Ebook readers? (portable PDF and Kindle device)

[Winston]

I've been reading ebooks on my smart phone. As long as you get a phone with a decent sized screen (at least 4.7 inch screen I think), the text should be easy to read. If not, you can increase the font size of the text by zooming in with your fingers.

You can now get many ebooks for free in PDF format from torrent sites, or by buying them online. I also buy a lot of ebooks from Amazon Kindle. They are usually cheap and $10 or less. It sure makes carrying books around a lot easier. You can easily store thousands of ebooks on your smart phone.

But I got some questions. Rock, can you address these since you use Kindle readers?

1. Mr S told me that Amazon Kindle ebook readers have something called "e-ink" display which makes reading them a lot easier on your eyes. I do think that reading ebooks on a smart phone for too long can hurt your eyes. But I find that if I use dark background and light text (aka "night mode" in ebook reading apps) they are easier on the eyes. So my question is, is getting an Amazon Kindle ebook reader worth the price? Does the e-ink background make that much of a difference?

2. The new Kindle readers look like tablets now and have color and web browsers. I saw them at Walmart and Target before when I was in the US. Do they have all the functions that tablets do too? If so, it can substitute for a tablet right?

3. What about the black and white Kindle readers that I saw Rock have? Are they still available? Are they cheaper?

4. How much are Kindle readers now? What sizes do they come in? Are they available in Asia too?

5. Does the battery in a Kindle device last a long time? I imagine the b/w ones would last longer than the color ones since color uses more power.

Thanks.

[Rock]

I've been reading ebooks on my smart phone. As long as you get a phone with a decent sized screen (at least 4.7 inch screen I think), the text should be easy to read. If not, you can increase the font size of the text by zooming in with your fingers.

You can now get many ebooks for free in PDF format from torrent sites, or by buying them online. I also buy a lot of ebooks from Amazon Kindle. They are usually cheap and $10 or less. It sure makes carrying books around a lot easier. You can easily store thousands of ebooks on your smart phone.

But I got some questions. Rock, can you address these since you use Kindle readers?

1. Mr S told me that Amazon Kindle ebook readers have something called "e-ink" display which makes reading them a lot easier on your eyes. I do think that reading ebooks on a smart phone for too long can hurt your eyes. But I find that if I use dark background and light text (aka "night mode" in ebook reading apps) they are easier on the eyes. So my question is, is getting an Amazon Kindle ebook reader worth the price? Does the e-ink background make that much of a difference?

2. The new Kindle readers look like tablets now and have color and web browsers. I saw them at Walmart and Target before when I was in the US. Do they have all the functions that tablets do too? If so, it can substitute for a tablet right?

3. What about the black and white Kindle readers that I saw Rock have? Are they still available? Are they cheaper?

4. How much are Kindle readers now? What sizes do they come in? Are they available in Asia too?

5. Does the battery in a Kindle device last a long time? I imagine the b/w ones would last longer than the color ones since color uses more power.

Thanks.

I saw some various Kindles at Glorietta electronics floor. But they are expensive.

Ipad or tablets are better now unless glare disturbs you. I've already been using an iPad mini w Kindle installed as my ebook reader for a few years now.

[momopi]

For book reading, the classic monochrome kindle is far less distracting and easier on the eyes than an iPad. Instead of asking people what the price is, go look it up on Amazon.

Don't believe what Amazon claims on battery life though. If they say "8 weeks of battery life", what it actually means is 30 mins of use per day. ;p

[Mr S]

These are the supposed top two e-readers on the market right now:

https://www.kobo.com/devices#ereaders

http://ebook-reader-review.toptenreview ... eview.html

http://ebook-reader-review.toptenreview ... eview.html

[Winston]

It looks like you can get the monochrome Kindle on Amazon's website for 50 dollars now, if you get an older used version. The display is 6 inches though, which is good.







There's one with a keyboard now too. It can read the books out loud to you.



There's one called Paperwhite now, which has a white background that looks like a real book.



I'm sure you can find even cheaper ones on Ebay.

[Winston]

Check this out. Amazon Kindle ebook reader now has a version called Paperwhite. It looks really nice, just like a real book! Here is an image of it below compared to the original version.

[Winston]

Mr S,
The Kindle Voyage may be great. It also has a paperwhite background. But the Kindle Paperwhite is about the same and costs less. I'm going to get that one. I'll just order it from Ebay. Not sure if they are available in stores in Asia.

Here is a video review comparing the Kindle Voyage and the Kindle Paperwhite. As you can see, they look about the same, and the white background can be made brighter by turning up the brightness.

[Rock]

I used to use a real traditional style Kindle as you noted earlier.

