Why I'm returning my Kindle DX

d47 · 11-01-2010, 05:32 PM

Hopefully someone finds my comments helpful:

- Refresh time is too slow for me. This is especially true for some larger PDFs. (Can read them and load them fine though after some PDF cropping and stuff with free software online.) If i have a bunch of articles I'm going through, paging through them and switching between articles and files takes too long.

- I bought the kindle to review a lot of my documents and books, but with that I need to take more and more notes as I read. Notetaking is just too slow on the kindle pad and annoying to export. I do a lot of practical reading which is pointless for myself unless I can highlight, take notes, and export things efficiently. If only I could use my wireless keyboard with the kindle or something. If you copy your mbp and mobi files to your kindle for PC documents folder, you can view your notes with your book (even if it's not an amazon book), but the PC software doesn't let you copy or paste the notes or highlights.

A better solution (for myself at least):

A wireless monitor or tablet pc as an extention of my desktop. Ipad lets you do something like this with Macs I think, but you can't lock the touchscreen so if I read with my hands it just moves the page around. I read yesterday that E-ink is necessarily better for your eyes than LCDs, so besides long battery life (which I don't need) and looking nice, I find E-ink isn't worth it just yet.

Buying Tip:

If you just like reading books, not seriously note taking, the Kindle DX would be great for you if you don't mind the cost. Maybe amazon could make a cheaper wifi version.

I read somewhere that the DX is suited more for the business crowed, but I don't find that to be true. It just feels like beta software.

P.S. I used the 30 day refund to try it out instead of agnozing over what device to get.

d47 · 11-01-2010, 05:33 PM

p.p.s I may get the smaller version of wait till around xmas to see what else comes out

paperwastage · 11-02-2010, 12:16 AM

i just use my Kindle DX G every day (college student here)

Morning - NYT and WSJ from calibre, plus some textbooks/pdfs from professor
MidDay - Light Gmail browsing
Night - reading classics

yeah, i know the kindle isn't meant for note taking... and that's what i'm not doing on the kindle. my notes are separate from my texts

JaneD · 11-02-2010, 12:32 AM

Smart testing it out within the 30 day window. Sorry it didn't work out for you, but the tablet technology is advancing so quickly, it's only a matter of time before someone manufactures one that meets your needs.

psycholoner · 11-02-2010, 01:21 AM

yea, I've had my DX for quite a while now, and I can agree with that. I love this thing, but I've tried using it practically for school, and its just too slow and inconvenient.

joblack · 11-02-2010, 02:13 AM

I checked the refresh rate on youtube. Can't understand the complaints. Okay the note taking is better with Irex devices but there is no such device.

Small advice, you can press the next page button one second earlier so you get to the next page in time. Needs a little bit of exercise but works fine.

curstpriest · 11-02-2010, 02:54 AM

I've made several posts about this, along with the proper way to fix the refresh problem with PDFs. It involves "printing to PDF" at a specific paper size, which causes the DX to not have to rescale each page, so it displays them natively. It can then display even complex pages/graphics quickly and without loss of quality. Document size stays the same, as do image DPIs, it's just something wonky with PDFs and their containers.

It takes me mabye 3 seconds to fix any pdf, acrobat, print to adobe pdf, select paper size (kindle dx) which i made custom, problem solved.

Can't take notes. It's a reader, no stylus anyways. E-ink is shitty for taking notes @ best case scenario. If you need something complicated, get the Entourage edge, Ipad, or tablet PC, as nothing else is currently available.

zzzxtreme · 11-02-2010, 04:23 AM

yeah even with my netbook 1.6ghz atom, loading a picture based 70MB PDF is slowwww

curstpriest · 11-02-2010, 04:32 AM

If you are using imaged based PDFs that are text, you should OCR them into clearscan if they are quality scans, and then print to kindle native size~

d47 · 11-02-2010, 06:40 AM

A tablet PC seems like a better choice if it's true that the screen won't hurt my eyes. My old laptop was horrible on my eyes, not sure why.

For about 500, bit more than the DX, I can get a tablet netbook. Color, webcam, full w7 features and software, video... Makes more sense for productive work. Will try a 30 day run with that too. Looking at GIGABYTE and ASUS models right now.

ASUS Eee PC T101MT and GIGABYTE TouchNote

- The PDFs were resized with calibre for the dx screen.

