The Kindle Experience
Kindle dropped their prices a few weeks ago to something fairly manageable, and despite my dislike of Amazon.com's licensing system, I bought one.
What prompted me was the weight and size. I was heading to Ashland, and didn't want to tote three books in my luggage (schlepping my laptop is bad enough). I've had it now for almost a month and the verdict is: I mostly like it.
PROS: The weight is good. I love the convenience of having my library in one place, and that one place can easily fit in my bag. I love being able to send PDFs to my kindle account and have them automatically show up. I like that I can configure its set up. I like that it's easy on the eyes. I like that there is a huge choice of content. The charge on the battery lasts for-freakin'-ever. I like how it looks. Aesthetics are important. Associated with the Kindle itself is the Kindle app on iPhone. For those times when all you have is your phone, the Kindle app syncs up very very well, and gives you reading material in case of emergency. When you're back to your Kindle, resync, and voila.
CONS: It's still Amazon.com's licensing system which I don't like for the same reason I don't like iTunes. It must be noted, the licensing vs owning hasn't stopped me from using either Amazon.com or iTunes. Convenience has outweighed my opinions about purchasing and ownership. Another con is that it's not easy to find something again once you've gone past it, unless you know specifically what you're searching for. The search function works well, so maybe it's my SearchFu that is lame.
THE READING EXPERIENCE: It takes me a little longer to get into a book on the Kindle, and I don't stay quite as deep into the story through interruptions. I also haven't got the timing quite (quite) down on paging. I wish the screen (i.e. amount of reading material per screen) was bigger, though I don't want the Kindle size to be any bigger. I guess I want the functionality and size of the iPad's reader with the easy-on-the-eyes nature of the Kindle.
For the record, I tried both the iPad and the Nook before I looked at the Kindle. As a e-reader, the iPad made my eyes squinty and twitchy, and it's hella expensive comparatively. I found the Nook to be unintuitive and a pain to navigate. The Kindle is really very easy to use.
That's the report from Techville. And now, back to you.
What prompted me was the weight and size. I was heading to Ashland, and didn't want to tote three books in my luggage (schlepping my laptop is bad enough). I've had it now for almost a month and the verdict is: I mostly like it.
PROS: The weight is good. I love the convenience of having my library in one place, and that one place can easily fit in my bag. I love being able to send PDFs to my kindle account and have them automatically show up. I like that I can configure its set up. I like that it's easy on the eyes. I like that there is a huge choice of content. The charge on the battery lasts for-freakin'-ever. I like how it looks. Aesthetics are important. Associated with the Kindle itself is the Kindle app on iPhone. For those times when all you have is your phone, the Kindle app syncs up very very well, and gives you reading material in case of emergency. When you're back to your Kindle, resync, and voila.
CONS: It's still Amazon.com's licensing system which I don't like for the same reason I don't like iTunes. It must be noted, the licensing vs owning hasn't stopped me from using either Amazon.com or iTunes. Convenience has outweighed my opinions about purchasing and ownership. Another con is that it's not easy to find something again once you've gone past it, unless you know specifically what you're searching for. The search function works well, so maybe it's my SearchFu that is lame.
THE READING EXPERIENCE: It takes me a little longer to get into a book on the Kindle, and I don't stay quite as deep into the story through interruptions. I also haven't got the timing quite (quite) down on paging. I wish the screen (i.e. amount of reading material per screen) was bigger, though I don't want the Kindle size to be any bigger. I guess I want the functionality and size of the iPad's reader with the easy-on-the-eyes nature of the Kindle.
For the record, I tried both the iPad and the Nook before I looked at the Kindle. As a e-reader, the iPad made my eyes squinty and twitchy, and it's hella expensive comparatively. I found the Nook to be unintuitive and a pain to navigate. The Kindle is really very easy to use.
That's the report from Techville. And now, back to you.