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Kindle for Dummies.

de sudanglo, 2011-oktobro-29

Mesaĝoj: 38

Lingvo: English

sudanglo (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-29 12:06:40

I am thinking that this Christmas I might finally buy myself a Kindle. I would like to use it for reading books in French, Esperanto and English that are available for free on the net - particularly for old titles that may be out of print.

Some Kindles have keyboards and some don't. So the first questions is, why should I need a keyboard.

Some Kindles have WI-FI. Is this an advantage for capturing free books in Esperanto off the net, or something you could only use for downloads from Amazon?

Are there any snags (unexpected inconveniences) a Dummy should know about before purchase? All advice welcome.

hjhj (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-29 14:25:20

I have a Kindle with a keyboard. I don't know how you would type into the ones without, but I use the keyboard for shopping in the "kindle store" and making notes in books.

As far as downloading Esperanto books, Amazon doesn't have too many, but plenty for my limited knowledge of Esperanto. A search on Amazon for "esperanto" gave 47 results for Kindle, mostly for learning it. I don't know much about finding books online because Amazon has lots of free books for Kindle.

On my Kindle, you have to have Wi-Fi to get books from anywhere, but again, I don't know what the new ones are like. Mine doesn't have 3g and I haven't found that to be a problem, though if you don't have consistent access to a Wi-Fi, it might be worth the investment.

erinja (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-29 14:37:55

Kindles without a keyboard have a "virtual keyboard" that you manipulate using the Kindle's controls. If you think you want to make a lot of notes or do a lot of searches, then that might be very annoying if you had to use the virtual keyboard. If you mainly want to read, then maybe better without the keyboard.

Iaino (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-29 14:47:29

hjhj:As far as downloading Esperanto books, Amazon doesn't have too many, but plenty for my limited knowledge of Esperanto. A search on Amazon for "esperanto" gave 47 results for Kindle, mostly for learning it. I don't know much about finding books online because Amazon has lots of free books for Kindle.
Project Gutenberg has free books and a few are in/on Esperanto.

If you're into SciFi/Fantasy, there's the Baen Free Library (none in esperanto, as far as I know).

I think there might be others, but I these are the ones I recall off the top of my head. ridulo.gif

Iaino (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-29 15:01:11

sudanglo:Some Kindles have WI-FI. Is this an advantage for capturing free books in Esperanto off the net, or something you could only use for downloads from Amazon?
Primarily for delivery of books to your Kindle from Amazon. However, there is also a web-browser, so if you chose, you could browse the web from the Kindle. I don't recall if I've downloaded a book from anywhere other than Amazon via the Kindle's WiFi. Perhaps I'll give that a try today. ridulo.gif

If you want to go without WiFi/3G, then you'll be using a USB cable to connect the Kindle to your computer and drag the desired files (books) to the Kindle.

hjhj:On my Kindle, you have to have Wi-Fi to get books from anywhere
You don't have the transfer cable? For mine (Kindle 3), the transfer cable is also the 'charging' cable. The cord's USB plug, plugs into the outlet connector (which I hardly use, since I tend to charge off the computer's USB port instead).

Iaino (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-29 15:12:17

Iaino:I don't recall if I've downloaded a book from anywhere other than Amazon via the Kindle's WiFi. Perhaps I'll give that a try today. ridulo.gif
I went ahead and gave it a try, I browsed to Project Gutenberg using the web-browser, searched for Burroughs and downloaded "Princess of Mars" which was quickly available on my Kindle for reading.

qwertz (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-29 15:12:30

I really don't like that the Kindle doesn't support EPUB file format. In my opinion that bounds the Kindle quite close to Amazon. I have a lot of PDFs and EPUBs which I would like to read. Regarding the price of Kindle: It seems to be subsidized by Amazon, which for me legitimates the higher price of the Sony Ebook reader (=EPUB support). Regarding the touchscreen. In my opinion an hidden touchsreen function makes an ebook reader more traditional book alike. Regarding WiFi/WLAN: Its more smarter to use to transfer book than solely via USB cable or memory card. But the ebook reader should be capable to connect via last security standard WPA2.

Sony Reader PRS-T1 Review | Amazon Kindle 3 Review

erinja (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-29 15:47:37

You can use calibre software to translate epub files into a format that Kindle can read.

Therefore I wouldn't reject the Kindle due to lack of epub support.

qwertz (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-29 16:08:32

erinja:You can use calibre software to translate epub files into a format that Kindle can read.

Therefore I wouldn't reject the Kindle due to lack of epub support.
Yes, I know. Hopefully that convert process doesn't change the original text layout and other functions. I don't know in detail if EPUB can contain layout which Kindle's AZW doesn't support and reverse. Reading that conversation guidelines let me in doubt that conversation from EPUB to AZW goes without hassles. I assume that Calibre does a god job and probably mostly conversation goes correctly. Everybody should decide by oneselves. For me, epub support is an central decision feature.

RiotNrrd (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-29 16:44:27

I have an iPad rather than a Kindle. When I first got it, I tried using Calibre to convert some Esperanto books, and... no. The results were absolutely terrible, and after a trying various things, none of which worked very well, I gave up.

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