Kindle - please help answer a few questions

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ryu

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hi

Thinking about getting a kindle for an elder person in my family, makro has one with adds for R1499:
"Amazon All-New Kindle Touchscreen Wi-Fi 8th Gen"

okay some question as i've never used or even seen a kindle before, i'm thinking of purchasing the above and loading a bunch of books on it (not purchasing through the store) is that possible ?

the person i'm buying it for isnt tech savvy in the least and ofcourse wont have access to wifi etc will that be a problem ? i'm assuming you dont have to be connected to the net to use this kindle ?

whats the storage like on these things, will the onbaord be enough or does it come with an sd slot or something ?
oh another question, can i load any format of ebook or only certain ones ?

so yeah the plan is to basically purchase this and load it with some books and present it to her (gift).
 
It's pretty easy to do this. You will just probably need to use something like Calibre to convert the documents into Kindle format.

Just a tip though: if you can, splurge on the Paperwhite. Having a backlight makes a huge difference. I got the Kindle touchscreen for my mother in law's birthday but it sat in a drawer until we got it upgraded to the Paperwhite, now she uses it constantly.
 
cerebus said:
It's pretty easy to do this. You will just probably need to use something like Calibre to convert the documents into Kindle format.

Just a tip though: if you can, splurge on the Paperwhite. Having a backlight makes a huge difference. I got the Kindle touchscreen for my mother in law's birthday but it sat in a drawer until we got it upgraded to the Paperwhite, now she uses it constantly.
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thanks! i had a look at the paperwhite now and its pricey (+/- R1.5k more) but i suppose worth it.
i'll just do a little more research and then pull the trigger
 
Might be worth setting up an Amazon account for them and linking the kindle, that way they can get up & running and start downloading samples / free books until they add their billing details.
 
I have one of the older kindles, which was the last generation with non-touch, as I prefer the buttons.

The backlight only really makes a difference IMO if you wanted to read in dim light, daytime or even at night while the lights are on it's as legible as a book.

+1 for the Calibre solution. No wifi connection is fine, just load it up with eBooks (it's got lots of space, will keep Granny busy for quite a while). Refill at your leisure.

IMO the touch screen is a bit confusing at first but once you get used to it, it'll be easy enough to operate.

Edit: to answer the questions specifically.

- Operating without wifi is fine.
- On-board storage. Mine has 4GB, newer ones must have more. It's enough for plenty of books, I've never even come close to the limit. No SD card slot, but not really needed.
 
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You can copy normal PDFs and ebooks over to the Kindle via USB transfer.

Amazon also allows you to purchase books online, and while you have your Kindle plugged in via USB, can select an option to download the book and transfer it yourself. I think that ebook is then locked to your kindle so you cant give it to anybody else.

You definitely want a paperwhite, best bang for buck.

The backlight is a dealbreaker for me. I used a non backlit kindle for years always had to make a plan with low light reading.. not with this, can ready anywhere, anytime, and not need a lamp for assistance.
 
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I got a kindle on special from amazon not long ago for something like $29. Well worth it for that price. Don’t care about back lighting, books don’t come with that either.
 
bwana said:
I got a kindle on special from amazon not long ago for something like $29. Well worth it for that price. Don’t care about back lighting, books don’t come with that either.
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Books are so 19th century, we need the trees! I honestly see a future where maybe the kids of my kids wont touch a paper printed book, will all be digital.
 
Surv0 said:
Books are so 19th century, we need the trees! I honestly see a future where maybe the kids of my kids wont touch a paper printed book, will all be digital.
Click to expand...

Books have been around for thousands of years, friend ;-)

That being said though, I think there's a significant advantage to having paper around. Doesn't need batteries, or any special equipment in order to be able to get the information from it, just the ability to read. Sure, I love e-books, but paper ones still win in a number of important situations.
 
ryu said:
hi

Thinking about getting a kindle for an elder person in my family, makro has one with adds for R1499:
"Amazon All-New Kindle Touchscreen Wi-Fi 8th Gen"

okay some question as i've never used or even seen a kindle before, i'm thinking of purchasing the above and loading a bunch of books on it (not purchasing through the store) is that possible ?
Click to expand...
Yes. Connect the kindle to a PC using a USB cable and the kindle pops up as an external drive. Treat it like you would a USB stick.
ryu said:
the person i'm buying it for isnt tech savvy in the least and ofcourse wont have access to wifi etc will that be a problem ? i'm assuming you dont have to be connected to the net to use this kindle ?
Click to expand...
Your assumption is correct. You don't need wifi to use the kindle.

ryu said:
whats the storage like on these things, will the onbaord be enough or does it come with an sd slot or something ?
oh another question, can i load any format of ebook or only certain ones ?
Click to expand...
4GB of storage onboard (slightly less is usable, I assume for the OS.) There's no SD card slot. If 4GB sounds tiny, then consider that almost all books are less than 2MB big... so you'll easily get over 1,500 books on it.

As others have suggested - go for the PaperWhite.
 
Surv0 said:
Books are so 19th century, we need the trees! I honestly see a future where maybe the kids of my kids wont touch a paper printed book, will all be digital.
Click to expand...
The only downside to digital is I can't just pick up a book I've read and flip through it to an interesting part or something I want to check. Especially with non-fiction books, if they're on a shelf I'll often pick one up and page to something and maybe in the process glimpse something else I'd forgotten. Just doesn't feel the same on a kindle or paging through a huge pdf. I use kindle for 90% of my reading, but I miss the raw analog interactivity of a paper book for non-fiction reading & browsing.
 
I’ve recently discovered that if you purchase a printed book from Amazon you automatically get access to the Kindle version at no extra cost.
Best of both worlds.
 
I just have normal kindle touch wi-fi. Nothing fancy. Battery last ages. Can store thousands of books, no need for extra storage. If you have an existing downloaded E book or PDF you can just email it to the 'kindle' (Send to Kindle). If it is in PDF format just type in the heading 'convert' before you send-to-kindle, and kindle will convert it to kindle format.
 
The book format is a kindle specific .mobi with the extension azw. Any mobi or azw format will work. If you download an application called calibre (https://calibre-ebook.com) onto your PC you can convert books in other formats (epub, pdf, etc) into the mobi format and copy them onto the kindle, it's a great application. Pdf books work but not that well, it's worth converting them first.
 
I'll second the paperwhite. Being able to read in bed without the lights on is great.
 
zhsa said:
I’ve recently discovered that if you purchase a printed book from Amazon you automatically get access to the Kindle version at no extra cost.
Best of both worlds.
Click to expand...
That's only for a limited number of specific books. For most books this isn't the case
 
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