Ask Slashdot: E-ink Reader For Academic Papers? 134
Albanach writes "Recently, I purchased an e-ink Kindle. I like real paper books, but I'm reading lots of academic papers. The Kindle is a nice way to carry and read them, and I went through several documents, highlighting important passages. Now I learn that there is no supported way to actually get a highlighted personal document back off of the Kindle with the highlights intact. I don't need lectures about DRM, proprietary software or anything else along those lines — there are other things the Kindle can and will be used for. What I would like to know is whether there's another e-ink reader that does let you add your own documents, then highlight them and export the altered document. Or does someone know of a way to achieve this using the Kindle itself?"
Oh man (Score:5, Funny)
"I don't need lectures about DRM, proprietary software or anything else along those lines"
Are you sure you posted this to the right geek news site?
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Listen you Troll, he said he didn't NEED lectures about DRM. He never said he didn't WANT lectures on DRM. I'm mentally sifting through my RSM lecture notes as I type.
Uh, yes (Score:5, Informative)
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Thanks. I don't need to deal with PDFs (fortunately). Can this do the same with stuff like ePub?
I gave up and used a tablet (Score:4, Interesting)
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I have a Nexus 7, but I found the screen just too small for double-column papers. I now use a Sony Tablet Z and it's nearly perfect. It's still light enough to easily hold in one hand, and I can easily read a single-column paper in portrait format, or a double-column paper either in portrait or landscape, depending on how tired my eyes are at the time.
I use "PDF Viewer", actually "EBook Droid" for PDFs, and it's OK for papers. I'll try ezPDF as well. I also use Sony's "small app" notes application to take n
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I was looking at youtube videos of PDFs on various tablets. It looks like with book format the larger hi-res tablets (like iPad w/Retina) and some of the newer 9-10.1" Androids with similar hi-res display (2048 x 1152-ish) do a much better job of displaying the full page of text and are legible to read. I find the small screens make reading difficult and strenuous on the eyes.
I'm going to grad school soon and I'm debating buying a tablet or getting a new laptop with hi-res display. I just want to setup some
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Goodreader [goodreader.net] with its file sync and annotation capabilities goes a long way towards making up for the stock viewer you get wi
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Thank you for the helpful comment.
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i have a 10 inch tablet and i would buy a bigger one if i could.
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Yep. I just sent a Kindle Paperwhite back to Amazon because of multiple pdf-reading problems. Ten-inch android tablets, even slow ones, work better.
Calibre? (Score:3, Interesting)
Papers-ereader (Score:1)
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Short Evaluation (Score:2)
I had a Kobo-Reader and my girlfriend has a Kindle. We both evaluated using these readers to read scientific papers. These papers come in PDF and are sometimes in a two-column style. Reading PDFs is a mess on both readers. This also applies to the Tolino, which my niece bought recently. The problem with papers is, that they are more or less A4-documents and not A5. Therefore, they are hard to read on the small screen anyway. What works somewhat better are scientific books, which are available as e-book. I h
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Hi, I am the submitter - most of the papers I am working with a plain text and either directly available in a compatible format or very easily converted to one. I should really have made clear that I am not stuck with PDFs which makes the small size of the regular kindle more of a plus than a disadvantage.
Re: Short Evaluation (Score:4, Informative)
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I also routinely read academic papers using iAnnotate. If you read a lot of academic papers, it's worth investing in an iPad.
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I completely aggree with that, but they did not release an android version that that can output pdf. Yes it is ridiculous, you can read and annotate, but you can not save what you do.
Any Android suggestions?
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Hi, thanks for the suggestion. I have an iPad, and an Android tablet and use them both when appropriate. However, they're big. They're heavy. And the screen is nowhere near as nice to use for lengthy reading as e-ink. That's why I was looking for an e-ink solution.
Re:Short Evaluation (Score:5, Interesting)
I wrote a small script that takes research papers and splits them up if they have two columns. It tries to figure out when you have figures, and to strip away the header/footer etc. It produces epubs (which you can convert with Calibre)
https://github.com/JohannesBuc... [github.com]
The pages are first converted to images, the white spaces figured out, and the page sliced and diced. The linearized content is a sequence of page number, and rectangle definitions. You could make those into a pdf again, but I just stick to images and html (epub).
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Thanks for the hint. I will look into it. Such tool, if it works properly, could ease my daily work. No more searching in folders (paper) for notes, no more piles of documents on my desk.
