e-readers

Reading  is a real lifeline for some, and a continued pleasure for many, despite the competition it's received in recent years from video games, TV, digital video streaming platforms, radio - and even 'talking' books.  

Although the printed page is still the favoured reading platform for most older readers, there are now many ways in which we can read material electronically. Arguably the closest approach to simulating the printed page, and hence arguably the best reading experience, is via dedicated e-readers (i.e. devices that don't do anything else besides display book content). e-readers can also provide many other features that aren't available with printed books e.g. searches, dictionary look-ups and even translation, if required.

I've dedicated this page to reviewing some of my own experiences with e-readers over the past 10 years or so, in the hope that this may provide some useful insights into how to get hold of, and use, one of these devices on a limited budget. As always, comments are welcome via the Contacts page. 

There are also several guides available for download - see my books page for details.

Amazon Kindle E-readers: Can You Use Them Without Registering ?

Introduction

Amazon's Kindle was one of the earliest e-reader mass-market offerings and appeared first in the late noughties. They are still popular with readers, and the 'forced march' towards frequent product updates on which most manufacturers have driven consumers over the intervening decade has meant that many of the early Kindle models are now available second hand at budget prices.

In this brief review, I’m attempting to answer two key questions about the older Kindle e-readers:

1)      Do you need to register with Amazon in order to get them to work ?

2)      How well do older Kindle devices perform with pre-existing book collections ?

The review is primarily aimed at anyone on a limited budget who is looking to buy a second hand e-reader and wants to know whether an older model Kindle would be a good choice.

As a regular reader of e-books, and someone who grew up before the dawn of the personal computer era, I have been much impressed by the wide variety of devices that can now be used to read books electronically. The rate at which the technology has developed since I started e-reading in the early 2010s has been brisk, to say the least, and the choice available can be a little bewildering for the novice reader. Having owned a number of tablets, phones and dedicated e-readers over recent years, all of which were capable of rendering e-books, I thought it would be useful to compare the various options available and come up with some objective conclusions which I could share with others.

I’ll focus in this review on dedicated e-readers. The plethora of apps available for ‘smart’ devices with LED screens make it easy to access books nowadays, and I would always recommend sourcing your books via the internet this way for sheer ease of access to the wide variety of sources available. Dedicated readers in my experience usually have very limited browser capabilities which are best avoided, particularly if you want to preserve their otherwise excellent battery life characteristics (and your own sanity !) by switching off their wifi capability. 

However, as far as the process of reading is concerned, LED screen devices all suffer from the same problem when it comes to reading comfort – they have a tendency to cause eye-strain, particularly if used for long periods. Most smartphones (apart from those that are really too big to manage comfortably) have an added problem in that their screens are usually too small to display the larger size fonts required for easy reading. 

An additional problem is battery life. LED screens are typically relatively power-hungry and require devices to be frequently charged. The e-ink screens used by most dedicated e-readers, on the other hand, are incredibly economical, and these devices will go literally for months without needing a recharge.

I came to the conclusion early on that a dedicated reader with an e-ink format screen was the best way to go for my ‘core’ reading activities, given its much closer approximation to the printed page. It was also quite refreshing to get hold of a device that doesn’t try to do everything, and focuses on the task in hand – i.e. delivering text in a readable form.

Having narrowed down the field, the next question was which e-reader would be best – and most inexpensive. Many of the more recent models are still beyond most budgets, so I have focused on the older end of the second hand market. Button- and keyboard-driven devices are quite old technology now and a touchscreen model was an additional preference on my list. That said, for those with a really limited budget, the 3rd and 4th generation button-operated Kindles are available on eBay at rock-bottom prices, and may still provide a useful solution for some readers.

I have personally had experience of several of Rakuten’s Kobo reader range and found these to be practicable and easy to use. The older Kobo readers are, however, starting to lose manufacturer support, and are also relatively expensive compared to other brands, so be prepared for a larger outlay if you choose one of the Kobo range. I would also not recommend buying anything older that the Touch edition (N905). The Kobo Mini (N705) has already run into upgrade trouble (see article below for a remedy, and later models may follow soon). I have no personal experience of the Barnes & Noble range, but did notice recently that they had withdrawn support from the Nook, no doubt much to the annoyance of its devotee readers. 

