Thetownend.com

Has anyone actually seen one, and are they the shit?

If you enjoy reading they're the bollocks in my opinion. There's another thread here:

http://thetownend.com/index.php?topic=40297.0

Cheers Barry, I'm sold on the idea of the Kindle after a read of that.

Next question, is she worth it? Or shall I instead get some underwear and a bag. I'm definitely leaning towards the pants and bag combo at this stage.

Ordered my mum one on the 8th and it's still not been dispatched. Her birthday is Monday, looks like a last minute dash to get something else on Sunday at the moment :(

ah. sorry to hear that si.

i can't be doing with last minute rushes if amazon can't live up to their "Usually dispatched within 3 to 5 days" claim. is it just a standard wi-fi one you ordered?

Yeah. Although when I ordered I think it was 5-7 days so they are within that at the moment. I did do the super-express delivery option too.

I think the problem at this time of year is that online stores are really busy and are just concentrating to get stuff out by Christmas. You should be alright

I got one for the missis and they sent it out on the 7th day (saturday) and recieved it on the monday. Amazon post does seem quite quick when sent out, play.com take forever.

little birdy tells me that Santa is bringing me one  :D

They look good.

Only thing putting me off is the increasingly popular agency (publisher set) pricing. In some instances the Kindle version is more expensive than a physical hard copy.

I don't know what you mean about "agency (publisher set) pricing", but the beauty of the email conversion service is (say this very quietly, before something changes) is you can email copyrighted material that you nicked off a sharing site to your kindle and have it converted perfectly. I like that.

The Gadget Show rated it over and above the rest - has a very good anti glare screen and it is easy to use.

For me personally I can't get away from the fact that I'd rather have a book to hold, read and smack aginst the bridge of my nose when I fall sleep.

Looks like the weather has scuppered it getting delivered today. Got dispatched on Friday and I paid £6 for faster delivery. I don't even have a tracking number, I just know it's being delivered by Royal Mail.

I better get the thing before Christmas!

Ltt us know whats its like when you eventually get it.

Chocolates OK, toys are shit though !

The Mrs Amazon parcel was delayed by a week  over estimate. I am currently 5 days over estimate on mine. Both shipped on time, RM seem well behind on normal delivery.

Hopefully yours will be quicker being 'express'.

Fucking Ralphy and DV and Leggett and Spud

Well it got delivered yesterday at around 7pm, fair play to the delivery chap working late.

Haven't seen it out of the box, it's in a nice sealed box so I've left it like that as it is a gift. Have to comment on how light it is, either that or the box is empty!

I've had the same worry. The one for the other half feels unfeasibly light. It doesn't rattle either.

Santa I love you. I'm Kindle'd up :)

I was very relieved to find that the one for the missus was in the box and works perfectly. I am now incredibly jealous and considering just stealing it.

The digital ink is rather good.

Have to admit I thought the charging instructions was a sticker on the screen and not the screen itself! Doh.

Got er indoors one which amazingly turned up on time.  I've spent the last couple of days reading Keith Richards book on my one.  We are now a 2 kindle household.

Does anyone know of decent software that converts e-books to Kindle?  Got the wife one for crimbo and she would like to know.

don't you just email it to your kindle email address?

Not too sure about that, er indoors is the computer whizz? in our house.  She just asked me to ask the question.  I know it seems quite random but shes obviously seen something she wants.

Si, as you seem to be `in the know` have you heard of calibre software, not the non alchoholic lager, but the thing for kindle.

There's a user manual on the actual kindle and I think it has the guidance for sending docs to the kindle and converting to kindle format via the kindle email.

I haven't heard of calibre or used it. I'm going by my limited knowledge and experience of helping my mum set her kindle up.

Barry Scott will probably know the answer.

Calibre is pretty well known for converting between formats. Heard it can be a bit slow/clunky but not used it myself (yet).

Calibre can be used, but I personally prefer the email service, because if the file has page numbers and headers and all crap, the kindle service more reliably removes it. To use it you first need to register your kindle to your Amazon account using Menu> Settings> Register and use your email and password. (I suspect it's already registered though.)

Then go to http://www.amazon.co.uk/myk and login using your Amazon email and password. Then register your kindle in here if it's not already. If it is already registered they'll be an email address under "your Kindle" near the top of the page and to the right of the Kindle's name.

A bit further down the page you have a heading, "Your Kindle Approved E-mail List ". Here you can add your email/s. Then, once added, send an email to your your kindle, using the email address mentioned under, " Your Kindle(s)" but change it to include the word free between the "@" and "kindle" followed by a period. I.e. [email protected].

Give it the subject line "convert" (without the quotes) and attach the document to the email with no content. Amazon will email you, normally within a few minutes, saying the document is converted. Once converted you can download it from the link givem in the email and transfer to the Kindle via USB or you can connect your kindle to your wireless and it will be on the kindle within a few seconds of connected.

Job done.

