Almost convinced to buy a Kindle 2 - Need last opinion!

[tautologico]

You can buy your Kindle in the US and later change your country. I know because I did just that.

[tautologico]

This recurring stuff about Amazon being a "Big Brother" and all always remind me how parents are generally worried that their children might die in an accident with a gun, and how when something like this happens the media reports the case with visibility, and yet the number one cause of death for children is drowning, mostly in pools.

So people regularly use the Internet and credit cards but are worried because Amazon stores their notes and bookmarks. Well, a lot of businesses will keep data about you, your patterns and habits that are much more sensitive, IMO, than a bunch of notes and bookmarks. And yet, people don't complain.

To avoid all the "Big Brothers" around you'd have to be a bona fide Luddite and go off the grid entirely. Like it or not, we trade bits and pieces of privacy for convenience, and we do it everyday.

[GA Russell]

Originally Posted by tautologico

This recurring stuff about Amazon being a "Big Brother" and all always remind me how parents are generally worried that their children might die in an accident with a gun, and how when something like this happens the media reports the case with visibility, and yet the number one cause of death for children is drowning, mostly in pools.

So people regularly use the Internet and credit cards but are worried because Amazon stores their notes and bookmarks. Well, a lot of businesses will keep data about you, your patterns and habits that are much more sensitive, IMO, than a bunch of notes and bookmarks. And yet, people don't complain.

To avoid all the "Big Brothers" around you'd have to be a bona fide Luddite and go off the grid entirely. Like it or not, we trade bits and pieces of privacy for convenience, and we do it everyday.

tautologico, the OP is from Brazil. If I recall correctly, it wasn't that long ago that Brazil was a military dictatorship. South American countries do not have the 200-year history of freedom of the press which the US enjoys.

Just a few months ago Google agreed to obey the wishes of the Chinese government regarding the blocking of sites that the Chinese government did not wish the Chinese people to have access to. If Google will agree to do something un-American in China in order to continue to do business there, I think that it is easy to imagine that Amazon will take a similar approach and obey a South American government's wishes in order to continue to do business in that country.

My concern is not that Jeff Bezos wishes to play Big Brother, but rather that he will go along with the policies of governments which do indeed wish to maintain Big Brother control over their peoples.

[zacheryjensen]

Originally Posted by Romasport

Hello everyone!

I'm brazilian and in a few days I will travel to US on vacations. Since I am an avid reader, my first purchase when arrive there, will be a Kindle 2! I have read a lot about it (thanks so much to you all guys), already converted some of my pdfs, prepared my MOBI ebooks, got everything about the fonts hacks and so on...

My last two questions are:

1) Since there are a lot of devices in the market and many of you have owned the kindle 2 for a long time, could you please tell me, considering the circunstances and your practical usage, if it is still the best purchase for the money (U$260,00)?

2) If not, why (other recommendations)?


Thanks a lot!

Olá

The Kindle is okay, though it has some strange limitations. Its screen isn't better than, say, the $200 USD Sony PRS-300, just a little larger. Same pixel count, but more space between them. The store of Amazon's in the US is pretty much the best store available for commercial works. However, I have no bearing whatsoever on the Brazilian facing offering. I personally own a Kindle 2 now, but I have also owned a Sony PRS-505, and also I read a lot on my iPhone 3G S.

At this point, I am somewhat regretful that I sold the PRS-505 and got the Kindle. Though I do like whispersync tracking my bookmarks, I feel like Amazon is not a trustworthy company and that their strategy of exclusion makes them particularly unfriendly to the eBook movement.

Furthermore, the Kindle 2 has no real PDF support and the PDF conversion service offered by Amazon is really terrible. The Sony readers all have native PDF support, more than good enough for PDF formatted novels, and decent for regular PDFs.

Also, the Kindle has no ePub support, and burgeoning industry standard format, and a format I would not underestimate given the announced plans of Amazon's competition.

The Kindle comes with a keyboard which I have thus far found worse then useless while reading fiction, and extremely tedious when I have used it. Because the format support on the Kindle is too poor to make any reasonable business or school use of the device, the annotations support is meaningless to me. I would rather have a smaller reader to be honest.

All that said, my current overall reader device disposition is that this size makes very little sense. I can just as comfortably read on a smaller screen, 3.5-4" or so is just fine because I"m no old geezer and can turn the fonts down. At this point, I plan to purchase a large format dedicated reading device, such as the Plastic Logic QUE when it's practical. I believe at this size I will have far more uses for the device and it will not be easily supplanted by my iPhone.