Unfortunately older model incompatibility with software & firmware revisions seems to be a common problem nowadays, and there is very little the individual reader can do about it other than complain, usually without result. Perhaps in the current era of increased environmental awareness, this form of ‘planned obsolescence by stealth’ will eventually be outlawed…given the power of vested IT interests, don't expect this to happen anytime soon, though...

What about e-book formats ?, I hear you ask. The majority of dedicated readers available today are capable of reading e-books in the .epub format, which has become the de facto standard over recent years. Amazon, however, decided on its own exclusive .azw format early on, and has steadfastly refused to fall into line with the others, maintaining its exclusivity (or should it be exclusion ?) by failing to make its devices compatible with .epub. Since I have accumulated a large collection of ebooks in .epub format over the years, as have many other readers, I had so far been put off the Amazon range on account of the format restriction. Given the current wide availability of good second hand examples of Kindle readers at very reasonable prices (ca £10-£20 on eBay for a good used and working Gen 4 Touch model, less for the button ones), I thought it might be useful to take look at one of the Kindle devices and assess how they compared with other readers in the same price range. To give you some insight on this process, I’ll focus on the 2 questions posed at the start of this review:

1)      Do you need to register with Amazon in order to get a Kindle 4th Gen. reader  to work ?

Firstly, why ask this question ?  As we all know from recent experience, ‘big Tech’ as they are often known can’t really be trusted to keep our data safe nowadays, and I prefer to avoid presenting them with my own personal and financial data ‘on a plate’ wherever possible. Perhaps a more compelling reason is cost - Amazon eBooks are expensive, and if you already have a decent collection of your own, and are happy to download others (quite legitimately) from the multitude of free online sources, why deplete your own hard-pressed budgets further to support a company which is already one of the richest in the world, and is still growing?

An additional disadvantage of registering, which perhaps isn’t quite so obvious, are the possible consequences of the ‘planned obsolescence by stealth’ strategies adopted by manufacturers in order to promote sales of newer models.  

Amazon withdrew support from all of their Kindle models more than 10 years old in August 2022. This includes all generations up to Gen 5. One of the consequences of this is that you can no longer browse Amazon's bookstore direct from your older kindle, although you can of course use the store via your pc provided you are signed up. If you're Kindle is still registered to you, you can also get any of your books sent directly to your Kindle via the 'Send to Kindle' app on pc.  One other potential problem with the older Kindles is that you could find an automatic software update which isn’t compatible with your device actually ‘kills it in its sleep’. A slight risk, admittedly, but most easily avoided by simply not registering….and not leaving you device connected to the internet 'unattended' via wifi. (You will also save on battery life !)

In short, if you have no desire (or budget) to buy a lot of new books from Amazon, and already have a significant collection, why register at all ?

To complete the answer to this question, I’ll describe my experience with one of the Kindle 4th generation e-readers. The device I tested was a Kindle Touch Edition 4th Generation reader (D01200; 4GB) running Kindle firmware version 5.1.0 (see illustrations on this page).

Kindle Touch Edition (4th Generation D01200) e-Reader: Feasibility Review

First steps

I ordered the device through eBay. On receipt, I found the charger had been left in direct contact with the screen in transit without any protection or padding to prevent movement. Amazingly, the screen did not appear to have been damaged – a testament its robustness, indeed, and a definite first ‘brownie point’ (for the device, not the seller!), given the well-established fragility of e-ink screens generally.

The reader had obviously already been factory reset before sale and was unregistered on receipt. It had been left in sleep mode, and a single press of the power button displayed the main screen. The battery appeared to be ca 90% charged after ca 3 days in transit. So far so good….

