Golly, gee whiz, MEH. First up in there again. If you get any farther up there, you'll be eating Megan's bagels before they are pre-digested for you, just pre-masticated. Cheep! Chirp! Cheep!
good point..thankfully, my time on this, specific, meta-Earth is drawing to a close.
Irredeemable, sadly, applies, beyond Federal Reserve Notes, to our gracious, yet ersatz, 'libertarian' Hostess.
er·satz (rzäts, r-zäts)
adj.
Being an imitation or a substitute, usually an inferior one; artificial: ersatz coffee made mostly of chicory. See Synonyms at artificial.
[German, replacement, from ersetzen, to replace, from Old High German irsezzan : ir-, out; see ud- in Indo-European roots + sezzan, to set; see sed- in Indo-European roots.]
ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words AntonymsNoun 1. ersatz - an artificial or inferior substitute or imitation
substitute, replacement - a person or thing that takes or can take the place of another
Adj. 1. ersatz - artificial and inferior; "ersatz coffee"; "substitute coffee"
substitute
artificial, unreal - contrived by art rather than nature; "artificial flowers"; "artificial flavoring"; "an artificial diamond"; "artificial fibers"; "artificial sweeteners" http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ersatz
My main problem is that unless 99% of all books come out in ebook form I will never buy one. The last thing I want to do is buy this think and then have to still buy half my books in paper.
for clarity, this: "my time on this, specific, meta-Earth" = her gagged blog @ theATLantic
Actually, Mark, you might want to post a little less often. Too much RFI activity from your cell and they'll soon catch onto the fact that they forgot to confiscate the Blackberry.
Yay! I really like mine. I've had it since Christmas and I've read 15-20 books on it. And there are tons of great public-domain books at places like gutenberg.org.
My main problem is that unless 99% of all books come out in ebook form I will never buy one.
That's exactly Bezos's goal. It's not going to replace books, any more than DVDs have replaced movie theaters. But it's nice to have the option.
Evidently, you cannot flip a photo in iPhoto, but you can if you use iPhoto in conjunction with Preview.
The tedious Windows Way, which will also work in Mac:
1, open Preferences in iPhoto and select "General."
2. chose the Edit Photo dropdown menu. In that menu, the fourth item will allow you to choose a different program to edit the photo in. Chose Preview.
3. in iPhoto, duplicate the photo you want to flip. You don't have to do this, but as you undoubtedly know, you should always edit on a duplicate so you will always have your original safely unchanged.
4. in iPhoto, doubleclick on the duplicate photo you want to flip. This should open the duplicate in Preview.
5. in Preview: under Tools, you can Flip Horizontal.
6. Save (not Save As) the photo in Preview, & it will show up in iPhoto, reversed.
The just do it Mac Way:
1. drag the photo into Preview
2. flip it (under Tools)
3. "save" (under File - this saves the flip change)
4. "save as" to the desktop or wherever you save such things
5. drag or import the flipped photo on the desktop into iPhoto.
NOTE: in step 4, you might have an option to save to an iPhoto roll. This does not seem to work correctly for me (G4 using Leopard) but it might for you. If it does, though, you should be using a duplicate of the original photo so that you will be sure not to wind up with a changed original.
I've had my Sony Readers for several months now, and I can't believe how much I enjoy it. I've got about three hundred books on it at the moment. It's always stuck in a pocket or bag with me - always within easy reach.
I'm beginning to clear out my dupe hardcopy books - I emptied almost three shelves when I bought a Steven King package.
Now I'm actively PO'd when I can't get an e-book version of something I want to read. Hardcovers are just too big and unwieldy for me any more, after the light weight and small form factor of the Sony.
I think you've find yourself becoming ever more acclimated to the ebook reader as time goes on. I certainly have.
Have you found yourself unconsciously reaching up to physically turn a page yet?
It's easier than a paperback to read one-handed while eating a sandwich because you don't have to hold it open.
Downloading a book (or a free first chapter) is remarkably easy. You are reading a review online or see a reference in a blog -- click click click -- now the book's in the kindle (or will be in a minute next time you turn it on).
Bad:
You still have to carry something else to read during takeoffs and landings.
According to the Amazon blurb it uses EVDO: Unlike WiFi, Kindle utilizes the same high-speed data network (EVDO) as advanced cell phones—so you never have to locate a hotspot. That sounds interesting, please cover that in your review. Thanks.
