Amazon ships Kindle Fire HD, Paperwhite to Brits Amazon would like you to know that its Fire HD tablet and Paperwhite e-readers are now available to us Brits. And that Lovefilm, Amazon’s film streaming and DVD rental service, can be accessed on the former. The Fire HD, with its 7in, 1280 x 800 display - a rather higher pixel density than the iPad Mini - comes in 16GB and …
"t £109, the basic model is £9 more than the Kobo Glo (from WH Smith), but the Glo has WiFi"
Eh? What makes the basic KPW model basic is that it only has Wifi, and no free 3g. That's not a differentiator.
"More research" in this case isn't hard, go anywhere near the Amazon website and have the specs jammed in your face :)
More research is what I did .....
"Amazon restricts you to only reading books that you download via its own shop. You can squeeze .pdf or Word files onto the Kindle by email, but the popular .epub file format used by many websites and public libraries is not supported."
Looks like the Kobo Glo then.
"Amazon restricts you to only reading books that you download via its own shop. You can squeeze .pdf or Word files onto the Kindle by email, but the popular .epub file format used by many websites and public libraries is not supported."
You can load Mobi format books onto the kindle via USB, you can turn most file formats into Mobi using Calibre.
Of the 200+ books on my Kindle, I'd say about 10% were bought from the Kindle store
I got a Kobo Glo this lunchtime. I have about 75% mobi and 25% epub on my existing (badly organised) collection, usually read using a laptop based reader. So, I'll be organising my collection and converting mobi to epub using Calibre. I've found that some of my epub books cannot have the line spacing/fonts/margins adjusted and will freeze the device if you play around with the adjustment controls.
The way to deal with this is to reconvert them in Calibre with the Look and Feel -> Filter Style Information -> Fonts/Margins checkboxes ticked. This gives you a 'fresh' epub file that can have adjustments made to it, no problem. I'm sure there are all sorts of other practical details that I have yet to learn.
In general, the review sites, even the 'technical' ones, are useless for practical details of real life use of e-book readers; which is why the El Reg commentard community is so useful :)
Your research sucks :)
First up, make friends with Calibre. Whatever you end up buying, make friends with it- it's a swiss army chainsaw of ebook conversion. You convert stuff to the right format, you read it on the reader of your choice. It's free, and it's really great- and not too irksome to use. It's worth making the effort to find it*.
Secondly, on a slightly over-specific note, the nicest way to convert stuff like big web pages to the kindle is via the "readability" browser plugin- Amazon's own converter isn't great. However, this is a great, fast,e asy way that gives good results. For everything else, Calibre is your friend.
* You know, more effort than you've put into research on the topic so far, ya big slacker. Type it into google, it'll take you right there :)
"As soon as the HD bootloader is unlockable and the clever devs compile a workable ICS \ JB rom then the HD is a great purchase. Until then it's best to avoid."
Meh, may as well just get a Nexus 7, which runs the latest and greatest (umm 4.1.2? sommat like that) anyway, with no effort- especially if the much rumoured 200 quid 32 gig one surfaces around christmas. (Also, it's dead easy to unlock the bootloader, being a Nexus class device, for Titanium Backup and other useful root apps)
I had pre-ordered a Kindle Fire HD but when I read through the specs again I came across the 'special offers' straight to my screen saver and home screen. Apparently I wouldn't have to worry about these wasting screen estate because the offers would appear In my notification area. My order was cancelled 10 minutes later.
One concern was that a standard kindle needs you to set up one click payment. I could just imagine letting my autistic son use my device to watch You Tube videos etc and him clicking on the offers and buying me lots of things I don't want. Getting a refund for digital content I think would be a struggle. Happy to be proved wrong but not willing to take that risk. (I don't have a payment card set up for the Play Store).
Presumably because (a) it costs a tenner more and (b) because it wasn't exactly advertised up-front.
And I wouldn't have said he was spitting the dummy, or sulking. He was just cancelling an order.
Why was it necessary to be offensive, simply because you disagree?
I swear, if people discussed things down the pub the way they discuss things on the internet, there would be two or three fights every night.
But the special offers *are* advertised up front! Take a look at the product page on Amazon & you'll see the HD with two buttons for 16 and 32GB, and beneath these are two more buttons for with or without special offers. Click the ones you want, price changes accordingly - simple. And if you bought it with the offers you can change your mind later & have them removed for - yes - £10.
