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I was going to post this in 'high tech' - but it seems a bit lonely down there.

Has anyone got a Kindle?

I've finally taken the leap and got one - it's just cleared customs and should be in my mitts tomorrow. (I like my gadgets - boys and their toys, as my wife puts it!)

Cheers,
Shafique

Nah, sorry mate can't help there. Didn't like books in their original form let alone....

No Kindle here, but perhaps I can get you into a home automation system?

LOL ! Always looking for that sale, eh ?

With native pdf support I was really considering it, but imho it looks flimsy and would break very easily , especially if you need to look at while your walking around

While walking ? Who reads while walking man ?

desertdudeshj wrote:While walking ? Who reads while walking man ?

I need lug around a huge stack of dot matrix printouts going from one place to another, for me I wanted to convert all that paper to pdf and view it on the kindle , safe to say I will be dropping that thing a lot

What you need to do is, get a better job then

No Kindle here. I'm an avid reader and still like turning pages. Yeah, yeah, I know, slide your hand across the screen. Although I will admit to thinking about looking into one.

I'd be interested to know how you like it.

Well, hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to give you all my first impressions. ( I too like my books, but the reviews were great and my boss got one last month - but hasn't shown me it yet, he wants me to experience the surprise of seeing it for the first time, how small and light it is etc).

I didn't like the look and limitations of the previous versions of the Kindle and Sony e-book readers - but this one seems to tick all the right boxes. But we'll see tomorrow.

Cheers,
Shafique

shafique wrote:I was going to post this in 'high tech' - but it seems a bit lonely down there.

Has anyone got a Kindle?

I've finally taken the leap and got one - it's just cleared customs and should be in my mitts tomorrow. (I like my gadgets - boys and their toys, as my wife puts it!)

Cheers,
Shafique

Good luck with it.

I don't think I could ever get a kindle or the like...

I love books. It is not just the turning of the pages but the going back chapters or many pages to find a passage or name (as I am usually reading at least 3 books "simultaneously" I often have to go back). Sure kindle would have a "search" button - I imagine - but the challenge of finding things is neat.

Books are relatively expensive in Dubai but I love Kinokuniya at Dubai Mall (only reason I've ever been to that mall)... Shopping is so much cheaper elsewhere (outside UAE)

desertdudeshj wrote:What you need to do is, get a better job then

Im on it

-- Mon Jan 17, 2011 11:55 pm --

Bora Bora wrote:. Yeah, yeah, I know, slide your hand across the screen.

Kindle's dont have touch screens, yet , the page turning is with a small joypad

-- Mon Jan 17, 2011 11:58 pm --

Ambassador wrote:Books are relatively expensive in Dubai but I love Kinokuniya at Dubai Mall (only reason I've ever been to that mall)... Shopping is so much cheaper elsewhere (outside UAE)

You dont necessarily have to "purchase" a book, pdf's of almost all the popular books are floating around, just type the name of the book followed by the word "ebook download" , would require some searching though, ambassadress

Ok - been playing with the Kindle for a day now, and first impressions are excellent - it does live up to all the reviews floating around, so I won't repeat the blurb that is found Amazon's site and pretty much every review of the Kindle 3 (and there are loads out there) - I'll just give my reactions.

1. It is bloody small and light - the cover I bought effectively doubles the depth and weight of the kindle, and it still feels lighter than a paperback (with cover). I got the cover with the LCD light - genius design - and it looks like I'm carrying an expensively bound leather diary - extremely portable.

2. Text on screen is clearer than some of the latest hard back books I've bought (which have a creamy coloured paper, not pure white - the Kindle is a very, very light shade of grey, and looks practically white)

3. PDFs do render very well on it - but really only if they are proper e-book pdfs. Scans of double pages are legible, but on a 6 inch screen a pain. It's a screen size issue - as PDFs can't be scaled, but only zoomed.

4. Epubs, mobi files etc - does what it says on the tin and is as legible and more convenient than the book.

5. Calibre - a free ebook management software is what I would call 'itunes for the Kindle' - and indeed the whole experience of loading hundreds of books on to the Kindle is reminiscent of the first time we got an Ipod (back in the day when people were questioning whether it was necessary to carry around your whole CD collection and whether MP3 quality was the 'real deal'!)

[As an aside, I was just thinking back to the early MP3 sharing sites - back before broadband - and I couldn't remember the name of the site that was popular... it bugged me so I put my thinking cap on and then it came to me (after a few mins) - Napster! Out of site out of mind - eh Then limewire - now good old utorrent. Ahh -takes me back to the early days of Compuserve on a 9kbs modem.. I feel old.. ]

6. Pretty much every recent book is available in Epub ebook format and Calibre converts and copies it over to the Kindle with one button click (and Mobi format files don't need conversion - so a bonus if you can get those).

7. I got the 3G version, so it connects to the web anywhere (and it also has WiFi - so if you're in a hotspot you can connect). Web searches and indeed web browsing is free - any word can be looked up in the OED or Oxford American dictionary (which is on the Kindle) or looked up on Wiki or Google, and indeed can browse the web proper (with limitations based on what the screen can display).

Add to that the battery life is over a month on a charge (and it charges over a USB) - excellent stuff.

