Potential Kindle Owner

primetime34 · 09-20-2010, 06:52 PM

I'm looking at buying a Kindle 3. We already have a Nook. I have a few questions:

1. Is there a way to sort books on the Kindle by tags, like a rooted Nook?
2. If there isn't, what is the best way to sort a collection of books that have over 2,000 titles and I would like them sorted by categories?
3. What is the actual storage size on the Kindle 3?
4. Does it really have a 30 day battery life? Or is that an inflated number?
5. I like to take notes while I read my books (they are mostly nonfiction). Note taking on the Nook is brutal. How is note taking and exporting those notes by book work on the Kindle 3?
6. What formats, exactly, will the Kindle 3 recognize?
7. Does only the PDF format allow landscape, or do other formats as well?
8. Do sideloaded books interact with Kindle purchased books, or are they managed separately?
9. What, if any, hacks are available for the Kindle 3? (kind of like rooting the Nook)

ChaoZ · 09-20-2010, 07:33 PM

I'll attempt to answer as many as I can. Don't have my Kindle yet, but I did a heap of research beforehand.

3. What is the actual storage size on the Kindle 3?
4gb, 3gb accessible to the user.

4. Does it really have a 30 day battery life? Or is that an inflated number?
Inflated but depends on your wireless usage and how much you read obviously.

6. What formats, exactly, will the Kindle 3 recognize?
AZW (Amazon's format), Mobi, TXT, PDF. Calibre will convert other formats to Kindle supported ones though. Amazon has an email service to convert Microsoft .doc files and HTML.

7. Does only the PDF format allow landscape, or do other formats as well?
Yes, landscape can be used in other formats.

9. What, if any, hacks are available for the Kindle 3? (kind of like rooting the Nook)
A jailbreak was just released which allows hacks from previous gen Kindles to work. Right now, I think it includes Screensaver hack, fonts, dictionaries. There should be more in the days to come.

ChaseKR · 09-20-2010, 07:43 PM

1. You can use "collections", which are basically folders.

2. See above

5. You just push in the five-way controller and start typing on the keyboard. Notes are saved to Amazon's cloud, but you can't export them.

8. When they're in the Kindle's memory, they appear on the same list, but you can sort them via collections.

Good luck, and let us know if you need anything else!

daffy4u · 09-20-2010, 07:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaseKR

5. You just push in the five-way controller and start typing on the keyboard. Notes are saved to Amazon's cloud, but you can't export them.

Just a little correction. While it's true that notes can be viewed from Amazon's could, all notes and highlights are saved in a file on the Kindle named "MyClippings.txt" which can be easily transferred and opened on a computer.

ChaseKR · 09-20-2010, 07:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daffy4u

Just a little correction. While it's true that notes can be viewed from Amazon's could, all notes and highlights are saved in a file on the Kindle named "MyClippings.txt" which can be easily transferred and opened on a computer.

Ah, great tip, daffy4u! Does it show the context of the note?

Skydog · 09-20-2010, 07:53 PM

1. Yes - books can be tagged to user-defined collections, i.e. one book can be tagged to multiple collections. Collections can be sorted in several ways.

4. Well, since the 30-day period for we early adopters is not quite up quite yet, I would say it may be very close to what is advertised, provided one does keep the wireless function off. (at least in my experience)

5. I find the note taking capability to work fine for my needs. Notes and highlights are stored in a myclippings.txt file and there is at least one creative individual that has created a Word template to import your notes into a table. You can easily move your myclippings.txt files via drag and drop when connected to your computer.

8. Sideloaded books reside in the same folder (/Documents/) as your Amazon books. The Kindle's Documents folder looks like any other folder containing various files. They can be assigned to collections just as any Kindle book.

daffy4u · 09-20-2010, 07:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaseKR

Ah, great tip, daffy4u! Does it show the context of the note?

If you highlight the text related to the note then yes, otherwise it will just be the note.

ATDrake · 09-20-2010, 07:55 PM

1. You can place your books into virtual "Collections" to organize them.

5. Highlights and notes are easy to take; exporting them is a little trickier since Amazon changed the note format so that one of the more useful tools to extract them no longer works under the newer firmware.

But Amazon backs up notes on your Amazon-purchased books to kindle.amazon.com, from which you can then save the page. For both your sideloaded and directly purchased items, the Kindle also places a copy into the auto-generated MyClippings.txt file which you can transfer to your computer.

MyClippings does show some of the context of the note: book title/author name, location #/date added, then a copy of the highlighted text or your note.

There's apparently some sort of limit on how much of your highlights will show up in MyClippings.txt. I think it's something like over 10% highlighted on a DRM-ed book and it'll stop copying the text over, although you can still see all your highlights when you open the actual book.

6. Also add DRM-free Mobi/PRC format (what AZW is a version of, and usually shows up on other sites as) books to the list. If you rename an HTML file so that it has a .txt extension, then if it doesn't have very fancy formatting or tables, you can load and read it on the Kindle without any further "conversion".

