[S_U_N]

Questions to all Kindle owners.
Are your kids also using these for reading school books?
Is there some dictionary app which allows quick searching of meaning of difficult words?

What is the amount of annual spending on Kindle books that you have done?

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by S_U_N

Questions to all Kindle owners.
Are your kids also using these for reading school books?
Is there some dictionary app which allows quick searching of meaning of difficult words?

What is the amount of annual spending on Kindle books that you have done?

1. My Kid is too small to use it. My niece who is 14 and a heavy reader uses my kindle whenever possible. But not for school books. In general I have felt Kindle is useful only for older kids as a lot of books for younger kids have color and illustrations. For school books I am not sure if Kindle is a good idea. I would prefer a tablet.

2. There is already an inbuilt dictionary. A long press on any word shows the meaning and other info. Or did you mean something else?

3. I generally read fiction and novels. Try to keep the purchases to a max of 600-700 a month. But several months I don't buy anything. So maybe 3- 4000 a year roughly.

[pratyush6]

Originally Posted by S_U_N

Questions to all Kindle owners.
Are your kids also using these for reading school books?
Is there some dictionary app which allows quick searching of meaning of difficult words?

What is the amount of annual spending on Kindle books that you have done?

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

1. My Kid is too small to use it.

2. There is already an inbuilt dictionary. A long press on any word shows the meaning and other info. Or did you mean something else?

3. I generally read fiction and novels.

Rajeev answered this perfectly. I have put reference books on my Kindle but text books - nope. I would encourage children to read the printed books though, they've still got that charm.
I prefer kindle when I am traveling and at night. So usually I'd be reading two books at a time.

[S_U_N]

Thanks.

This was a revelation. I did not know that Kindle cannot show color and graphics.

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

...books for younger kids have color and illustrations. For school books I am not sure if Kindle is a good idea. I would prefer a tablet.

Originally Posted by pratyush6

Rajeev answered this perfectly. I have put reference books on my Kindle but text books - nope....

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by S_U_N

Thanks.

This was a revelation. I did not know that Kindle cannot show color and graphics.

Just to clarify, there is a Kindle version called Kindle Fire HD/HDX which is a color version. But this is basically a regular tablet running a customized version of Android and does not enable the big benefits one associates with a Kindle (long battery life, book like visualization and reduced eye strain).

Normally when we say Kindle, we refer to the Kindle Touch (current-2 generation with touchscreen), Kindle Paperwhite( Current -1 generation with back lit screen) and Kindle Voyager (Latest version, basically an improved version of the Paperwhite)

[reihem]

Has anyone been able to get their hands on the new 300 ppi paperwhite or the voyage for that matter ? Is their a discernible difference between the 300 ppi screen and the current paperwhite's screen ?

[penpusher]

Saw the latest kindle at croma, Delhi airport. I compared it with my current kindle by placing both side by side. The font in new kindle is definitely sharper and the back ground lighting is slightly different. But IMHO not enough incremental changes are there for an upgrade for those who have the previous generation kindle paperwhite as of yet.

[reihem]

Originally Posted by penpusher

Saw the latest kindle at croma, Delhi airport. I compared it with my current kindle by placing both side by side. The font in new kindle is definitely sharper and the back ground lighting is slightly different. But IMHO not enough incremental changes are there for an upgrade for those who have the previous generation kindle paperwhite as of yet.

I assumed as much. Shall stick with my paperwhite till there is a valid reason to abandon it.

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by reihem

Has anyone been able to get their hands on the new 300 ppi paperwhite or the voyage for that matter ? Is their a discernible difference between the 300 ppi screen and the current paperwhite's screen ?

Higher dots per inch will benefit the graphics and images, but typefaces that are already hinted well (like Caecilia and Arial) for low resolution screen will work the same whether you present the resolution of the first kindle or the latest one.

[reihem]

Got the Amazon leather cover for the paperwhite ! It's a little pricey but great fit finish and feel !

[RocketRaccoon]

Originally Posted by reihem

I assumed as much. Shall stick with my paperwhite till there is a valid reason to abandon it.

Good decision. I have the same Kindle Paper White as yours and saw the new one. Though you can observe a difference when you look closely, practically there is no sense in buying a new one. Off topic: Have you tried using Calibre ? it's an awesome app every Kindle user should use. You can convert ePubs to Kindle's mobi or AZW3 format, edit metadata tags and even sync PDFs' easily.

[reihem]

Originally Posted by RocketRaccoon

Off topic: Have you tried using Calibre ? it's an awesome app every Kindle user should use. You can convert ePubs to Kindle's mobi or AZW3 format, edit metadata tags and even sync PDFs' easily.

Great software and easy to use too.

I used Calibre extensively during my "slightly illegal" phase when I would just hop over to a torrent site download the entire NY Times bestseller list and load it on my first gen kindle lock stock and barrel.

I found that it resulted in a large library of which I was reading very little. Similar to the 90s when napster filled my HDD with music I didn't really care for.

Now I exclusively use the kindle store and I've become a lot more choosy about the books I read. I've also started reading a lot of Indian and lesser known authors and feel it's only right that they get their share of royalties.

[SS8939]

I was just exploring the 'Around the corner' section when I stumbled upon this thread.

Just happened to get a Kindle Voyage and I have to say, it's reignited my interest for reading!

Just wish the screen was a tad bit larger though! :P

[penpusher]

My previous generation Kindle Paperwhite got auto-updated to Firmware 5.6.5 today.

Besides the new Bookerly font, some changes are there in typesetting, also something called Smart Cards has been introduced. Basically when you hold onto a word it opens up a card which you can side-swipe for dictionary, wikipedia & translation (even into hindi).

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by penpusher

My previous generation Kindle Paperwhite got auto-updated to Firmware 5.6.5 today.

Besides the new Bookerly font, some changes are there in typesetting, also something called Smart Cards has been introduced. Basically when you hold onto a word it opens up a card which you can side-swipe for dictionary, wikipedia & translation (even into hindi).

Anything groundbreaking about the update? Does the new font and typeset make a huge difference incrementally?

My PW 2nd Gen is pretty stable as-is, so I don't want to go about changing stuff just for the heck of it.