Bit of a loungy question, but say hypothetically I'd decided to buy a kindle (can't afford it at the mo anyway), and pirated thousands of books? Any chance amazon are using the email convertor to catch such horrible thieves? Sorry if that's a stupid question, I haven't used one at all.

I guess there are places other than amazon who sell books in a variety of formats so there's not much they can do to track it?

No, at the moment, you can email copyrighted shit. (I have - lots and lots.)

I suppose there's actually not a cost effective way of them checking - think of the bandwidth and database sizes!

See, if I was running amazon, I'd form some sort of anti-piracy group with the other major e-book sellers with an agreement that when they sold a book in whatever format they'd tag a 10byte individual footer (doesn't even have to match up with a user, could be completely random) to the file of whatever format it was. Then they could just calculate the checksums of the e-book files as they get converted by their system when you email them across, and flag it up when a lot of different people have matching checksums. Then investigate as required.

Or some similar system.

That'd be great and far more effective than my copyright protection theory! The trouble is most of the books I've got are simple scan + OCR to pdf affairs, I think, so in many cases have little beyond raw text. You do have DRM on Amazon books, along with their competitors, so you can't share proper paid for shit to my knowledge.

That's the beauty though. If somebody has scanned a book in and torrented it then everybody who's grabbed it will have the exact same file with the same checksum. My anti-piracy system breaks down where somebody has legitimately bought a file from a site which gives everybody the same pdf(orwhatever), there'd be no way of distinguishing that from the ones they copy to their mates / the world.

I think that's what you meant anyway, unless you mean you've scanned them in yourself after borrowing them? In which case surely it's easier just to buy the bloody things?

Question for you Kindle geeks. If I, hypothetically, had a number of existing ebooks in Word/pdf format, can you get them onto a Kindle without going through the Amazon e-mail system palava?

Yeah, you could use Calibre to convert them, or simply copy them across by USB. I think it supports both as is, although pdf support requires that you use pdf in landscape or it's a pain in the arse. (Like reading sideways isn't!)

There must be a way of stripping the DRM somehow! I'll google and google until I find it. Though I'm at work so it can wait.

As an aside in the states,.....they've just introduced a "loan" system whereby you can loan books to 1 person for 2 weeks (DRM technology). I guess this is what a library does so perhaps not that groundbreaking (besides. other ebook services already do this).

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200549320

I just got an iPad, one of the main reasons was to be able to read PDFs. Looked at the Kindle and whilst it's a great device the screen isn't big enough to view PDFs fll screen and for them to be easily readable. The iPad is perfect for them though, no need to do anything fancy with them - just copy them in to iTunes and you're done.

Ordered the missus one of these as a late Christmas present at the weekend, hopefully it will be delivered today, she will read a book in 2 days and I am fed up of buying her new ones!

Already downloaded 1,800 classics in mobi format, no idea if they will work or not though.

Anyone got a suggested software package to convert .lit files to something the Kindle can read? Can Calibre do this? Or is there something better out there?

Thanks

Kindle virgin.....

I have used this site a few time

http://www.2epub.com/

Loving my kindle, had it a few weeks and onto my fifth book.

By far the easiest to use to convert files to .lit (and loads of others too) I use it for the missus kindle is called calibre e-book.

http://calibre-ebook.com/

And its totally free!

FUCK THE KINDLE GO BUY A PROPER BOOK...WHAT`S THE MATTER WITH YOU >:(

Don't be a dick, if you do a lot of reading the Kindle is ideal and you don't end up with 100's books all over the place.

I've found these useful in the past
[url width=460 height=344]http://www.walldesigns.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Wall-Mounted-Bookshelves.jpg[/url]

I work for a book printer which is pretty fucking difficult at the best of times and now people think its a good idea to spend over £ 100 to be able to read a book...how stupid is that...? ???

Class..... 8)

In the past? What about now, do you have a Kindle instead? :)

No, I have kids so the prospect of getting sufficient time to actually sit down and read a book is but a distant memory :(

In truth, I have a Kindle, I also have a shit load of books lying around the house, most of which i've haven't even read yet.
It is a good little gadget, but will never replace hard copy books and I can't imagine it affecting book sales too much.
Maybe for fictional paperbacks, but not much else.

:wotjump: Good answer...we dont print so many fictional books.....

My missus gets through a book every 2 or 3 days, shes been through the local library and read every book she wants to and I am fucked if I am paying £5-£7 a book every few days, also takes up much less room that the 1000 or so books we already have.

If she's got all that spare time on her hands you should get her to build a bookcase to store them on, that'd slow her down a bit :)

I reckon we should make Bathtime do posts via a telex machine.

Shes a speed reader so one book takes her about 3 hours, but I will suggest that to her....and will willingly pass on the thump she gives me :D

I have thinking of upgrading to a fax machine apparently they are all the rage.... :hmmm:

Charity shops loads of books selling cheap... we printers need people like your missus