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Kindle - Wow!


Simon-the-censored
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I love my Kindle too, and use it a lot either in the night or when travelling. I can't say I've use mine in sun much recently - too busy in the garden etc, and it's cold and grey today! The charge on mine also lasts about a month, with wifi switched off. I haven't switched the authors etc off, as I rather like them; does that make a big difference in the time a charge lasts?
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My battery lasts about 4 weeks without wifi.

The pictures don't use any power - once a page or picture is loaded to the screen it is fixed and no more power is used until you turn the page. When the Kindle is 'asleep' it uses no power. In fact it is better to let the Kindle switch itself to sleep mode rather than use the switch - using the switch uses a little power 'cos the light by the switch comes on momentarily.
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  • 4 weeks later...
I'm new to Kindle, and haven't got any technical problems so far (touch wood), and I'm enjoying using mine especially since my OH bought me a kindle cover. This gives you the feel of holding a book, which for me is comfortable. However one of the books I read seemed to insist on hifinating long words, presumably to justify (is that the right word?) the page. Frankly I found this extremely irritating. The book was "The Land of Painted Caves" by Jean Auel who's American. Is anybody else finding this is happening?

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I ordered a Kindle for my brother's 60th-birthday present, and just received notification today that it has despatched.  So far so [:)]

But an extra email has arrived from Kindle Support telling me:

" Your Kindle is automatically registered to the same Amazon.co.uk account you used to make your purchase. This enables you to shop, purchase, and download books, newspapers and magazines wirelessly from your Kindle straight out of the box.

If you purchased Kindle as a gift for someone else, you should de-register this Kindle from your Amazon.co.uk account. You can de-register Kindle from the Settings page on the device or at Manage Your Kindle <http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/digital/fiona/manage>  on Amazon.co.uk. The gift recipient can then re-register the device to their Amazon.co.uk account from the Settings page on the Kindle."

How annoying is that!   It looks as if instead of merely wrapping the thing in pretty paper and despatching it, I shall have to open up the box, charge up the Kindle via my own computer, and mess about with its settings.  [:@]  

I have ordered others in the past -  as presents for major birthdays - and this has never been an problem before.  I don't own one myself (yet!).

Angela

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Angela / Loiseau - annoying ? Don't understand what your problem is??

Amazon are only giving you some friendly advice - it's not compulsory to follow it !

Just leave it registered to your Amazon account if you can't be bothered to change it over to your Brothers - so long as he doesn't mind. Anyway - I'm sure he'll be able to re-register it himself - it's no big deal.

Simon :-)

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  • 2 weeks later...
Friends arrived yesterday for a week and kindly brought a copy of the Sunday Times.

On the back page of one of the supplements there is a full page advert for the Kindle.

I had been worried about typography on this gadget and was amazed to see the text displayed on this machine.

It may be possible to overlook the misquoted James Joyce but to have two lines unjustified in a page of justified type is seriously poor page layout.

I just cannot believe the advert was allowed to run.
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It amazes me how many spelling mistakes you see in newspapers (online versions, I don't buy printed papers). So called professional writers with advanced spell checkers at their disposal and still basic spelling is wrong.

But to your ad. Obviously someone was in a hurry to get home on Friday for that to have happened in that ad.
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Chancer you may well be correct.

But I suspect that it is because they are using files formatted for a particular line width in a printed book (which is then used on the kindle at a different width), and perhaps in a different typestyle and width.

99.9% of book are justified and to avoid word breaks 'returns' are made to push a word onto the next line.

This will apear in a different format as a double space, and can result in what we saw in the advert.

It can be overcome by searching for double spaces and replacing them automatically for single.

Computer spell checkers result in more errors in my experience as they do not take the context of the word into consideration.

I have read several recently published books with glaring typos.

Mostly I reckon it is because the publishers won't pay for readers and proof readers.

Sadly what will kill book printing is the cost of paper, ink and distribution.

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As S-c-L says - why so important?

Having now read 27 books on the Kindle I have only encountered one book that was badly converted into digital format and no more than a couple of typos in the remainder.

Such minor imperfections are far outweighed by the convenience of the Kindle. Unless, of course, one is searching for reasons not to get one. Why not just not get one?
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I've read through all 46 pages of this thread, and I'm still interested in buying a Kindle. I can't for the life of me decide how to go about it. It seems to be pure luck as to whether you are able to use the .co.uk site for downloads, and none of the successful posters have exactly the same account set up as each other and certainly not the same as me.

I've an Amazon.co.uk account but with my address here as the invoice address. I do have UK address for deliveries but I can't see how that would help me get UK books. My UK credit card and UK bank debit card are both "registered" at my French address.

If I buy the Kindle from the US the books there are more expensive and there is not the same (cheap) choice, which is what I'm after at the end of the day.

Baffled. If I can't get books from the .co.uk site I'm not interested any more. I can see why others have hesitated (and then got caught out).

We had guests here last week and they brought their Kindle; I'm really impressed with the screen, readability, weight... everything!

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sid - it's simple !

Order the Kindle using your .co.uk account and have it delivered to a UK address. It doesn't matter how you pay.

Make sure you get the Wifi / 3G kindle (the more expensive one) - and make sure you use it in 3G mode once you've registered it to the UK (if it isn't already).

The issue is essentially about the 'visibility' of the Kindle - whilst in 3G mode (i.e. using mobile phone networks) it is 'invisible' and amazon don't know where you are. If you use a home or public wifi network (other than via a 3G router) - you are visible!

JFDI and Happy reading!

Simon

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Thanks Simon. I know you were one of the first posters and you're downloading without trouble. One of the problems for me is cost; the 3G version is roughly 50% more expensive and whilst I'll just about go to £111 I'm not really prepared to go to 3G when I mostly read at home and I've got a serviceable wi-fi network here.

So I have to leave it registered to the delivery address; according to at least one poster this causes problems... unless you have 3G! Surely this isn't satisfactory?

CDL - I'm now in the process of reading up on the Nook! As you've said it appears to be very similar to Kindle, but with even longer battery life. I need to find out if cheap books are available ("cheap" is important for this skinflint) and where from.

 

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I have the wifi version. Delivered to UK delivery address but bought with French reg (UK) Credit card which is the card registered to my a/c. Downloaded maybe 5 books before getting the nod from Amazon that I was not in UK.

To overcome this I use Expat Shield VPN which assigns my computer a UK IP address so when I connect to Amazon they think I am in UK. So I use the computer to make the order but the Kindle is also connected and the book(s) download immediately.

It seems that it is the ordering device (in this case the computer) that determines where they think you are. As S-c-L says, this doesn't seem to happen if you use 3G.

Incidentally, Amazon can only sell ebooks in those areas licensed by the publisher. The licences for books on the UK site allow them only to sell in the UK - if they knowingly sell outside the UK they are breeching the terms of their licence which is why they transfer you to .com who have the universal licence.
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Sid, with the nook, you're not limited to buying just from amazon. The nook reads the universal ebook format, epub, so you can buy from pretty much anywhere you like.

You could buy from WH Smith online for example, download it to your pc then copy across to the nook.

You could also do this with the kindle, but you'd need software to convert the format and you're likely to run into DRM issues which are more tricky to crack.
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Thanks for those two further replies, JK and CDL.

I'm going round in circles. I like the Kindle but the Nook is similar but more expensive. I really want to be able to buy UK current bestsellers or discounted ones. I've seen several at just a couple of quid. Many ebook retailers are charging more than paperback prices for their books!

Once again, I've put it on hold. Dithering about spending over £100 and then being able to get the books I want!

 

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