Different subject...
Nov. 14th, 2011 07:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catsittingstillI was checking out the Kindle lineup for a friend last month; she had been impressed by the "free 3G plus lifetime access to the web" thing that the Kindle and Kindle 2 had going and wanted to know if the new Kindles had it.
I couldn't find much about it from the web pages for the products, so I finally called Kindle support as though there was something wrong with my Kindle and said I was considering upgrading, but what about this feature?
The wifi only models will access the web all you want, but obviously only through wifi. The cheapie, touch, and fire will access the web all you want, but only through wifi, even if they have 3G (they will buy books through 3g and download your subscriptions through 3g, but not let you surf the web). The Kindle keyboard will let you surf the web over the free 3G.
And if I wanted to upgrade I could do it for 60$. I'd have a month to try out the new Kindle, and mail the old Kindle back if I decide I like the trade. Okay, I wasn't expecting that.
I thought about it for a while, and got more and more interested. The new Kindles have a better screen, with higher contrast that makes it easier to read. They have the webkit browser that is supposed to be much better than the browser on the Kindle 2. And the text-to-speech (otherwise known as "have the robot read to you") on my old Kindle was beginning to fade in and out, volume-wise, when I used my earbuds (the speakers worked fine but aren't too great for listening in my noisy car.)
So I got the new one. I hadn't realized it would be smaller than the Kindle 2--this actually makes it a bit easier to hold because the center of gravity falls closer to my palm. I hadn't registered that the page turns would be faster; the page turns on the Kindle 2 were already pretty good, but there's no denying this Kindle is even better. The web kit browser is noticeably better and does indeed work through the 3G (I refused to give the Kindle our wifi password) but is kind of slow that way. But you can still reach mapquest and get directions over the 3G; a feature that has saved me a lot of trouble more than once.
Yesterday I saved all my old files off the Kindle 2 (Hypatia). The DRMed files won't work on the new kindle and must be thrown out, but my Analogs aren't DRMed and I can't redownload the old issues off the server, and a bunch of the books from Baen and Manybooks aren't DRMed either. Now I have them all and can sort them out later. Then I de-registered the Kindle 2, andI changed the new Kindle's name to Hypatia and gave it Hypatia's e-mail address.
Hypatia is dead.; long live Hypatia!
I couldn't find much about it from the web pages for the products, so I finally called Kindle support as though there was something wrong with my Kindle and said I was considering upgrading, but what about this feature?
The wifi only models will access the web all you want, but obviously only through wifi. The cheapie, touch, and fire will access the web all you want, but only through wifi, even if they have 3G (they will buy books through 3g and download your subscriptions through 3g, but not let you surf the web). The Kindle keyboard will let you surf the web over the free 3G.
And if I wanted to upgrade I could do it for 60$. I'd have a month to try out the new Kindle, and mail the old Kindle back if I decide I like the trade. Okay, I wasn't expecting that.
I thought about it for a while, and got more and more interested. The new Kindles have a better screen, with higher contrast that makes it easier to read. They have the webkit browser that is supposed to be much better than the browser on the Kindle 2. And the text-to-speech (otherwise known as "have the robot read to you") on my old Kindle was beginning to fade in and out, volume-wise, when I used my earbuds (the speakers worked fine but aren't too great for listening in my noisy car.)
So I got the new one. I hadn't realized it would be smaller than the Kindle 2--this actually makes it a bit easier to hold because the center of gravity falls closer to my palm. I hadn't registered that the page turns would be faster; the page turns on the Kindle 2 were already pretty good, but there's no denying this Kindle is even better. The web kit browser is noticeably better and does indeed work through the 3G (I refused to give the Kindle our wifi password) but is kind of slow that way. But you can still reach mapquest and get directions over the 3G; a feature that has saved me a lot of trouble more than once.
Yesterday I saved all my old files off the Kindle 2 (Hypatia). The DRMed files won't work on the new kindle and must be thrown out, but my Analogs aren't DRMed and I can't redownload the old issues off the server, and a bunch of the books from Baen and Manybooks aren't DRMed either. Now I have them all and can sort them out later. Then I de-registered the Kindle 2, andI changed the new Kindle's name to Hypatia and gave it Hypatia's e-mail address.
Hypatia is dead.; long live Hypatia!
