Tell me of the Amazon Kindle

[Jürgen Hubert]

I've read about the Amazon Kindle, and I am intrigued - a book reader like this would be very useful to read my many PDF-only gaming books.

Now I am sorely tempted to use (a) the excellent Euro-dollar exchange rate and (b) my current presence in the United States to buy this device. However, before I do that I need some reassurance from other users.

Have you ever used this device to display gaming books? From what I understand, PDF reading is not officially supported, but there is third party software that can convert PDFs into the native format of the Kindle. How well does this work? What gaming books have you tested this with? And how would you rate it against the other ebook readers on the market?

Please help me to make an informed buying decision!

 

[Cyberhawk]

I had a friend use a Kindle at one of my recent games to hold the gaming PDFs. It was very neat and he liked it.

The only problem was that it didn't reproduce the tables very well. They came through rather disjointed.
So for text and such works great. For gaming books it works okay.

(although if the PDF was translated to Kindle friendly format that problem might go away)

 

[Mark]

Some feel it has too much going against it -

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/11/20/amazon-kindle-the-we.html

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16274

 

[Deset Gled]

I honestly don't understand why this product is getting as much buzz as it is. The concept of electronic books dates back several years, and a multitude of different companies have released them (including Sony, Phillips, etc). Is there something about the formatting or pricing that makes this one specifically so attention-worthy?

 

[mmadsen]

I honestly don't understand why this product is getting as much buzz as it is. The concept of electronic books dates back several years, and a multitude of different companies have released them (including Sony, Phillips, etc). Is there something about the formatting or pricing that makes this one specifically so attention-worthy?

For one thing, the Kindle comes with free high-speed wireless service, so you can download books from, say, the airport, in moments.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Whatever you do AVOID KINDLE LIKE THE PLAGUE!!! There are other e-book readers that do the same thing it does but without the huge DRM and privacy issue bundled into their ridiculous software setup.

I personally have the Sony Reader and love it despite the problems it has rendering pdfs (can't resize) and limited compatibility. I'd recommed the Bookeen Cybook Gen 3, which has less DRM issues and more compatible formats.

Link to an e-book reader wiki

 

[Simplicity]

I bought my wife a Kindle and she just got it about a week ago. I haven't really been into ebook readers, but it's a very cool little box.

Pros:
-----
- Wireless store is great for impulse buying. No need to mess with other computers and cords. If you want HP Lovecraft, you type it in and suddenly you have the complete works of HP Lovecraft for six bucks.
- Nice on the eyes. Good form factor, reads like a paperback.

Cons:
-----
- Just because a book is offered in Kindle format doesn't mean it's formatted well. Some font sizes chop off parts of the text. That's just stupid implementation.
- DRM. It doesn't support PDF natively. Also dumb.
- Wireless store browsing is not very good. Pictures are hard to see. Go to a category like Fantasy and you'll get 6 or 7 different authors in the top 70 bestsellers. It'd be nice to browse it in a few different ways. It's silly how many books get rated 5 stars.
- You feel bad brushing your teeth over a $400 eBook

 

[Graf]

Mossberg (WSJ tech guru) disliked the Kindle. IIRC He indicated it surprisingly poorly designed.

Over the years I've found that his opinions have generally matched mine.

Personally I think that you're much better off waiting for the next iteration. Someone will get it right.

 

[Aus_Snow]

I've also been looking for something very portable to read PDFs (and maybe the odd html page, .doc, .rtf or .txt) on.

Is there anything like a consensus about what's best for that? I thought I'd ask here, because my criteria seem to fairly similar.

 

[FunkBGR]

I was under the impression that there is a way to view PDF's on the Kindle.

Quick Google Search:
http://thekindle.wordpress.com/2008/01/18/how-to-view-pdf-files-on-the-kindle/