I can't speak for Megan, but one of the reasons I bought a Sony instead of a Kindle is that I already have EVDO built in to my Lenovo X-61 notebook. Which means that I can download books from anywhere I get a signal (pretty much anywhere cell reception is workable) and then transfer the book to my e-reader via a cable.
Okay, it's a bit clunkier that the all-in-one elegance of the Kindle's EVDO, but since I'm almost never far from my 'puter, the end result is the same: the ability to get a book almost anywhere.
Sometimes when I'm at Costco, I'll see a new hardcover out by an author I like, whip out the computer, download the e-version (always considerably cheaper than the hardcopy) and start reading it while I'm waiting in line. This would be even easier with a Kindle.
And if I was not already EVDO capable, I would have bought the Kindle instead of the Sony. We are rapidly coming to the end of the era when electronics are not directly connected to The Cloud at all times.
A couple of questions for you folks (like Jim Treacher and Bill Quick) that have been using either the Sony Reader or the Amazon Kindle:
- Does the amount of time it takes to go to the next page bother you?
- Have you mostly read novels & newspapers on this? Or have you enjoyed reading books that require more searching back and forth (like textbooks, or reference books)?
I've been using a Sony Reader for almost a year. It's good stuff, but definitely has not replaced "real" books. Nothing better for travel, though.
As to your questions:
Once I start reading, I don't notice the "page turn delay" (in fact, I suspect that I've just got in the habit of hitting the page turn button a bit early)
Reference works, or readings that demand lots of back and forth, don't work very well at all for me. Even with bookmarking, etc., it seems unduly burdensome to check forward and back -- enough so that I'll opt not to do so when I certainly would have with a "real" book. I pretty much just don't read such items on the Reader (unless they're relatively short). YMMV, of course.
i don't think the page turn delay is much longer than turning the page BUT its much easier to hit the page turn button on accident than actually turning a page on accident.
mm - make sure you've bookmarked everything you're currently reading before you hand the kindle off to a friend so they can look at it. trying to find your place once you've lost it is kind of awkward.
It's great to finish a book and buy another one and be reading it in less time it took to choose which book to buy.
But by far the best part is the FREE web access. I had a busy day Thursday, and when I took my daughter to gymnastics, I opened the Kindle browser and read all the blogs I usually read. And no, you don't have to pay to read instapundit. Just enter the address into the browser.
I just can't figure out how Amazon can afford to give all their Kindle owner continuous free web access. Don't get me wrong, despite the clunky interface, it's great. But I wonder how long they can get away with this.
Thanks for sharing your experience: Page delay is not a problem in itself; but using the Kindle for back-and-forth reading/navigation is not easy.
I wonder if it would be more convenient if the page-change feature were faster? The Sony Reader (and I assume also the Kindle) takes about a second or so.
I would consider getting one if it wasn't so fucking expensive to buy a bunch of books I already own a second time just to have it on a Kindle. After all, would you buy an iPod if you had to re-download all of your music off of iTunes? Plus, it sounds in the abstract like it would make life easier once I go to grad school in a couple of years (not breaking my back as I did as an undergrad whenever I had a paper to write by carrying around both my laptop and 75 pounds of books) if a bunch of technical issues didn't get in the way.
"Downloading a book (or a free first chapter) is remarkably easy. You are reading a review online or see a reference in a blog -- click click click -- now the book's in the kindle (or will be in a minute next time you turn it on).
Reference works, or readings that demand lots of back and forth, don't work very well at all for me.
I've found that to be the case as well - which is strange, given that all the early predictions about ebooks were that "normal" readers wouldn't use them, but that they'd be good for reference works.
The page turn doesn't bother me at all. I don't even notice it. I wasn't kidding, however, about finding myself reaching up to the top right corner of the Sony reader to physically turn the page, just as I would with a "real" book. What this tells me is that my brain has assimilated the reader as a "real" book, and does not see any difference between the two for the purposes of reading.
And unlike some here, I do think e-readers will almost entirely replace paper books in the reasonably near future, leaving those who refuse to use them in the same general position as that tiny minority today who only listen to music on 33rpm vinyl via systems packed with vacuum tubes: Interesting, but irrelevant. Economics, technological factors, and changing generational preferences in information processing will see to it.
"And unlike some here, I do think e-readers will almost entirely replace paper books in the reasonably near future, leaving those who refuse to use them in the same general position as that tiny minority today who only listen to music on 33rpm vinyl via systems packed with vacuum tubes: Interesting, but irrelevant. Economics, technological factors, and changing generational preferences in information processing will see to it.
