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Kindle DX (and PDFs)
The good news is the PDF support on the Kindle DX works great. I haven't tried anything with DRM....
In portrait mode is strips off the margins to maximize the display area -- and since I'm nearsighted (and my eyes are getting BETTER with old age) I take off my glasses and hold it where it's comfortable. I haven't had any problems reading anything in portrait mode.
I use an M-Edge flip cover and while it adds a few more ounces to the weight, I think it makes the DX easier to hold. Since I got the cover I haven't "almost dropped" the Kindle DX.
Before the cover I felt the DX slip a few times in my grip while reading.
Rotating the DX to landscape mode puts the PDF margins back, but seems to usually still make the text larger. I just read in portrait mode and only go to landscape to study a graphic or exhibit.
The Networker's (CiscoLive) presentations are small in portrait mode -- but still readable (to my old near-sighted eyes with glasses off). I miss the color in the presentations, but the gray scale works fine for getting the point. Rotating the presentations to landscape makes them larger, but then (because of the margins) you're not seeing the entire slide at one time. It would be nice if it could scale the PDF without margins in landscape mode -- and give a "fit content to page" option.
The bad news -- yep, $500 is ridiculous for a "PDF Reader." And the web browsing is too slow to make me want to try and "get my money's worth" that way.
I gave up on Sprint over 2-1/2 years ago after a wind storm and my service at home went to crap. Plus they had the nerve to robo-call my cell phone several times a day trying to sell me a 2nd line when the 1st one wasn't working at home.... The Whispernet service is still poor at home, so it does eat into the battery life -- I have to charge every 2 days or so if I leave Whispernet on to retrieve my newspaper/magazine subscriptions. If I leave it upstairs I get a better signal and can go to 3 days between charging. I can still read then, but it doesn't have enough juice to "phone home" anymore.
I don't bother to mark or highlight my books -- I take notes on paper if I'm studying something -- so the note/annotation features aren't important to me. I'll probably read with the Kindle now (when I have the PDF) but still use the book AND Kindle when doing any book questions/exercises -- Kindle on the question page and use the book to look back at the chapter material to find the answers.
The phone texting generation may not mind the "keyboard" for notes/annotating their eTextBooks -- but you're limited on what you can do with PDFs.
The super bad news -- still no FOLDERS or anything reasonable to organize your documents/pdfs. Right now I just click through about 8 pages of PDFs sorted by name. While you may be able to someday load 3500 books onto the Kindle, if you load even 500 PDFs it's almost impossible to find what you want unless you know the name or click click click click click click a LOT to page through your directory.
The Kindle DX does let you move your Docs and PDFs into folders from your PC -- it just ignores the folder names and any structure when it displays what you have loaded.
I might try the "create a web page" trick and try to create a nested web page hierarchy I can navigate through that links to the books -- just not sure how slow the local web page display is until I try it. I'd just name the "home page" something that sorts by title to the top of the list. Plus I'd probably just move the PDFs onto a Linux System first and use a shell script there to build updated web pages as I wanted to move/remove Docs/PDFs onto/off of the Kindle.
In portrait mode is strips off the margins to maximize the display area -- and since I'm nearsighted (and my eyes are getting BETTER with old age) I take off my glasses and hold it where it's comfortable. I haven't had any problems reading anything in portrait mode.
I use an M-Edge flip cover and while it adds a few more ounces to the weight, I think it makes the DX easier to hold. Since I got the cover I haven't "almost dropped" the Kindle DX.
Before the cover I felt the DX slip a few times in my grip while reading.Rotating the DX to landscape mode puts the PDF margins back, but seems to usually still make the text larger. I just read in portrait mode and only go to landscape to study a graphic or exhibit.
The Networker's (CiscoLive) presentations are small in portrait mode -- but still readable (to my old near-sighted eyes with glasses off). I miss the color in the presentations, but the gray scale works fine for getting the point. Rotating the presentations to landscape makes them larger, but then (because of the margins) you're not seeing the entire slide at one time. It would be nice if it could scale the PDF without margins in landscape mode -- and give a "fit content to page" option.
The bad news -- yep, $500 is ridiculous for a "PDF Reader." And the web browsing is too slow to make me want to try and "get my money's worth" that way.