My next step was to disengage wifi to save power, since I had no intention of registering the device or using the browser. This was easily achieved via the ‘Settings’ Menu. That done, I connected to a Windows pc (Win7 laptop) via a standard micro-USB (male) to USB B (male) connector lead. The device was recognised without problems and appeared as an external drive in Win Explorer directory list. The Kindle user guide was within the ‘Documents’ directory as expected, and was readable on the device. This particular Kindle model is audio-enabled, and also has a music directory where .mp3 files can be deposited for playback during reading. The player itself is pretty rudimentary and I wouldn’t recommend it for anything other than background music, given the wide availability of Player apps for smartphones, tablets, etc. It does retain track number memory, and can be persuaded to retain its track position if left in sleep mode at pause, and the player isn't switched off. The audio circuitry does serve a useful additional purpose, though, in that the device is equipped with built-in Text to Speech – the sound quality is quite acceptable, although the voice can be a little annoying if engaged for long periods.

The ‘experimental’ browser does work, but is just that – it fails to load quite a few sites (as widely reported in the online ‘agony’ forums and is in any case far too slow and cumbersome to be of much use. Bear in mind that wifi connectivity was really only included to allow Amazon to sell you their books direct online – and the browser appears to be geared to Amazon sites. I can confirm this is true even when the device is registered. If you’re not interested in buying Amazon products online, then there’s no real need to connect to wifi at all, and you will notice much improved battery life if you keep it turned off.

Can you use a Kindle Touch without registering ?

The short answer to this question is – Yes…

While some of the menu options available in registered Kindles are not available without registration, the basic functionality you require to side-load and read books is all there, and is relatively easy to access, once you are familiar with the menu system. The online manual can be downloaded free, and the device comes with a .azw format copy already installed.

You can always register at a late date if you decide you do want access to Amazon’s Bookstore, but if you do, beware – registering is likely to delete any content you may have already side-loaded. Please ensure you have your .mobi files safely backed up elsewhere before going ahead. You should be able to side-load them back again after registering in the usual way. If you decide to de-register at any stage thereafter, the same caveats will apply.

What functionality do you lose by not being able to register ?

The only options described in the Touch online manual (apart from Amazon Cloud storage and Bookstore) which didn’t appear to be available without registration were:

X-Ray, Amazon Audible Audiobooks, Kindle Panel view and enhanced image viewing, Reading Progress, Software updates.

I would argue that none of these options are strictly necessary for basic reading operations. Audiobooks can be used via any Android smartphone or tablet via dedicated apps, and are of course not affected by the problem of LED screen-induced eye-strain. The specific audiobook format required by the Kindle is in any case very restrictive and the limited range of books available is, predictably, restricted to Amazon’s store. The same effectively applies to books compatible with the X-ray feature, which is largely limited to Amazon products i.e. those with an 'ASIN' number. Both features were obviously designed to 'capture' audiences and tie them into the Amazon offering. Other ‘frills’ available on registered machines can be dispensed with, and will actually increase clutter when navigating menus.

One item you will need to provide a more comprehensive reading experience is an installed dictionary. These are normally downloaded on registration. However it is easy to source .mobi format dictionaries online, and these need only be inserted into the ‘/documents/dictionaries/’ directory of your Kindle to be recognised. I recommend Bookfere’s site for a large selection of .mobi dictionaries, (including a Thesaurus for crossword fans). Try the Concise OED edition for starters.

Converting and Managing a Book Collection

Having established that Kindles can be used perfectly well without registering, let’s try and answer the second question:

2)      How well do older Kindle devices perform with pre-existing .epub book collections ?

