Anyone Own A Kindle?

[pnoon]

Originally Posted by icehog3

My brother-in-law has one and he loves it.

I just re-read my first post.

You really are a doucebag.

[icehog3]

Originally Posted by pnoon

I just re-read my first post.

You really are a doucebag.

[Mark]

Alright after 24 hours of use and about three hundred pages read, here are my thoughts.



This thing is AWESOME!

Screen is perfect - looks just like paper! I get horrible migranes from screens and my eyes get tired from paper after fifty pages or so, and with this device I had neither problem! I love how simple it is to use and that you don't need a computer for drivers/software/etc. Very lightweight and portable, and the books I bought were all a dollar a piece! (Dostoevsky, Gogol, Pushkin, Piper so far) If you are looking for more popular contemporary writing, its a bit more, but nothing that I saw was more than ten bucks. As long as you are within 3G network distance, books arrive in less than thirty seconds, and internet browsing isn't too slow. I also love the screen savers when you turn off the device! This thing is the best i've seen when it comes to functionality and portability tradeoffs!

Draw backs -

You are tethered to amazon, but they are pretty reasonable in their prices so i'm not too worried about that right now.

If you are not in 3G network range, the device falls back to 1RXTT and sucks battery about four times as much. I would recommend turning off wireless (really easy to do) when you are not using it.

Emailing yourself PDF's costs about fifteen cents a piece, but you can always just hook the kindle up to your computer and put PDF's on that way. It shows up as an external hard drive.

Internet is VERY basic. Looks like you are browsing on a cell phone. That having been said - it works for news, wikipedia, basic email, and even browsing CA!

Keyboard takes a few minutes to get used to, but its fine after you figure it out.


Final thoughts: GO GET ONE!

-Mark

[pnoon]

Originally Posted by Mark

Alright after 24 hours of use and about three hundred pages read, here are my thoughts.



This thing is AWESOME!

Screen is perfect - looks just like paper! I get horrible migranes from screens and my eyes get tired from paper after fifty pages or so, and with this device I had neither problem! I love how simple it is to use and that you don't need a computer for drivers/software/etc. Very lightweight and portable, and the books I bought were all a dollar a piece! (Dostoevsky, Gogol, Pushkin, Piper so far) If you are looking for more popular contemporary writing, its a bit more, but nothing that I saw was more than ten bucks. As long as you are within 3G network distance, books arrive in less than thirty seconds, and internet browsing isn't too slow. I also love the screen savers when you turn off the device! This thing is the best i've seen when it comes to functionality and portability tradeoffs!

Draw backs -

You are tethered to amazon, but they are pretty reasonable in their prices so i'm not too worried about that right now.

If you are not in 3G network range, the device falls back to 1RXTT and sucks battery about four times as much. I would recommend turning off wireless (really easy to do) when you are not using it.

Emailing yourself PDF's costs about fifteen cents a piece, but you can always just hook the kindle up to your computer and put PDF's on that way. It shows up as an external hard drive.

Internet is VERY basic. Looks like you are browsing on a cell phone. That having been said - it works for news, wikipedia, basic email, and even browsing CA!

Keyboard takes a few minutes to get used to, but its fine after you figure it out.


Final thoughts: GO GET ONE!

-Mark

Thanks, Mark. I may just have to do that.

[rizzle]

A wha? Obviously I'm no help.

[jledou]

It will be interesting to see what the new Sony looks like. I have been watching closely but I get the feeling that this will open up into something larger over the next two years. Having said that I have a hard time dropping 300-400 on one now and the whole model change over in the next year. Google seems like they are out and about playing in ebooks also which I would say may means a reader from them in the near futre or they may throw their weight behind Sony or Amazon.

[kayak_rat]

Peter, do they come with a magnifying glass?? Old eyes you know.....

[VTDragon]

I would own one if I could connect to their wireless network here in northern Vermont. Unfortunately it is Sprint with no service locally. I am eagerly awaiting the Plastic Logic reader. It is suposed to be 8 1/2 x 11, touch screen, same display as the Kindle, content partners Barnes & Noble and Google Books, (yielding much more content than Amazon) and wireless downloads via the AT&T network which works very well here in the north country. In the meantime I trudge to the library and the bookstore.

[pnoon]

Originally Posted by kayak_rat

Peter, do they come with a magnifying glass?? Old eyes you know.....

