Kindle Review

[mikeselectricstuff]

Er Dave, .so when are you taking it apart then...?

[mikeselectricstuff]

Speaking of which, check out of the older models

[Time]

From what I can tell from my kindle, it might be difficult to get the casing apart without prying, marring, scratching, or breaking.

[mikeselectricstuff]

From what I can tell from my kindle, it might be difficult to get the casing apart without prying, marring, scratching, or breaking.

You're just not trying hard enough

[JohnS_AZ]

I just watched the Kindle review ... Great job Dave.

Looks like the Kindle/Nook battle is closer than I thought.
The Kindle has a superior web browser,
but the Nook has a microSD slot.
The kindle has a keypad, and the nook has a small color LCD touch display instead.

Maybe we can get Barnes & Nobel to send yo a Nook to review.

As for me, back when I was shopping, I looked at the Nook, the Kindle, and the iPad, and then bought an Acer Netbook.
My wife bought the Nook.

[XynxNet]

It would be interesting how well the kindle handles ebooks, which are not from amazon. I still use an old PDA as ebook-reader, which is no fun at all. There especially PDF-ebooks can be really nasty with fixed text width, big images, hard newlines, etc.

[JohnS_AZ]

What I'm dying for is an E-ink display in the format of a standard small graphic LCD module.
It would seem to be the IDEAL display for an automotive application.

[Polossatik]

The nook was promising for hackers but they decide to take countermeasures for rooting it in the latest hardware revision. so watch out if you buy a new one.

E_ink is very nice, but the current screens are still on a (hardened) glass substrate (not sure about the kindle 3, but all other are), plastic screens are around the corner, until then really, don't push to hard on that screen.

The main pain is the refresh and the small screen size. I had a sony 505 (was a DOA and no new units where then available) and a  pocketbook 302 (which I send back for screen issues - a big production run of e_ink screens could not handle sun light) .
Both where fine units to read a novel or so, but for most technical pdf's you really need more resolution and screen estate .

So, if you are thinking on buying this for "mainly" PDF usage I would really suggest to wait a bit, Pocketbook will come out with a 9" "plastic e-ink" reader and I think they will be a good bet for "hackers" seen they are fairly active in the community on mobileread.com and seams fairly "open" to hackers , they have also a huge fanbase in russia (it's a Russian firm).
the 9" will however be more $$$, rumours go around the 350 euro pricepoint.

That said I do think i'll get myself a nook (or a kindle), just for reading novels , seen the pricepoint....

Ha, and Dave, the weird opening on the side of a kindle3 can be used for accessing serial

[JohnS_AZ]

Man, as if the E-reader market wasn't messy enough ....

http://www.ecnmag.com/News/2010/09/Touch-screen,-price-hike-to-cheapest-Sony-e-reader/

[squeezee]

What I'm dying for is an E-ink display in the format of a standard small graphic LCD module.
It would seem to be the IDEAL display for an automotive application.

If the price was right they would be great for so many devices, but there aren't really any drop-in equivalent e-ink parts.

Although http://www.kentdisplays.com/ makes something similar to an e-ink display, you can get a couple of their GLCDs from sparkfun but haven't seen them on digikey or other major distributors.

[DJPhil]

So, if you are thinking on buying this for "mainly" PDF usage I would really suggest to wait a bit, Pocketbook will come out with a 9" "plastic e-ink" reader and I think they will be a good bet for "hackers" seen they are fairly active in the community on mobileread.com and seams fairly "open" to hackers , they have also a huge fanbase in russia (it's a Russian firm).
the 9" will however be more $$$, rumours go around the 350 euro pricepoint.

Good call, I'll be looking into this.

I've been looking for a good solution for reading around the house and at bedtime for years. I've got a large PDF library that I'd love to be able to use without a laptop, and I've been holding out for something I can tinker with.

Edit: I think they've just today announced the products you've mentioned -> http://www.pocketbook-usa.com/news/press/56

[pjkim]

Dave,
Really enjoy your show.

I am on the fence about the Kindle3-- I think what would help me make up my mind is whether it can display Google maps with traffic. I think this would be a "killer application"-- being able to get real-time traffic information on the road without paying for an expensive data plan. Could you try it out?

Peter

[EEVblog]

Dave,
Really enjoy your show.

I am on the fence about the Kindle3-- I think what would help me make up my mind is whether it can display Google maps with traffic. I think this would be a "killer application"-- being able to get real-time traffic information on the road without paying for an expensive data plan. Could you try it out?

Peter

Google Maps Australia works just fine for me.
Don't know about the traffic option.
Bit annoying to use without the keypad instead of a mouse, but still usable.
Gmail appears to work just fine too.

For $189 you basically get a useful portable internet device with (unlimited for now) free 3G access thrown in!

Dave.

[red_kooga]

Hi Dave,
Great blog, how well does the kindle display circuits in magazines and ebooks?
I tried the sony ereader last year with a nuts & volts pdf and didn't like some of the circuits.
i would buy the kindle if circuit diagrams were viewable.

Thanks.

[EEVblog]

Hi Dave,
Great blog, how well does the kindle display circuits in magazines and ebooks?
I tried the sony ereader last year with a nuts & volts pdf and didn't like some of the circuits.
i would buy the kindle if circuit diagrams were viewable.

It views PDF's perfectly. Everything I have tried works just fine.
Those not correctly formatted for the small 6" screen work with the zoom feature.
I can't possibly try every magazine and ebook, sorry, but I'd be very surprised if it can't view them properly.

Dave.

[red_kooga]

Thanks for quick reply, ordering one now.

[ng]

Does anyone have high resolution pictures of the Kindle 3 tear-down?

I am mostly interested in pictures of the the Freescale CPU, Freescle power management chip and the JTAG connector.

Thank you.

[RayJones]

Not so sure that MP3 player is working properly, on my video it sounded like a garbage truck being unloaded 

[TopherTheME]

It views PDF's perfectly.

Does this include datasheets? I would buy about 5 kindles if they can read datasheets fairly well.

[TheDirty]

Hey Dave.  Regarding the Eject issue.  Just got a Kindle of my own and using Win7.  I noticed if I eject the device like you did with the system tray it does not work, but if you right click the device in the explorer and select eject, it does work.

[mikeselectricstuff]

It views PDF's perfectly.

Does this include datasheets? I would buy about 5 kindles if they can read datasheets fairly well.

Image quality is fine but screen size can be a bit limiting. You also only appear to be able to zoom to a few fixed sizes 150/200/300%. It is smart enough to chop out white borders to maximise area.

It's also a bit clumsy for flicking through to different secitons of a large PDF - the PDF index does not appear to be available, and it doesn't buffer multiple page-turn clicks well - you have to wait for each page to refresh, even if you've pressed a few more times during refresh


I don't know if this gets better if you use Amazon's convert-by-email service to turn them into 'native' Kindle format.

[mikeselectricstuff]

A few more random internal shots here
I took it a bit further apaaart than Dave..

[Nermash]

Man, that is some heavy duty hardware hacking
Respect!

[jpwack]

I know that is rude to bump an old thread but...

I'm saving money to buy this as a time and trees saver, in my work I'm forced to print out 25 or more pages of schematics and datasheets almost every day, plus running from and to my PC to look up on things. Sadly there has been a lot of reports of faulty units and freezes in the Amazon site, have any of you had any problems with yours Kindle 3s?

best regards

PS: I live on Chile, so I'm guessing that the shipping time would be in weeks in case of having to return the Kindle.

[Mechatrommer]

I know that is rude to bump an old thread but...

why?