Posted by Bill Quick | April 20, 2008 12:12 PM"
I'm not so sure. People still buy CD's in part as cultural signifiers. When you have people over and they see that you're the type of person who listens to (the Velvet Underground / Kanye West / Bach / Lynyrd Skynyrd), you're sending certain cultural and social messages that we all do with the things in our homes. Books play an even bigger role in this regard. If you want to show the world that you are the type of person who reads (Zadie Smith / Herman Melville / Michael Crichton / Franz Kafka), books are the best way to do that. They show the type of sophistication you want other people to think you have (even if you never actually read the book, as a lot of people bought Eco's "The Name of the Rose" but never cracked it open). It's hard to do this subtly by passing around your kindle.
I bought the Sony Reader last year. Love it, but the selection of books from Sony's store is quite limited. Most of the things I want to read are simply not available.
I hate to shell out money for the Kindle, but the selection is something like SIX times greater than for the Sony.
I agree with you that the world will go to electronic books eventually.
However, both you and Lagavulin indicate the Kindle is not convenient for back & forth reading. You specifically mention use of reference works as being inconvenient.
I would suggest further that the issue is the amount of time it takes to change pages; and that the issue would also a problem for technical reading generally. If so, that would also limit the Kindle's utility for college students. (Aside from the question of the Kindle's cost, which will drop with time.)
Therefore, I think the range of reading material that would be addressed by the Kindle would be mostly either news or novels: things that are read through without going backwards.
A weakness of that range: How many novels do I read at one time? Not very many!
What do you think? What types of books have you been reading with the Kindle?
see if you can download H.R. 1955
also, I'd catch a solarPV charger for that puppy
How's the screen? The one on the Sony Reader is incredible, that Liquid Paper thing.
Ooh, the elbnik!
Luke G.--literally lol.
My Mac takes mirror-image photos, and I can't figure out how to reverse them in iPhoto.
Apple should be on top of this...or have they already tried an "iBook." I fear for the the jobs of print book compositors across the land.
Golly, gee whiz, MEH. First up in there again. If you get any farther up there, you'll be eating Megan's bagels before they are pre-digested for you, just pre-masticated. Cheep! Chirp! Cheep!
Posted by HEM and HAW HAW
good point..thankfully, my time on this, specific, meta-Earth is drawing to a close.
Irredeemable, sadly, applies, beyond Federal Reserve Notes, to our gracious, yet ersatz, 'libertarian' Hostess.
er·satz (rzäts, r-zäts)
adj.
Being an imitation or a substitute, usually an inferior one; artificial: ersatz coffee made mostly of chicory. See Synonyms at artificial.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[German, replacement, from ersetzen, to replace, from Old High German irsezzan : ir-, out; see ud- in Indo-European roots + sezzan, to set; see sed- in Indo-European roots.]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ersatz n.
ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words AntonymsNoun 1. ersatz - an artificial or inferior substitute or imitation
substitute, replacement - a person or thing that takes or can take the place of another
Adj. 1. ersatz - artificial and inferior; "ersatz coffee"; "substitute coffee"
substitute
artificial, unreal - contrived by art rather than nature; "artificial flowers"; "artificial flavoring"; "an artificial diamond"; "artificial fibers"; "artificial sweeteners"
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ersatz
for clarity, this: "my time on this, specific, meta-Earth" = her gagged blog @ theATLantic
My main problem is that unless 99% of all books come out in ebook form I will never buy one. The last thing I want to do is buy this think and then have to still buy half my books in paper.
Ugh, I'm an idiot. Liquid Paper. I meant E-Ink.
for clarity, this: "my time on this, specific, meta-Earth" = her gagged blog @ theATLantic
Actually, Mark, you might want to post a little less often. Too much RFI activity from your cell and they'll soon catch onto the fact that they forgot to confiscate the Blackberry.
anony-
I prefer http://berrygrape.oregonstate.edu/blackberry-production-in-oregon/ when it comes to Blackberries, RIMM can keep theirs :)
I'd never seen a photo of the back of a Kindle. It looks like it has a skin disease.
That's just the box--the actual item is not super attractive from the back either, but better than the box.
Read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd with it yesterday. It is easier to read while propped up on one arm than a paperback.
Yay! I really like mine. I've had it since Christmas and I've read 15-20 books on it. And there are tons of great public-domain books at places like gutenberg.org.
That's exactly Bezos's goal. It's not going to replace books, any more than DVDs have replaced movie theaters. But it's nice to have the option.
Er, the 99% of all books part is Bezos's goal, not you never buying one...