God, I sure hope so.

[aich75013]

If you haven't bought a Kindle yet, take a look at the Nook which was announced by Barnes and Noble yesterday.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/

[pnoon]

Originally Posted by aich75013

If you haven't bought a Kindle yet, take a look at the Nook which was announced by Barnes and Noble yesterday.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/

Guess what I spent my lunch hour at work reading about today? Given Amazon's actions with deleting books from customer's Kindles, it is likely I won't be buying one. Much more likely I will be buying a Nook.

Originally Posted by aich75013

If you haven't bought a Kindle yet, take a look at the Nook which was announced by Barnes and Noble yesterday.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/

Very Interesting. There's going to be a lot of ereaders hitting the shelves this holiday season.

It's unclear, or I didn't see either way, if the Nook is tied to B&N the same way that the Kindle is tied to Amazon. If so, that's a deal killer for me. The move is away from that and towards allowing content from various providers, in various formats. Just something to keep in mind.

[aich75013]

Originally Posted by Resipsa

Very Interesting. There's going to be a lot of ereaders hitting the shelves this holiday season.

It's unclear, or I didn't see either way, if the Nook is tied to B&N the same way that the Kindle is tied to Amazon. If so, that's a deal killer for me. The move is away from that and towards allowing content from various providers, in various formats. Just something to keep in mind.

I wouldn't be surprised. I did see that you are supposed to be able to download some of the free books from google.
Another feature is that you can lend books to friends for a while. I think two weeks.


"3. More Books: B&N offers more titles than Amazon, plus the Nook can access 500,000 public domain titles from Google that are not available to Kindle users. The Nook will load and read Adobe Acrobat PDF documents, which the Kindle does not do."


Posted via Mobile Device

[ashtonlady]

I have a kindle. You can adjut the size of the letters for those of us that need extra help.

[Beagleone]

I am looking at the Kindle for my wife for Christmas and maybe the Nook for myself since I have a lot of PDF ebooks already. Both are priced the same right now, but the holiday competition is heating up.

[KenS]

Another thing to consider with the Kindle, is that there is also a (free) iPhone app for catching up on a few pages when you don't have your kindle with you. The cool part is the "whispersync" technology that keeps the current page in sync between the iphone app and the Kindle itself.

Though I wouldn't want to read an entire book on the iPhone, this capability is very handy.

[aich75013]

Originally Posted by KenS

Though I wouldn't want to read an entire book on the iPhone, this capability is very handy.

I currently do a lot of reading on my iPhone.
I used to read on my Palm Pilot, so the screen is actually a bit larger.
You get used to it. I normally read during my lunch, so it is quite handy.

Originally Posted by aich75013

I currently do a lot of reading on my iPhone.
I used to read on my Palm Pilot, so the screen is actually a bit larger.
You get used to it. I normally read during my lunch, so it is quite handy.

Me too. I actually held the iPhone up to a paperback for comparison. With the margins on the book, etc, the amount of readin real estate between the two was almost e xactly the same

Originally Posted by KenS

Another thing to consider with the Kindle, is that there is also a (free) iPhone app for catching up on a few pages when you don't have your kindle with you. The cool part is the "whispersync" technology that keeps the current page in sync between the iphone app and the Kindle itself.

Though I wouldn't want to read an entire book on the iPhone, this capability is very handy.

Ken, b&n has an iPhone app as well which I'm sure will work in similar fashion with their Nook. My concern with the kindle, other than it's fugliness, and lukewarm reviews, is the proprietary scheme Amazon has for it.

The new readers coming out are going to be a lot
more versatile. As is usually the case in tech, first doesn't always mean best, and frequently winds up meaning worst

[VTDragon]

Originally Posted by Resipsa

The new readers coming out are going to be a lot
more versatile. As is usually the case in tech, first doesn't always mean best, and frequently winds up meaning worst

Absolutely correct.
I have been waiting for Kindle alternatives since it originally came out. The primary reason I have not bought one yet is that their over the air service is through Sprint and I just don't get Sprint coverage where I live. I plan on taking a good hard look at B&N's Nook as I believe its' service is through AT&T, but am also intrigued by Que from Plastiic Logic. It features an 81/2 X 11 screen and though the first offering will be black & white, they claim a full color e-ink display is "just around the corner". Unfortunately it is not coming out until early 2010.