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Kindle Lighted Case
Kindle Update 6 2 2
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6571 of 6703 people found the following review helpful. USE – As far as the reading experience, I really like the touch compared to the physical buttons on the previous generation. At first I was worried that I would constantly be turning the page from accidentally touching the screen, but this didn’t become much of an issue. The screen is broken up into mapped sections, so if you touch the far left side that covers about 1″ of the left of the screen, it goes to the previous page. If you touch anywhere on the other 80% of the screen beside that, it goes forward. Touch the top 1″ margin, and it will bring up the menu. There is also a physical button on the bottom of the touch that serves as the Home button and will take you straight to the Home menu. The area where I found the touch most useful is the dictionary. Previously, if I wanted to look up the definition of a word, I had to use the clunky joystick to navigate through the text. If a word was at the very bottom at the end of the sentence, sometimes I’d usually just ignore it rather than go through the trouble of pressing that joystick 15 times. With the Touch, I can simply touch the word and hold it down for about 1.5 seconds (so it knows I’m not trying to turn the page) to access the dictionary, which is incredibly useful and time-saving. Underlining phrases and highlighting works almost the same way. You hold down the first word in the sentence, then after two-three seconds it will recognize what you are doing, and then you drag your finger across the rest. I never used to do this before but now I do it all the time. The Kindle Fire actually handles the dictionary search much better. Though this is probably one of the only things the Fire does better than the Touch as far as ebooks. When you swipe your finger across the page or drag it down to change, the page changes just like it did with the Kindle Keyboard, in that it draws the next page. So there is a very short flash. It does not seamlessly and fluidly switch like it does with an iPad or what you would expect if you scrolled your mouse down a web site. This doesn’t detract from it at all for me. There is a new X-Ray feature that you can click on to bring up more ideas and common features of the book, but it is apparently only available on select titles and none of my books had it so I couldn’t try it out. The Kindle Touch does not allow you to switch the display to landscape mode like the basic Kindle does. I have no idea why but I would be surprised if they did not resolve this in a future firmware update. Form Factor – Even though the changes are fairly small, they feel significant. The KT is only .1″ less width, and a little over half an inch shorter than the K3, but after several hours of using it, I feel like I can hold it longer with one hand than with the K3. I think the main contributor to this is that this Kindle is one ounce lighter than the K3. This is a very noticeable difference from the K3. One ounce adds up after hours of holding it in front of you with one hand. I never had a real problem holding the previous version, but this one seems even easier. Real Page Numbers – the K3 only displayed a percentage of the book completed or some weird “location” setting that I never understood. The KT displays the actual page number, regardless of what zoom setting you have it on. This is a big improvement for me, especially after I realized how difficult it is for them to be able to do this. This does not work on every book, but most of the popular books I have checked it with have it. Book Lending – This is another huge improvement and just another reason to make the jump from regular books to a Kindle. You can finally lend your books to other people with Kindles. You can lend a book only once, and only for 14 days. I am okay with that because I understand the need to curb piracy. My only problem is that the book has to be eligible for this option and so far, most of the books in my collection aren’t. Display – Same as before on the K3, with a few improvements. The short flash that you get when turning the page (although I never really notice it) while the Kindle loads up the next page, occurs less frequently. This makes the Touch feel a lot more like a real book. Even though the display is monochrome, the KT delivers very crisp black and white images, and renders photos and images very well. I have tried out the Kindle Fire as well, but I still prefer the Kindle Touch due to E-Ink, which I think looks much better than backlit text, especially since I like to read for 4-5 hours at a time. Reading in the sunlight with E-Ink compared to a backlit screen is no contest. It is the difference between night and day (pun intended). Newspapers, magazines, and PDFs all look better on the Fire though (although with some limitations as you can see in my review for that product). If your main purpose of buying a Kindle is to read, I highly recommend the Kindle Touch over the Kindle Fire. Even though the E-ink on the touch is supposed to be improved over the K3, it must be very slight, because I noticed almost no difference. Even photos look pretty much the same across both devices. I have uploaded several photos into the image gallery so you can compare the two. Wi-Fi – I originally ordered the 3G version of the Touch, then cancelled when I realized I almost never used it. If you travel a lot and are a voracious reader, it might be worth it. But if you have access to a computer it is so much easier to download a lot of books at once so you always have something available to read when you finish your current book. You can save a lot of money by foregoing the 3G option. If you don’t have wireless, you can always transfer books through the USB. If you want to save even more money, make sure to order the Kindle with Special Offers. Not only do you save $40, but most people I have seen actually prefer it. The offers are very