Should I Upgrade From My Kindle Keyboard

[LiamXW]

As said in the title, I have a kindle keyboard which I have been using since September, but I am interested in getting a kindle touch. I have been hearing many problems about accidentally turning pages while reading and that it is not comfortable to hold for extended periods of time. I am also interested in the fact that it has the x-ray feature because I am in 11th grade and this feature could make it easier to complete my summer reading and book assignments. I also love to highlight, add notes, and look up words in the books that I have on the kindle and I was wondering can you do this more faster and efficiently on the touch or on the keyboard? Should I stick with my kindle keyboard or move up to a touch screen?

Also, I have a kindle cover with the light attached to it for my kindle keyboard and I am wondering can this cover be used on the kindle touch or will I have to buy a separate cover for the touch?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by LiamXW

As said in the title, I have a kindle keyboard which I have been using since September, but I am interested in getting a kindle touch. I have been hearing many problems about accidentally turning pages while reading and that it is not comfortable to hold for extended periods of time.

That's certainly not true, in my experience. I've never turned a page accidentally, and it's extremely comfortable to hold - much smaller and lighter than the K3 which you have.

I also love to highlight, add notes, and look up words in the books that I have on the kindle and I was wondering can you do this more faster and efficiently on the touch or on the keyboard?

Dictionary lookup and highlighting are faster on the Touch. Making notes is slower, because you're using the "soft" keyboard, rather than the physical keyboard on the K3.

Should I stick with my kindle keyboard or move up to a touch screen?

I've not looked back since getting my Touch. Better in pretty much every way than the K3.

Also, I have a kindle cover with the light attached to it for my kindle keyboard and I am wondering can this cover be used on the kindle touch or will I have to buy a separate cover for the touch?

No, it's a completely different size, and the Touch has a different system of connectors for the light.

[Jack Tingle]

Probably not. The difference, based on what you describe, just isn't that great. Some things will be better (lighter weight) and some will be worse (note-taking).

Enjoy your summer reading, whichever way you go.

Regards,
Jack Tingle

[wallcraft]

Two downsides of the Touch are a) can't use 3rd party collection managers (e.g. Calibre) for collections, and b) no landscape mode. These probably don't matter for most people.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by LiamXW

I have a kindle keyboard which I have been using since September, but I am interested in getting a kindle touch.

Being a little cracked upside my head, perhaps, I am going to hit this in a totally different way.

With the international economy in distress, partly because of low consumption, I should be glad to hear that at least some people want to buy non-necessities. But as a constitutionally frugal person, the idea that you got a new computer-like device less than four months ago and already are looking to upgrade rubs me a bit of the wrong way. It surely takes longer than that to really discover all the features of your existing device.

Getting too personal, I would say that the first priority is to graduate university with as little in the way of loans as possible. However, if you have that covered, well, yes, I guess it may be good for the economy of the US, and China, for you to buy an extra Kindle, so go ahead.

[tm3]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

Two downsides of the Touch are a) can't use 3rd party collection managers (e.g. Calibre) for collections, and b) no landscape mode. These probably don't matter for most people.

drawback a) would be a big one for me.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tm3

drawback a) would be a big one for me.

The touch screen makes collection management on the Touch much quicker to do than it is on the K3, however, so that's a balancing factor. Personally I've always managed my collections on the Kindle and had no issues doing so.

[reprep]

well personally i am waiting for the next e-ink technology which will most probably be color e-ink. Till then kindle keyboard and kindle DXG is enough for me.

[Chi Cygni]

I'm not going to downgrade myself to no free worldwide 3G...

[wvcherrybomb]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

Two downsides of the Touch are a) can't use 3rd party collection managers (e.g. Calibre) for collections, and b) no landscape mode. These probably don't matter for most people.

Hmmmm, good to know. I would be quite disappointed to find these out after the fact. Thanks for mentioning.

What the heck is an x-ray feature????

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by wvcherrybomb

What the heck is an x-ray feature????

See here.

[faithbw]

Touch is great but the Kindle you currently have can do the same thing that the new Kindle can. They both have the same Pearl screen, they both allow you to look up words, highlight and add notes. So I guess the question that I think you should ask yourself is "do I need a new Kindle?"