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Don't worry, be happy (Score:3, Interesting)
Don't ever let something like DRM get in the way of you getting your work done.
Screw it. Use Calibre and root your Kindle. Strip out the DRM and get a proper reader app.
There is no moral requirement for you to participate in corporate insanity.
In the words of a great tech guru: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law."
And while we're at it, "All you have to do is be yourself, do your will, and rejoice."
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I think I prefer 'Do what thou will an it harm none'
Crowley was an arse.
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DRM is not what is stopping me getting my work don.e I can put my own stuff on, and get it back off again just fine. The problem is a lack of tools to take the annotation data that's on the device and merge it into the document when it's not on the Kindle.
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The person was clearly listing out multiple steps to take. Use Calibre (to manage your ebooks, maybe with plugins to strip DRM). Root your Kindle (to prevent it from communicating with Amazon in ways you don't control).
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The person was clearly listing out multiple steps to take. Use Calibre (to manage your ebooks, maybe with plugins to strip DRM). Root your Kindle (to prevent it from communicating with Amazon in ways you don't control).
The person listed steps, yes. But failed to communicate what doing that would actually solve as his problem wasn't DRM or the device communicating with Amazon...
I'm so pissed at electronic devices!!! (Score:4, Interesting)
I have a little rant because I hate these little fucking problems like the OP is talking about. That is bullshit. What the fuck is the point of the highlighting feature if you cannot take it off and use it somewhere else? Seriously.. it would be like 4 hours of a Kindle programmers' time to implement that feature. I hate that shit.
Also, fuck the cloud. Every company wants to create their little own proprietary cloud that envisions you being locked into their half-assed limited selection of crap. Microsoft Skydrive.. now I'm stuck with only using Microsoft. Everyone else is the same. Where the fuck is my cloud that works on any device and lets me store any document there. Maybe dropbox is the best so far.. but something tells me I cannot store my Kindle books, Nook books, Itunes, or any other media on that cloud. It's my fucking media.. Let me store it wherever the fuck I want on whatever the fuck device I want to store it on. Maybe the new Kindle sucks and some other company makes a better implementation. Let me move my shit there.
Also, why the fuck can't all my devices just report back to a shared drive on my computer. Why can't I just have a 'pdb' (personal database) file that is constantly updating with any device I own. Let it encrypt the parts that need encryption. Let the interface pop up with a list of checkmarks and I (the GODDAMN USER THAT IS BUYING THIS CRAP) decide what I want my device to be able to access, copy, and modify out of my personal database. Seriously.. the idea that it's not just built-in to store files to a share drive on every new tablet and cell phone is as frustrating as watching someone try to be productive on Windows 8.
This ones for Android.. let me tell the fucking device when to update! I don't want it updating my apps when I picked it up to quickly read a pdf. I don't need it trying to use my internet connection when I'm at some fucking remote site 3rd world country with barely any cell phone coverage deciding it needs to update some bloated app I never use.
This one is for Windows.. updating when I want to turn off my laptop and telling me not to turn it off is retarded. Whoever decided that is the time to update should be slammed on the pavement like how Hulk smashed Loki.
I have a lot more to rant about.. but I am going to take a vacation away from technology for the next few hours.
I cannot believe people think we're innovating at this time.. We're taking 3 steps forward and 12 steps back. Fuck you, Kindle, for reminding me of this non-interchangeable mess that we call the technology world. Shit should work together. If we had a PDB that was universal (and with compatibility layers for all the proprietary shit - APPLE), then maybe the consumer wouldn't think it was such a pain in the ass to move to a new device.
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Use Owncloud. Does pretty much what you seem to want.
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Well, many applications seems to have an "export to dropbox" features, but not all have an "export to owncloud" feature. This imporves on Android where there are proper interface for exporting documents. But you still need the application to use it properly. If I understood correctly, there is no such interface on iDevices which forces each softwaredevelopper to explicitely write a support (probably smply linking with an external lib andadding a hook) for different cloud platforms. This is essentially the s
Re:I'm so pissed at electronic devices!!! (Score:4, Funny)
This is an impressive rant but it you spent as much time researching the problem as you took to write the rant, you could solve your problems.
On the cloud: Dropbox, etc. have clients for all OSs. You can even use Owncloud to have complete control.
Updating: You could spend a few minutes to set up your options to update when and where you want (Google it... all of the OSs have these options).
PDFs: Again, spend a few minutes to find a PDF reader that has the options you want.
