Kindle Questions?!
 

I've ordered the OH a kindle which should arrive any day now. Why?! Cos I can and he's wanted one for ages. That and he has surgery imminent for an injury that happened back in April, gotta love the speed of the Army doctors!!! GRRRR

Anyhoo, do they come with any books preloaded? Any tips otherwise? I hear you can get some free titles and download some newspapers onto them? Where a cover is concerned he just wants one he can slide it into and zip shut. Anyone any good recommendations for a decent one?

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

I dont have a Kindle... BUT

As far as I can tell the secret is to install "Calibre" on your computer so that you can convert any format of ebook to kindle.

That way you have access to ePub format books from the public library as well as any number of freely (and illegally) available books from various torrent sites.

Alternatively of course you could buy every book you want from Amazon and pay lots of money... :D

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

Classic stuff is generally free.

You can fiddle things to allow you to pay and download books from the UK or US Kindle store, but you might need a VPN to do the initial stages.

Calibre (with addons) can strip the DRM from the books so you actually own them and can stop Amazon stealing them back. It can also translate epubs across.

You can connect it to a computer and just copy across books, you don't HAVE to go via the Kindle store (although amazon would like you to).

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

Just have a look through Amazon :) Masses of covers on there, I had a zipless one to start with but the new one with a zip is safer. If you go into the Kindle store on Amazon you can sort by price so you can see which ones are free, thousands of them. Doesn't come with any preloaded but it only takes about 30 seconds to download each one :)

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

I bought my mum a cover with a pull out light so she can read in bed as the kindle is not backlit.

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

Just buy some books - theyre only like 8$ each

Dracula is free - and scared the bejeebus out of me

Sherlock Holmes - all that is free

crime + punishment is free - amazing book...

And there are lots & lots of 99c books self-published by authors , look for the top sellers and they're usually ok ish.

And.. you can subscribe to newspapers/magazines free for a month - so maybe one of those on there would be nice for him in hostipal.

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

There is a best sellers list of free books that you can access on the kindle or on the amazon website. There are some quite good books on there, have found some crime thriller style books that are good. You can also sort by price from cheapest so you can find some of the cheaper books to download on the amazon website.

As someone else has said the downloads only take a shorttime to download. Have tried the newspapers, and wasnt very impressed with the conversion to kindle, think it still needs some work doing to get the formatting right - it was a few months back i tried it so dont know what it is like now.

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

I think you get used to it. My husband happily reads the FT every day and The Economist every week via Kindle. I just wish The Financial Review and The Australian had Kindle versions so we'd have less paper cluttering up the place.

Jen: We got covers from ebay, much cheaper than Amazon.

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

I wish I had bought that - I bought the kindle leather cover from amazon - and scrimped the 20$ - but reading it in bed and on planes etc that light would've been very useful.

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

Just bought a couple of clip on lights for $5 each in K Mart yesterday.....so that when I'm dragged to see Cars 2 for the third time I can read my book!

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

Yeah I saw those today, what batteries do they take?

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

I like them because the kindle itself charges the light.

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

From the end of this month, BigW and Dick Smith are going to be selling the Kindle in Australia - both the 3G and Wifi models.

Prices seem to be about the same as importing from Amazon.

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

Oh really? Cool! The OH still hasn't got a case for his so he'll maybe be able to get one there...

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

You know you can run Kindle on your iPad? Its brill and better than iBooks

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

Yup I do, got it all set up, I'm not a big reader though. They work out about $20 more expensive to buy here than the US and that's even with postage!

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

Just a quick question as I know nothing about ebook readers and all that malarkey! I see that Woolies and BigW are now selling Kindles. I can't afford one but that doesn't stop me dreaming and planning for the future!

Anyway, my question is when you buy one can you download from either amazon.com or amazon.co.uk? or do you have to register with one or the other? or doesn't it really make any difference? I already have an account with Amazon from before I left UK if that makes a difference?

When I get a job - that's going to be my reward. The kindle is my carrot! :rofl:

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

They're selling them from Customer Services in Woolies as well. $169 for the normal one and $213 for the 3G I think. Certainly no point getting them from overseas now.

Edit: Sorry, Silly, didn't see your post. Here's two threads which cover everything you could ever want to know :D
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=689960
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=665452

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

Already had one from the UK but just bought another from Dick Smith. 156 bucks so cheaper than amazon uk - for the wifi one.

Can't praise them enough. Amazing gadgets.

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

If you already have an amazon uk account, just keep using that :) it may want you to confirm you are using the kindle in the UK, it asked me at some point, so I said I was in the UK and its been fine ever since :)

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

I got one the other day. Terrific.

In Australia you are supposed to use Amazon.com, but if you have a UK credit card you can use the kindle shop at Amazon.co.uk. But there's little difference. Some books are free in the UK that aren't free in the US (Animal Farm is an example) but you can do the project gutenberg download anyway and put the file on your kindle from there instead.

<snip>

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

Thanks for that :D Are you still using a UK card though? My UK account is to all intents and purposes empty - somewhat like my Australia account :rofl: but ultimately it would have to be an australian debit card I use.... no idea why I'm worrying about this now as I can't see it happening any time soon!

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

Pre ordered one my wife one for her Bday on the 21st of August, from Dick Smiths for 159 bucks... we received it last week..