8. Sideloaded books have same-display status as Amazon purchases on the actual Kindle. That is to say: you can access and delete them all from the same set of menus, and they're treated just the same by the software as far as being shown on the Home screen, being able to take notes, etc. goes.

There are a few things that you can only do with Amazon-purchased books and vice versa, like text-to-speech (blocked by certain publishers; freely available to your own documents), some of the social-networking tie-in stuff, looking up book descriptions in the Kindle store.

But aside from that, there's no special section you have to go to in order to look at your non-Amazon books, and you can dump them all in the same folder when you transfer via USB.

Hope this helps.

JeremyR · 09-20-2010, 08:49 PM

The battery life is probably under ideal conditions. Still, for me, it went to about halfway in 2 weeks (then again, I would occasionally charge it via USB while adding books).

primetime34 · 09-20-2010, 09:57 PM

I have a follow-up on the whole collections discussion....
How would this work with Calibre? I have gone through my 2,000 books and tagged them to the categories I want. Is there some way to use that system (Calibre) to put the books on my Kindle 3 without having to go through and re-tag my entire collection?

desertblues · 09-21-2010, 01:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ATDrake

1. .................
............

There are a few things that you can only do with Amazon-purchased books and vice versa, like text-to-speech (blocked by certain publishers; freely available to your own documents), some of the social-networking tie-in stuff, looking up book descriptions in the Kindle store.

Hope this helps.

I used the text-to-speech on a Dutch book and it worked, thought it was quite amusing to hear an American voice read Dutch words. Couldn't understand it though

primetime34 · 09-21-2010, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by primetime34

I have a follow-up on the whole collections discussion....
How would this work with Calibre? I have gone through my 2,000 books and tagged them to the categories I want. Is there some way to use that system (Calibre) to put the books on my Kindle 3 without having to go through and re-tag my entire collection?

Any help on this??

kathyfitz · 09-21-2010, 09:28 PM

At this time, calibre doesn't support Kindle's collections. It would be nice, but I am happy enough with what it does offer.

There is someone here who has created a Kindle Collection Manager for Windows, I can't comment on that (on a Mac), but it seems people like it.

desertgrandma · 09-21-2010, 09:54 PM

Might want to try this post, starting with #1.....

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...t=98485&page=2

primetime34 · 09-22-2010, 12:43 AM

So I read the above thread but I don't fully understand how that would help with what I hope to be able to do.....I have my books sorted by subject matter (Faith, Biography, Historical Fiction, etc). I would like to be able to look at all the books in a given category. Is there some way to do this on the Kindle? Thanks.

09-20-2010, 07:53 PM	#6
Skydog Wizard Posts: 2,243 Karma: 7400001 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Circling Earth @ Mach .83 Device: Elipsa 2E, Sage, Forma, Libra 2, Clara 2E, Kindle Oasis3, Voyage	1. Yes - books can be tagged to user-defined collections, i.e. one book can be tagged to multiple collections. Collections can be sorted in several ways. 4. Well, since the 30-day period for we early adopters is not quite up quite yet, I would say it may be very close to what is advertised, provided one does keep the wireless function off. (at least in my experience) 5. I find the note taking capability to work fine for my needs. Notes and highlights are stored in a myclippings.txt file and there is at least one creative individual that has created a Word template to import your notes into a table. You can easily move your myclippings.txt files via drag and drop when connected to your computer. 8. Sideloaded books reside in the same folder (/Documents/) as your Amazon books. The Kindle's Documents folder looks like any other folder containing various files. They can be assigned to collections just as any Kindle book. Last edited by Skydog; 09-20-2010 at 07:57 PM.

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09-20-2010, 06:52 PM	#1
primetime34 Zealot Posts: 124 Karma: 1142 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: Kindle 3, Nook 3G	Potential Kindle Owner I'm looking at buying a Kindle 3. We already have a Nook. I have a few questions: 1. Is there a way to sort books on the Kindle by tags, like a rooted Nook? 2. If there isn't, what is the best way to sort a collection of books that have over 2,000 titles and I would like them sorted by categories? 3. What is the actual storage size on the Kindle 3? 4. Does it really have a 30 day battery life? Or is that an inflated number? 5. I like to take notes while I read my books (they are mostly nonfiction). Note taking on the Nook is brutal. How is note taking and exporting those notes by book work on the Kindle 3? 6. What formats, exactly, will the Kindle 3 recognize? 7. Does only the PDF format allow landscape, or do other formats as well? 8. Do sideloaded books interact with Kindle purchased books, or are they managed separately? 9. What, if any, hacks are available for the Kindle 3? (kind of like rooting the Nook)