Plus, in regards to reading on my iPhone, I have kindle access anyway, plus other eBook reader stores and programs. And a major bonus is that I can comfortably read in poorly lit areas which is the majority of the areas I inhabit. Oh yeah and it's always in my pocket anyway.

I think amazon is doing a great job wooing people with their advertising, but, honestly the differentiating features are not worth the exclusion in my opinion. I find the wireless access unbearably slow, so slow that it's far faster for me to just use my computer or my iPhone to make kindle store purchases and I get a much better user experience that way anyway.

These are, of course, my own opinions for my own scenario. I hope they help you make your decision and that you enjoy whatever you decide to do.

[tautologico]

Russell, I am from Brazil myself. Although it's true that we were under a military dictatorship just some decades ago, nothing since democracy was restablished indicates that freedom of press or freedom of speech is under assault.

(By the way, funny that you speak of the long tradition of freedom in your country just after mentioning the military dictatorships in South America, all of which were installed with extensive support from the US. But let's not talk international politics here).

We may not have a 200-year tradition of freedom, but we're not China, and we're not a banana republic (by the most part ). I'm not worried.

[tautologico]

Clearly, everyone's parameters will be different for deciding which reader to use. I like the 6" screen size, it's certainly possible to read in smaller screens and I don't need a big font size, but I find the size comfortable. I also find far more comfortable to read on a e-ink device than on a backlit LCD screen; I spend my whole day sitting in front of a LCD monitor, when I go sit on a couch to relax and read I'd rather have something different for my eyes.

Regarding PDF support on the Kindle, I had success converting PDFs with Calibre and reading them on the device. PDFs with complex layouts doesn't work well, but then they don't display well in the Sony readers either. For novels and text-based PDFs the conversions available in Calibre or Mobipocket Creator work fine.

epub support would be a very good thing and I still think it's desirable, but to tell the truth I never missed it once since getting my Kindle. Books in public domain are available in mobi, and new books I can get from Amazon. The selection of books in the Latin & South American region is one of the best of the international regions, although of course there's a good number of books that I'd want to buy which are not available here.

I really don't know how good is the selection of titles for the Sony readers (and the prices), but I feel that a Kindle is a very good choice right now.

[fugazied]

Overall the combination of price + service and range of books on the Kindle is very good (even for international users). My international friends who have bought one are enjoying the experience so far!

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Romasport

... I'm brazilian and in a few days I will travel to US on vacations. Since I am an avid reader, my first purchase when arrive there, will be a Kindle 2!

As a Kindle owner in the U.S., I have nothing but good to say about my experience. The only downside I can envision for you is whether the wireless will work in your neck of the woods when you get back home.

But, of course, you can download books from a PC to a Kindle via USB anywhere in the world!

[pboss]

I like to turn it off only when I go to sleep. I don't like electronics around while sleeping (just bought a shiny new body earthing device! ). Like with cell phones, haphazard wireless usage + bad coverage is the main cause of poor battery life.

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by pboss

I like to turn it off only when I go to sleep. I don't like electronics around while sleeping (just bought a shiny new body earthing device! ).

Okay, ya got me. I'm trying to Google "body earthing" and I don't think I'm getting it.

[kennyc]

My decision on the matter was that you really need both. Kindle is fine for what it is - it works fine, is very intuitive and Amazon has a great selection and prices (but not in every case). The kindle is tied to Amazon darn tightly. The Sony and other readers that support the epub format are more independent. With the Sony and B&N stores going epub then odds are we'll have the same new release choices in short order (pricing may or may not be the same).

There are a ton of classic public domain books available for either device.

[Ea]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

Okay, ya got me. I'm trying to Google "body earthing" and I don't think I'm getting it.

Perhaps something to prevent build-up of static electricity on the body? It can be a problem when working with electronics, such a computers.

[kennyc]

Must be this sorta thing:

http://www.sleepingearthed.com/

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Must be this sorta thing:

http://www.sleepingearthed.com/

That sounds as useful as a pet rock to go fetch your newspaper.

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

Okay, ya got me. I'm trying to Google "body earthing" and I don't think I'm getting it.

it would be "grounding". many people believe that doing a physical grounding helps many things including sleep.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That sounds as useful as a pet rock to go fetch your newspaper.

it's an exercise practiced by many philosophies and religions. kind of like the pretend cannabilism done by a lot of folks