unobtrusive, and after a couple months with the regular Kindle, you will get sick of looking at that Agatha Christie screensaver over and over. The offers are even fairly useful and will pay for themselves. If Amazon added new screensavers every few weeks or let you add your own, it might not be so bad, but they get really boring after awhile. Trust me on this, and get the Special Offers version. Battery – Advertised as 2 months. Battery life seems on par with the K3, which also advertised as 2 months. Be warned that if you add a lighted cover such as the Kindle Touch Lighted Leather Cover, Black your battery life is going to be diminished since it draws power from the device, however it is still going to be overwhelmingly sufficient for an electronic device. I use my Kindle Touch Lighted Leather Cover, Wine Purple during most of my reading and only have to charge my Touch about every three weeks. Storage – Same 4gb storage as on the K3, which will hold roughly 3,000 books. The average 500 page book is around 500kb. Considering this device also comes with access to Amazon’s cloud storage for saving backups, I think it’s very unlikely anyone would ever need to store more than 3,000 books. If your device is getting full, just back up your old books to the cloud, and they’re there if you ever want them again. 3,000 books on your Kindle makes things rather difficult to manage unless you have everything sorted into separate folders. Text-to-Speech and Experimental Features – The Text-to-Speech option on the kindle is rather useless in my opinion. This is the same functionality as on the K3, and it is fairly difficult to listen to the automated (mostly) monotone voice reading your novels. I don’t know many people who actually use this feature. Audiobooks are better, but I still think they’re just too expensive for me. The experimental browser is nice to have in a pinch, but it is so slow and clunky to use (you can’t really see anything unless you magnify certain sections of the screen), that I don’t really see anyone using it either. The touch feature does make it much easier to use than the previous version, which required you to navigate through the links using a cursor and joystick, but the browser is still too slow to be of any use. I will look things up with Wikipedia occasionally but you can’t do any real extended web browsing with it. If you really want this feature, you should look into the Kindle Fire. The MP3 Payer is back, and much improved since you can now see the artist and title of the song you’re listening to on a visual display, although the Touch is definitely not to be confused with an actual music player. I use this feature sometimes as background music while I’m reading or when I go to sleep, since it uses very little battery. Touch Capability – This is where the device shines. I originally thought it wouldn’t be that much better than the previous version, however I have found the touch function is so intuitive and much more useful than I would have thought. I like to use the embedded dictionary a lot, and it is a bit of a pain to use the joystick from the K3 to scroll down to the word I want and look it up. With the Touch, I can just touch the word and have it jump straight to the dictionary. This is a GREAT feature. I have also found it useful when I read books like the Lone Wolf 1: Flight From the Dark series, which has you constantly using inline links to skip to different sections in the book. Navigating with the KT is so much faster and easier than with the previous generation. For anyone who reads a lot, I would say this is definitely worth an upgrade consideration. The built in touch keyboard is not as fast as the previous model, but it is extremely well designed and the buttons are spaced just right. I have no problems with the lack of a physical keyboard. EXPERIMENTAL FEATURES – The MP3 Player is not designed to be a fully-functional music device. It was included because the capability to play audiobooks allowed it to be easily added. The MP3 player with the Kindle Touch is slightly improved from the K3, as you can now see a display that shows the artist and track while the MP3 is playing. This makes navigation much easier. I do use it occasionally to play classical music while reading or as an ad hoc music device while traveling, but don’t expect much out of it. The nice thing about it is that it consumes very little battery life as compared to a traditional music player. The Web Browser included with the Kindle Touch is much better than the previous generation, however like the MP3 player, it is not designed to be a full-functioned browser. Don’t plan on doing long periods of web surfing with it, but it does come in handy if you need it in a pinch for looking up more information. Pages display much better than the previous version’s browser and load faster. If you’re using the 3G version, please note that you can only access Amazon and Wikipedia with it. You will need to connect to wifi if you want to go anywhere else. My one major problem with this new Kindle is that Amazon has decided not to include a power adapter with it. If you do not already own one, or have a computer, you cannot power this device! I don’t know if they are trying to make more profit by getting people to purchase their Amazon Kindle US Power Adapter (Kindle, Kindle Touch, Kindle Keyboard, Kindle DX) (which is what you need to connect it to an outlet) separately, but this is completely ridiculous. The Kindle Fire contained a power adapter and no USB cable. The Kindle Touch contains a USB cable and no power adapter. Who is in charge of this ridiculous decision? It would not have cost Amazon more than $2 to include the adapter. If you have a previous generation Kindle, that adapter will work with this device. But I am still very disappointed in Amazon for this. There will be thousands (millions?) of people searching their boxes for a missing adapter to charge this thing. And with more people using tablets and getting rid of their desktops, it makes this even more important. If you don’t already have an adapter or computer to plug the USB into, add the Amazon Kindle US Power Adapter (Kindle, Kindle Touch, Kindle Keyboard, Kindle DX) to your cart. Overall, I definitely think that the Kindle Touch is an improvement over the Kindle 3 (Kindle Keyboard). It is probably not a big enough improvement for me to recommend that people replace their previous generation Kindle with it unless they really use it a lot, however at such a cheap price tag, it’s almost difficult not to. UPDATE: February 2012 – Software Update Version 5.0.3 makes page turning as well as menu navigation noticeably faster. Most users should receive the update over wi-fi within the next couple weeks, or you can download it manually from Amazon (do a web search for “Kindle Software Updates”). Still no fix for landscape mode though. 