non-essential. Which I believe for most of us will be a sad day, regardless of the company from which we tend to buy. Indeed with Sony which, at one time, made the best e-reader abandoning the US market, is this the first major step toward oblivion for the e-reader?

I appreciate the effort to question my comments and views. This has left me a more informed person.

[fearindex]

Fair points, SoCalReader, thanks for posting!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by SoCalReader

With regards to limitations of reading books on a Kindle, if I said book, I was incorrect. However, my intent was, and always has been, and what appears to be in rereading my posts, the point of purchasing licenses. You do not purchase a licence when reading data from Gutenberg.org. Gutenberg is not an example of a licence seller. However, I am glad to hear that there is some other mobi licence sellers and I will admit finding another. However, relative to Amazon, Google, etc, these sources of licences are minor. (Microscopic? On the order of 10^(-6) of Amazon?)

That wasn't the point I was disagreeing with you on; my point of contention was your claim that it was "illegal" to read non-Amazon content on a Kindle.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by SoCalReader

All I am saying is that people should be aware that buying a Kindle virtually locks you into Amazon. And that purchasing from Amazon, for the vast majority of purchases, means you are required to purchase a Kindle if you wish to use an e-reader. (Of course some people can reader for hours on a back-lit screen, many can not.)

All of this is fine, but users should be aware of the options. Since they generally don't, it is no surprise the majority of the book licences sold are from Amazon.

But if we are going to talk about dying industries, the entire e-ink industry appears to be in trouble which is too bad given that tablets just suck as e-readers. In which case this entire discussion is pretty much moot. Sigh...

I totally share your opinion about eink vs tablets (for pure reading) and sadly, I think you are right. I guess is because tablets are more all around devices and hence, have a higher demand, at least for now. I cross my fingers and hope eink won't disappear.

Having said that, I think that a statement like "buying a Kindle" locks you out it is misleading. And I will tell you why.

You can buy MOBI format type of ebooks from anywhere, and as long as they are DRM free ebooks, the user has no reason to buy from Amazon. In fact, besides initial registration, there is no reason at all to buy from Amazon. I actually have lot of DRM free ebooks that I bought from O'Reilly and I use them on my Kindle, perfectly fine. They are even saved or uploaded into my Amazon's cloud space, as I legally paid for them.

What truly locks an user is DRM, but that's not something that Amazon only does. B&N does it, Apple does it. It is actually a way to force you to continue buying more ebooks from them. Do I like it? of course not. I think that if you browse the forum you will see that most of us are against DRM practices; it is good for the company but bad for the end user. But again, that's a totally different topic and will not block you from uploading and reading free DRM ebooks from other stores.

[ThomasC]

I just found one annoying limitation with the old 2.5.8 dxg/k2 firmware. You cannot download comics from Amazon that use panel view (like say the Mad comics series) into a dxg. I tried to send one of these files to my dxg (via manage your kindle) but it would not allow me to do so.

Too bad since these would look great on the bigger dxg screen. These work fine on current firmware on both my k3 keyboard and k4.

Not a big deal for me but something I thought others should be aware of.

Cheers,
TomC

[alexvi]

Now 169$ from Amazon...

[AcidWeb]

Originally Posted by ThomasC

I just found one annoying limitation with the old 2.5.8 dxg/k2 firmware. You cannot download comics from Amazon that use panel view (like say the Mad comics series) into a dxg. I tried to send one of these files to my dxg (via manage your kindle) but it would not allow me to do so.

Too bad since these would look great on the bigger dxg screen. These work fine on current firmware on both my k3 keyboard and k4.

Not a big deal for me but something I thought others should be aware of.

Cheers,
TomC

That is caused by lack of KF8 support. Panel View simply don't exist in old MOBI7 files.

Originally Posted by alexvi

Now 169$ from Amazon...

I just bought one. I'm having second thoughts, but it was hard to pass up that price. I've been using a Kindle 2 up until I got the Ideapad, but the latter just doesn't hold a charge very long. I read a lot of academic papers and scripts that are in PDF and I tried the Ectaco Color Jetbook 2 for awhile but their software wasn't cutting it, so I got the Ideapad. So the point is that I'm used to using the Kindle 2 keyboard and 3G, but finally dropped the thing and broke the screen. I retired it and got a PW but then saw this DX on sale of $169 and figured it would work for some of the PDF stuff I have to read.

