Expanding the Kindle 3 Memory Capacity.

[vaughnmr]

Originally Posted by JeremyR

If you read for 2-3 hours a day, you can pretty easily read 400-500 a year. Then again, that would still take several years to read for most people, and if you can't change the books in years, well.

You must be one seriously fast reader!!!

[vugtitan]

Originally Posted by Ged_uk

The second issue would be power I doubt there is 5v on the usb as its not designed to host devices, this could be got round with a battery pack such as the mobile recharge ones.
The OS I imagine could be configured to host the device but I fear as with many mobile phones even if the USB chip supports host mode the required pins etc. aren't wired up, so the device is never recognised.
But still no harm in trying.
G

That is very upsetting that it can't access use usb because of the host problem.

I want to have plenty of memory so that music can be loaded on it too and don't want to carry the mp3 player .

I just had anthor idea.What about a usb stick with wi-fi?

Since the kindle has wi-fi it could browse the usb or flash memory sticks files using the memory sticks wi-fi.

Wi-fi is very cheap nowadays.i got a wi-fi dongle from ebay for £3!

Any comments about this or are you going to ruin my new idea again.

[Ged_uk]

I'm not saying it won't work but but its unlikely and you will have to overcome a few things first, the power and the kernal modules to support it are possible. But it comes down to the fact that the devices are designed not to do this so components are often missing it save a small amount per unit and that adds up, and why add something that as far as the designers are concerned is not in the specification.
It might be easier just to mount some storage over wifi ( in the new models) on your laptop, phone etc. than a physical connection, usb adapter fo the same reasons as above probably won't work.
I hope it does work, and you shoud try it, just saying its not just like plugging it in to your PC or Mac.
G

[TomF]

Originally Posted by mattbiernat

don't like to carry extra devices, doesn't matter how tiny they are. kindle has a music player function and it should be utilized completely. i would prefer amazon to give us an app to do full blown music purchasing from their store via kindle.

Kindle 4

[joeman]

Originally Posted by Juliette

now, that's another reason to be unhappy for iRex's untimely death.

Yup, the IREX (known as IRX now) messed up big time. They had actually GOLD in their hands. If only they developed good software and stuck to 2 versions to build a strong userbase they'd still be around. I guess at the end their investors or directors got greedy and wanted it all which was their downfall.

[Kevin2960]

Originally Posted by TomF

Kindle 4

HEY let me enjoy my Kindle 3 first before you start with a Kindle 4

[v1k1ng1001]

Originally Posted by ricsmania

Well, in my opinion, 4 GB is ridiculous considering memory prices these days, and even more absurd is the fact that the Kindle doesn't have a MicroSD slot. I really doubt Amazon engineers would have trouble adding a card slot without increasing the physical size, so it's probably a market decision.

Although I am definitely going to buy a Kindle 3, I don't really like Amazon's policies. They are starting to look a lot like Apple, and that is a very bad thing.

Agreed. I could be talked into a Kindle if it weren't for this.

And as for the technical difficulties, they could have been easily solved by allowing users to browse their own file trees which is what I prefer to do anyway.

[clintbradford]

>> ... I don't really like Amazon's policies. They are starting to look a lot like Apple, and that is a very bad thing ...

When I think of Apple and Amazon, I think of companies that innovate, and desire to lead their respective classes of wares.

And they are both succeeding.

Bezos wants every book ever published to be available for us as eBooks. No other eBook reader manufacturer has the clout, capability, nor desire to to that FOR the consuming public.

[v1k1ng1001]

Originally Posted by clintbradford

When I think of Apple and Amazon, I think of companies that innovate, and desire to lead their respective classes of wares.

And they are both succeeding.

Bezos wants every book ever published to be available for us as eBooks. No other eBook reader manufacturer has the clout, capability, nor desire to to that FOR the consuming public.

No doubt. I give apple and and Amazon all the credit in the world for innovation here. The problem is that you and I probably have very different needs and especially values as consumers.

If I may be so bold as to presume, it seems like you see yourself as consuming a service rather than a product. In other words, when you buy a Kindle, you are buying a good product but the clincher is really in the services promised/delivered by Bezos. As far as that goes, I think you are absolutely right. Amazon will probably deliver the best service in terms of mainlining materials from the publisher to the consumer over the long haul.

I, on the other hand, see myself as buying hardware rather than a service. Other than firmware updates and warranty, I could care less about the services rendered by the manufacturer. What I want is an extremely versatile device that I have the maximum amount of control over. For me, the pocketbook line up seems to offer exactly what I want to consume: a customizable linux-based OS that allows the user to modify and add community-maintained, open-source applications. What I want is a device that has the capacity to be maintained, in part, by a community of enthusiastic developers. Where I get my content is not all that important.

I think I am inclined to the latter set of values because of my needs. A lot of the ebooks and documents I need to read tend to own/read are academic materials in .pdf format. For example, just today I downloaded a few recent journal articles that are available either in a university library by photocopy or, amazingly, as .pdf files that are shared by academics on websites like this:

http://sites.google.com/site/rtalisse/home

On a day-to-day basis, I could care less about the latest periodicals or bestsellers. I need to also be able to conveniently carry and read documents (mostly .pdfs) that are now available for free, provided I have the right hardware.

I passed on the Ipod/Itunes model for many of the same reasons. At the time, Apple/Itunes were selling a device that was too restricted, and the quality of their audio files did not make sense given the quality of sound that the Ipod was capable of. I ended up buying an Iriver HP120 because it had better sound quality and it allowed the user to access the inside. With the Iriver I can get under the hood to mod the hardware (new drives, new batteries), firmware (even install custom firmware to support new formats and play games) and build my own filetrees. I rip cds to the quality and formats that best suit me. Five or six years later, I am still using that product because of its versatility.

At the end of the day, I don't want to buy a device that is restrictively matrixed into a particular service model that I will eventually be able to access with or without that device anyway.

[captkjaneway]

Some of the views here are similar to the 'What would you add to your Kindle?' thread. I do not want to listen to music on a device that has been built to read books from, I prefer to use bespoke equipment that was built to do the task at hand.

[TheKindleWorm]

I say each to their own.

Some people just want to use gadgets for what they were intended for.

Other people want to push the gadgets to the limit and see what they can achieve - personally I find this interesting to read about and also innovative. I don't think anyone should be knocked for using their imagination.

[HarryT]

The typical eBook is perhaps 300-400kb in size, so 4GB will probably allow you to store in excess of 10,000 books. Given the Kindle's poor organizational facilities, that's almost certainly more than you're actually going to want to store.

Of course, if you're reading 50MB page scanned PDFs, it's a different situation, but there again the Kindle is far from the ideal reader for doing that.

[v1k1ng1001]

Originally Posted by TheKindleWorm

Other people want to push the gadgets to the limit and see what they can achieve - personally I find this interesting to read about and also innovative. I don't think anyone should be knocked for using their imagination.

Obviously I kind of like this. I have few toys as an adult so I like a few things I can play around with.

[djk80]

Some of the textbooks I have in pdf are 300-400MB science textbooks though and they eat up a lot of room as well

[ManosHandsOfFate]

Originally Posted by captkjaneway

Some of the views here are similar to the 'What would you add to your Kindle?' thread. I do not want to listen to music on a device that has been built to read books from, I prefer to use bespoke equipment that was built to do the task at hand.

In general I agree with you about keeping the focus on the main function of the device. However, lots of people listen to music while reading and, with a built-in player, you have one less device to tote around!

The secondary function doesn't distract from the primary function.