Calibre is the go so far... you can also insert covers via a program called mobi2mobi, although with that system you have to convert the books to Mobi first....Wifes only complaint is no Synopsis or page numbers on the Kindle itself for the books I've managed to acquire.

It's very easy to get books for them... Only criticism from me personally. I've used video and music library organisers for a long while now and I'm not that impressed with Calibre in comparison to say Media Monkey or even Chunky Itunes... no option for inserting covers etc etc... however I'm sure that will come.

As for the Kindle Itself.... 10/10 no complaints from the wife, I'm very glad I went with my instincts and bought the new to me technology in E.ink rather than a LCD screen.

Just got to familiarise her with Calibre now and she'll be totally independent with the whole kindle experience.

Personally I want to find a program that inserts the covers and loads the synopsis.. and am looking hard for that.... dont think one exists........ yet.

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

I've had one for a month and been pretty impressed. Light, easy to hold, easy to read ...

It has also, just this minute, run out of it's first charge ... not bad at all ...

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

My son bought me one today for Fathers day :thumbsup:
[Well Deb bought it from Woolies]
Now before I rush in & register it here in Australia is it cheaper to have a .co.uk address i.e my home address in the U.K?
My mum is thinking about buying one & if both are registered to the same address I understand we both get the books?
I've checked online prices & the difference is minimal with pricing swinging a dollar either way on most titles.

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

Mmmm I have a UK (Lloyds) card registered but I do switch between that and Aus cards - try it is all I can suggest. My UK card does have an Aussie address on it, and thats the card i bought the kindle with, I just got it delivered in the UK :)

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

Being an author on Amazon I can tell you that the prices are generally the same. I can set different prices for US, UK or DE, but it's easier to let Amazon simply keep the prices moving with the exchange rate. So I set the price at $2.99 in the US and the prices in the UK and Germany move accordingly.

The biggest issue with which one you use is whether the book you want is available from a particular source. For example, if an author has a publisher in the US and a different one in the UK, he/she will be published on Kindle depending on whether the publisher has done it yet (most authors allow publishers to handle electronic rights).

In general, there are more books available at the US store since more US publishers are up to speed on e-publishing, and more people use Kindles in the US. The UK is catching up though.

As an independent author, my book is available in all three markets, but is based in the US and is written in standard English. It is also available at a price no publisher published novel can match. <snip>

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

Have you looked at removing the DRM on kindle e books yet? I've bought a few titles recently so has the O/H & while the wife is reading her book I wanted to read mine on the PC. Freaking Amazon won't let me read the book I've bought on anything other than the kindle, now I have to spring for another Kindle or resort to pirate software to read something I've bought & paid for.

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

I have Kindle on my iPhone and my PC as well. Work perfectly well - although I haven't tried to read two book at once...yet :D

Have you logged onto your kindle account on Amazon? maybe there's a problem with your settings?

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

Read 200+ books on my kindle, and never paid anything for any of them, someone somewhere will have even the newest books available for free download.

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

I don't mind paying to read a book, after all it's someones work they should get paid. I do have a problem not being able to transfer my own copy to any other place.:frown:

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

I've moved mine over to my laptop. :confused: It can't have been complicated because I had no problem doing it but I can't remember what I did. :lol: Back up or something???????

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

You just download the kindle app, log in and away you go!

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

The authors get nothing from the sale of a book secondhand, and there are thousands sold every week like that, so it's the same thing really.

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

Anyone tried this or got personal experience to go on - the Amazon forum is inconclusive, 50% say it works, 50% don't........
My original kindle broke, got a replacement, but because of the timing and travelling I was doing at the time I paid for a new one and decided to give the replacement to my niece for her birthday. A lot of the books I've bought are kids classics and stuff she will read so they are now all on both kindles, and both are registered to my Amazon account. So - if I de-register her kindle and we register it to her mum's Amazon account instead, will the books bought by me still be on it or do they vanish as soon as it is sync-ed to Amazon cos they were bought by me not her mum?
I thought they would still be on it, but some of the Amazon forumites seem in doubt and I guess that makes sense, them only being on the kindles for the account that paid for the books. So has anyone tried this?

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

Only just noticed this question... will report back in a few days.

See what I can come up with :)

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

I think the answer is that any book you buy from Amazon will re-synchronise to the account registered for the Kindle. I don't think you can have multiple accounts on one kindle, which is why they make you buy only from one store.

But other books that you put on the kindle will be untouched. Project Gutenberg is a terrific source of books, and if you download the .mobi version you can simply drop them into the Kindle folder on your desktop.

If your niece wants a free .mobi version of a certain (that shall remain nameless) book then pm me and I'll email you a copy to give her.

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

Thanks, I've read every ridiculous excuse now, I can complete the set.

On Topic - Sold my Kindle for $100 2 days before the new one was announced, I am a very happy man. My TouchPad will suffice for e-reading duty. :thumbup:

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

The books will still be there on the kindle, however, when you click to open them it will pop up a message that says:
This item cannot be opened because it is licensed to another user. Delete the item and download it from your Archived items or purchase a copy from the Kindle Store

Re: Kindle Questions?!
 

Don't know if it's the same situation, but I have a couple of dozen books on my Kindle and have just bought an Android tablet and put the Kindle reader on that. Logging into my Amazon a/c allows me to download all the books onto the tablet as well from my archive.