Your're right. Amazon must have changed their web page. At the time the option to buy a non-sponsored version wasn't available or was extremely well hidden. Pity, I love my Kindle and I like using Amazon as a company, but as I said earlier I'd already bought an alternative device.
"Why was it necessary to be offensive, simply because you disagree?
I swear, if people discussed things down the pub the way they discuss things on the internet, there would be two or three fights every night."
Dear Martin,
Welcome to the Internet. Here is a relevant and useful cartoon which may help you find your feet:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19
Be the trouble you want to see in the world, be excellent to each other, and do not eat the yellow snow.
Much love,
An AC xxx
Buy a Kindle (or any ebook reader) and use Calibre to "manage" your ebooks - it will convert from any format into other, allow you to push books to the devices using wireless / cable or email. It also allows you to select from umpteen built in and customisable newspapers, magazines and blogs and have them sent to your kindle / ebook reader at the frequency that you want.
You can find many thousands of ebooks on T'Internet in the usual places.
Hmm,
1024 x 768 (if true) is about possible for A4 PDF filling screen (about 96 dots per original inch). An HD landscape screen is 1920 x 1080, so only 56 pixels longer for document and it nearly works (1200 pixels high works for A4). But since there is no title bar and menu bar, it may be similar to full A4 portrait pdf in a window on a 1600 x 1200 or 1920 x 1200 landscape display.
I tried the existing 800 x 600 Kindle in the house here. No good at all for US letter size or A4 size PDFs
Where can I try one?
As UK data subjects we are all entitled to opt-out of all direct marketing from a UK-based company. Amazon operates a .co.uk website and as such, one might think that they comply with UK data protection laws but they don't; the data controller for Amazon.co.uk is based in Europe, not the UK. As such, we as UK data subjects forgo our right under section 11 of the DPA98 to opt-out of the direct marketing that Amazon insist on displaying on their new Kindle. For that reason, I'll be sticking with my basic Kindle.
I got my fire HD yesterday and also loaded dolphin browser on to it.
It's nice and quick, but I'm having issues with it playing video files with the standard player (even converted to mp4 they're "stuttering"). This evenings task - get a decent video player for it that can handle .avi files....
39th anniversary gift of Paperwhite with Amazon's leather cover in fuschia, for my wife, arrived yesterday.
Give it 9 out of 10.
Text looks crisp. More Font choices. Portrait or Landscape modes. Page turns very fast. Displays complex PDF diagrams very well with contrast turned up. Looks great in the dark with some mild shadowing towards the screen's bottom.
Advertising on Home Screen in Cover mode. This disappears when viewed in other modes. Have Home Screen set up in Collections mode. WiFi turned off in Aeroplane mode,
Installation a snap. WiFi sets up quickly. On screen K/B a joy. Screen very responsive to fingers, thumbs or stylus. Downloads from Amazon Cloud in seconds. USB link to PC very quick & easy.
Unit snaps into the back of the Amazon leather cover, available in colours for boys & girls. Magnetic closure. Turns Paperwhite on & off, shows page being read. Easy & light to told. Cover turns back on itself. Would fit easily in cargo pocket, small bag, zip folder, backpack etc.
Overall an excellent product. Will buy another for myself. Highly recommended.
Big user of digital text since STAIRS but still buy some paper stuff.
Amazon, Playstore, Zinio, you name it.
Five Kindles, Sony eReader, iPads, Androids etc.
Yes, will order iPad mini today.
This stuff just keeps getting better.
Writing a free multimedia eBook on swimming (iBooks Author, Kindle & PDF formats)
...she is now in love with the thing, even the bloody advertising. I haven't heard her purr like that since we first started going out. The thing appears to be targeted at the way a woman thinks about stuff. andshe treats it like a hot bloke (drooled all over). I think I'm out the window.
There seems to be quite a lot of issues with it, that should have been ironed out when it was available in the UK, support teams are a bit "we only get it yesterday..."
Screen is noticeably brighter and larger than the nexus, but the device as a whole is also much bigger and heavier.
£199 32GB KFHD vs £199 16GB Nexus 7, KFHD wins.
However if the rumours are true, and the new nexus 32gb is £199, then I'd go for the nexus, it does more, is more portable (if you don't want portable, when why bother with a 7" tablet) and is easier to use one handed.
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