2994 of 3055 people found the following review helpful. I’m definitely an avid reader. Actually, as I type this, I have roughly 1000 books sitting on a wall of shelves behind me. E-readers have always intrigued me, but I’ve never felt like they were worth $199 or more; however, when the Kindle Fire was announced, I thought they had released the Kindle for me. I watched video reviews, “hands-on” videos, read numerous reviews, etc. I was pretty sure that I wanted a Fire, but as I thought about it, I wasn’t convinced that the Fire really provided me with access to anything that I couldn’t do on my phone (HTC Inspire 4g). Other than a bigger screen, the Fire was actually pretty limited (for my purposes). I mean, I would only be able to use the browser and watch videos in areas with WiFi (i.e. at home, at work, or at retail location with WiFi). If I’m at home, I’ll probably just watch videos on my tv and access the internet on my desktop or my laptop. At work I’m too busy for the Fire to get much use. And other than the occasional trip to Starbucks (and by occasional, I mean like once a month), I don’t really make use of hot spots. SOO…I decided the Fire didn’t really justify the extra money for something I already have access to through my phone, laptop/desktop, or tv. This caused me to run the gambit of reviews for the Kindle Touch and the Kindle Keyboard. Best Buy was advertising the Kindle Keyboard 3G (with ads) for $89, so price wasn’t really a distinguishing feature for me. My thoughts: Touch: Keyboard: After considering all of this, I went to Best Buy absolutely intending on buying a Kindle Keyboard. I got there, and of course, they had demo models of both. I figured, “What the heck…might as well make sure I like the Keyboard more.” I played with both for over an hour. I read books, made notes, made highlights, looked up words, went to the menu, back to a book, back to the menu. I went forward through a few pages. I went back through the same pages. I did everything I thought I would normally do while reading. My decision? Overall, I was almost dumbfounded that I preferred the Touch over the Keyboard. I actually delayed my purchase and took my wife to the store and had her play with both to see if I was just crazy. She agreed: the keyboard on the Keyboard is poorly designed, the clicking is annoying, and the screen on the Touch is actually pretty incredible. (Edit: The clicking page-turn buttons on the Keyboard may be confined to the demo unit I used. I played with another Keyboard at another Best Buy and there was no clicking. Regardless, the tapping/swiping on the Touch is a much more natural movement for me.) So far, I love my Touch. It will definitely be more convenient than carrying my normal 3-4 books around in my backpack. For those on the fence, I hope this helped. UPDATE: Just a few additional notes worth mentioning (notes as of 12/24…my Touch has had a little over a month of use now): Maybe I’m just lazy. Regardless, the Touch is awesome. Probably the best $100 I’ve spent in a while. 5344 of 5476 people found the following review helpful. General observations: - Controlling/manipulating things on the screen is so much easier with the touch screen-it’s a lot more intuitive! - Athough I don’t show it in the video, you can swipe instead of tap to turn pages. You may also use your left hand to page forward by tapping slightly more in from the left edge. It works quite well. - Looking up a word is as easy as pressing on that word. No more fumbling with a 5-way controller. You can additionally highlight blocks of text quite easily by just swiping over it. - Kindle Touch also has the new X-Ray feature which is really neat. It can be interesting to see a summary listing of facts from a given book about a person mentioned for instance. The Kindle Keyboard does not include this feature. |
A Solid Successor to the Kindle KeyboardKindle Notepad
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525 of 546 people found the following review helpful. 259 of 267 people found the following review helpful. Needs: In a nutshell, this is worth $0.99 many times over,…. BUT only if you are looking for a Quick, Easy and Intuitive UI that allows you to enter notes on your Kindle. 169 of 175 people found the following review helpful. Now I have notes to myself–horror, mystery, bio, history– and my K is all cleaned up. I’ll be able to find the book I want. I also like the idea someone had about listing all the books in a series. I get tired of figuring out what comes next then forgetting. What a neat app!! Let’s get the calendar and contact list next!! |
Kindle Waterproof Case Third