(I did enjoy your rant, though. Good to see someone get this worked up on a Saturday morning. Maybe you should try getting outside more.)
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brxndxn's got 99 problems and research is #1!
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Instead of ranting against them (not that I disagree) you could also just not use any cloud services. Their TOS and EULAs are usually unacceptable anyway. I store everything on my PC and backup the contents of this machine in encrypted form to georedundant servers. The rest is just a matter of using remote desktop login, ssh, and similar services.
If you don't want to set up the services on your own, there is a little Danish company that produces sort of two matching, paired USB sticks that allow you to move
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The slashdot boycott [slashdot.org] must be working because slashdot is clearly falling apart; +5 Interesting?!!??!?! WTF???, I just wish someone would point me to wherever the slashdot fork is being set up so I don't accidently read another post like this. Anyway:
If you would just google your problem, in a fraction of the time you spent ranting you would already know all of the sharing features you want are available via google drive, and android auto-updates can be turned as a whole or on an app by app basis by go
Re: I'm so pissed at electronic devices!!! (Score:2)
After I do that, how do I say now is the time to update all my apps without going through them one by one?
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SkyDrive can be mounted via WebDAV, which is a standard protocol - that makes things a little bit better.
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I agree with you and I think a few people do recognize the problem. What we need is a system that allows the app companies like Dropbox and kindles to innovate and make money but without the lock-in.
For example Dropbox. Much of there success is just because of the lock-in. They are expensive and lack features like real encryption but because they built the most user friendly interface and spent lots of money for integration with other parties, the only people that can compete are Microsoft and Google.
It's a
PocketBook e-ink readers (Score:3, Informative)
Have a look at the PocketBook e-ink readers. Sadly, they have left USA market, unable to compete with Amazon.
Here in my European country, in an online store specialized on e-book readers PocketBook is by far the most popular brand. Keep in mind that most people buying kindles are buying them directly from Amazon.
I have PocketBook Touch Lux 623. The screen and front-light are the same as on Kindle Paperwhite. It supports 18 e-book formats and lots of configuration options, all without hacking. It has headphones output with support of TTS in many languages. You can use micro SD card. There are third-party programs available, such as scientific calculator, Linux terminal (for hacking - the reader itself has busybox installed), ftp server (so you can look at *and* modify files from internal memory), Coolreader, chess, several games, Vim text editor (full-fledged recent version).
You can make your own notes and highlights and PocketBook will prepare html file for each document with your notes that you can download to your PC. No special software necessary.
You can import PocketBook from Europe.
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I have a PocketBook Pro 912, exactly for the use case described. Works like a charm. Large screen, A4 PDFs are easy to read. Problems are rare (under heavy use for well over a year I found just one extremely heavy PDF that basically caused the reader to hang, I couldn't even reboot it - that's it, no other problems). I don't even connect it to a computer (why waste desk space?), I just use a microSD card. My collegue has a 911 and connects it all the time, so that seems to work just as well.
Also useful duri
The answer is obvious (Score:4, Informative)
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I did a quick Google. It looks like Moon+ is an Android App. I was specifically looking for a solution compatible with an e-ink reader. Simply due to the long time spent reading straight text, the screen is superior for what I am doing.
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Re:The answer is obvious (Score:4, Informative)
Mobius (Score:4, Interesting)
Try some Chinese stuff (Score:1)
When I lived in China I remember seeing a lot of "national" alternatives to kindle. They did cost more but they had many advantages: colors (at the time the only e-ink readers with colors were Chinese, don't know now), different sizes, the larger ones being much better for reading PDFs than kindle, and better compatibility options. I deeply regret going cheap (I bought a kindle because of the price).
Here is a link for one of them (I remembered the brand and made a search). They say you can embed notes to pd
Tried Google? (Score:2)
It's easy to read highlights and notes off-kindle (Score:4, Interesting)
There is a file called documents/My Clippings.txt if I'm not mistaken. Some time ago, I wrote a simple program (kindleclip — https://github.com/gwolf/kindl... [github.com] ) that presents you highlights, bookmarks and comments, allows you to search, either by book or by date. It's a GTK2 project built with Glade however, and I have not yet ported it to use current alternatives, but at least I believe the source to be quite readable/followable. Hope you find it useful.