Yes it's easy on the eyes. But it's a pain in the ass to navigate around a given book in case you wanna skim, jump around, skip sections, go back, etc. relative to an iPad or other tablet. So I switched to iPad mini around 2 years ago for me ebook needs.

Don't know if the newest versions have found away around the annoying limitation.

[Winston]

I used to use a real traditional style Kindle as you noted earlier.

Yes it's easy on the eyes. But it's a pain in the a** to navigate around a given book in case you wanna skim, jump around, skip sections, go back, etc. relative to an iPad or other tablet. So I switched to iPad mini around 2 years ago for me ebook needs.

Don't know if the newest versions have found away around the annoying limitation.

It should be. I saw the hands on review of the new Kindles on YouTube. You can easily jump around by selecting page numbers, chapter numbers, using the search function, etc. The problem with an iPad is that it has a glare that isn't good for your eyes if you are reading for a long time. The Kindle has an E-Ink display which is just like reading paper. Plus the iPad has a much lower battery life than the monochrome or paperwhite Kindle, which can go for weeks without recharging.

I'm going to get the Kindle Paperwhite. Here is the promo video for it from Amazon that highlights its features. As you can see, it looks really nice. It's funny how this promo video only features women readers living in luxury, as if those are the only kind of people interested in reading. lol



If you search on Ebay, you will see that a lot of Hong Kong sellers are selling the Kindle Paperwhite for around $115 dollars, which includes FREE shipping worldwide. So wherever you are in Asia, you can get it for that total amount with shipping.

[Rock]

I used to use a real traditional style Kindle as you noted earlier.

Yes it's easy on the eyes. But it's a pain in the a** to navigate around a given book in case you wanna skim, jump around, skip sections, go back, etc. relative to an iPad or other tablet. So I switched to iPad mini around 2 years ago for me ebook needs.

Don't know if the newest versions have found away around the annoying limitation.

It should be. I saw the hands on review of the new Kindles on YouTube. You can easily jump around by selecting page numbers, chapter numbers, using the search function, etc. The problem with an iPad is that it has a glare that isn't good for your eyes if you are reading for a long time. The Kindle has an E-Ink display which is just like reading paper. Plus the iPad has a much lower battery life than the monochrome or paperwhite Kindle, which can go for weeks without recharging.

I'm going to get the Kindle Paperwhite. Here is the promo video for it from Amazon that highlights its features. As you can see, it looks really nice. It's funny how this promo video only features women readers living in luxury, as if those are the only kind of people interested in reading. lol



If you search on Ebay, you will see that a lot of Hong Kong sellers are selling the Kindle Paperwhite for around $115 dollars, which includes FREE shipping worldwide. So wherever you are in Asia, you can get it for that total amount with shipping.

Yup, looks like a much improved device over the generation I had. BUT, some of my favorite books have color pictures, diagrams, etc. and from what I can see, this device displays only in B&W which would be a big negative for me.

The iPad mini battery life yields a good full day of reading on the bus which is enough for me. I don't mind charging every evening if I'm doing marathon traveling. It also is easy to charge with an external charger.

[MrMan]

I've got one of those tiny kindles with no bells and whistles, black and white. I want a black and white kindle. The reason I want a kindle is to have something that looks like a piece of paper. I spend plenty of time staring at a light bulb (computer monitor) and if a Kindle is like an I-Pad, why not just use an I-Pad or some other stare-at-a-light-bulb tablet.

I set computers I use to have a black screen so I don't have to stare at a white screen. I don't know why Microsoft makes a white light bulb background the defaults. In the old days, web pages used to have grey backgrounds for text pages, which was easier on the eyes than white, and was just common sense.

[Winston]

Just to let you all know, I tried putting PDF ebooks on my Kindle Paperwhite and while they are readable, they appear as one page on the whole screen, which means that the text will be very small and you will have to zoom in to read it and pan around the page, which is a pain in the ass. You can't just increase the font and have the text wrap around the screen like you can with Adobe Reader.

So if you want to view PDF's properly on Kindle, you will have to convert them first, either to .mobi format or AZW3 format, both of which are Kindle formats. There are free online converters that do it for you, but you have to upload each PDF file one at a time and download them one at a time. Here is one site that does that.

http://ebook.online-convert.com/convert-to-azw3

Another option is to email the PDF file to your Kindle email address given to you with your Kindle, and put "convert" in the subject line, which will automatically convert it for you when delivering it to your Kindle device.

There is also a free software program called Calibre that will convert ebook formats in bulk. It's probably the fastest way to convert many PDF's at once. You can download it here:

http://calibre-ebook.com/download
http://download.cnet.com/Calibre/3000-2 ... 10277.html