, is lowering my resistance. As TJIC points out:$139 comes pretty close to “oops, looks like I tripped on the way through the bookstore and ended up with these two bags…”, which has happenedYeah, me too.more than oncefar more often than I like to admit.
They should have had a wifi only model all along. Or even a no fi model. I never use the wireless anyway on my Kindle.
ReplyDeleteThe whole point of a Kindle (to me) was the ability to get books anywhere. Not having 3G would definitely be a downer.
ReplyDelete(However, there's a new model with Wifi + 3G for $189 . . . )
I can live without the "get books anywhere" part, since most of my time is spent around the house. As long as it can hold more books than I can read on vacation, I don't think I'll be panicking for a new book while trapped outside WiFi range from the intertubes.
ReplyDeletePlus, you can't swing a dead cat these days without hitting a WiFi zone, even at fast food joints. Makes recharging on the road plenty easy.
ReplyDeleteThe Sony is down there in price these days too. I think the Kobo is, as well.
ReplyDeleteMobileRead Forums
Although with the new anti-iPad tablets due out later this year, I might wait for one of them.
Wait a few months, and have one given to you for Christmas. That's how I get my Tech Upgrades (Hint! Hint! Nudge! Nudge! Wink! Wink!)
ReplyDeleteThe wi-fi only Nook is $149 and doesn't have the proprietary formatting like the Kindle.
ReplyDeleteI figure I'm doing good to get out of a bookstore, any bookstore, for under $50. The Kindle or some other other e-reader is starting to look more appealing at the lower price points.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I am not buying a Kindle since Amazon can (and has) yank your content off it. Call me paranoid, but that is most certainly a bug, not a feature.
$189 was tempting. $139 ... Get In My Cart!
ReplyDelete"However, I am not buying a Kindle since Amazon can (and has) yank your content off it."
ReplyDeleteI will never buy a Kindle (or use their software) for exactly this reason. If I ever do buy an e-book from Amazon, it will be one in an open format.
My recommendation would be to get one of the Sony readers, or do like DW said and wait for the anti-iPad tablets to come out.
Also, you can get the Sony reader for only $10 more, or the Sony touchscreen reader for $25 more, and they both come with the bonus that Amazon can't reach out and delete your books.
ReplyDeleteAlso, consider the fact that, if they can reach out and delete books you've purchased from them, they can also view your entire reading list of books you've purchased or gotten free elsewhere - and you'll never know it.
I really don't like that thought.
If you get your ebooks from one of the many free ebook sources, Amazon can't delete them.
ReplyDeleteIf you get your books from O'Reilly, they can't delete them.
I don't like the idea of somebody "unselling" me something I bought and paid for.... nope.
ReplyDelete"If you get your ebooks from one of the many free ebook sources, Amazon can't delete them."
ReplyDeleteIf they can remotely delete one file from the device, they have the access to remotely delete any file from the device. Or every file. Or they can just read the directory and find out every book you have on it, for whatever reason.
They have total control over the device, whether you like it or not.
you're right - they can magically reach my kindle, which isn't on the wireless network, via evil rays.
ReplyDeletethis allows them to delete files I synced over USB.
You're right, if it's never on a wireless network, and they don't have a proprietary syncing program that you have to use to put files on it (and I really don't know about that, since I don't have one), then they can't get at it.
ReplyDeleteBut this is the first model that doesn't have 3g built in - and I bet it automatically checks in with Amazon at certain intervals anytime it has a wi-fi connection, without letting you know.
BTW, the "whether you like it or not" was not specifically directed at you - though it might look like it. "You" in that sentence was meant to refer to the purchaser in general.
ReplyDeleteIt does look like I was being a bit snippy when I didn't intend to. Sorry about that.
Want.
ReplyDeleteAllow me to add a recommendation for the Sony Reader Touch, although I don't imagine there's too much difference among platforms so long as they have roughly the same battery life and do eInk display roughly equally well.
ReplyDeleteI am finally reading War and Peace, thanks to my wonderful wife & kids (Happy Father's Day to meeee) and Project Gutenberg, and I'm enjoying the heck out of it. Tolstoy's historiography, if that's the word, is hooey, but he makes a bad case as well as it can be made. I just got to Borodino, and I think I'll pull Chandler's The Campaigns of Napoleon off the shelf to use as a reference companion.
Saith Reese, "...and doesn't have the proprietary formatting like the Kindle."
ReplyDeleteKindle doesn't insist on proprietary formatting. It will happily consume .TXT and .PDF (Adobe's wishes perhaps to the contrary, PDF is an open standard), and while .mobi may or may not be an open format (it's pretty well described here), there is free .mobi creation software available.
I've had a Kindle for a couple of years now and it's my most prized possession. I've read hundreds of books with it and it's worth every penny of the $359 I paid for it.
ReplyDeleteThe only books Amazon ever deleted were ones that one of their partner publishers posted without actually, you know, owning the copyright.
They refunded everyones money. And they've also promised they will not do it again.
Plus I keep all my books archived (with the DRM removed) so, even if Amazon lost their corporate mind and decided to destroy their own business model by wantonly deleting books, they couldn't get mine.