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful. My only complaint is this, and if there is a solution, I would love to hear it: I have the K3 all nice, snug and tightly-waterproof in its red padded Waterguard. I put the Kindle aside for a few minutes and it goes to “sleep”. When I return (or wake up?) — I have to take it out of the safe, waterproof case with my wet (or sandy) hands to turn it back on. I do understand the procedure to keep it dry when opening it up, but it’s a little time-consuming…. and putting openings for the power button would not be possible (and stay waterproof) so I’m not sure what the solution could be. Any solution and I’ll edit this to a FIVE star because it definitely keeps it waterproof. Edited to add: great customer service! See the comment to my posting. I’m impressed with a company who cares about customer reviews! I’ll ‘up’ the review to a 5 because of the customer service. 8 of 10 people found the following review helpful. I don’t have any fancy video to add (although I certainly watched that review pre-purchase and then demonstrated the same thing to any friends who would watch). The one slightly annoying thing is it is hard to slide the power button when the case is on… oh well, I was reading my kindle in a pool! How cool is that?!?!?! Why wouldn’t you want to be reading your books while in a pool, pools are awesome. 3 of 4 people found the following review helpful. |
Am I not cool?Kindle App For Ipad Books
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343 of 354 people found the following review helpful. Like many Kindle owners, I kept seeing this title pop-up everywhere. My initial reaction was that it was a scam – some guy trying to con as many people into buying a cheap book as possible (hey, if 10,000 people buy a book for a few bucks, it all adds up, right?). Turns out there’s actually quite a bit of content here. I didn’t find it particularly useful, but there are lots of words – don’t worry that you’re only going to get a two-pager with a few web links. That’s not the case. After reading through this, though, I was left with a few thoughts I hope my fellow Kindle readers will appreciate: 1) It’s not a scam, but let’s be clear that advertising for the author’s website/blog, “Kindle Nation” is probably a big reason this book exists. I can understand pitching it a bit up-front (nothing wrong with a bit of self-promotion), but there’s an entire chapter in the middle of the book entitled, “How to Contact Kindle Nation”… 2) It’s the Kindle-owner feel-good book of the year! Way too much of this “book” focuses on telling you how great your Kindle is. I agree, of course. The Kindle is awesome, but most Kindle owners should know this without having to read a book about it. 3) I didn’t actually learn anything. The vast majority of information in this book is available on Amazon’s Kindle website or in the Kindle manual for free – and it doesn’t even provide full end-to-end, step-by-step instructions for most things…you’ll still need the manual. The few truly ‘new’ topics (e.g. Calibre) are pretty easy to find by Googling “Kindle”. 4) Not well-written. I’m not an author (and anyone reading my review will probably agree), but the author is just so damn verbose it’s not funny. And it’s not like the extras words make the steps you need to go through to get the free content easier to understand (that’s what bullets are for – and there aren’t a lot of those in this book). This is written in a style that makes you feel you’re in a 3-hour, one-sided conversation… Don’t get me wrong – some people may well find it useful to buy this. If your friends all have iPads and you want some talking points around what’s great about your Kindle so you can still show your face at parties – this book is for you. If you’re technologically challenged and need someone to hold your hand through Kindle Basics, don’t like reading things ‘on the web’ and you’re finding the manual a bit hard to understand – this book is for you. If you love Kindle Nation and are looking for ways to subsidize it – this book is for you. If you enjoyed the rambling prose of this review and didn’t feel that I could have got my point across simply by saying, “This book sucked” – this book is for you. I gave it two stars instead of one because it does deliver what it claims to and I didn’t find any spelling mistakes. But seriously folks…like…wow. 122 of 133 people found the following review helpful. As I don’t know as much about the Kindle as others, I’m finding this book to be pretty darn useful. And, I think I will get much more use from it as time passes. I’ve found the links to be handy, as I have taken the suggestion of the author to put this on my Kindle for PC, as well. It’s also written in a very amusing manner, as well. I do disagree with the author that the lighted cover is a good deal at $60 (I think that is much too expensive), but that is a pretty minor quibble, indeed. If you know a ton about your Kindle, this probably isn’t necessary. For a newer owner, I think it will be quite handy. You will find handy information about free book sites (including Baen)and info. about some of the history. Also various interesting trivia – such as Oprah admitting she had never read Dickens. Odd that she recommends a book she hasn’t read, but there you are. For the cost of 99 cents, this wasn’t a hard purchase for me to make. 39 of 42 people found the following review helpful. I’m surprised at the reviewers that say that the only folks to whom this may appeal is those new to the Kindle. While SOME of the information is in the User’s Guide, I found much in Steve’s book that was quite helpful. For me the book was a steal if only because of the Chapter on Calibre. As a long time user of eReader on the Palm, I had several books that I was hoping to convert for reading on my Kindle. Books that are not (yet) available on the Kindle and that it would be nice to have readily available electronically. The other thing that I really liked about Free for All is that it is current and up-to-date. I have also downloaded Michael Gallagher’s “Tips, Tricks, and Shortcuts” but that book has some way to go to be current for the latest generation (3) of the Kindle. It is readily apparent that Steve’s book is current (December 2010). Yes, he touts his blog. The blog is an excellent resource for books. But there is so much more to this book than just mentioning Kindle Nation that I really have to wonder if a couple of the other reviewers and I even downloaded the same book. I like having all of the information in one place in my “Kindle Resources” collection. |
Wow….just Wow…