Evidently, you cannot flip a photo in iPhoto, but you can if you use iPhoto in conjunction with Preview.
The tedious Windows Way, which will also work in Mac:
1, open Preferences in iPhoto and select "General."
2. chose the Edit Photo dropdown menu. In that menu, the fourth item will allow you to choose a different program to edit the photo in. Chose Preview.
3. in iPhoto, duplicate the photo you want to flip. You don't have to do this, but as you undoubtedly know, you should always edit on a duplicate so you will always have your original safely unchanged.
4. in iPhoto, doubleclick on the duplicate photo you want to flip. This should open the duplicate in Preview.
5. in Preview: under Tools, you can Flip Horizontal.
6. Save (not Save As) the photo in Preview, & it will show up in iPhoto, reversed.
The just do it Mac Way:
1. drag the photo into Preview
2. flip it (under Tools)
3. "save" (under File - this saves the flip change)
4. "save as" to the desktop or wherever you save such things
5. drag or import the flipped photo on the desktop into iPhoto.
NOTE: in step 4, you might have an option to save to an iPhoto roll. This does not seem to work correctly for me (G4 using Leopard) but it might for you. If it does, though, you should be using a duplicate of the original photo so that you will be sure not to wind up with a changed original.
Great, Megan. Welcome to the mob.
I've had my Sony Readers for several months now, and I can't believe how much I enjoy it. I've got about three hundred books on it at the moment. It's always stuck in a pocket or bag with me - always within easy reach.
I'm beginning to clear out my dupe hardcopy books - I emptied almost three shelves when I bought a Steven King package.
Now I'm actively PO'd when I can't get an e-book version of something I want to read. Hardcovers are just too big and unwieldy for me any more, after the light weight and small form factor of the Sony.
I think you've find yourself becoming ever more acclimated to the ebook reader as time goes on. I certainly have.
Have you found yourself unconsciously reaching up to physically turn a page yet?
Oh, wait a minute....
Good:
It's easier than a paperback to read one-handed while eating a sandwich because you don't have to hold it open.
Downloading a book (or a free first chapter) is remarkably easy. You are reading a review online or see a reference in a blog -- click click click -- now the book's in the kindle (or will be in a minute next time you turn it on).
Bad:
You still have to carry something else to read during takeoffs and landings.
Maps, charts, tables, equations, and photographs.
According to the Amazon blurb it uses EVDO: Unlike WiFi, Kindle utilizes the same high-speed data network (EVDO) as advanced cell phones—so you never have to locate a hotspot. That sounds interesting, please cover that in your review. Thanks.
I can't speak for Megan, but one of the reasons I bought a Sony instead of a Kindle is that I already have EVDO built in to my Lenovo X-61 notebook. Which means that I can download books from anywhere I get a signal (pretty much anywhere cell reception is workable) and then transfer the book to my e-reader via a cable.
Okay, it's a bit clunkier that the all-in-one elegance of the Kindle's EVDO, but since I'm almost never far from my 'puter, the end result is the same: the ability to get a book almost anywhere.
Sometimes when I'm at Costco, I'll see a new hardcover out by an author I like, whip out the computer, download the e-version (always considerably cheaper than the hardcopy) and start reading it while I'm waiting in line. This would be even easier with a Kindle.
And if I was not already EVDO capable, I would have bought the Kindle instead of the Sony. We are rapidly coming to the end of the era when electronics are not directly connected to The Cloud at all times.
A couple of questions for you folks (like Jim Treacher and Bill Quick) that have been using either the Sony Reader or the Amazon Kindle:
- Does the amount of time it takes to go to the next page bother you?
- Have you mostly read novels & newspapers on this? Or have you enjoyed reading books that require more searching back and forth (like textbooks, or reference books)?
These are related questions, of course.
Thanks for any experience-based response.
Virginia: I'd never seen a photo of the back of a Kindle. It looks like it has a skin disease.
Yeah, what's up with that?
The review I heard stressed the convenience of having newspapers and magazines delivered automatically.
Neal J King:
I've been using a Sony Reader for almost a year. It's good stuff, but definitely has not replaced "real" books. Nothing better for travel, though.
As to your questions:
Once I start reading, I don't notice the "page turn delay" (in fact, I suspect that I've just got in the habit of hitting the page turn button a bit early)
Reference works, or readings that demand lots of back and forth, don't work very well at all for me. Even with bookmarking, etc., it seems unduly burdensome to check forward and back -- enough so that I'll opt not to do so when I certainly would have with a "real" book. I pretty much just don't read such items on the Reader (unless they're relatively short). YMMV, of course.
i don't think the page turn delay is much longer than turning the page BUT its much easier to hit the page turn button on accident than actually turning a page on accident.
mm - make sure you've bookmarked everything you're currently reading before you hand the kindle off to a friend so they can look at it. trying to find your place once you've lost it is kind of awkward.