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There is a file called documents/My Clippings.txt if I'm not mistaken. Some time ago, I wrote a simple program (kindleclip — https://github.com/gwolf/kindl... [github.com] ) that presents you highlights, bookmarks and comments, allows you to search, either by book or by date. It's a GTK2 project built with Glade however, and I have not yet ported it to use current alternatives, but at least I believe the source to be quite readable/followable. Hope you find it useful.
^ This. While that may be a little cumbersome to sync it all, I think that's the best you'll probably get with the Kindle.
I think you need a different software solution (Score:5, Informative)
Good question (Score:2)
Get A Thinkpad Tablet 2 and Use Xournal (Score:1)
I help maintain Xournal (a PDF annotation software) and like you, do a lot of reading and reviewing of papers.
My suggestion is to use Xournal on a tablet. The best, in my opinion, is the Thinkpad Tablet 2 with a wacom digitizer. It is very nice and a great deal these days. It can't do much, but it runs xournal beautifully. But for me, it is purely a PDF annotator:
There are several advantages to it:
1. It has a wacom digitizer. I can't stress it enough. There is no comparison to any other digitizer in the ma
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Aha -- you beat me to the punch. Yes, this is one thing (the only thing?) that Windows 8 tablets really excel at, as Windows has long-standing (since XP) and mature support for pen digitizers.
Tradeoffs (Score:1)
You want a device w/ an active stylus and decent software support for that --- unfortunately, these haven't faired well in the market.
The Icarus Excel is one which seems to still be available --- 9.7" E-Ink Pearl screen, for a paperlike reading experience
Supports handwritten notes and annotations with Wacom technology: http://blog.the-ebook-reader.c... [the-ebook-reader.com]
I just always use a Tablet PC as my main machine --- I do have a Sony PRS-600, but it's not easy to get the annotations off of it.
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Another option would be to use a monochrome LCD instead of e-ink --- almost as good on the power department --- look into the Asus EEE Note and the free software for it: http://www.freeenote.org/pages... [freeenote.org]
Microsoft OneNote (Score:3)
I cannot read a maths book or paper without writing on it.
Microsoft OneNote is cloud-based with syncing, has drawing tools, OCR for image content, handwritten comments, and even a Maths editor, and can organize your stuff. There might even be a symbolic calculator buried somewhere in it. I use it on a Surface Pro; to make the handwritten annotation part work well you really need the Wacom Stylus.
There are a bunch of PDF readers on the PC and Mac which can annotate. I think they all export the annotated PDF, and a couple of smart folders or Google Drive might be enough to maintain a synced system.
Unfortunately, this whole area is one where proprietary is ahead of open source - OneNote and InkSeine are masterworks.
Edmund
The problem is not the kindle (Score:2)
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"The problem is not the Kindle. Publishers (particularly scholarly publishers ) have not adopted epub format. PDFs do not reflow to screen size therefore they will NEVER be useful in devices of variable screen sizing. Sorry. "
That's where Calibre comes in.
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Last I tried, Calibre didn't do a good job of transcribing some PDFs to ePub. PDFs record layout on a page, not semantic information, and so any format shifting has to be based on reverse-engineering the layout. Do the scholarly PDFs typically come out of Calibre well?
Tablet with Wacom stylus (Score:2)
If you limit yourself to e-ink readers, I predict that you will suffer from endless problems with finding software that does what you want. You may have to bite the bullet and get a general-purpose tablet PC.
Go for a lightweight tablet with a Wacom stylus (digitizer), as this kind of stylus will give you a far better user experience for highlighting and handwriting than an ordinary capacitive stylus would. The Surface Pro has a Wacom stylus, but is too heavy for comfortable one-handed use. I would recommend
No way? (Score:2)
I thought that as long as you put your document on your Kindle using Amazon's servers - basically meaning you send the document to your Kindle's email address rather than transferring it over USB - things like highlights and bookmarks would be synced to Amazon's servers (which would make them transferable)?
iPad with GoodReader (Score:2)
In the business world, I and many others use an iPad and GoodReader for annotating board papers. To be honest, it's the only thing that I use an iPad for, as I prefer a proper PC, a smartphone or a smaller tablet for anything else.
GoodReader allows you to annotate pdfs with a wide range of tools - I usually scribble free form text with my finger - and you can read the annotations with any pdf reader. The large format of the full size iPad simplifies finger writing, and the large retina screen means that I c
Nook (Score:2)
Onyx M92 (Score:2)
The hardware is somewhat old at this point and there's supossedly going to be a refresh in the near future (m96) with Android. They're supossedly even sponsoring a contest to develop e-ink optimized Android applications.
