Amazon Kindle (ebook thingy)

see that's the thing about books, they don't need chargers

OTOH you could also forget to pack your books.

Yeah it's just standard micro-USB. Same as most Android phones.

refresh rate on books is shit

True story: I don't own a Kindle or anything like one and today I forgot to pack my book. :(

a decent smartphone will make a usable ereader.

"License limit exceeded"
Fuck you Amazon

???

Couldn't you just delete off one of your many devices?

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/10/what-the-google-books-victory-means-for-readers-and-libraries/411910/

i accidentally purchased a kindle daily deal today (clicking to get rid of cover preview on a laggy mobile device, the picture disappeared and the buy button was directly underneath...). ebooks are one-click purchases by default (is there any way to turn this off?) and it downloaded immediately.

what are my chances of getting a refund? (ok, was £1, but it's more the flaw in the system that i don't like)

you'll get a refund if you go through the live chat thing and explain especially since it's a flaw or a sneaky button placement - I don't use amazon any more but signed up for a free trial of audible ages ago and only realised later that I hadn't managed to cancel it properly and they refunded the couple of months' worth of fee I'd paid obviously they'd be able to see on the account that I hadn't used it

a google search for 'kindle refund' pointed me to amazon help page

basically, go to Manage Your Content and Devices and there's a 'return for refund' option which'll let you specify 'accidental purchase' as a reason...

luckily it didn't even download to my device as the default device is an old pc. (i've never had an actual kindle, i use a kobo mini)

(but what's to stop you downloading, removing the drm, saving under a different name then claiming a refund?)

I suspect nothing, as long as you don't do it lots of times.

Amazon doesn't worry about the ethically challenged and tech savvy. Impulse purchases are their profit center, so they provide immediate automated refunds for butt-purchases, so as to not deter impulse buys.

I accidentally hit the "purchase" button on the website a few months ago in the hazy hours around bedtime, didn't realize it for weeks 'til I recharged the Kindle and looked for a legit purchase, and then immediately rescinded the order. Worked a charm.

Its probably part of the corporate ethos. IIRC, their policy with regard to third-party suppliers is the customer is always right, which has probably screwed over plenty a shipper, but what are you to do if you're a bookshop barely making ends.

> Amazon doesn't worry about the ethically challenged and tech savvy.

hurray.

they probably, unless they are dumb, have alerts set up that'd flag people returning things too often.

my problem would be finding the time to read the downloaded books - the digital backlog, of actual purchases let alone gutenberg downloads, is about 20 books at this point.

Yeah, I can't remember a single instance of an interaction with Amazon customer service where they didn't give me everything I asked for. And I have to do it very often as part of my job. They'll refund you pretty much no matter what.

My son accidentally purchased a series that was available to watch for free on our Prime account and they were all FUCK YOU PAY ME when I attempted to get a refund.

Ive had several ebooks refunded. I think as long as you do it within 1 week you are fine.

I do buy the odd book, but mostly fuck 'em. Perma aeroplane mode, torrent sites, bookz - go fuck yourselves Amazon.

Kindle daily deal (and the monthly equiv) often throws up good cheap stuff, hence the backlog. You'll have to wade through piles of chick-lit to find it though.

Top 50 eBooks (https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebooks/top)

Our most popular and trending eBooks, updated hourly

1 Lost Girls, A fast paced, gripping thriller novel
2 The Missing Husband
3 Little Girl Gone: A gripping, twisty psychological thriller
4 The Universe versus Alex Woods
5 Gone (FBI Profiler 5)
...

do i detect a trend?

There's a factory somewhere churning out these 99p thrillers. They've have started putting "a gripping x" description in the titles of ebooks.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Sellers-Kindle-Store-eBooks/zgbs/digital-text/341689031/

The Girl With No Past: A gripping psychological thriller [Kindle Edition] Kathryn Croft (Author)
Lost Girls: A fast paced, gripping thriller novel (Detective Kim Stone crime thriller series Book 3) [Kindle Edition] Angela Marsons (Author)#
DEAD WRONG a gripping detective thriller full of suspense [Kindle Edition] HELEN H. DURRANT (Author)
DEAD SILENT a gripping detective thriller full of suspense [Kindle Edition] HELEN H. DURRANT (Author)
Girl Number One: A Gripping Psychological Thriller [Kindle Edition] Jane Holland (Author)

This has been the ad on my Kindle all week:

http://i.imgur.com/6VjF0iK.jpg

xp - everyone thinks they can get rich writing niche erotica or thrillers on Kindle, with the right phrases in the title and description. The curse of Twilight.

