Kindle 4

Since Christmas is coming up, I am planning on writing to Santa for a Kindle 4. I have a huge collection of books at home but idk how much more I will be able to get due to the prices and storage space. An ebook reader would be perfect for my needs but I still have certain doubts about the product.

For ex. can I use my Kindle without having an Amazon account? I'll only transfer books from my PC to the Kindle so I really don't see the use of an account.

How well does it handle PDF format and images? Let's say I am planning to look at some colored manga or magazines on it, how will that show up?

Is there some DRM bullshit I should be worried about even if I don't plan on buying books from Amazon?

Thx for your time and I hope Santa reads this post too

I think I'll never understand why they have chosen this name : "Kindle".
In German language there is "Kind" = "Child".
But of course that wasn't their intention. But still - I don't quite get it what should be so kind of a book reader ?

I would only recommend a Kindle if you do have an Amazon account and are planning to be using it exclusively for your purchases since they don't support epub files - keep in mind that there are many more devices you can chose from.

The way these things handle pdfs and anything other than pure text isn't yet anywhere near ideal and you might be disappointed (that is as long as we're talking about an electronic paper device and not a tablet of course). You won't get color and even though pdfs are supported, the small screen, the slow response and the overall primitive feeling of these devices makes them more annoying that convenient. If you plan to be using it for reading literature then it's great, but it can do nothing else well enough… if you want more than that you might want to look for a tablet instead.

I bought one for my girlfriend and she's hooked. She can't stop using it and she loves that she doesn't have to carry books around in her bag anymore.
If you just plan on reading books then it's great.

I'm not entirely sure if you need an Amazon account or not, but I'd recommend one as they do have thousands of free books available as well as thousands of very cheap ones for less than £5.

If you want color though, you need to fins something else.

One more thing, my girlfriends loves the e-ink display, she says it doesn't hurt or irritate her eyes even if she's reading for hours on end both in a light room or a dark room.

"kindle" is a verb for a fire just starting there Alrik. Kindling are the small scraps of wood chips or moss you use to get enough fire to burn a log as opposed to the paer to just light it.

not the best name in English either methinks..though I did work for a company called Triad. Our Hong Kong members can explain that one.

You can read pdf on the kindle but in cannot contain too much text per page. The software will also try to avoid margins in the document but sometimes you need to process the pdf yourself to remove those. PDFs on the kindle is fixed size. Amazon books adapt to the screen size. Comics and magazines in pdf is not what the Kindle excel at. It is mostly a reading device with great battery life.

The book you buy from Amazon contains DRM and is locked to your user account. Your Kindle is authorized when you connect it up to your PC with the Kindle software installed on the first install (or through the built-in mobile wireless, if you get that one). Books bought from Amazon is ordinary files you can copy to your kindle, and you can also backup them on the disk etc, read them on your PC with the Kindle software.

Just want to point out that you can buy books from other sources and put them on your kindle too by the way. Sometimes other places offer some books cheaper.
You're not restricted to buying only from Amazon.

the kindle format is a variant of mobi (which is probably XML). this is what a kindle app dev told me when I interviewed with Amazon.

A program like Calibre can easily convert any text file to mobi (maybe unless there's DRM?… I don't know that). So there should be little problem getting any ebook into Kindle. But if you're not planing to use Amazon then you might as well pick some other reader that will at least read ePub files and save yourself the trouble - some support almost anything, including mobi.

Thx for the replies. I really can' decide if I should buy it or not. Would the Nook Wi-Fi be a good option? It's exactly the same price though I've read some reviews and they all say different things. By the way, how annoying is the black screen flash when you turn pages? Kindle 4 does it once every 6 pages or so, Nook or older Kindle devices do it at every page.

It takes a while to get used, but then it's fine.

As far as I know you need an Amazon account (and therefore a credit card linked) to activate a Kindle. I got my Kindle Fire through Amazon so it came pre-registered, but with my Nook it was required as I did the setup. So there was no way to read ANYTHING without the account.

I have found that performance on anything but native books lags a bit. They are clearly optimized ... for example, I bought the 'So You Want to be a Wizard' series in ePub/Mobi formats direct through DianeDuane.com (they had a mega-sale on Black Friday), and I loaded them up, and the loading and page turns are slower than books I bought through the store.

And since I assume you are converting from earlier ebook formats like LIT or scanning all of those books yourself (since you obviously aren't looking for help here while simultaneously denying authors money by stealing their work), you might find it cheaper as noted to grab the cheap and on-sale through Amazon, or subscribe to the several 'free Kindle ebook' newsletters that highlight some great (and not so great) ebook deals.

Actually I mostly read classic literature and most of those books are free so I am not stealing anything. As a small example a newspaper in my country used to give out books every Thursday along with the paper for only 5$/piece. The collection had 100 books so I've spent 500$ only on that alone (though I have to admit the cover and paper quality was great). Most of those books are free to download as ebooks so I could have saved a lot of money and given the fact that I read a lot imagine how much cash I could save in the long run.

I still buy SF and fantasy books though

Awesome ... there is loads of it for free on amazon, and as I said I find performance better optimized that way. On the other hand I find many of the Gutenberg versions to have fewer errors.