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Why I got rid of my kindle

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Yes I know this isn't a kindle forum but I thought I'd share my experiences with the kindle all the same.

First off, let me say I do rate the kindles, I would recommend one to those that are sure the iPad isn't for them.

How it all began

I bought the kindle 3 back in October 2010 and pretty much fell in love with it as soon as it arrived. I forgot how much I enjoyed just reading novels, reading for the sake of reading, I.e. Not specifically to learn something new.

I lived in bliss for a good few weeks, in fact, probably enjoyed my kindle filled life until mid January 2011 when it all started to go wrong (for me)...

So why did it go wrong?

In mid January I became aware of an increasing number of educational or self-study books being available in kindle format (I.e. Not just a PDF which actually don't scale that well on the kindle tbh, they are ok but could be so much better).

So I purchased a couple of books from amazon and started reading away.

Initially; this was amazing! ok amazing may be a stretch but I was feeling very productive. The kindle weighs nothing compared to your average cisco text book, it was massively more portable and for some reason I seem to read the kindle far quicker than I ever read a paper book (unsure why).

If you combine the portability of the kindle with it's great battery life and of course the ability to highlight text which is then saved in a little text file for you to print out and review later made the kindle possibly the greatest study aid I have ever used (in terms of reading at least).

Uh huh, so, what exactly went wrong then???

Ok, it went wrong because I started using it in a way it was possibly not designed... It went wrong in 2 ways:

1: the kindle seems to freeze up when highlighting text, this is not apparent at first and only seems to happen as the clippings file grows due to the number of notes and highlights you've made.

2: DRM I thought that the kindle content would be protected but I didn't realise just how the publishers might go about protecting their content. For me this became a real problem, more so because it irritated me beyond believe rather than because I wanted to have total freedom, heck (without sounding like a troll) I happily live in the apple Eco system, playing to someone else's rules is not a problem for me.

The problem I have is that when I bought the kindle and the books, I never saw anything that says the publisher can limit the amount of text you can high-light. In some cases, this is apparently as low as 10%.

To be fair, the limit is applied to what can be stirred in the clippings file, not what you can actually highlight. The problem for me is that if I bought the book (I could have bought a second hand book, thereby saving money) I could highlight, rip, draw in it if I wanted, the DRM applied to a book has put me off a little tbh.

3: build quality is a bit poo!

The basic structure is fine, as are the page turning buttons, but the keyboard, which gets used far less than the other buttons on a kindle (in my case at least) is shockingly bad! All of the letters on the top row of my kindle keyboard have rubbed off now, in less than 6 months, and I don't even think I am as heavy a kindle user as some people will be/are!!

Would I recommend it?

Absolutely, I just won't buy another one...

Compared to an iPad 2

The old iPad felt a little heavy (to me) the new one seems a lot better (yes I know the weight difference is marginal).

I am still limited by DRM (yes there are ways around this, I am not 'green' but I am not really interested in discussing such things here) but i had already decided that my next text book will be a paper product anyway...

Kindle on the iPad 2

WOW!

The Kindke app on the iPad blows the kindle out of the water! It looks so much better especially when using it to read a text book with images and screenshots in it, the images can be blown up using your usual iOS touch controls, I am massively impressed with this app!

The iPad obviously suffers in terms of battery life which is not in the same league as a kindle, but it's more than usable!

Oh and my productivity has suffered greatly. I came to the coffee store this morning to read on my iPad, not look at the mac-forums site and make this new post... :p
 

RavingMac

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Interesting post.
I'm actually thinking about adding a Kindle to my ever-expanding collection of digital devices. And, it's not because I am in any way displeased with my iPad. It's just there are times when all I want to do is read, and I don't need the iPad's other capabilities.
For me, a Kindle would be the equivalent of the paperback you threw in your suitcase/briefcase so you'd have something to read during down times.
 

chscag

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2: DRM I thought that the kindle content would be protected but I didn't realise just how the publishers might go about protecting their content. For me this became a real problem, more so because it irritated me beyond believe rather than because I wanted to have total freedom, heck (without sounding like a troll) I happily live in the apple Eco system, playing to someone else's rules is not a problem for me.

The problem I have is that when I bought the kindle and the books, I never saw anything that says the publisher can limit the amount of text you can high-light. In some cases, this is apparently as low as 10%.

Obviously, it's because there are some folks who would copy the entire book or publication, possibly numerous times. What would then prevent them from distributing it? The copyright holder should be protected and the 10% is certainly, IMO, enough to use for notes, whatever.

You might be honest and respect the rights of the copyright holder but unfortunately not everyone thinks or acts that way. A paper edition of a book is much more difficult to reproduce - even with modern copy machines. Therefore you can not make a comparison between the two.
 
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FWIW, I love my Kindle. I do like the Kindle app on my iPad, but the iPad is just too heavy for comfortably reading any longer than short periods.
 
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Obviously, it's because there are some folks who would copy the entire book or publication, possibly numerous times. What would then prevent them from distributing it? The copyright holder should be protected and the 10% is certainly, IMO, enough to use for notes, whatever.

You might be honest and respect the rights of the copyright holder but unfortunately not everyone thinks or acts that way. A paper edition of a book is much more difficult to reproduce - even with modern copy machines. Therefore you can not make a comparison between the two.

Yup, I agree and I understand the reason, the problem for me is that I wasn't aware until I was mid way through a book. It's not really amazons fault, they've come up with a way of distributing an electronic media whilst keeping the publishers happy, it was just a bit of a shock at the time.

FWIW, I love my Kindle. I do like the Kindle app on my iPad, but the iPad is just too heavy for comfortably reading any longer than short periods.

I kind of agree with this as well, although I do LOVE my ipad at the moment :)
 
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Thanks Dave

I found that all handy to know. As I wait for my iPad2 to arrive I went and snapped up a kindle from PC World. I know what you mean about the keyboard - and it's a bit ****e when it comes to resizing PDFs. I've also found that I instinctively keep pressing the left hand forward page button to go back a page and then wondering why I've jumped forward a page LOL. I think I'll mostly do my research reading on computer and iPad - whilst recreational reading will be best served by the kindle. - Thanks for putting up the post.
 
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My brother has both an iPad and a Kindle. The Kindle was soon relegated to his desk drawer.
 

bobtomay

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Our Kindle is collecting dust sitting in the bookcase.
 

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