Anyone get a Kindle yet?

tiohn · 2010-10-07T12:25:10.000Z

That site did make me realize that I desperately want an IF interpreter for the Kindle.

Bahimiron · 2010-10-13T07:11:03.000Z

Okay, Amazon’s new ‘read the first chapter for free in your computer screen’ is neat and all, but how can I dispense with that and get them to send the sample to my Kindle like I used to be able to do? I can’t read this stuff on a computer screen! I’m at work!

Edit: ydejin’s suggestion below did it. Thanks!

Dejin · 2010-10-13T07:17:51.000Z

Bahimiron:

Okay, Amazon’s new ‘read the first chapter for free in your computer screen’ is neat and all, but how can I dispense with that and get them to send the sample to my Kindle like I used to be able to do? I can’t read this stuff on a computer screen! I’m at work!

It looks like the Read First Chapter for Free is showing up for non-Kindle version pages. If you check the Formats list and switch to the Kindle listing instead of the Hardback or Paperback listing it will hopefully give you the old Send Sample to Kindle which you are used to. At least that’s the way it’s working for me right now.

mkozlows · 2010-10-13T07:41:09.000Z

Interestingly, the “read on the web” thing doesn’t work for Topaz format books, only for MOBI ones. I hope that means they consider Topaz to be a deprecated transitional format.

peterb · 2010-10-14T07:12:45.000Z

My favorite is when I buy a book and it turns out to be a Topaz book and I want to kill someone.

Linoleum · 2010-10-14T07:51:07.000Z

Case:

If so, why release book 5, but not book 4? Book 5, I’m guessing, would be published more recently.

This has happened to other series. The problem is usually such books had the misfortune of falling in a gap between early pilot eBook programs of individual labels and higher-level corporate-wide programs of their publishing conglomerates that later replaced them. In short: bureaucracy.

Jeremy_Johnsen · 2010-10-14T18:51:08.000Z

Kindle Singles. Hard to tell how exciting it is without pricing information.

TechCrunch

Amazon Introduces The Digital Pamphlet With ‘Kindle Singles'

It looks like Amazon is extending its e-reading platform to include short works and digital pamphlets. Today, Amazon is launching Kindle Singles, which are Kindle books that are in the company's words, "twice the length of a New Yorker feature or as...

barstein · 2010-10-14T19:03:39.000Z

Yeah, they’re ready for authors but haven’t yet accumulated enough short works to justify opening up the doors to customers. Hopefully soon.

JeffL · 2010-10-15T08:10:57.000Z

Just some FWIW stuff from a new owner (3rd gen, 3G + wireless)–

Got the leather case with the light when I got the kindle. But I really like how the Kindle feels reading it without it being in a case. I can’t quite put my finger on it, why I prefer it that way, as there’s no real problem with it in the case and I can see how that light will be handy on a dark airplane or in bed with my wife wanting the lights out. So I also purchased a nice “slide in” case: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003U4VIWW/ref=ox_ya_os_product

Very nice, higher quality in your hand than it appears in the picture. Kindle fits very snugly (in a good way) and it just slides in and out, offers more protection. But no light.

Anyway, got more cases than I need now <G> and about 15 books loaded including 5 free ones (whee!) for the trip to India. About to figure out the best way to organize the books, and still trying to figure out whether there’s a way to have a book open on the very first page of the book (as opposed the the first page of when the story or content starts.)

Case · 2010-10-15T10:02:35.000Z

Linoleum:

This has happened to other series. The problem is usually such books had the misfortune of falling in a gap between early pilot eBook programs of individual labels and higher-level corporate-wide programs of their publishing conglomerates that later replaced them. In short: bureaucracy.

Sounds like you hit the nail on the head, based on this comment from Charles Stross, who encountered something similar with his own Merchant Prince series.

mkozlows · 2010-10-15T10:17:05.000Z

JeffL:

Anyway, got more cases than I need now <G> and about 15 books loaded including 5 free ones (whee!) for the trip to India. About to figure out the best way to organize the books, and still trying to figure out whether there’s a way to have a book open on the very first page of the book (as opposed the the first page of when the story or content starts.)

Organization is the Kindle’s weak point, definitely. Given how bad it is at organizing the books on the device, I’m not even sure why they put as much memory in it as they did – if you filled it up with 3000 books or whatever, you’d never be able to actually browse them all in a sensible way.