I've had a Kindle for a month or so and love it.
It's great to finish a book and buy another one and be reading it in less time it took to choose which book to buy.
But by far the best part is the FREE web access. I had a busy day Thursday, and when I took my daughter to gymnastics, I opened the Kindle browser and read all the blogs I usually read. And no, you don't have to pay to read instapundit. Just enter the address into the browser.
I just can't figure out how Amazon can afford to give all their Kindle owner continuous free web access. Don't get me wrong, despite the clunky interface, it's great. But I wonder how long they can get away with this.
I look forward to Kindle v2.0
Lagavulin,
Thanks for sharing your experience: Page delay is not a problem in itself; but using the Kindle for back-and-forth reading/navigation is not easy.
I wonder if it would be more convenient if the page-change feature were faster? The Sony Reader (and I assume also the Kindle) takes about a second or so.
Any other experiences or opinions?
I would consider getting one if it wasn't so fucking expensive to buy a bunch of books I already own a second time just to have it on a Kindle. After all, would you buy an iPod if you had to re-download all of your music off of iTunes? Plus, it sounds in the abstract like it would make life easier once I go to grad school in a couple of years (not breaking my back as I did as an undergrad whenever I had a paper to write by carrying around both my laptop and 75 pounds of books) if a bunch of technical issues didn't get in the way.
"Downloading a book (or a free first chapter) is remarkably easy. You are reading a review online or see a reference in a blog -- click click click -- now the book's in the kindle (or will be in a minute next time you turn it on).
Posted by Paul Turner | April 19, 2008 1:06 PM"
Are you Kelly Kapoor?
The page turn doesn't bother me at all. I don't even notice it. I wasn't kidding, however, about finding myself reaching up to the top right corner of the Sony reader to physically turn the page, just as I would with a "real" book. What this tells me is that my brain has assimilated the reader as a "real" book, and does not see any difference between the two for the purposes of reading.
And unlike some here, I do think e-readers will almost entirely replace paper books in the reasonably near future, leaving those who refuse to use them in the same general position as that tiny minority today who only listen to music on 33rpm vinyl via systems packed with vacuum tubes: Interesting, but irrelevant. Economics, technological factors, and changing generational preferences in information processing will see to it.
"And unlike some here, I do think e-readers will almost entirely replace paper books in the reasonably near future, leaving those who refuse to use them in the same general position as that tiny minority today who only listen to music on 33rpm vinyl via systems packed with vacuum tubes: Interesting, but irrelevant. Economics, technological factors, and changing generational preferences in information processing will see to it.
Posted by Bill Quick | April 20, 2008 12:12 PM"
I'm not so sure. People still buy CD's in part as cultural signifiers. When you have people over and they see that you're the type of person who listens to (the Velvet Underground / Kanye West / Bach / Lynyrd Skynyrd), you're sending certain cultural and social messages that we all do with the things in our homes. Books play an even bigger role in this regard. If you want to show the world that you are the type of person who reads (Zadie Smith / Herman Melville / Michael Crichton / Franz Kafka), books are the best way to do that. They show the type of sophistication you want other people to think you have (even if you never actually read the book, as a lot of people bought Eco's "The Name of the Rose" but never cracked it open). It's hard to do this subtly by passing around your kindle.
I bought the Sony Reader last year. Love it, but the selection of books from Sony's store is quite limited. Most of the things I want to read are simply not available.
I hate to shell out money for the Kindle, but the selection is something like SIX times greater than for the Sony.
Grumble.
Bill Quick,
I agree with you that the world will go to electronic books eventually.
However, both you and Lagavulin indicate the Kindle is not convenient for back & forth reading. You specifically mention use of reference works as being inconvenient.
I would suggest further that the issue is the amount of time it takes to change pages; and that the issue would also a problem for technical reading generally. If so, that would also limit the Kindle's utility for college students. (Aside from the question of the Kindle's cost, which will drop with time.)
Therefore, I think the range of reading material that would be addressed by the Kindle would be mostly either news or novels: things that are read through without going backwards.
A weakness of that range: How many novels do I read at one time? Not very many!
What do you think? What types of books have you been reading with the Kindle?