Thanks all. I’m happy with reading on my iPhone but if the battery life is huge I can see a definite benefit there for holidays etc!
ta

Yes, the big BIG advantage is that it’s designed for purpose compared to a smartphone/Ipad which I’d used before for reading.

– The screen is as good as, if not better than ink and paper.
– It’s thin and lightweight compared to a book which make things like reading in bed whilst lying on your side/back far better.
– The battery lasts for ever compared to backlit screens.
– I can’t see it being overtaken by technology in the short or medium term. The bits that are important are the screen, battery life and size, and these are nailed already.

I was unconvinved before I got one, can’t recommend enough now. It’s also worth looking at the Sony offering as well, but the main thing is to get a specific e-reader.

Basically, unless you’ve got the WiFi running, it only uses battery to change the display. So your battery life can be measured in page turns; it’ll keep the display going pretty much indefinitely otherwise. I don’t know offhand about the new one, but the older Kindles have been tested at over three thousand page turns per charge. Charging’s pretty quick too, I think mine takes two to three hours to fully charge.

Clever stuff.

Yep, despite it being a non-Apple product, I really like my (basic, no keyboard) Kindle. Keep it in my coat pocket so I always have something to read on the bus, waiting for GF to show up to a date, etc. The screen is too much like a book to allow reading in bed without a decent light.

Plus’ as covered above, its very good at what it does, even the browser is OK for reading stuff (wikipedia etc) less so for writing as theres no keyboard on the basic version.

Minus, the price of books, the bestsellers were 2x or 3x the price of the paperback in Tesco! I was expecting iTunes levles of pricing with paperbacks that used to be £7-£8 being about a third of that now that theres no printing costs.

Free books are hit-and-miss, just because you can publish your own book for free doesnt mean you nececeraly should, a lot of crap makes it into the thop 100! I can forsee a lot of ‘good’ free books being re-released after being bought by a publisher and gone through the usual proof reading and editing, a bit like a band releasing a demo EP, getting a recod deal then releasing their album.

Reading PDFs are a problem on a display as small as the Kindle as PDFs tend to have huge margins and don’t reformat very well.

I use Abobe Acrobat to trim the margins to a minimum and then read them in landscape, half a page at a time, on a Sony PRS505.

I only use it for technical books which you can pick up for good prices as Oreilly often have 3 for 2 or 40% off offers, Manning are always going 40% off offers, and Apress do a book of the day for $10.

Saves a lot on bookshelf space and having to carry the book around on the train – loses out a bit on the flickable searching aspects.

“So I invested in the proper case with the built in light and it has been great”

Could you point me in the direction of this case please?

Theres now the basic £89 one or the Touch for £109 has any one used both, which is best?

Also wheres the best place to buy a Kindle? Is it better to buy direct from Amazon, or is it ok to use another retailer where I can get cash back?

Ta

If you’re going to read anything other than “proper” ebooks on a kindle, it’s best to convert them using Calibre ( http://calibre-ebook.com/ )

As for where to buy, just buy them on Amazon. I bought mine from Tesco and got about a quid in points but spent about a quid driving to and from the shop that had stock.