I gave up on Sprint over 2-1/2 years ago after a wind storm and my service at home went to crap. Plus they had the nerve to robo-call my cell phone several times a day trying to sell me a 2nd line when the 1st one wasn't working at home.... The Whispernet service is still poor at home, so it does eat into the battery life -- I have to charge every 2 days or so if I leave Whispernet on to retrieve my newspaper/magazine subscriptions. If I leave it upstairs I get a better signal and can go to 3 days between charging. I can still read then, but it doesn't have enough juice to "phone home" anymore.
I don't bother to mark or highlight my books -- I take notes on paper if I'm studying something -- so the note/annotation features aren't important to me. I'll probably read with the Kindle now (when I have the PDF) but still use the book AND Kindle when doing any book questions/exercises -- Kindle on the question page and use the book to look back at the chapter material to find the answers.
The phone texting generation may not mind the "keyboard" for notes/annotating their eTextBooks -- but you're limited on what you can do with PDFs.
The super bad news -- still no FOLDERS or anything reasonable to organize your documents/pdfs. Right now I just click through about 8 pages of PDFs sorted by name. While you may be able to someday load 3500 books onto the Kindle, if you load even 500 PDFs it's almost impossible to find what you want unless you know the name or click click click click click click a LOT to page through your directory.
The Kindle DX does let you move your Docs and PDFs into folders from your PC -- it just ignores the folder names and any structure when it displays what you have loaded.
I might try the "create a web page" trick and try to create a nested web page hierarchy I can navigate through that links to the books -- just not sure how slow the local web page display is until I try it. I'd just name the "home page" something that sorts by title to the top of the list. Plus I'd probably just move the PDFs onto a Linux System first and use a shell script there to build updated web pages as I wanted to move/remove Docs/PDFs onto/off of the Kindle.
:mike: Cisco Certifications -- Collect the Entire Set!
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dynamik
Banned Posts: 12,312 ■■■■■■■■■□
Nice review!
The DX sounds like a winner. Hopefully they'll add folders and other additional functionality via software updates.
This is on my wish-list; I just need the price to come down or magically acquire more money
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Claymoore
Member Posts: 1,637
The wife and I got Kindles for wedding presents (a Kindle 2 for her and a DX for me) a few weeks ago and I have been impressed with both of them. She reads a lot of paperbacks and the Kindle 2 works perfectly for her, while I needed the larger size and PDF support for the technical manuals I read.The good news is the PDF support on the Kindle DX works great. I haven't tried anything with DRM....
The PDF support really depends on the PDF. The PDF of my Cisco Press BCMSN Exam certification guide is illegible in portrait mode - the page is too small and you can see what appear to be print layout markings in the margins. However, if you rotate the Kindle and read in landscape, it is fine. Other PDFs like the Preplogic BCMSN Mega Guide are legible in portrait but better in landscape. So far, the best are the PDFs that come with the Microsoft Press titles. They display perfectly on the DX.The super bad news -- still no FOLDERS or anything reasonable to organize your documents/pdfs. Right now I just click through about 8 pages of PDFs sorted by name. While you may be able to someday load 3500 books onto the Kindle, if you load even 500 PDFs it's almost impossible to find what you want unless you know the name or click click click click click click a LOT to page through your directory.
Seriously, the Kindle needs some folders. I haven't copied over my entire library yet and I don't subsribe to any periodicals but I can see the organization of my library becoming a problem. The Kindle does keep your current material at the top of the first page, but good luck after that.
My favorite feature is the ability to carry my tech library with me without actually having to carry all those books. If I'm seriously studying for an exam, I might be referencing multiple sources at the same time - an MS Training Kit, a resource kit, and another reference or study guide. Unless I am in my chair next to my bookcase, that's hard to do. Switching between them on the Kindle is much easier. -
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msteinhilber
Member Posts: 1,480 ■■■■■■■■□□
After salivating over the Kindle DX for months, I placed an order for a couple today. Once I get my grubby hands on it I plan to check out a variety of PDF's I have (MS Press, Cisco Press, and a couple Sybex and Sam's) and post some decent resolution pictures so others can really get a good feel for the quality.
Why can't it be 2-3 days from now already -
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Plantwiz
Mod Posts: 5,057 Mod
msteinhilber wrote: »After salivating over the Kindle DX for months, I placed an order for a couple today. Once I get my grubby hands on it I plan to check out a variety of PDF's I have (MS Press, Cisco Press, and a couple Sybex and Sam's) and post some decent resolution pictures so others can really get a good feel for the quality.
Why can't it be 2-3 days from now already
Good for you!!
