Amazon Kindle

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  • Finally decided I’d try out reading on a Kindle. Went for the paperwhite as it’s on sale at the moment. (Purchased with “Special Offers” and then contacted customer services to ask them to remove them free of charge. Because if I’m buying from Evilcorp, then I need some small victories.)

    I like how thin and light it is, and the inverted mode seems very nice to read. Time will tell.

    I am though baffled as to why they’d put the power button on the bottom, where you hold the device, instead of on the top edge. And the 90’s art store lock screen images that you can’t change - how have they not made an option to display the cover of the current book yet?!

  • contacted customer services to ask them to remove them free of charge.

    tell me more about this process...

  • Haha of course. I used the contact us option in the iOS app. Wrote that I didn’t think it was very clear that “Special Offers” were adverts, the human on the other side explained that there are two Kindle options for sale etc, and that to remove “Special Offers” the fee is £10 (or £20?). I wrote “Can you do this for free?”. They asked their supervisor and then they were removed.

    Take that Bezos.

  • I guess there is nothing in I can do about it so this is just a rant, but pretty disappointed.

    My Kindle (8th gen touchscreen) just mysteriously stopped working after 18 months. It was working one day and then not the next, no unduly rough treatment, it just stopped. In it's broken state it's just stuck on the Kindle "tree screen" and I've been through all the troubleshooting reset procedures and nothing works. Plugging the kindle into a power source and then pressing and holding the power button initiates some kind of action insofar as it prompts the LED to flash green and orange and the screen to blink between clear and black screens but afterwards it always returns to the "tree screen".

    I've just been through all this on the phone with amazon's help desk and they say that since the kindle isn't responding to the reset procedures, and since it's out of warranty, I just have to buy a new one. As a "goodwill gesture" to a "valued customer" they say they have added a 15% discount to my account but this doesn't make me feel particularly valued.

    The fact that the kindle has not been mis-treated, and the fact that it flashes away happily when I conduct the reset procedure suggests to me that this is a software fault. Certainly I have done no obvious damage to the hardware... it just stopped working. It just sort of feels like amazon could programme their kindles to freeze a couple of months out of warranty to force new sales. I'm sure they haven't, but from where I'm sat now there wouldn't be any way for me to tell.

    Contrast that to my old kindle keyboard that lasted 7 years without fault.

    ugh...

  • Have an electronics shop certify that it's fucked, then make a claim against your credit card company, with the claim that the Kindle is not of satisfactory quality

    I may have had to do this in the past

  • I'd look at claiming for that under the consumer rights regulation.
    https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-rights-act#product-quality--what-should-you-expect

    Just because they say their warranty is only a year doesn't necessarily mean that they're absolved of all responsibility afterwards.

  • I have recently found out about Kindle for Kids - because I have an Amazon Prime account, I can activate this on my Kindle and my 8yo can read basically any children's book for free. She loves it and I love it as she is reading so much, whilst feeling like she is having screen time. Win win.

    I had lent my old 5th generation Kindle to a friend, who doesn't need it any more and gave it back to me - perfect, thought I, to give to said eight year old.

    Annoyingly, Kindle for Kids is not supported on the 5the gen. It has to be a paperwhite or later.

    I don't suppose anyone has an older paperwhite Kindle knocking around that they would like to get rid of, or even part-ex for my 5th gen, to keep as a backup / beach / bath / whatever device? Heartwarming knowledge of encouraging a child to read will be included as part of the deal!

  • I bought my mother a Kindle so that she doesn't have to go to the Library (which has since closed), it was delivered yesterday and will sit in quarantine until ~4pm today just in case there is C19 on the packaging.

    I'd like to share my Amazon account with my mother so that she can buy books on my account - which does mean that she'll need to login on the new device with my details.

    I can be on the phone with her whilst she does this, and read out the code that Amazon will send me, but is there a better way of sharing a payment method/Kindle account with someone else?

  • I'd see the household option, but that doesn't look like my mother can buy books using my card, just borrow books I've already bought I thought?

  • https://www.howtogeek.com/248409/how-to-set-up-amazon-household-and-share-prime-benefits-purchased-content-and-more/

    "when you link another adult’s account to your Prime account via Amazon Household, you also link all your billing information and payment options–the other adult in your Amazon Household will have unlimited access to any and all credit cards associated with the account"

  • Bingo, thanks

  • Depending on what your mother likes to read, it might also be worth looking into Kindle Unlimited, £8 a month for a whole load of books, probably plenty on there to keep someone going for the foreseeable

  • I'm sure you're familiar with this too.
    http://www.gutenberg.org/

  • If I wanted a kindle that was more e reader than tablet which one would be best.

    I basically want the closest to a book without any of the bells and whistles

  • I have a paperwhite from a few years back, built in back light.
    If that's still an option I would say that.

  • The PaperWhites are awesome bits of kit at £120ish.

    They’ve added light to the basic Kindle too, if your budget doesn’t stretch that far - they’re £70ish but have a worse resolution, don’t have as much storage and aren’t waterproof.

    I’d recommend the PaperWhite to anyone, along with Calibre as a library manager...

  • I read this before the lockdown on which Kindle to use which might help. TLDR is what ^ and ^^ said though!

  • +1 Paperwhite. Have had one for years... I’m a Luddite by nature and was really attached to the idea of “analogue” books but this convinced me to move to the dark side...

  • Why is the paper white sooooo expensive?

  • along with Calibre as a library manager...

    Calibre is a great library maanger, especially as a non-kindle user who reads kindle books...

  • Me and the better half got them for each other on Black Friday. They were 70 something quid

  • Agree with this.

    Set Calibre up so you can email the books to your Kindle and that automatically puts them in your Kindle library so you get extra useful features like syncing the last page read between devices.

    There are generally hefty reductions on black Friday, prime day, etc or you can get them for a decent price secondhand if you look at the older models (not waterproof though).

  • So I’ve had a look around and there is a prime day on the 6th of July so could grab a bargain then.

    There’s the choice of standard kindle and kindle paperwhite. The paperwhite seems to have as many negative reviews as the standard, but what’s the difference? Is it noticeable?

  • Isn't it just waterproofness and memory between them now? Unless you read in the bath a lot, I'd go standard. You don't need memory.

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Amazon Kindle

Posted by Avatar for Velocio @Velocio

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