Newbie 2 cents on my new kindle 2 in the UK

[colonel]

After moving from a sony PRS-505, this is my take:

I have received my Kindle in the UK at the new lower price (£209 inc. delivery and duty), apparently it’s the number 1 best selling item on Amazon now!

It really is a breakthrough device. Surprisingly not really for techies to have another gadget but I think quite appropriate for dusty bookworm types.

The 3G connection is free, so I have spent literally hours just browsing books in the store and reading reviews, which is a quite enjoyable activity all on its own.
Out of the 400-450k books available, only about 325k are available in the UK due to copyright reasons, excluding one which I really wanted

Its much smaller that I thought it would be which is great. If I could redesign it, the main thing I would do is add an extra inch to the screen whilst keeping the same overall dimensions.

I can’t emphasise the breakthrough in the constant connection (in any country, which you don’t pay for). Having newspapers auto delivered early in the morning, having books delivered instantly is going to change the way Humans’ interact with information and received wisdom.
There is an archive feature which is very clever. You can basically have as many books as you want in the archive (which is an Amazon central storage). They are listed in the contents page like books that are physically on your device. When you want to read them they instantly come into the device. This means that the 2gb memory is not really a limit.

I am using the open-source calibre software for free news feeds and to manage books on the device, but this can also be done from the Amazon web interface. I can also send books to the device by emailing xxx@kindle.com ($0.99 per MB) or xxx@free.kindle.com (free) where they come into the kindle when I connect to a PC with the USB cable and sync.

Very happy! Its a new world

[poshm]

Karma for your thoughts on the Kindle 2. I really like some aspects of the Kindle especially being able to essentially browse and buy books from any location. I also think that Amazon have a very good selection of ebooks even though the UK is limited to less -it's still better than WHSmiths or Waterstones!

The only thing which really puts me off pressing the buy button is that I want to actually own my ebooks and be able to put my library of books onto any device I buy - that can't happen with Amazon as they use their own propriatory format. If they sold .epub files I'd be in like a shot.

[colonel]

Originally Posted by poshm

Karma for your thoughts on the Kindle 2. I really like some aspects of the Kindle especially being able to essentially browse and buy books from any location. I also think that Amazon have a very good selection of ebooks even though the UK is limited to less -it's still better than WHSmiths or Waterstones!

The only thing which really puts me off pressing the buy button is that I want to actually own my ebooks and be able to put my library of books onto any device I buy - that can't happen with Amazon as they use their own propriatory format. If they sold .epub files I'd be in like a shot.

You can easily do this through calibre. Calibre will convert .epub to .mobi (although I haven't tried this). however, gutenburg and other libraries have .epub and .mobi so it doesn't really make any difference.
however, if you buy DRM .mobi from waterstones, for example, you will need to strip the DRM out, which I am told is possible but I don't know how to do.
personally I would just keep books in .mobi format.

why don't you download calibre and try it out (its free). there is a PC viewer, so you can see the result in Windows (or Mac).

rgds

[K-Thom]

The only thing which really puts me off pressing the buy button is that I want to actually own my ebooks and be able to put my library of books onto any device I buy - that can't happen with Amazon as they use their own propriatory format. If they sold .epub files I'd be in like a shot.

As long as it's azw, do a little browsing here for a certain Python script, download Kindle for PC, strip the DRM off the azw files, run them through calibre, enjoy them on any device you like. Works like charm.

Best, if you do that, you can also include an occasiaonal missing book cover in calibre.

[poshm]

Originally Posted by K-Thom

As long as it's azw, do a little browsing here for a certain Python script, download Kindle for PC, strip the DRM off the azw files, run them through calibre, enjoy them on any device you like. Works like charm.

Best, if you do that, you can also include an occasiaonal missing book cover in calibre.

Thanks for that info and thanks to the OP, yes I do use Calibre. Do you know if they are azw files before you buy them?

[Pardoz]

Originally Posted by poshm

Thanks for that info and thanks to the OP, yes I do use Calibre. Do you know if they are azw files before you buy them?

The simple test is to look at the description - if it lists a file-size in the Product Details, it's an .azw (ie. Mobipocket) file, quickly and easily disinfected and readily convertable to your format of choice. If it doesn't list a filesize, it's probably a .tpz (aka Topaz) file, which can be quickly and easily disinfected, but conversion to another format will require rather more work.

Compare:

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 1873 KB
Print Length: 816 pages

to

Format: Kindle Edition
Print Length: 352 pages

The first one's an .azw, the second is a .tpz.

[poshm]

Brilliant just what I needed to know thank you.