It’s kind of like buying a new TV, and then going out to buy a book about how great your new TV is… Oh, and this new edition talks about getting this free content WITHOUT NEEDING A KINDLE!!! If you pay any attention to the Amazon website, you’ll already know that there are Kindle apps for all kinds of devices… No need to buy a book to tell you that.Kindle Fire Charger Ac Adapter
Look For Kindle Fire Charger Ac Adapter 2 @ Amazon.com
274 of 285 people found the following review helpful. This AC wall adapter charger is the one that comes with the Kindle Fire. It’s plug is 1 2/3 inches wide x 2 1/2 inches long. It works well to charge the Fire although the cord is rather short, only 4 feet. The Fire’s adapter does not separate into a USB cable and a wall plug like the Amazon Kindle Replacement Power Adapter (Works with 6″, 9.7″ Display, 2nd and Latest Generation Kindles) that came with the Kindle Keyboards. So if you want to connect your Fire to your computer (and don’t already have the AC adapter that came with the Kindle 2 or 3) you will need to buy either an Amazon Kindle Replacement USB Cable, White (Works with 6″, 9.7″ Display, 2nd and Latest Generation Kindles) OR just the Kindle US Power Adapter (Not included with Kindle or Kindle Touch) if you already have the USB cable from another Kindle you own. Of course, as long as you have a good, solid Wi-Fi connection you may have no need for these extra USB cables. The adapter plugged securely into the Fire and the wall outlet. It isn’t that big but it’s still kind of bulky. I much preferred the lighter, more streamlined Amazon Kindle Replacement Power Adapter (Works with 6″, 9.7″ Display, 2nd and Latest Generation Kindles) that came with my Kindle Keyboard which is much easier to throw into a bag/purse/backpack. The last thing I needed was another “brick” power adapter especially one with prongs that don’t fold down and you can’t rotate; which is why I am only giving this 4 stars. That being said, the adapter that comes with the Fire will charge it more quickly than the older Kindle wall adapters which are only rated at 4.9V, 0.85A compared to the Fire adapter’s rating of 5V, 1.8A. The adapter that comes with the Fire is made in China and the specs are: Note: A wall adapter does NOT come with the new $79/$109 Kindles or the new Kindle touch; just a USB cable. This wall adapter can be used to charge any Kindle except the Kindle 1 which came with it’s own proprietary adapter. UPDATE 11/16/11: Used this to charge my Kindle Touch. Worked very well. UPDATE 12/12/11: ABOUT AMPS: When considering what other adapters can charge your Fire, first you need a 5V(volt) charger. The next thing to look at is the charging amps(A). You ideally want one that is as good as the 1.8A(1800mA) Amps that the Fire adapter has. This determines how fast the Fire will charge. A charger with a .700A(700mA) rating like a Blackberry charger or the older Kindle adapter rated at .85A(850mA) will charge the Fire, just more slowly. The USB 2.0 port on your computer is rated at 500 milliamps of power at 5 volts. This is not enough amps to charge a Fire. UPDATE 12/13/11: A worthy additional/alternate option to the Fire’s charger would be the $10 AmazonBasics Wall Charger with USB Outlet( 2.1 Amp Output)(Has a LED charging light, prongs fold down, at 2100mA will charge just as fast) combined with a $6 AmazonBasics USB Cable – 2.0 A Male to Micro B (6 Feet / 1.8 Meters)(6 feet, 2 feet more than original Fire charger) if you don’t already have a cable like this. ASIDE 1/23/12: You can get a free app every day for the FIRE. Search Amazon for “Apps for Android”. Click on “GO”. Click on “Deals” near top of page. Scroll down the page to the Discussions. Select the discussion “List of Free Daily Deal Android Apps for Kindle Fire”. Click on yellow bar on top right side of page to “Track this Discussion”. Once you do this you will get an e-mail every day linking you to the free app of the day. 137 of 163 people found the following review helpful. I bought this because I thought that my chargers for my older Kindles wouldn’t work with the Fire—SURPRISE, of course they do. Plus, they have a longer cord (the older models) so you may be a lot more comfortable while reading on the Fire while it’s charging. It is so not worth 25$. Use your older one, then you will be able to use the USB port. If your Fire is the only e-reader you have then I would suggest that you make a better financial decision and buy the Fosmon Rapid Car Charger + Home Travel Charger + USB Data Cable for Amazon Kindle 4 / Kindle Touch / Kindle Keyboard – White 36 of 40 people found the following review helpful. Its plug prong is NOT foldable, making it less convenient for traveling. It is a dedicated charger that cannot be used with USB devices that require other kinds of plug, such as regular USB 2.0 or Mini USB. The price is also a bit high at $25. *************************************************************************************************************************************** Amazon also makes a USB charger under the label AmazonBasics that IMO is better. I originally bought this as an extra charger for my iPad. I tried charging the newly introduced Amazon Kindle Fire, and it worked very well. This compact and foldable 2.1A (2100 mA) charger can quickly charge Kindle Fire or Apple iPad/iPad2 (you need a different cable for each one). The Kindle Fire requires just 1.8A of charging current, so this charger is fine. AmazonBasics Wall Charger with USB Outlet( 2.1 Amp Output) You also need to buy this $6 AmazonBasics micro USB cable. AmazonBasics USB Cable – 2.0 A Male to Micro B (6 Feet / 1.8 Meters) Do not use one intended for your cellphone; it may not work, although it looks identical externally to a standard one. The total cost is $16, still much cheaper than the dedicated Kindle charger which sells for $25. And you also enjoy better utility with this charger/cable combo because they are separate, and the charger prong is foldable. Additionally, this same USB cable can be used for copying files