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My daughter and son bought me a Kindle for Christmas. They told me they were tired of me asking them to go to Barnes & Noble and buy me another book.
I love books and have a lot of them. However, I am using the Kindle and I do like it but here's my question - do you find your eyes getting more tired using the Kindle or by just reading a regular print book?
I do work on a computer every day and I work long hours but my eyes seem more tired after using the Kindle. Thoughts?
My daughter and son bought me a Kindle for Christmas. They told me they were tired of me asking them to go to Barnes & Noble and buy me another book.
I love books and have a lot of them. However, I am using the Kindle and I do like it but here's my question - do you find your eyes getting more tired using the Kindle or by just reading a regular print book?
I do work on a computer every day and I work long hours but my eyes seem more tired after using the Kindle. Thoughts?
No, not at all. You can change the size and spacing of the type if you like. Make sure you are reading in good light, just as with a paper book. I have the Kindle with the light on it, it's grrrreat for reading when traveling. May take a little more battery power, but well worth it.
I agree with QuilterChick, make sure the type is set large enough for your preference and also make sure the Kindle is well lit. Although the e-ink is very similar to real paper, the white of the screen is slightly darker than average book pages so it needs to be well lit. I recommend Amazon's cover with the built in light - it works great and it's really convenient.
Thanks so much for this info, "y'all". I've been debating about a Kindle but I need larger print, good lighting and reading glasses to read a regular book and didn't know how suitable a Kindle would be for me. Anything else a somewhat seeing-impaired person should know about a Kindle? Like.....do they go all kaflooey on you like a computer can? What kind of life can one expect from a Kindle before it dies? Are they repairable?
Thanks so much for this info, "y'all". I've been debating about a Kindle but I need larger print, good lighting and reading glasses to read a regular book and didn't know how suitable a Kindle would be for me. Anything else a somewhat seeing-impaired person should know about a Kindle? Like.....do they go all kaflooey on you like a computer can? What kind of life can one expect from a Kindle before it dies? Are they repairable?
My local Staples and Office Depot both have Kindles (the regular model and the larger DX) so you can see one for yourself. I'm on my second Kindle, not because anything happened to the first (which I've had since they first came out) but I wanted the better screen and the ability to sort books into collections.
I have a cornea problem that means my vision fluctuates during the day (worse first thing in the morning and last thing at night) so I frequently change the font size on my Kindle. I wouldn't be able to read without it, at least not at certain times of the day. The new ones can also be turned to read sideways, which is useful if you have it set for really large print.
They are electronic devices and as such can fail - although I don;t know anyone who has had one completely fail. My old Kindle, (which I got in 2007 and replaced last year), had to be reset maybe 3 times, usually as a result of letting the battery run completely flat. To reset it, it has a little pinhole under the battery cover that you stick a paperclip in to reboot it entirely. The reason the battery ran down is that I left the wireless on and set the Kindle down for 3-4 days, which is how long the battery lasts with wireless on (it'll go 5+ days one one charge with fairly heavy reading and the wireless off. Amazon claims they'll go a month, but that's hooey... or maybe that's when you leave it on, with the wireless off, and don't read for a month, but I've never gone a month without reading, so I don't know).
They do come with a warranty from Amazon, I think it's one year, and there are after-market repair companies. The biggest issue that I've read about is cracked screens from dropping them - although I've dropped mine on my tile floor with no damage (I also left it out on the patio table in the rain once with no damage).
At this point I have a Kindle, my DH has a Kindle, my daughter-in-law has a Kindle, my mother-in-law has a Kindle and I have the Kindle app on my ipad, so we get a lot of use out of them.
Thanks so much for this info, "y'all". I've been debating about a Kindle but I need larger print, good lighting and reading glasses to read a regular book and didn't know how suitable a Kindle would be for me.
Kindle has 8 font size settings ranging from 7pt to 40pt. Large print books can vary but I think the most standard size is 16pt. So Kindle is really ideal for people who need larger print.
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Anything else a somewhat seeing-impaired person should know about a Kindle?
The only issue is that the font sizes only apply to the books - you can't change the font size of the menus, indexes or home page.
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Like.....do they go all kaflooey on you like a computer can?
It can have technical problems, of course, but there is far less to go wrong with it since it is not a full fledged computer with a full fledged operating system. There was an issue with them freezing up but it was quickly resolved with a firmware update.
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What kind of life can one expect from a Kindle before it dies? Are they repairable?
There are many first generation Kindles (first released in 2007 I think) that are still in use - most people upgraded to newer models because they wanted to, not because they needed to. So they should last several years. If something does go wrong with your Kindle, Amazon are pretty good about replacing it for no charge, even if it's no longer under warranty (Kindle customer service is supposed to be very good). That way you get a working Kindle without waiting around for it to get sent back after repair. And it's probably not worth having it repaired anyway - the current Kindle is so affordable that the cost of repair probably wouldn't be much less than the cost of the Kindle itself.
Although as of today there is a new wrinkle - the ad-sponsored Kindle for $114 (direct from Amazon). It has wireless but not 3G and ads are limited to "special offers" (see Amazon's website) on the screen savers and a banner on the "home" page (where all the books are listed, not inside the actual book).
I'm too much of an economics and history buff not to be able to see where this is going, unfortunately: how long will it take those ads to creep inside the books and how long will it take the whole process to spread to the entire Kindle line?
It's not really like I have a choice: because of my eye problems, I need the adjustable font sizes, and I've already tried using my laptop/desktop and my ipad as e-readers - none of them are as good as the Kindle.
Though I don't have a problem reading the font on a paperback, I find it easier to read on a Kindle with the font a bit larger.
I didn't realize how convenient I would find the Kindle to be. Every now and then, a word pops up that I didn't know the meaning of. I mean, yeah, you can use context clues, but I like being able to just click and have the definition right there.
Although as of today there is a new wrinkle - the ad-sponsored Kindle for $114 (direct from Amazon). It has wireless but not 3G and ads are limited to "special offers" (see Amazon's website) on the screen savers and a banner on the "home" page (where all the books are listed, not inside the actual book).
The original wifi Kindle for $139 without ads is still available though and still very affordable in my opinion.
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I've been debating about a Kindle but I need larger print, good lighting and reading glasses to read a regular book and didn't know how suitable a Kindle would be for me. Anything else a somewhat seeing-impaired person should know about a Kindle? Like.....do they go all kaflooey on you like a computer can? What kind of life can one expect from a Kindle before it dies? Are they repairable?