Airplane mode, and this shit never appears.

Y'all are way more sensitive than me about an ad that you see for 1.5 seconds before swiping to unlock.

it's not cool man

I wanted a fancy Voyager, but the $99 Paperwhite is getting hard to resist.

wonder how long it takes to crank out one of the thrillers? how long are they, 150 pages?

welp it only took me nigh on a year to figure out that text highlighting WILL cross page boundaries if you move your finger to the right place

: /

Wait!

I was wondering about getting a Kindle for my girlfriend, but have never looked into them before at all. How does the basic one stack up against the Paperwhite and the Voyager in the real world? I'm not too familiar with what the spec. differences really mean.

I also ended up looking at the Fire line-up, as she does watch a lot of netflix and online tv/movie streaming via an old laptop at the moment. How annoying is the Amazon-ness on those - do they forever bombard you with ads and hamper using non-Amazon related features? The prices are very keen - I can't see any alternative tablets under £200, let alone £100...

I upgraded from 2010 gen Kindle Basic to 2014 Kindle Paperwhite (periodically on sale for $99), and while I could live without the fluorescent whitening agents they use on the e-ink display, the higher resolution screen is nice and the backlight is invaluable. It gets most use while I'm out of town, and I read most of a 300 page book under moonlight on a beach last week.

There's a next step up (Kindle Voyage) which is just gilding the lily, AFAICT.

I'd been using a Nexus 7 as my reader for a couple of years, but between its (relative) weight and my eyes, and the daylight glare, I finally bought a Kindle Paperwhite this week. The I think 6th generation one, the one before the most recent resolution upgrade, was going for I believe $90. Looking forward to reading outside.

The Voyage is over twice as much, isn't it?

Kindle Voyage:
"PagePress is a custom-designed force sensor made of carbon and silver, which reacts to a subtle increase of pressure, triggers a page-turn and provides a haptic response only your thumb can perceive"

haptic feedback just in case you don't notice that the thing you are actively looking at has changed as a result of you actively pressing the thing you've just pressed.

That Voyage does seem like an expensive extravagance, especially as the Paperwhite is already near perfect.

It is, and it is a bit uncomfortable to hold since it's super-thin and made out of metal.

Thanks. I'll concentrate my thoughts on the Paperwhite. How about Kobo e-readers? Looking at their Glo HD now at the same price...

With an unlimited budget, the only upgrade from the Paperwhite I'd consider is the Waterfi (aftermarket waterproofed) version, waterproof down to 200 ft. I used to love reading in the tub.

just put your kindle in a ziplock bag.

kobo do the H20 which has an IP67 rating, which is good enough for the old bath tub.

the new nook glowlight is waterproof. It's $99 right now, but it's a different infrastructure from Amazon, so

does anyone use a holder/case for the paperwhite? i never bought one since i was fairly broke at the time i acquired my kindle, i've mostly just been carrying it around cautiously in my bag or whatever, to be nice to the screen.

For goodness sake get one fast, they are inexpensive and will save your screen.

like just one of those book-cover ones?

Just search for magnetic paperwhite cover on e-bay, it won't cost you more than a couple of dollars.

Mine cost £5 and is still looking good 6 months later.

naw mang i'm like asking about styyyyyle, what's the coolest/most useful thing

I also ended up looking at the Fire line-up, as she does watch a lot of netflix and online tv/movie streaming via an old laptop at the moment. How annoying is the Amazon-ness on those - do they forever bombard you with ads and hamper using non-Amazon related features? The prices are very keen - I can't see any alternative tablets under £200, let alone £100...

I have a 3 year old Fire that I really like.

If you are wifi or 3g connected, when you boot up or turn it back on from standby you'll get an ad from Amazon for some promotion that you swipe past to get to the main page, it's no biggie, you can pay extra for that feature to be disabled. I've never gotten the impression that they are targeted ads from your Amazon browsing history or cookies which can be annoying, but I guess they could be.

"it's no biggie, you can pay extra for that feature to be disabled"

I have got one for my son and found that after I closed the account they installed on the device in my name and did a factory reset all that intrusive shit was gone, because otherwise I was going to find a way to root it before them parasites got a penneth more out of me.