Warning: Thi
Kindle DX (Score:2)
Only one that works best for it, sadly it's discontinued as it seems that most people are weak waifs that cant carry a 9 inch E reader because they are soooooo heavy.
I wish they would release a Kindle XL-DX that has a display the size of a US Legal piece of paper. but I doubt we will see any useable e-ink readers released as the bulk of sales are for paperback recreational reading and not for professional or education use.
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The Kindle DX is still available (and hugely discounted) - just a bit hidden, and not pushed at all by Amazon. I bought one last year for PDF reading.
You can find it here: http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-DX-Wireless-Reader-3G-Global/dp/B002GYWHSQ [amazon.com]
-- Pete
You can get all the highlighted passages... (Score:1)
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It's a library, dummy (Score:2)
Wrong mentality (Score:2)
The Kindle is holding your copy of the book. You are annotating your copy of the book and highlighting it.
Were it a hardcopy book, your highlights would not automagically transfer to another copy of the book.
Why, then, do you expect to be able to export/read your annotations and highlights from a Kindle?
In order to do what you want, you'd effectivly have to be able to edit the book to embed your notes. If that's really what you want to do, get a document file and edit away, but don't expect an eRea
A lot of eink readers have crap PDF interpreters (Score:2)
The answer is to work out what the software and hardware limitations are and reformat the PDF to display properly on the device you have and
Resolution (Score:2)
Somewhat off topic, but I'm put off by the resolution of eInk devices. The readers I have seen have relatively low pixel density compared to recent phones, tablets and laptops. Any experience with reading equations and formulae on these? How about diagrams, figures?
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My Nook (Simple Touch with glowlight) doesn't render those well. It's great for text, but once you get into a thin, detailed, font, the legibility declines sharply. Don't know about other eInk devices.
I ran accross this video it may help (Score:1)
Hi,
I was looking for Kindle alternatives the other day and ran across across this vlog about best e-ink devices of 2013. of note for you may be the Icarus and sony large format e-ink readers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... [youtube.com]
the vlog authors at http://www.youtube.com/user/go... [youtube.com] have their own store. You may want to look into the (rather expensive) sony and icarus pen enabled devices.
As far as kindle goes, if you root the kindle you can access Cool Reader and other tools that may do what you want.
I would also
Notability (Score:1)
I have had good luck using Notability for iOS:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/notability/id360593530?mt=8
Easy to import PDFs, easy to highlight, easy to annotate with handwriting or typing, and easy to export back to PDF. Fairly responsive on my old first generation iPad.
The only drawbacks I've found are:
1. Documents with handwriting or free form drawing get larger r than I would expect (~ 1 MB per page for a page of Calculus homework or doodles)
2. Doesn't support ssh or git for uploading/downloading docum
The problem is writing annotations in PDF format (Score:1)
Android e-Ink reader and any software you want (Score:2)
http://imcosys.com/ [imcosys.com] sells the imcoV6L, an e-ink reader which runs on android (2.3.1, sadly). So you can use whatever android-software there is.
Re:DRM (Score:5, Informative)
Last I checked, the Kindle is capable of reading and displaying quite a few non-DRM formats. You're stuck with DRM if you purchase books from Amazon, yes, but nothing about the device itself locks you into DRM.
Re:DRM (Score:4, Informative)
You're stuck with DRM if you purchase books from Amazon, yes, but nothing about the device itself locks you into DRM.
Uh, no. Publishers choose whether they put DRM on Amazon ebooks, there's no requirement to use it. I've never intentionally bought a DRM-ed ebook on Amazon.
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you have nothing to fear if you simply keep your device in airplane mode all the time
Like saying you're less likely to get robbed if you never go outside the house.
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There are two things a Kindle does with its WiFi connection: Downloading content from Amazon and running a barely functional web browser. If you aren't going to use the Amazon store there's basically nothing worth using the WiFi for.
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It occasionally downloads firmware updates also. And of course you can transfer your own files via the Amazon link.
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Firmware updates can also be installed via USB.
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Also synchronizing reading progress between different devices, and as Ozoner pointed out, getting firmware updates and transferring your own files. I buy my books from Baen (DRM free, not that I really care), and just tell Baen to e-mail them to my kindle directly. It's simpler than plugging it into a computer and copying them over.
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Log in Mr. Stahlman. Log in.
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Swindle! so clever and witty! right up there with M$ and Microsucks.
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whoosh