To Kindle Or Not To Kindle?

[pilotbob]

Hi All...

I just wanted to post a quick reminder here. Discussion and debates are more than welcome. But, please keep personal comments and attacks out of it.

I know we are all passionate about our opinions and we all should be able to communicate those opinions without name calling and pointing. If someone doesn't agree with you, posting the same thing again with a personal attack isn't going to change that. Please agree to disagree and move on.

Lets keep MR the fun stress free place we all know it to be.

Moderator

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by sirbruce

We're not talking about the original post. We're talking about my particular thread of posts, which you've jumped in on.

But, hey, I can see you're one of those people who needs to keep at it to feel superior, so go ahead.

Pot .... meet Kettle.

[catsittingstill]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

My phones, on the other hand.........they like to swim.

FWIW, I have read that they can sometimes be saved if you fish them out of the water, remove the battery if possible, dry off the outside, and shove them into a sack/bowl/whatever of uncooked rice. Leave it there for a day or two.

Rice apparently holds onto moisture well enough that the water will tend to work its way out of the phone and into the rice.

Best of luck with the swimming phones.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by catsittingstill

FWIW, I have read that they can sometimes be saved if you fish them out of the water, remove the battery if possible, dry off the outside, and shove them into a sack/bowl/whatever of uncooked rice. Leave it there for a day or two.

Rice apparently holds onto moisture well enough that the water will tend to work its way out of the phone and into the rice.

Best of luck with the swimming phones.

Except for the Rice, thats what I did. I had given up on it, but my husband, in his infinite wisdom, just plugged it in after 2-3 days, and voila! It works like new!

[catsittingstill]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Except for the Rice, thats what I did. I had given up on it, but my husband, in his infinite wisdom, just plugged it in after 2-3 days, and voila! It works like new!

Excellent!

I have a pda that keeps falling out of my pocket. I'm scared to sit on it, so I keep it in a shirt pocket--but if I forget to button the shirt pocket, the first time I bend down to pick something up--clack! clatter! down it goes. So far it has done all it's bungee-less jumping over dry land, though. Something I hadn't previously considered being grateful for :-)

[LifeLongReader]

Originally Posted by TallMomof2

The dictionary in the Kindle 2 is awesome. Placing the pointer on a word gives a two line definition at the bottom of the page with the option for more information. Hitting Return gives you a page or more of information about the word.

I use the dictionary a lot because it's so darn handy.

Now that sounds pretty freaking handy

[demoric]

Just thought I'd throw this in about the warranty covering the battery (which it does). The following was my original response from amazon about battery replacement issues.

Hello,

We learned from the first generation Kindle that changing the battery was rarely needed.

We are providing the Kindle 2 with one year Warranty. If you require additional warranty, there's also an optional 2-Year Extended Warranty you can purchase separately to add an additional year and more comprehensive protection, including coverage for battery replacement and accidental drops and damage (limited to one incident). The Extended Warranty is sold and administered by Service Net, a third-party warranty service provider.

You can purchase the 2-Year Extended Warranty for Kindle 2 within 30-days of the date your Kindle 2 shipped for $65 at this page:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001P81618

If at all your battery fails after the warranty period, we will fix it for you at minimal cost.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by demoric

Just thought I'd throw this in about the warranty covering the battery (which it does). The following was my original response from amazon about battery replacement issues.

The warranty covers the battery the same way your car warranty covers your breaks. They are not going to replace "normal wear and tear" issues.

That response is, IMNSHO, very misleading and makes it sound like you can just get your battery replaced within the warranty time just because two years has gone by.

BOb

[sirbruce]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

That response is, IMNSHO, very misleading and makes it sound like you can just get your battery replaced within the warranty time just because two years has gone by.

While I believe you're technically correct, the concern with the battery is that after many recycles, it starts holding less and less charge. If the Amazon battery "truly" doesn't drop to 80% max charge in 2 years, then is this really a big deal? And if it does drop more than that, then it's beyond normal wear and tear. I agree, one *shouldn't* use this as an excuse to get a 2 year fresher battery, but I'm thinking if there's not a problem after 2 years then you probably won't have much of one after 4 years, either.

However, let me point out again that *in theory*, Service Net has *no way of knowing* what's wrong with the battery. If you call them up and tell them the battery is only keeping 50% the charge it was when you first got your Kindle 2, 2 years prior -- I mean, flat out *lie* to them and exagerrate the extent of the battery decline -- other than the potential ethical and legal problems, I don't see how Service Net would do anything but replace the battery, under warranty. And they aren't even the ones likely to do this; Amazon probably would.

