okay, so...i'm considering getting a kindle or similar device. however, i have a question that will completely decide whether i purchase one or not:

can i upload e-books from my computer onto the device and read them? i have tons...what device will allow this? what format would the e-book need to be in? i have bunches in .lit or .pdf form...

okay, so...i ordered one.

i guess i'll figure out pretty quickly whether i can put my files on it or not.

You can put about anything on it.(kindle 2.0)

is it true that you have to email them to the kindle site and pay ten cents for the upload? or can i connect directly to my computer and just use USB?

i ordered the 2.0, and i should have it by wednesday...

Yes you can but it will cost you 10 cents.

Amazon recently deleted files off of their users devices! The way I heard it, someone sold copies of 1984 which they weren't authorized to sell and to 'correct' the problem amazon refunded people's money for the book, then went into peoples devices and remotely deleted the book off the person's kindle!

There was such a stink raised, I don't think they will do it again.

But still... I won't be buying a device which gives that much 'remote control' power to another entity.

I am soooo looking forward to when the prices come down on the eBook readers that have a good screen and a more open software platform. I think the price for kindle device (as expensive as it is) is artificially low because they hope you will buy a TON of ebooks from them over its lifetime.

that's the point, kev...i don't intend to buy a ton of anything.

i have over ten thousand books on my computer, and i'm a download freak. also, amazon offers quite a few books for free (i just snagged a ton of them).

if it's readable, it'll pay for itself very quickly...i'm a readaholic.

i'm hoping that i'll be able to convert some of the e-books on my computer to a compatible format for uploading on the kindle. i'll let you know how that works.

either that, or i'll torrent new ones in the acceptable formats.

I was thinking their subsidized plan (if it is so) would back-fire on them in your case!



I'm actually very jealous... to carry such a massive library with you everywhere you go, on such a thin and light device with such a good screen - its truly awesome. I use a nokia n800 to read ebooks, and even on that smaller screen and pathetic-by-comparison battery life, its still pretty cool.



I think I heard that with the first kindle, you could jump through a few hoops and get anything on there using the usb connection - but with the later kindles, amazon tried to encourage (force?) you to send everything through their servers and pay the 10c.

If you do end up having to pay 10c per 'book' you send to yourself, maybe you can take your massive collections in sets of 100, collate them into one eBook (with bookmarks to find your way around), and thus get a 1000 books on there for $1 instead of $100.

you know what? that's a great idea. i could put all of one author's work together, and save some money. i mean, seriously...i'd pay ten cents to read a series, heh.

i wonder if they pay any attention to what you're putting on there through their servers; um, some of my downloads are of books that are in copyright (okay, most).

that's why i'd rather upload, and maybe even turn off the whispernet when i'm not actively downloading.

I've been trying to think of how you might do this... I've used a unix utility 'pdf2text' to rearrange pdf based ebooks into more desirable formats, but thats all I can think of at this point.

I'm sure we are not the first people to think of / attempt this, but a quick google search came up drive re: advice/utilities.

i juuuust received my kindle; it's beautiful. it's like reading a regular book...the e-ink is clear and easy to read, no eyestrain. i think i'm in heaven.

i'm about to hook to my computer to see if i can put the files on it that i know are in the proper format or if it'll render it impossible since they are copyrighted.

bada-bing, bada-boom!

i downloaded mobipocket creator (free) and used it to convert to .prc format. USB'd it right on over, and i'm reading it as we speak.

i'm going to see if i can mass-convert later...would make life a tad bit easier.

i'm psyched.

Awesome! So you have the Kindle 2, and (after converting formats with a free utility) you can USB-load your ebooks directly onto it?! No fees, no emailing, no whispernet involved?

I'm being redundant because I could've sworn I read differently from some online reviewer somewhere. (Not that they always know what they are talking about).

Thats good news!

that's exactly what i'm saying.

now, of course...i didn't mention anything about legality.

hey, kev...it has internet, too. i can check my email from it, and download books...and i can even IM and listen to radio.

i'm smitten, i tell ya.

Wow, its almost been a full year since Lulu's purchase, and I just now bought my first eBook reader - the Sony PRS-505. No wifi, no touchscreen, and I'm happy without those...but I had been holding out for a while because the one thing I definitely wanted was a built in LED backlight (or is it 'sidelight' with eink?), but I never saw any for a decent price. I cam across a good deal on the 505 and figure I can use an external booklight with it.

I look forward to the refinement of this technology - color eink displays, faster refresh rates, edge to edge screens...