09-20-2010, 07:33 PM	#2
ChaoZ Connoisseur Posts: 94 Karma: 192 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Toronto Device: Kindle 3, Kobo Mini, Kobo Touch	I'll attempt to answer as many as I can. Don't have my Kindle yet, but I did a heap of research beforehand. 3. What is the actual storage size on the Kindle 3? 4gb, 3gb accessible to the user. 4. Does it really have a 30 day battery life? Or is that an inflated number? Inflated but depends on your wireless usage and how much you read obviously. 6. What formats, exactly, will the Kindle 3 recognize? AZW (Amazon's format), Mobi, TXT, PDF. Calibre will convert other formats to Kindle supported ones though. Amazon has an email service to convert Microsoft .doc files and HTML. 7. Does only the PDF format allow landscape, or do other formats as well? Yes, landscape can be used in other formats. 9. What, if any, hacks are available for the Kindle 3? (kind of like rooting the Nook) A jailbreak was just released which allows hacks from previous gen Kindles to work. Right now, I think it includes Screensaver hack, fonts, dictionaries. There should be more in the days to come.

09-20-2010, 07:43 PM	#3
ChaseKR Connoisseur Posts: 85 Karma: 12 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: Kindle 4 Touch, iPad 1 3G	1. You can use "collections", which are basically folders. 2. See above 5. You just push in the five-way controller and start typing on the keyboard. Notes are saved to Amazon's cloud, but you can't export them. 8. When they're in the Kindle's memory, they appear on the same list, but you can sort them via collections. Good luck, and let us know if you need anything else!

09-20-2010, 07:55 PM	#8
ATDrake Wizzard Posts: 11,517 Karma: 33048258 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Roundworld Device: Kindle 2 International, Sony PRS-T1, BlackBerry PlayBook, Acer Iconia	1. You can place your books into virtual "Collections" to organize them. 5. Highlights and notes are easy to take; exporting them is a little trickier since Amazon changed the note format so that one of the more useful tools to extract them no longer works under the newer firmware. But Amazon backs up notes on your Amazon-purchased books to kindle.amazon.com, from which you can then save the page. For both your sideloaded and directly purchased items, the Kindle also places a copy into the auto-generated MyClippings.txt file which you can transfer to your computer. MyClippings does show some of the context of the note: book title/author name, location #/date added, then a copy of the highlighted text or your note. There's apparently some sort of limit on how much of your highlights will show up in MyClippings.txt. I think it's something like over 10% highlighted on a DRM-ed book and it'll stop copying the text over, although you can still see all your highlights when you open the actual book. 6. Also add DRM-free Mobi/PRC format (what AZW is a version of, and usually shows up on other sites as) books to the list. If you rename an HTML file so that it has a .txt extension, then if it doesn't have very fancy formatting or tables, you can load and read it on the Kindle without any further "conversion". 8. Sideloaded books have same-display status as Amazon purchases on the actual Kindle. That is to say: you can access and delete them all from the same set of menus, and they're treated just the same by the software as far as being shown on the Home screen, being able to take notes, etc. goes. There are a few things that you can only do with Amazon-purchased books and vice versa, like text-to-speech (blocked by certain publishers; freely available to your own documents), some of the social-networking tie-in stuff, looking up book descriptions in the Kindle store. But aside from that, there's no special section you have to go to in order to look at your non-Amazon books, and you can dump them all in the same folder when you transfer via USB. Hope this helps.

09-20-2010, 08:49 PM	#9
JeremyR Guru Posts: 973 Karma: 2458402 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: St. Louis Device: Kindle Keyboard, Nook HD+	The battery life is probably under ideal conditions. Still, for me, it went to about halfway in 2 weeks (then again, I would occasionally charge it via USB while adding books).

09-20-2010, 09:57 PM	#10
primetime34 Zealot Posts: 124 Karma: 1142 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: Kindle 3, Nook 3G	I have a follow-up on the whole collections discussion.... How would this work with Calibre? I have gone through my 2,000 books and tagged them to the categories I want. Is there some way to use that system (Calibre) to put the books on my Kindle 3 without having to go through and re-tag my entire collection?

09-21-2010, 09:28 PM	#13
kathyfitz Electronics Whore Posts: 115 Karma: 162 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: The Mountains of Southern California Device: Kindle Paperwhite, iPad, iPad mini, iPhone5, Kindle3	At this time, calibre doesn't support Kindle's collections. It would be nice, but I am happy enough with what it does offer. There is someone here who has created a Kindle Collection Manager for Windows, I can't comment on that (on a Mac), but it seems people like it.

09-21-2010, 09:54 PM	#14
desertgrandma Enjoying the show.... Posts: 14,270 Karma: 10462841 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Arizona Device: A K1, Kindle Paperwhite, an Ipod, IPad2, Iphone, an Ipad Mini & macAir	Might want to try this post, starting with #1..... https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...t=98485&page=2

09-22-2010, 12:43 AM	#15
primetime34 Zealot Posts: 124 Karma: 1142 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: Kindle 3, Nook 3G	So I read the above thread but I don't fully understand how that would help with what I hope to be able to do.....I have my books sorted by subject matter (Faith, Biography, Historical Fiction, etc). I would like to be able to look at all the books in a given category. Is there some way to do this on the Kindle? Thanks.

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