WOW, I'd love one, but there is no way at the current price point I'll buy it. Even the Kindle 2 needs to come down to the $149 range to be desirable...though at $299 it is much more tempting then it once was
Love to hear your comments in 2-3 days
Plantwiz
_____
"Grammar and spelling aren't everything, but this is a forum, not a chat room. You have plenty of time to spell out the word "you", and look just a little bit smarter." by Phaideaux
***I'll add you can Capitalize the word 'I' to show a little respect for yourself too.
'i' before 'e' except after 'c'.... weird? -
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Pash
Member Posts: 1,600 ■■■■■□□□□□
msteinhilber wrote: »After salivating over the Kindle DX for months, I placed an order for a couple today. Once I get my grubby hands on it I plan to check out a variety of PDF's I have (MS Press, Cisco Press, and a couple Sybex and Sam's) and post some decent resolution pictures so others can really get a good feel for the quality.
Why can't it be 2-3 days from now already
Yeh Im very interested as well dude. Please give us some good reviews for the purpose of study books!DevOps Engineer and Security Champion. https://blog.pash.by - I am trying to find my writing style, so please bear with me. -
Optionsmsteinhilber
Member Posts: 1,480 ■■■■■■■■□□
Yeh Im very interested as well dude. Please give us some good reviews for the purpose of study books!
Well I got them, there's no way I'm going to have the time or mental energy to put into any form of review for probably quite some time thanks to issues at home.
The short review: It's an incredible piece of hardware, certainly pricey - but if you can benefit from being able to study multiple sources without lugging a bunch of books around, it's worth looking into.
I'll post a more thorough review after I take care of business at home. -
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ziggi138
Member Posts: 94 ■■□□□□□□□□
I really want one. Almost all of my books comes with a PDF version of the book. The trick is getting my wife to let me get one. -
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mikej412
Member Posts: 10,086 ■■■■■■■■■■
The Kindle DX software update still didn't give us real folders -- but at least the collections options is a step in the right direction. Since it's now easier to find and use books & PDFs I'm finally starting to "load up" the Kindle DX.
The PDF viewing was fine on the Kindle DX before -- but the new zoom and font size option makes it better.
I guess you could say that I'm now happy enough with my Kindle DX that I'd consider paying the current $389 for the Kindle DX Graphite for the supposed 50% better contrast (and the privilege of probably having to "re-collect" a now huge lump of books & PDFs) and give my old $500 dollar white Kindle DX to my sister.
The only issue I have with the Kindle DX is that after playing with my iPod Touch I find myself trying to tap on the Kindle DX screen to switch to a Collection or open a book/pdf. :mike: Cisco Certifications -- Collect the Entire Set! -
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tpatt100
Member Posts: 2,991 ■■■■■■■■■□
Nice review!
The DX sounds like a winner. Hopefully they'll add folders and other additional functionality via software updates.
This is on my wish-list; I just need the price to come down or magically acquire more money
OMG I so want folders.....users have been asking for that feature since the Kindle launched. -
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anobomski
Member Posts: 53 ■■□□□□□□□□
i wonder if the new kindle will have these features. i like the idea moving around with my notebook and a kindle instead of loggin all those books along. do you guys think this will be a good replacment for a hard copy book? -
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RobertKaucher
Member Posts: 4,299 ■■■■■■■■■■
i wonder if the new kindle will have these features. i like the idea moving around with my notebook and a kindle instead of loggin all those books along. do you guys think this will be a good replacment for a hard copy book?
The only disadvantage I have seen is that when I know roughly where something is it is far easier to flip through a hard copy and find what I am looking for than it is in the Kindle. I have no issues replacing my hard copies with the PDF or Kindle version of the book provided it is cheaper. If the hard copy comes with a DVD and a PDF, then I will gladly buy the hard copy so I can have both. So, yes. I do think these will replace hard copies eventually. I believe it will take longer for technical books (in most professions), but my wife now hates reading hard copy books. She pretty much only reads fiction "paperbacks", though. -
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nel
Member Posts: 2,859 ■□□□□□□□□□
Ive been thinking about an e-reader for ages and since my flat mate bought his ipad its rekindled that thought because the pdf's on that bad boy display superbly imo. However im not willing to shell out £450 for such a device. Then i was on amazon and realised they are releasing the Kindle 3 for a great base value of £110 in august so im very tempted to buy one - its a device i simply want for reading my cisco pdf's on and the usual paperbacks which is why i cant justify the ipad.
a friend had a sony e-reader (cant remember the model) and it was very hit and miss with cisco pdfs!Xbox Live: Bring It On
Bsc (hons) Network Computing - 1st Class
WIP: Msc advanced networking -
Optionsmikej412
Member Posts: 10,086 ■■■■■■■■■■
I think we got another firmware update -- I noticed there's a 3rd edition of the Kindle guide now.
