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Okay, when I say the Kindle is dead, I mean my Kindle. My original old K1 died. It was a sad death. Mainly because it was just the screen that died, not the device itself. I meant to blog about this a while ago when it happened, but damn it, a whole hell of a lots been going on and well, as you can tell I haven't been much around lately.
So in any case, over the summer we lost my wife's cable/charger for her K2. And out of desperation, since she had gotten really used to the comfort and ease of reading on a Kindle, I loaned her mine. I wasn't using it as much at the moment, and I have three stories worth of physical paper books to work my way through. So, no big deal. Well unfortunately, right about the time I found another cable that would allow us to charge up her K2, the screen on my K1 went strange. I wish I'd taken a photo of it before I tried to fix the problem, because it was wild looking. It was as if all the words were melting on the page. Had an almost impressionist quality to the look of the screen. (Okay, I might be using that word wrong, since I'm not an art type person and don't really know enough to make a claim to a specific art style, so I'm fudging it.)
Well, in trying to shut the whole thing down, and reboot from scratch, the screen went black. And it went black for good. Sad, because I'd considered trickling that one down to Dad, when I finally got a K3. So I checked into the possibility of replacing the screen, and I think the cost for the screen alone was going to run $99. Since they won't sell you the part unless they intend to do the repair, and since labor's got to cost something...you can see where this is going. The repair would cost at least as much as buying a new Wifi unit. Possibly more. So I held off for a while, and my family bought it for me for the holidays. So I am again finally in possession of the Kindle. I am excited. It's really a great little device. I'm going to have to think about which cover to pick up. I like to lug mine around a lot, so I need something to protect it.
In other news, while Google isn't officially supporting Kindle with their Google Bookstore, I was able to download on of their editions (a public domain work, so it was free) and transfer the PDF manually to my Kindle. It works. I can read it. Not as good as a read as I would like, and I'd be a heck of a lot happier being able to have a native mobi/prc file to support and use on my device. But it's good to know that the option is there, even if, with the smaller sized Kindle, the PDF makes the font rather on the small side, not exactly comfortable for reading. Or maybe it's my eyesight going. I really am due for an eye exam. Wonder if I can fit one in before the end of the year.
So in any case, over the summer we lost my wife's cable/charger for her K2. And out of desperation, since she had gotten really used to the comfort and ease of reading on a Kindle, I loaned her mine. I wasn't using it as much at the moment, and I have three stories worth of physical paper books to work my way through. So, no big deal. Well unfortunately, right about the time I found another cable that would allow us to charge up her K2, the screen on my K1 went strange. I wish I'd taken a photo of it before I tried to fix the problem, because it was wild looking. It was as if all the words were melting on the page. Had an almost impressionist quality to the look of the screen. (Okay, I might be using that word wrong, since I'm not an art type person and don't really know enough to make a claim to a specific art style, so I'm fudging it.)
Well, in trying to shut the whole thing down, and reboot from scratch, the screen went black. And it went black for good. Sad, because I'd considered trickling that one down to Dad, when I finally got a K3. So I checked into the possibility of replacing the screen, and I think the cost for the screen alone was going to run $99. Since they won't sell you the part unless they intend to do the repair, and since labor's got to cost something...you can see where this is going. The repair would cost at least as much as buying a new Wifi unit. Possibly more. So I held off for a while, and my family bought it for me for the holidays. So I am again finally in possession of the Kindle. I am excited. It's really a great little device. I'm going to have to think about which cover to pick up. I like to lug mine around a lot, so I need something to protect it.
In other news, while Google isn't officially supporting Kindle with their Google Bookstore, I was able to download on of their editions (a public domain work, so it was free) and transfer the PDF manually to my Kindle. It works. I can read it. Not as good as a read as I would like, and I'd be a heck of a lot happier being able to have a native mobi/prc file to support and use on my device. But it's good to know that the option is there, even if, with the smaller sized Kindle, the PDF makes the font rather on the small side, not exactly comfortable for reading. Or maybe it's my eyesight going. I really am due for an eye exam. Wonder if I can fit one in before the end of the year.