from your computer to the Fire and vice versa. This is the kind of cable (USB 2.0 on one end and micro USB on the other) that some reviewers were saying that Amazon should have included in the Fire box. You can check what both look like in Images on this web page. * The main draw of this AmazonBasics USB wall charger is the 2100 mA current output, which is required for most modern smartphones and iPad/iPad2. You get these gadgets charged the fastest with this charger. But the shape of this charger will BLOCK adjacent power outlets if it is plugged into the wall or even an extension power strip. In this respect, it is really not an improvement over Apple’s 10W USB Power Adapter. This is why I also bring along a (Ziotek ZT1212518 Power Strip Liberator Plus with Pass Through, Ziotek ZT1212518 Power Strip Liberator Plus with Pass Through, 5-Pack) when I travel. It will allow all outlets to be used by extending the plug a few inches. With its pass through feature, a normal plug can be piggybacked on top of the extender plug, thereby doubling plug density (from 6 plugs to 12 plugs, for example), although the total power consumption still cannot exceed 1680 watts. It comes in a pack of 5, and the average cost is $2.65. I consider this a small price to pay for more convenience and flexibility. In summary, I do recommend this AmazonBasics charger because it works, is well-made, and costs only 1/3 the price of Apple’s part. |
Quite Disappointed in This Product/PriceKindle Version Up
Look For Kindle Version Up at Amazon
6568 of 6700 people found the following review helpful. USE – As far as the reading experience, I really like the touch compared to the physical buttons on the previous generation. At first I was worried that I would constantly be turning the page from accidentally touching the screen, but this didn’t become much of an issue. The screen is broken up into mapped sections, so if you touch the far left side that covers about 1″ of the left of the screen, it goes to the previous page. If you touch anywhere on the other 80% of the screen beside that, it goes forward. Touch the top 1″ margin, and it will bring up the menu. There is also a physical button on the bottom of the touch that serves as the Home button and will take you straight to the Home menu. The area where I found the touch most useful is the dictionary. Previously, if I wanted to look up the definition of a word, I had to use the clunky joystick to navigate through the text. If a word was at the very bottom at the end of the sentence, sometimes I’d usually just ignore it rather than go through the trouble of pressing that joystick 15 times. With the Touch, I can simply touch the word and hold it down for about 1.5 seconds (so it knows I’m not trying to turn the page) to access the dictionary, which is incredibly useful and time-saving. Underlining phrases and highlighting works almost the same way. You hold down the first word in the sentence, then after two-three seconds it will recognize what you are doing, and then you drag your finger across the rest. I never used to do this before but now I do it all the time. The Kindle Fire actually handles the dictionary search much better. Though this is probably one of the only things the Fire does better than the Touch as far as ebooks. When you swipe your finger across the page or drag it down to change, the page changes just like it did with the Kindle Keyboard, in that it draws the next page. So there is a very short flash. It does not seamlessly and fluidly switch like it does with an iPad or what you would expect if you scrolled your mouse down a web site. This doesn’t detract from it at all for me. There is a new X-Ray feature that you can click on to bring up more ideas and common features of the book, but it is apparently only available on select titles and none of my books had it so I couldn’t try it out. The Kindle Touch does not allow you to switch the display to landscape mode like the basic Kindle does. I have no idea why but I would be surprised if they did not resolve this in a future firmware update. Form Factor – Even though the changes are fairly small, they feel significant. The KT is only .1″ less width, and a little over half an inch shorter than the K3, but after several hours of using it, I feel like I can hold it longer with one hand than with the K3. I think the main contributor to this is that this Kindle is one ounce lighter than the K3. This is a very noticeable difference from the K3. One ounce adds up after hours of holding it in front of you with one hand. I never had a real problem holding the previous version, but this one seems even easier. Real Page Numbers – the K3 only displayed a percentage of the book completed or some weird “location” setting that I never understood. The KT displays the actual page number, regardless of what zoom setting you have it on. This is a big improvement for me, especially after I realized how difficult it is for them to be able to do this. This does not work on every book, but most of the popular books I have checked it with have it. Book Lending – This is another huge improvement and just another reason to make the jump from regular books to a Kindle. You can finally lend your books to other people with Kindles. You can lend a book only once, and only for 14 days. I am okay with that because I understand the need to curb piracy. My only problem is that the book has to be eligible for this option and so far, most of the books in my collection aren’t. Display – Same as before on the K3, with a few improvements. The short flash that you get when turning the page (although I never really notice it) while the Kindle loads up the next page, occurs less frequently. This makes the Touch feel a lot more like a real book. Even though the display is monochrome, the KT delivers very crisp black and white images, and renders photos and images very well. I have tried out the Kindle Fire as well, but I still prefer the Kindle Touch due to E-Ink, which I think looks much better than backlit text, especially since