In an attempt to answer this, I explored various ways of converting .epub files to the .mobi file format which is recognised by Kindles. The most obvious choice of software for Windows and Mac pcs is ‘Calibre’. This is a sophisticated eBook management tool and is the most widely used software for book management. It is also free to download. The package is fairly intuitive, but might seem a little daunting at first to new users. As well as managing large collections efficiently, Calibre provides format conversion facilities including .epub to .mobi, and can be used in ‘batch’ mode for large collections. The main advantage for users wanting to access their e-books using a range of e-readers is that once your .epub collection is loaded into Calibre, you can convert either some or all of the books into .mobi format and still retain the .epub version for use with your other readers. The average conversion time for a 1MB e-book is ca 45 seconds. To side-load a book into the Kindle you need only power it on and connect via the USB cable. Calibre will recognise the Kindle and provide you with the option to select books to transfer. If you have already converted the books you have selected to .mobi format, Calibre will select and transfer the correct files; if not, it will auto-convert the .epub files for you before transferring them. Calibre is therefore probably the best tool if you want to use different readers with the same book library at different times. If you want to store your .mobi file collection elsewhere in a separate directory outside the Calibre system, Calibre can also do this for you – see Footnote 1 below for the Calibre settings required and the procedure to follow. Another useful thing Calibre will do is to add a book summary to the start of your eBook while converting it - see box below for instructions on how to do this.

If you prefer to use a dedicated converter, or just find Calibre too formidable, I recommend the ‘Hamster’ free book converter which can still be downloaded free. Of the ‘bulk’ converters available this one downloads & installs correctly and actually works. It also has the advantage that you can control input and output locations for the files.

However you generate your list of ‘raw’ .mobi files, you will need to transfer them to the ‘Documents’ directory of your Kindle for them to be recognised. You can do this via simple file transfer, but please note that if you don’t use Calibre, you will lose page numbering and the ability to ‘Goto’ a specific page number. You can still use the ‘Goto’ option to move to a specific chapter or Kindle ‘Location’ if you know this. The reason for the difference is that Calibre transfers various metadata info when it installs a book, which allows the Kindle to carry out the additional indexing required.

Using the Kindle: How to access help

I’ll assume you have managed to side-load a selection of books to read, and these have appeared in your home screen booklist. The Kindle Touch Edition D01200 User manual already installed should be in the list, and contains a wealth of info which shouldn’t be necessary to re-hash here. Although the selection of books and the reading experience is fairly intuitive on the Kindle devices, I’d recommend you study the manual and be prepared to refer to it if you get stuck, bearing in mind that some of the more advanced features including bookstore access won’t be available. The features available unregistered are broadly comparable to other e-readers, with the text to speech built-in option on this model providing a definite ‘extra’ not usually provided on budget-priced readers.

Conclusion

I hope this brief review will enable anyone contemplating acquiring a second hand Kindle device to make an informed decision. My verdict on the Kindle 4th generation range, using the Touch Edition as an example, is generally positive. My recent experiences with a Gen 4 button model (D01100) and a Gen 3 Keyboard model have also been positive - the software layout is very similar, and the dual side-mounted paging buttons are quite easy to use. The absence of screen touch sensitivity can actually even be an advantage at times.  If you have any info. on these earlier button models you would like to share, or have any other questions or comments, feel free to use the Contact page on this website.

 For anyone actually acquiring one of these devices, I have also compiled a detailed guide on how to use them (and other older Kindles) unregistered. You can download this from the downloads page

Update: Kindle 4th Gen Button-controlled version running Software version 4.1.4. (5.1.22)

As mentioned above, all button controlled devices are now off the Amazon- supported list. 

The D01100 is a simpler model with the touchscreen replaced by individual buttons and an on-screen keyboard. Although button control is slower, and searches are a bit more tedious, once your book is loaded page turning is straightforward via the side buttons. there are no audio facilities and the browser is still u/s, but otherwise this would prove a cheaper and still serviceable alternative to the Touch. No problems with Calibre access or functionality.