I pre-ordered a $139 Wi-Fi Kindle 3 to check out the contrast and better fonts. Hopefully they'll announce a 3G/Wi-Fi Kindle DX Graphite soon.:mike: Cisco Certifications -- Collect the Entire Set! -
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erpadmin
Member Posts: 4,165 ■■■■■■■■■■
Mind you I got mine for free, and I can't say it enough, it is definitely invaluable. Text-To-Speech is a good feature if you don't mind the Stephen Hawking voice. You can also change it to the female Stephen Hawking (if you've ever watched "Family Guy", think of the Stephen Hawking-type professor and his wife...it sounds exactly like them).
Many titles are available straight from the device OR you can buy them at the Amazon website. You can make notes and highlight them. PLUS you can get many public domain titles for free. I have "The Art of War" and "The Prince" for $0.00.
The only titles I know for sure that are not Kindleable are MSPRESS books. But many popular publishers like Sybex, All in Ones (please ignore the Dummies titles [or don't] I just wanted the Mike Meyers published books like A+, Network+ and Security+, which are in Kindle format) and most of what you're studying for would be in a Kindle format.
If I ever decide to upgrade my reader after a couple or few years, I will definitely spend the money and I would not buy an iPad! LOL. -
Optionserpadmin
Member Posts: 4,165 ■■■■■■■■■■
I think we got another firmware update -- I noticed there's a 3rd edition of the Kindle guide now.
I pre-ordered a $139 Wi-Fi Kindle 3 to check out the contrast and better fonts. Hopefully they'll announce a 3G/Wi-Fi Kindle DX Graphite soon.
I got an emailing telling me that much. 2.5.6 is the latest update.
You can read about them here:
Amazon.com Help: Kindle Software Updates -
OptionsClaymoore
Member Posts: 1,637
One of the good thing about the DX is that you can read the PDFs that come with the physical MS Press books. I know the K2 has PDF ability, but it's tough to read on that small screen.
The update MikeJ was discussing added collections and the ability to zoom in on PDFs to make them easier to read. I don't use the zoom feature, but I noticed that the Windows 7 ResKit PDF was much easier to read after the update. Every once in a while the page would be small again, but everything else was very legible without having to zoom or rotate the screen. Amazon must have made some other changes to the PDF support besided just zoom. -
Options[Deleted User]
Senior Member Posts: 0 ■■■■□□□□□□
The only time I will get a kindle is if I get the DX and they are still a bit out of my price range. I have started to read a lot more non-technical books too so it is getting closer to justifiable for me but not quite.
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Optionserpadmin
Member Posts: 4,165 ■■■■■■■■■■
The only time I will get a kindle is if I get the DX and they are still a bit out of my price range. I have started to read a lot more non-technical books too so it is getting closer to justifiable for me but not quite.
I just have the regular 2nd gen Kindle (6" screen).
I agree with you, I would never have spent that money. But in truth, if I had it for a week to play with, I probably would jump at spending the money. I will definitely get a 4th or 5th generation one day. The latest one.....not so much. I don't care that I get an extra 3 inches on the Kindle. But I can see myself doing it in a few years, and plus if there is finally color. -
Options[Deleted User]
Senior Member Posts: 0 ■■■■□□□□□□
I just have the regular 2nd gen Kindle (6" screen).
I agree with you, I would never have spent that money. But in truth, if I had it for a week to play with, I probably would jump at spending the money. I will definitely get a 4th or 5th generation one day. The latest one.....not so much. I don't care that I get an extra 3 inches on the Kindle. But I can see myself doing it in a few years, and plus if there is finally color.
Do you read a lot of MSPress or Cisco Press books? I would seriously consider the new Kindle if I know reading that stuff on it would be okay but I just don't see it getting formatted right or being a pain to read unless you have the DX. Color would push me over the edge just because of comic books. ePub is another thing I would like to see on the kindle so you could borrow from libraries. Although, I've heard of ways to convert ePub to Kindle but where does the legality fall in that if its a library book?