- I saw some video of color e-ink fast enough to play video. That on a tablet or a Mirasol display maybe will make a great device

JeremyR · 11-02-2010, 07:59 AM

This is basically why I don't think kindles (or even e-readers) will really ever replace textbooks. Not in terms of ease of use for actual studying, anyway...

paperwastage · 11-02-2010, 08:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeremyR

This is basically why I don't think kindles (or even e-readers) will really ever replace textbooks. Not in terms of ease of use for actual studying, anyway...

* until eink gets faster, or gets color

ziegl027 · 11-02-2010, 12:13 PM

I just ordered my DXG yesterday. I'm optimistic. My academic needs are relatively light (I just need to browse the literature in my field) and I'm old enough to remember when one checked journals out of the library (and therefore could not write in them, a poor student couldn't afford photocopies!), or had to wait for copies from the document delivery service--talk about slow

.

curstpriest · 11-02-2010, 10:27 PM

I got my degree in exp psych and had to check out lots of journals from our library... Sadly nobody uses the stacks any more, or even knows they are there. But they just don't have that many journals online, and many of the PDFs that are pre 80's are horrible quality. What if you need a 50-70's research article? Basic research is very important. I was lucky that we also had everything available on microfilm too. Sadly many students don't know about this either. If it isn't on EBSCO or PROQUEST they just give up and look for something easier.

Although digital documents/pdfs are nice, it's still good to know how to get what you need. Though they really do need to get the ball rolling on conversion of old documents, and copyright holders need to stop being so goddamn greedy charging 20$ for the viewing of single articles.

I usually just use inter-library loan, but that can take up to a week or more for some articles/books as some librarian has to hand scan and email them to me.

I'm only 26 =X

ProfCrash · 11-03-2010, 10:55 AM

I wish I had had my DXG when I was in graduate school. The number of journal articles I had to print out from JSTOR is far too high. All that paper wasted, not to mention the expensive back pack need to lug around 50 pounds of reading material.

11-01-2010, 05:32 PM	#1
d47 Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: kindle	Why I'm returning my Kindle DX Hopefully someone finds my comments helpful: - Refresh time is too slow for me. This is especially true for some larger PDFs. (Can read them and load them fine though after some PDF cropping and stuff with free software online.) If i have a bunch of articles I'm going through, paging through them and switching between articles and files takes too long. - I bought the kindle to review a lot of my documents and books, but with that I need to take more and more notes as I read. Notetaking is just too slow on the kindle pad and annoying to export. I do a lot of practical reading which is pointless for myself unless I can highlight, take notes, and export things efficiently. If only I could use my wireless keyboard with the kindle or something. If you copy your mbp and mobi files to your kindle for PC documents folder, you can view your notes with your book (even if it's not an amazon book), but the PC software doesn't let you copy or paste the notes or highlights. A better solution (for myself at least): A wireless monitor or tablet pc as an extention of my desktop. Ipad lets you do something like this with Macs I think, but you can't lock the touchscreen so if I read with my hands it just moves the page around. I read yesterday that E-ink is necessarily better for your eyes than LCDs, so besides long battery life (which I don't need) and looking nice, I find E-ink isn't worth it just yet. Buying Tip: If you just like reading books, not seriously note taking, the Kindle DX would be great for you if you don't mind the cost. Maybe amazon could make a cheaper wifi version. I read somewhere that the DX is suited more for the business crowed, but I don't find that to be true. It just feels like beta software. P.S. I used the 30 day refund to try it out instead of agnozing over what device to get. Last edited by d47; 11-01-2010 at 05:48 PM.

11-02-2010, 12:13 PM	#13
ziegl027 Addict Posts: 264 Karma: 764 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Minnesota Device: Sony Touch, Kindle DXG	I just ordered my DXG yesterday. I'm optimistic. My academic needs are relatively light (I just need to browse the literature in my field) and I'm old enough to remember when one checked journals out of the library (and therefore could not write in them, a poor student couldn't afford photocopies!), or had to wait for copies from the document delivery service--talk about slow.

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11-01-2010, 05:33 PM	#2
d47 Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: kindle	p.p.s I may get the smaller version of wait till around xmas to see what else comes out

11-02-2010, 12:16 AM	#3
paperwastage Groupie Posts: 154 Karma: 1310 Join Date: Dec 2009 Device: kindle DX Graphite	i just use my Kindle DX G every day (college student here) Morning - NYT and WSJ from calibre, plus some textbooks/pdfs from professor MidDay - Light Gmail browsing Night - reading classics yeah, i know the kindle isn't meant for note taking... and that's what i'm not doing on the kindle. my notes are separate from my texts

11-02-2010, 12:32 AM	#4
JaneD Addict Posts: 322 Karma: 1057749 Join Date: May 2010 Location: LA, CA Device: Kindle Paperwhite 2013	Smart testing it out within the 30 day window. Sorry it didn't work out for you, but the tablet technology is advancing so quickly, it's only a matter of time before someone manufactures one that meets your needs.