[mastermesh]

I'm kinda in same boat. I love my kindle keyboard with 3g.. but it's slow and black and white. Don't get me wrong... I LOVE IT. It's month long battery makes it perfect to have when travelling or for light reading. It's speech to text is dull, but is nice to listen to at work too...

My wife and I tried an att smartphone about a month ago... she had an iphone and I had an atrix2. I freaking loved the atrix... but we had to take them back because we could not afford them as much as we thought we could... ATT WILL rip you off if you sign up and then take the phone back in the 30 days like we did. They are sending us huge bills but we are not paying them... what's the worse they can do, shut off the services to phones we already gave back?!?

In reading tons of reviews on kindle fire vs nook color and tablet, etc., it appears that you get more hardware that is better than amazon's with the nook HOWEVER, amazon claims their linking to the cloud helps counterbalance the fact that their gizmo is 512 mb ram vs the nooks 1gig ram... some reviews tell me otherwise...

Nook also looked interesting since it allowed side loading via the sd card... However, some stuff I've read lately indicates that they don't allow that with the latest update... and also read that Amazon's tablets block that sort of thing too (even though they don't have sd cards - people were side loading in other ways via google app store, usb cord, etc.)

Something I LOVED about my experience with the Atrix was that it had access to ALL THE APP STORES... I could load up amazon's app store, right next to b&n's right next to google appstore and some other third party ones that I found online that had free apps...

However, paying 500 bucks for an atrix without a contract would not be an option.. since the screen size is so tiny. I would mainly want apps for music/tv/finger painting since I'm a bit of an artist... so tablets are what I'm looking at... 7 inch ones since 10.1 inch ones like the transformer prime (the cadillac of tablets at them moment with it's 500.00 price) are just a tad big to be carrying around all over the place. I use a Nikon camera bag to hold gizmos and gadgets like mp3 player, camera, sound recorders, cell phones, and kindle, etc. No way that 10.1 inch tablet would fit in there unless I took most of the other stuff out since it would not fit in the pocket designed for gizmos and gadgets like the kindle, nook, etc.... I used to carry a laptop bag with me and that thing was too big and clunky to carry. Smaller camera bags are better for this sort of stuff.

All of that said, the Novo 7 looks interesting as do a few other really cheap devices that won't be locked in to one app store, and with CES being this weekend, THERE'S GOING TO BE TONS OF NEW GIZMOS AND GADGETS ON THE MARKET REAL SOON!... Best bet is to WAIT.... at least 1-3 months.

Lightsquared/Sprint/Sharp is talking about making tablets that will have FREE 4G ANYWHERE IN THE US in the next year or so, but they hit a roadbump since the gps companies have been infringing on the spectrum that Lightsquared bought about 6-8 years ago.... so there's interference with gps equipment, but it's because the gps is bleeding in to lightsquared's spectrum... I was going to wait for that free 4g before doing serious looking in to tablets, but read somewhere that it might be 11 years before that whole sprint network sees completion, so no need to hold off any more... if it comes it'll come, but it likely won't be this year like they originally were promising.

[booklover6]

mastermesh, this topic was about the black and white kindle touch, not the fire. but to reply to your topic, I'll tell you what I did...we don't have/can't afford smart phones either, but wanted the apps and tablet features, but I didn't want my amazon archives available to anyone who picked up my tablet. I got the Nook Color (refurb) + the 16gb n2a card for less than the cost of the Fire, I have the Amazon app store on it and the android app store, so all the apps I could ever want are available. I can stream netflix, youtube, use the web, etc. It's very nice!

(one more week to get the cast off my hand so I can type again...)

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by mastermesh

My wife and I tried an att smartphone about a month ago... she had an iphone and I had an atrix2. I freaking loved the atrix... but we had to take them back because we could not afford them as much as we thought we could... ATT WILL rip you off if you sign up and then take the phone back in the 30 days like we did. They are sending us huge bills but we are not paying them... what's the worse they can do, shut off the services to phones we already gave back?

I suspect you'll find that they can (and will) take you to court if you decline to pay your bill.