My "Kindle"
Displaying a W J Bryan paper downloaded free
from the "Gutenberg" project
Following from my natural inclination towards technologies that improve my experience with work or play, you would not be surprised that I have one of the current "e-book" readers. This time, Barbara beat me to the punch and gave it to me as a birthday present this winter. I have since been using it almost every day, on occasion for several hours.
On the last few airline trips I have read from the Kindle before, during and between flights, and I have been interrupted (I don't mind) a number of times by inquisitive fellow travelers. Answering their questions led me to formulate some observations and opinions on what I have found to be a pretty nice product.
What do I use it for?
Books: (a) purchased from Amazon, and (b) downloaded free from sites such as the Gutenberg project
Periodicals: The Wall Street Journal
Other: i.e. PDFs from several sources, including financial reports and medical articles.
How does it work?
The technology is pretty neat. The display is a technology called "ink" that is reflective (not back lit) and draws minimal power from the batteries. It is connected to Amazon by the Sprint cell network, though I could also directly load content from my PC. It has the ability for MP3 music and audio books, though these I have not used yet (I still take my iPod). It will accept a standard SD memory card, but at this point I am still using <2%> of the on board memory.
Of all the reviews I have seen, click here to see the one with which I find myself most in agreement. If interested in the Kindle, you should check this link, since it says a lot of what I would have otherwise written in this post.
PROS:
1. Big selection of books available from Amazon, including most best-sellers, and at a significant discount (i.e. James Patterson's new book, 7th Heaven is $27 list, $16.97 + shipping Amazon discount price, and $9.99 with no shipping for the Kindle)
2. Ergonomic / user-friendly
3. LONG battery life. Unless I turn on the wireless, I can read for hours every day for weeks on end without recharging.
4. I can send my own books, articles, etc as a PDF to my Kindle (as an attachment on email sent to my Kindle email address) for the standard text-message charge of 10 cents.
5. I can have the newspaper or magazine delivered in seconds, no matter if I am at home or traveling (and even though I can subscribe to the electronic edition of most periodicals for computer-viewing, the Kindle version is cheaper and I can read it on the patio, at the airline gate, or anywhere else I have the time.)
6. The display is easily readable; the brighter the light, the better.
7. In a package the size of a medium format paperback, I can travel with dozens, actually hundreds, of books readily at hand.
CONS:
1. Many of the non-fiction books or older books I tend to read are not available for the Kindle.
2. The cost is still relatively high at $399.
3. Some of the graphical content for the WSJ does not come across on the Kindle.
4. Though not a major problem, the Kindle text conversion occasionally drops a letter from a word.
5. The screen is really not B & W, but black on light grey, and it can catch some glare in some situations. The contrast is not quite as good as a good-quality printed book. It it still very readable (except in the dark).
6. The "next page" bar on the right side should be 1/2 the length, allowing one to hold that side of the device without advancing the pages.
SUMMARY: I like it, and use it all the time, but half my reading is still from printed books.
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