Update: Kindle 3rd Gen Button-controlled version running Software version 3.4.2. (19.1.22)

This model was the last of the full keyboard Kindles, but is still quite popular as a second hand option. It also sports sound circuitry which allows text to speech conversion (this was removed in the 4th Gen button version, but then reappeared in the 4th Gen Touch edition, only to disappear again in the Gen 5 and later models). The MP3 player is even more rudimentary than the Touch, with no screen display at all, but gives surprisingly good reproduction quality. As for the other models, the browser is virtually useless and is only there at all to service the Amazon store. Reading experience is good, and searches are actually easier than for the Gen 4 versions, given the full keyboard available. Search by page also seems to be available unregistered, in contrast to the Gen 4 models. No problems encountered with Calibre access or functionality, and the 4GB memory is large enough to use the device as a USB memory store in its own right. You can also take advantage of this if you have a large library and wish to store it 'on device' as .mobi files without cluttering up your device's  reading list with books you may never get round to reading.

Update: Kindle replacement batteries: Now that they are all likely to be over 10 years old, many Kindle 3rd and 4th Gen models have got to the stage where their batteries are moribund. Unfortunately proprietary Amazon replacements are expensive beasts nowadays, weighing in at around £12- £15 even on eBay. Given that you can pick up a second hand 'Parts Only' 3rd Gen reader with a 'dead' battery for around £5-£10+pp, it just isn't economic to buy an Amazon official replacement. You can however 'refurbish' an existing dead battery by replacing the dead Li Polymer cell with a new and much cheaper one, provided you can find a cell thin enough, and the battery's internal electronics is still OK. 

To do this, you need to unscrew the two small Phillips screws holding the battery in place (don't lose them, they are really small), then open the casing carefully (don't cut yourself on the aluminium casing like I did). This reveals the LiPo cell which is connected to two terminals by short ribbon cables. Cut these away (preferably without shorting them !) and remove the old LiPo cell (you may need to work at the adhesive - use a blunt plastic tool and try not to puncture the old LiPo cell itself when doing this). Solder the positive & negative wires of a new LiPo 3.7v cell to these terminals, (ensure you get the polarity right !) and stick the new cell to the remaining adhesive. Now replace the battery compartment in its slots and screw back the Phillips screws, thus connecting the battery terminals to the reader connectors. The reader should now reboot normally. Re-fit the Kindle back cover and you should now have a working Kindle again....

Ideally the new LiPo cell should have a capacity around 1800mAh or greater, but anything above 1000mAh should work provided it is charged up regularly to maintain voltage. I replaced mine initially using a 650mAh cell taken out of an old ''POD' phone charger - the width was the same as the old LiPo cell, and the reader appeared to work but kept rebooting every so often. I replaced it with a 1500 mAh cell and everything worked perfectly, with 2-3 weeks between charges under normal use. Since wifi provides the largest current drain, not using this will help prolong the interval between charges.

One issue I've also encountered with the 3rd & 4th Gen readers is charging problems following extended storage with a fully-depleted battery. More often than not, when put on charge, the battery will fail to take a decent charge, even though the orange LED lights up. You can confirm this by feeling the body of the charger - it will normally warm up significantly when charging at 1 amp or more. The best remedy for this problem is to remove the Kindle's back cover and disconnect the battery completely for at least 30 mins. (You can usefully clean the Kindle's battery contacts while you're waiting to remove any oxide deposits which may have built up). When the battery is reconnected it forces a cold reset and removes any electronic 'gremlins' that may have found their way into the system as a result of the low voltage 'trauma'.

Footnotes:

1)      To set up Calibre for export of .mobi files to a single directory, proceed as follows:

Click the ‘Preferences’ icon on the top row of the Calibre main screen. Select the ‘Savings Books to Disc’ option under the ‘Import/Export’ heading. Uncheck all 7 of the boxes at the top of the screen. In the box labelled ‘File Formats to Save’, type ‘mobi’ (lower case). Now click ‘Apply’ and close the ‘Preferences’ Option. If you now type ‘formats:"=MOBI"’ in the Calibre Search box, this will generate a full list of all the books in your library available in .mobi format. To save to disc, select the range you wish to transfer and click the triangle to the right of the ‘Save to Disc’ icon . Click the option ‘Save to disc in a single directory’. This should provide you with a file browser – select the directory you wish to transfer files to and click ‘Select Folder’. Calibre should now transfer only those .mobi files you selected without any additional meta files or directories.