Again, what would possibly happen? Would Amazon test the battery and decide it really wasn't that bad after all? If so, would they tell Service Net? If so, would Service Net tell you and demand $59? I'm finding that highly unlikely. So while I'm not advocating trying to cheat Service Net, I think if you buy the extended warranty for the express purpose of battery replacement and after 2 years you decide your Kindle 2 battery just doesn't have the oomph it used to, there's a very good chance you'd be able to get it replaced for free.

[dmaul1114]

Problem is you can't just say with in two years. Some people may use it hours a day with whispernet on all the time and degrade the battery a lot in 2 years. It's still normal wear and tear, but was done in less than two years because of extreme heavy usage and charging it much more often than the average person.

And they may well test it and find it's not really bad and either end it back or request $50.

I've heard of that happening with the 360--it has a flaw that causes it to lock up and display three red lights on the status indicator (the red ring of death--RROD). They extended the warranty to 3 years to cover that specific defect.

But I've read on forums of people having other problems like the disc drive going bad etc., they call it in as RROD to try and get it fixed free and end up having to pay if they want it fixed.

Different situation--but still if you lie about your problem they don't have to just fix it under warranty when they test it and find out that you lied. They can charge you or refuse to fix it and send it back.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by sirbruce

I mean, flat out *lie* to them and exagerrate the extent of the battery decline -- other than the potential ethical and legal problems, I don't see how Service Net would do anything but replace the battery, under warranty. And they aren't even the ones likely to do this; Amazon probably would.

Well, if you plan to commit fraud to get your battery replaced, you are quite right. By this logic that warranty "warrants" that you will get a new battery in 22 months.

What was I thinking?

BOb

[sirbruce]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Well, if you plan to commit fraud to get your battery replaced, you are quite right. By this logic that warranty "warrants" that you will get a new battery in 22 months.

What was I thinking?

I don't know. You keep pointing out that the extended warranty doesn't cover a new battery just for the hell of it... neither does the regular warranty. Neither does the K1. But you *could* abuse the warranty to get one for free if you so chose; you can't do that with K1. Beyond that, the extended warranty does cover a new battery in the event of unusual degradation... which the regular warranty does as well.

Nothing personal, but it seems like you were just using an opportunity to disparage the extended warranty again.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by sirbruce

Nothing personal, but it seems like you were just using an opportunity to disparage the extended warranty again.

Not at all. The extended warranty is perfectly fine... it people feel it is worth it. But, if people thing it is a batter replacement plan then I just wanted it to be clear that this is not the case.

I think you are reading way to much into what I am saying.

BOb

BTW: Buying an extended warranty for an electronic device is generally advised against by financial advisers. Now, an accident plan, that is a different story.

[Nova5]

readability - Both sony and Kindle can resize the text. Sony can now reflow text based PDFs(which it can nativly read) so the resize is effective with them now. It used to only squeeze the entire page onto one screen with no resize possible. Got a microscope!? Bonehead sony move.

replaceable battery - Kindle1 only. All others its a case cracking geek who can replace it. and thats just not advisable.

light to read in the dark - Book lights needed for all but the sony 700.
built-in dictionary - Kindles only. But you can probably download a version for the sony readers, just harder to work with.

support for a variety of formats - Best program i've found is Calibre, it can convert from many formats to the 3 big ones. outputs are LRF (BBeB), Epub, Mobi. http://calibre.kovidgoyal.net/

ability to buy other than from amazon - buy buy buy. everyone likes to buy. except me. I like to Acquire! It sounds.. more romantic don't you agree?

sturdiness - Sony 505's metal case makes it feel sturdy but I still wouldn't want to put it to the test.

memory card access- Sony readers and Kindle1 only. K2 ramped up the internal space but no way to put books into their own Series (Album) The Sonys do with Collections.


I have heard that the older versions of each brand are easier to read, but the newer ones are faster but have glare. I have only ever seen a Kindle 1, briefly, but it looked good as far as readability.-- Sony 505 is very easy to read, it also has glare if you pick the perfect angle to bounce the light source off the screen into your eyes. a slight position change and you're gold.

I also use a macbook. I have an old PC, but it is unreliable sometimes. Ability to download via whispernet is not important to me as long as I can get books on the reader via my mac.

I will say Calibre again. http://calibre.kovidgoyal.net/
It works on Windows, Mac, Linux.

At the moment, it has support for the SONY PRS 500/505/700, Cybook Gen 3, Amazon Kindle (1 and 2) and the iPhone (with the stanza reader software).

I use Calibre instead of the sonyware (due to a deep loathing hatred of sony in general but the 505 is cool)

The 100 free books on the Sony is leaning me that way...but I think readability is my first concern.

I would be grateful for any pros / cons, or other information. Or is there another brand I am overlooking? Any helpful information is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Astabeth[/QUOTE]

[cassle]

I'll keep pick Sony for my reader. I can't access Kindle internet privileges from my country tough, so I think Sony has it all. I like their Connect store, its very friendly to customers, also giving free books periodically.