I like to read for 4-5 hours at a time. Reading in the sunlight with E-Ink compared to a backlit screen is no contest. It is the difference between night and day (pun intended). Newspapers, magazines, and PDFs all look better on the Fire though (although with some limitations as you can see in my review for that product). If your main purpose of buying a Kindle is to read, I highly recommend the Kindle Touch over the Kindle Fire. Even though the E-ink on the touch is supposed to be improved over the K3, it must be very slight, because I noticed almost no difference. Even photos look pretty much the same across both devices. I have uploaded several photos into the image gallery so you can compare the two. Wi-Fi – I originally ordered the 3G version of the Touch, then cancelled when I realized I almost never used it. If you travel a lot and are a voracious reader, it might be worth it. But if you have access to a computer it is so much easier to download a lot of books at once so you always have something available to read when you finish your current book. You can save a lot of money by foregoing the 3G option. If you don’t have wireless, you can always transfer books through the USB. If you want to save even more money, make sure to order the Kindle with Special Offers. Not only do you save $40, but most people I have seen actually prefer it. The offers are very unobtrusive, and after a couple months with the regular Kindle, you will get sick of looking at that Agatha Christie screensaver over and over. The offers are even fairly useful and will pay for themselves. If Amazon added new screensavers every few weeks or let you add your own, it might not be so bad, but they get really boring after awhile. Trust me on this, and get the Special Offers version. Battery – Advertised as 2 months. Battery life seems on par with the K3, which also advertised as 2 months. Be warned that if you add a lighted cover such as the Kindle Touch Lighted Leather Cover, Black your battery life is going to be diminished since it draws power from the device, however it is still going to be overwhelmingly sufficient for an electronic device. I use my Kindle Touch Lighted Leather Cover, Wine Purple during most of my reading and only have to charge my Touch about every three weeks. Storage – Same 4gb storage as on the K3, which will hold roughly 3,000 books. The average 500 page book is around 500kb. Considering this device also comes with access to Amazon’s cloud storage for saving backups, I think it’s very unlikely anyone would ever need to store more than 3,000 books. If your device is getting full, just back up your old books to the cloud, and they’re there if you ever want them again. 3,000 books on your Kindle makes things rather difficult to manage unless you have everything sorted into separate folders. Text-to-Speech and Experimental Features – The Text-to-Speech option on the kindle is rather useless in my opinion. This is the same functionality as on the K3, and it is fairly difficult to listen to the automated (mostly) monotone voice reading your novels. I don’t know many people who actually use this feature. Audiobooks are better, but I still think they’re just too expensive for me. The experimental browser is nice to have in a pinch, but it is so slow and clunky to use (you can’t really see anything unless you magnify certain sections of the screen), that I don’t really see anyone using it either. The touch feature does make it much easier to use than the previous version, which required you to navigate through the links using a cursor and joystick, but the browser is still too slow to be of any use. I will look things up with Wikipedia occasionally but you can’t do any real extended web browsing with it. If you really want this feature, you should look into the Kindle Fire. The MP3 Payer is back, and much improved since you can now see the artist and title of the song you’re listening to on a visual display, although the Touch is definitely not to be confused with an actual music player. I use this feature sometimes as background music while I’m reading or when I go to sleep, since it uses very little battery. Touch Capability – This is where the device shines. I originally thought it wouldn’t be that much better than the previous version, however I have found the touch function is so intuitive and much more useful than I would have thought. I like to use the embedded dictionary a lot, and it is a bit of a pain to use the joystick from the K3 to scroll down to the word I want and look it up. With the Touch, I can just touch the word and have it jump straight to the dictionary. This is a GREAT feature. I have also found it useful when I read books like the Lone Wolf 1: Flight From the Dark series, which has you constantly using inline links to skip to different sections in the book. Navigating with the KT is so much faster and easier than with the previous generation. For anyone who reads a lot, I would say this is definitely worth an upgrade consideration. The built in touch keyboard is not as fast as the previous model, but it is extremely well designed and the buttons are spaced just right. I have no problems with the lack of a physical keyboard. EXPERIMENTAL FEATURES – The MP3 Player is not designed to be a fully-functional music device. It was included because the capability to play audiobooks allowed it to be easily added. The MP3 player with the Kindle Touch is slightly improved from the K3, as you can now see a display that shows the artist and track while the MP3 is playing. This makes navigation much easier. I do use it occasionally to play classical music while reading or as an ad hoc music device while traveling, but don’t expect much out of it. The nice thing about it is that it consumes very little battery life as compared to a traditional music player. The Web Browser included with the Kindle Touch is much better than the previous generation, however like the MP3 player, it is not designed to be a full-functioned browser. Don’t plan on doing long periods of web