As for opening up to the real first page, I just click Menu, Go To, Cover every time I start a book.

Gendal · 2010-10-15T10:35:14.000Z

Alan Dunkin:

And occasionally, especially around image-heavy stuff, there’s some “bleed” where you can still see stuff from a previous page/screen.

Hit Alt-G and it will do a full page refresh, eliminating any ghosting.

Recently decided to finish up all my old paper books laying about and it’s just made me appreciate my K2 even more.

Mitya · 2010-10-15T11:11:56.000Z

Yet another game release for the Kindle,this time something called Triple Town. It’s apparently similar to the Grow games, but made to be infinitely replayable. Bit of an analysis of the game and the game concept by one of the devs here.

Tracy_Baker · 2010-10-15T12:10:38.000Z

JeffL:

Just some FWIW stuff from a new owner (3rd gen, 3G + wireless)–

Got the leather case with the light when I got the kindle. But I really like how the Kindle feels reading it without it being in a case. I can’t quite put my finger on it, why I prefer it that way, as there’s no real problem with it in the case and I can see how that light will be handy on a dark airplane or in bed with my wife wanting the lights out. So I also purchased a nice “slide in” case: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003U4VIWW/ref=ox_ya_os_product

I’m looking for a slide-in case that looks nice and so far haven’t found anything specific to the K3 at Amazon. I did, however find a lot of awesome stuff at Etsy:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/56464118/black-leather-kindle-3-sleeve-with
http://www.etsy.com/listing/58984901/leather-kindle-case-rust
http://www.etsy.com/listing/57498332/kindle3-hard-case-in-sapelle

There’s also this guy, who repurposes old book covers for Kindles, iPads, and other devices.

The problem is that I can’t justify spending a significant amount of the K3 purchase price on a stinkin’ sleeve, so I’ll probably make my own. I’m thinking about hollowing out an old book and stowing it in there.

JeffL · 2010-10-15T15:39:59.000Z

Tracy Baker:

I’m looking for a slide-in case that looks nice and so far haven’t found anything specific to the K3 at Amazon. I did, however find a lot of awesome stuff at Etsy:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/56464118/black-leather-kindle-3-sleeve-with
http://www.etsy.com/listing/58984901/leather-kindle-case-rust
http://www.etsy.com/listing/57498332/kindle3-hard-case-in-sapelle

There’s also this guy, who repurposes old book covers for Kindles, iPads, and other devices.

The problem is that I can’t justify spending a significant amount of the K3 purchase price on a stinkin’ sleeve, so I’ll probably make my own. I’m thinking about hollowing out an old book and stowing it in there.

Tracy, the slide-in case I linked is actually pretty nice. It looks a bit quilted, appears to have memory foam in the quilts for protection, fits the K3 perfectly, and is a nice combination of light, simple, and protective.

Not as classy looking as those leather cases you linked though…hmmmmm…no, can’t justify having three cases. LOL!

rei · 2010-10-15T15:58:51.000Z

I’m just going to get a 6x10 bubble envelope.

Bahimiron · 2010-10-18T12:11:07.000Z

Anyone know of a way to completely get rid of all the info shit around the edges? The signal and battery at the top eventually go away, but is there a way to dismiss the percent completed and your current location in the book? Every time I look down at that I just get distracted.

stusser · 2010-10-18T12:44:57.000Z

Nope, can’t get rid of that.

JeffL · 2010-10-19T20:34:14.000Z

I have discovered for some odd reason I like reading the Kindle better when it is unattached to a case. So I have a cool slide in case that I really like a lot.

However, I am also carrying the leather Kindle case with the built in light on my long trip to India, in case I want to read and the plane is dark and I don’t want to turn on my airplane overhead light (give the person next to me a little more dark to sleep in.)

So question: anyone have any feel for how much battery drain that built in light pulls off the Kindle?

Thanks

Oghier · 2010-10-20T06:45:15.000Z

Amazon customer service is pretty good.

My Kindle 3’s screen grew some spots. They looked like groups of stuck pixels, but they remained even when the device was powered off. I called Amazon and waited approximately 20 seconds to talk to a human. After a two-minute conversation, he said they’ll ship me a new Kindle. It arrived the next day, along with a postage-paid shipping label to return the old one.

I am not sure how one would improve on that (other than producing hardware that never goes bad, of course).