11-02-2010, 01:21 AM	#5
psycholoner Enthusiast Posts: 34 Karma: 22 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: Kindle DXG	yea, I've had my DX for quite a while now, and I can agree with that. I love this thing, but I've tried using it practically for school, and its just too slow and inconvenient.

11-02-2010, 02:13 AM	#6
joblack Wizard Posts: 1,746 Karma: 4382688 Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Somewhere on earth Device: Onyx Boox Tab X	I checked the refresh rate on youtube. Can't understand the complaints. Okay the note taking is better with Irex devices but there is no such device. Small advice, you can press the next page button one second earlier so you get to the next page in time. Needs a little bit of exercise but works fine.

11-02-2010, 02:54 AM	#7
curstpriest Confused Posts: 402 Karma: 5538 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Bay Area Device: Kindle DXG	I've made several posts about this, along with the proper way to fix the refresh problem with PDFs. It involves "printing to PDF" at a specific paper size, which causes the DX to not have to rescale each page, so it displays them natively. It can then display even complex pages/graphics quickly and without loss of quality. Document size stays the same, as do image DPIs, it's just something wonky with PDFs and their containers. It takes me mabye 3 seconds to fix any pdf, acrobat, print to adobe pdf, select paper size (kindle dx) which i made custom, problem solved. Can't take notes. It's a reader, no stylus anyways. E-ink is shitty for taking notes @ best case scenario. If you need something complicated, get the Entourage edge, Ipad, or tablet PC, as nothing else is currently available.

11-02-2010, 04:23 AM	#8
zzzxtreme Member Posts: 17 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2010 Device: nook	yeah even with my netbook 1.6ghz atom, loading a picture based 70MB PDF is slowwww

11-02-2010, 04:32 AM	#9
curstpriest Confused Posts: 402 Karma: 5538 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Bay Area Device: Kindle DXG	If you are using imaged based PDFs that are text, you should OCR them into clearscan if they are quality scans, and then print to kindle native size~

11-02-2010, 06:40 AM	#10
d47 Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: kindle	A tablet PC seems like a better choice if it's true that the screen won't hurt my eyes. My old laptop was horrible on my eyes, not sure why. For about 500, bit more than the DX, I can get a tablet netbook. Color, webcam, full w7 features and software, video... Makes more sense for productive work. Will try a 30 day run with that too. Looking at GIGABYTE and ASUS models right now. ASUS Eee PC T101MT and GIGABYTE TouchNote - The PDFs were resized with calibre for the dx screen. - I saw some video of color e-ink fast enough to play video. That on a tablet or a Mirasol display maybe will make a great device

11-02-2010, 07:59 AM	#11
JeremyR Guru Posts: 973 Karma: 2458402 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: St. Louis Device: Kindle Keyboard, Nook HD+	This is basically why I don't think kindles (or even e-readers) will really ever replace textbooks. Not in terms of ease of use for actual studying, anyway...

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11-02-2010, 10:27 PM	#14
curstpriest Confused Posts: 402 Karma: 5538 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Bay Area Device: Kindle DXG	I got my degree in exp psych and had to check out lots of journals from our library... Sadly nobody uses the stacks any more, or even knows they are there. But they just don't have that many journals online, and many of the PDFs that are pre 80's are horrible quality. What if you need a 50-70's research article? Basic research is very important. I was lucky that we also had everything available on microfilm too. Sadly many students don't know about this either. If it isn't on EBSCO or PROQUEST they just give up and look for something easier. Although digital documents/pdfs are nice, it's still good to know how to get what you need. Though they really do need to get the ball rolling on conversion of old documents, and copyright holders need to stop being so goddamn greedy charging 20$ for the viewing of single articles. I usually just use inter-library loan, but that can take up to a week or more for some articles/books as some librarian has to hand scan and email them to me. I'm only 26 =X

11-03-2010, 10:55 AM	#15
ProfCrash Tea Enthusiast Posts: 8,554 Karma: 75384937 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Somewhere in the USA Device: Kindle1, Kindle DX Graphite, K3 3G, IPad 3, PW2	I wish I had had my DXG when I was in graduate school. The number of journal articles I had to print out from JSTOR is far too high. All that paper wasted, not to mention the expensive back pack need to lug around 50 pounds of reading material.