surfing with it, but it does come in handy if you need it in a pinch for looking up more information. Pages display much better than the previous version’s browser and load faster. If you’re using the 3G version, please note that you can only access Amazon and Wikipedia with it. You will need to connect to wifi if you want to go anywhere else. My one major problem with this new Kindle is that Amazon has decided not to include a power adapter with it. If you do not already own one, or have a computer, you cannot power this device! I don’t know if they are trying to make more profit by getting people to purchase their Amazon Kindle US Power Adapter (Kindle, Kindle Touch, Kindle Keyboard, Kindle DX) (which is what you need to connect it to an outlet) separately, but this is completely ridiculous. The Kindle Fire contained a power adapter and no USB cable. The Kindle Touch contains a USB cable and no power adapter. Who is in charge of this ridiculous decision? It would not have cost Amazon more than $2 to include the adapter. If you have a previous generation Kindle, that adapter will work with this device. But I am still very disappointed in Amazon for this. There will be thousands (millions?) of people searching their boxes for a missing adapter to charge this thing. And with more people using tablets and getting rid of their desktops, it makes this even more important. If you don’t already have an adapter or computer to plug the USB into, add the Amazon Kindle US Power Adapter (Kindle, Kindle Touch, Kindle Keyboard, Kindle DX) to your cart. Overall, I definitely think that the Kindle Touch is an improvement over the Kindle 3 (Kindle Keyboard). It is probably not a big enough improvement for me to recommend that people replace their previous generation Kindle with it unless they really use it a lot, however at such a cheap price tag, it’s almost difficult not to. UPDATE: February 2012 – Software Update Version 5.0.3 makes page turning as well as menu navigation noticeably faster. Most users should receive the update over wi-fi within the next couple weeks, or you can download it manually from Amazon (do a web search for “Kindle Software Updates”). Still no fix for landscape mode though. 2993 of 3054 people found the following review helpful. I’m definitely an avid reader. Actually, as I type this, I have roughly 1000 books sitting on a wall of shelves behind me. E-readers have always intrigued me, but I’ve never felt like they were worth $199 or more; however, when the Kindle Fire was announced, I thought they had released the Kindle for me. I watched video reviews, “hands-on” videos, read numerous reviews, etc. I was pretty sure that I wanted a Fire, but as I thought about it, I wasn’t convinced that the Fire really provided me with access to anything that I couldn’t do on my phone (HTC Inspire 4g). Other than a bigger screen, the Fire was actually pretty limited (for my purposes). I mean, I would only be able to use the browser and watch videos in areas with WiFi (i.e. at home, at work, or at retail location with WiFi). If I’m at home, I’ll probably just watch videos on my tv and access the internet on my desktop or my laptop. At work I’m too busy for the Fire to get much use. And other than the occasional trip to Starbucks (and by occasional, I mean like once a month), I don’t really make use of hot spots. SOO…I decided the Fire didn’t really justify the extra money for something I already have access to through my phone, laptop/desktop, or tv. This caused me to run the gambit of reviews for the Kindle Touch and the Kindle Keyboard. Best Buy was advertising the Kindle Keyboard 3G (with ads) for $89, so price wasn’t really a distinguishing feature for me. My thoughts: Touch: Keyboard: After considering all of this, I went to Best Buy absolutely intending on buying a Kindle Keyboard. I got there, and of course, they had demo models of both. I figured, “What the heck…might as well make sure I like the Keyboard more.” I played with both for over an hour. I read books, made notes, made highlights, looked up words, went to the menu, back to a book, back to the menu. I went forward through a few pages. I went back through the same pages. I did everything I thought I would normally do while reading. My decision? Overall, I was almost dumbfounded that I preferred the Touch over the Keyboard. I actually delayed my purchase and took my wife to the store and had her play with both to see if I was just crazy. She agreed: the keyboard on the Keyboard is poorly designed, the clicking is annoying, and the screen on the Touch is actually pretty incredible. (Edit: The clicking page-turn buttons on the Keyboard may be confined to the demo unit I used. I played with another Keyboard at another Best Buy and there was no clicking. Regardless, the tapping/swiping on the Touch is a much more natural movement for me.) So far, I love my Touch. It will definitely be more convenient than carrying my normal 3-4 books around in my backpack. For those on the fence, I hope this helped. UPDATE: Just a few additional notes worth mentioning (notes as of 12/24…my Touch has had a little over a month of use now): Maybe I’m just lazy. Regardless, the Touch is awesome. Probably the best $100 I’ve spent in a while. 5342 of 5474 people found the following review helpful. General observations: - Controlling/manipulating things on the screen is so much easier with the touch screen-it’s a lot more intuitive! - Athough I don’t show it in the video, you can swipe instead of tap to turn pages. You may also use your left hand to page forward by tapping slightly more in from the left edge. It works quite well. - Looking up a word is as easy as pressing on that word. No more fumbling with a 5-way controller. You can additionally highlight blocks of text quite easily by just swiping over it. - Kindle Touch also has the new X-Ray feature which is really neat. It can be interesting to see a summary listing of facts from a given book about a person mentioned for instance. The Kindle Keyboard does not include this feature. |