I wonder, however, if there's better software for it after it's jailbroken? I don't really need the 3G since I have the PW for that and it works fine.

[fearindex]

Originally Posted by freewheeling

I just bought one. I'm having second thoughts, but it was hard to pass up that price. I've been using a Kindle 2 up until I got the Ideapad, but the latter just doesn't hold a charge very long. I read a lot of academic papers and scripts that are in PDF and I tried the Ectaco Color Jetbook 2 for awhile but their software wasn't cutting it, so I got the Ideapad. So the point is that I'm used to using the Kindle 2 keyboard and 3G, but finally dropped the thing and broke the screen. I retired it and got a PW but then saw this DX on sale of $169 and figured it would work for some of the PDF stuff I have to read.

I wonder, however, if there's better software for it after it's jailbroken? I don't really need the 3G since I have the PW for that and it works fine.

Kindle DX for PDF use may or may not be suitable for you, it really depends on the PDF material and unfortunately the options on the device-end for reading PDFs are quite limited. I would read PDFs in landscape, that is not very ergonomic with the buttons but it re-pages and scales PDFs best - other modes are not so usable. I discussed and tested this topic in my Kindle DX review if you want to read more.

Anyway, that said, I think Kindle DX is a great device - especially for reading Kindle books and some suitably-sized PDFs. It is getting old, but still at this price a very worthy Kindle to have for that "hardback" feeling when reading. But perfect it isn't.

Also note something one might need to note about 3G, Kindle DX/DXG (as technically a member of 2nd generation Kindles) does not have Wi-Fi at all. So 3G (or other local wireless variants) is a little more important on Kindle DX and Kindle 2 than it is on 3rd generation and upwards on Kindles where Wi-Fi is available on all models.

[fearindex]

And don't forget the great $9.99 bargain in the official DX case, a $40 savings in its own right...

http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Leather...dp/B002Y27P6Y/

[markom]

Originally Posted by freewheeling

...
I wonder, however, if there's better software for it after it's jailbroken? I don't really need the 3G since I have the PW for that and it works fine.

Yes, there is much better software called kindlepdfviewer.

It takes a few minutes to install it (after you get all the necessary files and learn relatively simple three step procedure) and once installed, it takes a few seconds to get to kindle's native pdf reader and back to kindlepdfviewer.

Not only is kindlepdfviewer much better pdf reader with all necessary zooming options, gamma corection, pdf underscoring, reflow of scanned pdfs, night mode etc. but it also reads epub, djvu, cbz and allows for folders and subfolders.

Reading A4 document in landscape mode with fit-to-document-content-width will even make the letters appear slightly bigger than on the A4 paper, because it spreads document completely across the whole screen unlike kindle's native pdf reader which shows 1/5 inch margins.

I read a lot of djvu books, and if I want to read it on iPad 1 using free apps it is impossible if djvu is big and complex one (e.g. scanned big encyclopedia), so I usually convert them to pdf for iPad but read them as djvu on kindle dx without any problem.

Since it reads cbz comic files (not cbr), you should take a minute to convert cbr comic to cbz beforehand.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=157047

[Geralt]

E-ink b/w readers will never be fully replaced by tablets as some people here claim because who needs color to read fiction?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Geralt

E-ink b/w readers will never be fully replaced by tablets as some people here claim because who needs color to read fiction?

But they will undoubtedly be replaced by colour eInk when that technology matures. "Never" is a bold statement to make. Do you honestly think there won't be a viable alternative to black and white eInk in 10 years' time?

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by Geralt

E-ink b/w readers will never be fully replaced by tablets as some people here claim because who needs color to read fiction?

The problem is that tablets are more versatile and sell more than eink readers. As a matter of fact, casual readers (not hardcore ones) prefer tablets than eink devices. This is one of the reasons why Amazon started selling tablets and why Kindle app is also available for LCD devices. You can do more, almost at same price, with a tablet.

Now, for reading I'm not saying LCD is better than eink. If you ask me, I will pick any eink device without hesitation; but unfortunately the market is changing and that's forcing companies to do some changed as well.

Regarding color on eink devices, it depends. Yes, novels don't need that, but some IT books do, same for comics; the graphics use colors and when reading in back and white you lose important information. Those are books as well and also the reason why some people chose iPads instead.