VJCW 5.4.23

Figure 1: Kindle 3rd Gen. battery Refurbishment: Outer battery cover

Figure 2: Replacement Lithium Polymer 650mAh battery connected

Figure 3: Close up of internal battery curcuitry

Kobo Mini eReader: Resuscitation after Missing  the 2018 Mandatory Software Upgrade

If you recently factory reset your device and have since found it will not complete Kobo's standard setup procedure properly, the chances are your reader missed the mandatory software upgrade issued by Kobo in 2018.  (see link below this article)

There are a variety of reasons why this may have occurred - you may have stopped using it and put it in a drawer, or have acquired it from someone else.  

Even if you haven't  already factory reset, but were planning to (e.g. prior to selling on), it's important ensure your reader gets upgraded before you do the deed.....otherwise you (or your buyer !) will find setup won't work and you are left with an expensive paperweight.

For a  possible remedy, download the Kobo Mini Upgrading 18 .pdf file from the homepage and follow the instructions.

Happy reading.....

Version Date 17.5.22

Book Summaries: How do I get and view them ?

Plot summaries are often very useful, particularly if you've started reading a book and haven't yet 'got into it' fully, and  find yourself returning to the novel after an interval with no idea of what part of the plot you'd reached.  It's also useful, of course,  in helping you decide which books to read in the first place !

 Most books have brief summaries built in to their eBook files. The publishers  normally do this by incorporating the information into the metadata section of the file. The problem is that this element of the eBook isn't always accessible to dedicated eReaders or phone/tablet apps. A notable example is Amazon's Kindle, which won't display any of the metadata unless you are registered and have bought the book from them.  Another problem with built-in summaries is that they are often 'bare bones' and don't really do the job. 

If your reader/device combination gives you similar problems and you want  to see better summary info in your books, there is a way to ensure this using the Calibre Software.  As discussed above,  Calibre is one of the best eBook free management tools available and will also provide easy access to an ebook's metadata, including its summary. It will also search the net for better summaries if your book doesn't have one, or isn't up to scratch. If you don't already have Calibre on your pc, you can download it free of charge.

Once you have loaded a book into Calibre, the first step is to check whether your copy has a built-in summary. To do this select the 'Edit metadata' option from the top menu of icons. If no summary is present in the comments box (bottom right of the display), or looks a bit sparse,  click the 'download metadata' button. Provided you are online, this option should look up your book and download a summary for you. To ensure all your readers have access to the summary, you now need to transfer it to the body of the text. 

Calibre will do this for you as part of its built-in  book conversion option. To engage this, click 'OK' to exit the 'Edit Metadata' option. Your book should still be highlighted in the main display list. Click 'Convert Books' - you should see your book's metadata, including the new summary, displayed. Click the icon labelled 'Structure Detection' and then the radio box labelled 'Insert Metadata as a page at start of book' . Now select the format you want your updated eBook version to appear in (.mobi if you're using a Kindle, .epub for anything else). Click  'OK' and the conversion should go ahead (ca 45-60 secs for a 1 MB average sized eBook). If you now view the converted book, you should now find the metadata including the summary has been transferred to the start of your book.

If you'd like to have this happen with every book you convert, you can change your  Calibre preferences. Do this by selecting the Calibre option sequence as follows:

Preferences -- Conversion -- Common Options -- Structure Detection -- Insert Metadata as page at start of book.

This will build in the  process of summary addition. You'll still need to check your metadata first, though. 

You can always undo this change if you no longer want your books to carry a summary at the start.

If you don't have a dedicated eReader but want to view eBook summaries electronically via the metadata, you can do so using one of the many smartphone / tablet apps. If you have an Android device, I'd recommend ReadEra as one of the best choices - this app handles bot .epub and .mobi files as well as .pdfs, and allows you to view the built in metadata via its 'About Document' menu option (Select menu via icon to left of settings, then 'About Document'. The cover page and associated metadata should now be displayed, with the summary under the author name).

First published 13.6.24