The only downside is the document management system on the Kindle itself - putting the books into various 'folders' or 'collections' (eg 'Fiction', 'History', 'Discworld' etc) - a bit of clunky way of doing it - but fine as I think it was intended to do one at a time. A minor gripe - but there are some software solutions out there that I haven't tried.

Cheers,
Shafique

Thanks for the first impressions , Lack of scalability on the pdf's makes me give it negative points, How is the build and the feel ?

zubber wrote:

Ambassador wrote:Books are relatively expensive in Dubai but I love Kinokuniya at Dubai Mall (only reason I've ever been to that mall)... Shopping is so much cheaper elsewhere (outside UAE)

You dont necessarily have to "purchase" a book, pdf's of almost all the popular books are floating around, just type the name of the book followed by the word "ebook download" , would require some searching though, ambassadress

2 points.

1. if I were to download on pdf then I would need to print and bind the pages to make it a "book" - would not be cheaper - and who reads A4 books (other than text books).
2. I support artists (musicians, actors, writers, etc.) so I don't download anything off the internet (except from i-store).

Not only do I love books to read but I keep all of them!

Ambassador wrote:2 points.

1. if I were to download on pdf then I would need to print and bind the pages to make it a "book" - would not be cheaper - and who reads A4 books (other than text books).
2. I support artists (musicians, actors, writers, etc.) so I don't download anything off the internet (except from i-store).

Not only do I love books to read but I keep all of them!

1 Point.

You can always read them from ur screen. And u can always buy them later.

zubber wrote:

Ambassador wrote:2 points.

1. if I were to download on pdf then I would need to print and bind the pages to make it a "book" - would not be cheaper - and who reads A4 books (other than text books).
2. I support artists (musicians, actors, writers, etc.) so I don't download anything off the internet (except from i-store).

Not only do I love books to read but I keep all of them!

1 Point.

You can always read them from ur screen. And u can always buy them later.

I hate reading on screen...whilst it might be wasteful, exept for e-mails text, I print and read all attachments, etc. The most reading on screen I do is on DF (and frankly, anything longer than 3 paragraphs I do not read ).

Books are best (but hey, there are people who still don't have e-mail).

Ambassador wrote:I hate reading on screen...whilst it might be wasteful, exept for e-mails text, I print and read all attachments, etc. The most reading on screen I do is on DF (and frankly, anything longer than 3 paragraphs I do not read

Well I agree with you that reading on screen can cause a lot of fatigue, U mentioned you look at many books at one time, in this case perhaps opening several files on your screen would free up ur desk space, Where I work all the paper we get is on a quota system, cant be printing stuff unless it is absolutely essential

zubber wrote:

Ambassador wrote:Where I work all the paper we get is on a quota system

You joking? It is to save money or for "enviromental" reasons (often claimed by the boss who drives a hummer!)

Ambassador wrote:You joking? It is to save money or for "enviromental" reasons (often claimed by the boss who drives a hummer!)

Well I work in the observational research field, One observation generates more than 1000 pages of a4 size text, To go around this problem we use dot matrix printouts, but even then there is just a lot of paper

Yes its some environmental thing we have to respect, Dont get me wrong I care for the earth, but this going green policy of companies is just stupid,

zubber wrote:Thanks for the first impressions , Lack of scalability on the pdf's makes me give it negative points, How is the build and the feel ?

Pretty solid - I'd say I'd treat it pretty much like I treat my net book (when closed) and the Kindle is in the case. It has a 6 inch screen - so I guess it may not like a fall from a height when 'naked' - but in it's case it should survive a fall pretty much ok (probably better than a netbook would - but I wouldn't really be walking around with one).

You may be better off with the larger Kindle DX - same e-ink screen, only bigger.

Cheers,
Shafique

zubber wrote:

Well I work in the observational research field

I could look it up what can you give me the abridged version of what it is...Sounds interesting.

shafique wrote:Pretty solid - I'd say I'd treat it pretty much like I treat my net book (when closed) and the Kindle is in the case. It has a 6 inch screen - so I guess it may not like a fall from a height when 'naked' - but in it's case it should survive a fall pretty much ok (probably better than a netbook would - but I wouldn't really be walking around with one).
You may be better off with the larger Kindle DX - same e-ink screen, only bigger.

Thanks for the info, Yes I will definitely look into it.

-- Tue Jan 18, 2011 2:06 pm --

Ambassador wrote:I could look it up what can you give me the abridged version of what it is...Sounds interesting.

What is it that you want to Look up ? And you would want the abridged version of what ?

I love gadgets too, but I still only use my phone for calls and the calendar and taking photos and video - can't be arsed to use internet on there. Paper books are still my favourite, so can't imagine changing to an e-reader anytime soon.

kanelli wrote:I love gadgets too, but I still only use my phone for calls and the calendar and taking photos and video - can't be arsed to use internet on there. Paper books are still my favourite, so can't imagine changing to an e-reader anytime soon.

Probably a good thing.
We don't want your husband to end up with a 6,000 dirham data bill.

benwj wrote:We don't want your husband to end up with a 6,000 dirham data bill.

Agreed, Those bl00dy iph0nes and Win7 phones , keep accessing data even when you are on roaming, you have to switch it off , Recently a friend of mine got slapped with a $ 2000.00/- bill (Roaming Data Charges) , and he didnt even check his email !!!!