First Kindle review

[ntang]

My first stab at a Kindle review, posted to BlackPlanet.com:
http://www.blackplanet.com/groups/forum_thread.html?group_id=40779&cmt_collection_id=561133

It's a bit simplistic and doesn't go into detail because it's not aimed at my "core" audience - you guys, nerds. There are plenty of nerds on BP, but that wasn't a targeted post just at the nerds or anything. (Don't take offense, but let's be realistic - if you're reading my LJ, you're probably a nerd. ;) )

We'll see how the discussion goes over there. And now, we'll see how it goes right here too. ;)


So - anyone have an Amazon Kindle out there? According to Steve Jobs, no one even reads any more, unless it's the track name of their favorite mp3.

Anyways, I just got mine a week ago, after being back-ordered for a month, and I have to say - as someone who loves to read, it really is a great little device. If you're not up on the latest news, the Kindle ( http://www.kindle.com/ ) is an e-book reader. It uses the new e-ink technology, which works sort of like (and looks a lot like) an Etch-a-Sketch. What it means, though, is that it's not hard on your eyes like a normal screen - it reads almost like a real printed page. (And in some ways it is - it uses magnetic ink to basically "print" on the screen.)

It also comes with free unlimited wireless service, Amazon's WhisperNet, which is basically just Sprint's EVDO service rebranded and for free. What it means, though, is that you can browse Amazon's catalog of books from anywhere, and download new books (or try a free sample of the first chapter or two) anytime. The first book I downloaded was Barack Obama's Dreams From My Father, and it literally took around 10 seconds to download it. (My next book was Neil Gaiman's Interworld, because, let's face it, I'm a nerd.)

As a book reader, it really is cool - I can carry the equivalent of 200 books in my backpack, all the time. While I haven't taken the plunge, you can subscribe to the New York Times and other newspapers and magazines and get them automatically delivered as soon as they are released. The convenience can't be beat.

The wireless features mean that if you want, you can use the web browser that's included - and it works, but it's slow, and the screen is black and white. It's not bad for looking something up quickly, but honestly is a little painful. If the browser was as fast as the internet connection, though, it'd be great.

It also has a dictionary built-in, so when you find a word you don't know, you can look it up while you're reading and then go right back to the story. It's got a few hidden features, like Minesweeper, and apparently has experimental tie-ins with Google Maps so you can see where you are on the map at any given time and look for nearby restaurants or coffee shops or whatever. But really, that's mostly fluff.

The Kindle is good at one thing - getting and reading books. If you like to read books, it's a great device. If you don't, it's pointless and all the free internet access in the world won't make it worthwhile.

Comments

[wyliekat.livejournal.com]

If you do most of your reading at home, is it still worthwhile? What if you're a hardcore fantasy reader?

[ntang.livejournal.com]

Well, there's a decent selection of fantasy/ sci-fi/ horror novels on there. Neal Stephenson and Neil Gaiman are both well represented, for instance. (Currently around 99k books total, but the number seems to creep upwards by a thousand or two a week.)

As far as home, well, it depends. In space-strapped NYC? I'm planning on getting rid of a bunch of books and for all text-only books sticking to the Kindle exclusively. Books with photos, or books that have sentimental value, or just the occasional one for something to paw through and smell and hold, can't replace.

But yeah, for normal books? Totally, I've read at home, on the subway, on the bus, it's good stuff. It's lighter and more convenient than a normal book, and I can flip from book to book to newspaper to magazines and back without getting up, which is cool. And honestly, the Kindle passes the most key test - when I get into a book on it, I lose track of time and everything around me. The interface isn't great, it's kind of slow in some ways, but once you get sucked in, it's good enough that you can get lost, and that's the important part.

[wyliekat.livejournal.com]

How do you mean, it's slow?

(BTW, congrats to your boys. They'll have my undying affection for unseating the Pats)

[ntang.livejournal.com]

(Thanks. :) )

By slow I mean that the screen refresh takes a while - it's not near-instantaneous, like a computer screen. Things like animations are right-out.

I also mean that the processing is a little slow - although that could just be imaginary based on the screen refresh. Actually, I suspect it is - looking up words returns the results almost instantly, pretty much as... fast as the screen can redraw.

When you're reading a book, it's plenty fast enough - you only turn a page so often, and it's not so slow as to pull you out of the reading experience. But when you're trying to surf the web or navigate through the menus, it can be a pain in the butt. If you plan on using it as an interactive device, it's a bad choice. But if you just want something that's surprisingly easy to read books on? Works great.

Also, minor gripe: whoever published Interworld and a few other books only attached a very small image of the cover. (I've seen other e-books on there with a full-screen cover image, so I know it's not the device, just the publisher at work there.) It'd be nice if the cover image filled the whole screen, but I can't honestly say it's that big a deal since you spend most of the time on the text and presumably very little looking at the cover. ;)

[wyliekat.livejournal.com]

I guess what I'm trying to find out is whether or not I'd struggle with a delay, because I am a pretty speedy reader.

[ntang.livejournal.com]

I'm a pretty speedy reader too. ;)

It was initially jarring, but I got used to it after a few pages, and the "entrance" time is lower each time I pick it up. But in all fairness, even a paper book has distractions around it and sometimes I can't get into it, so I don't know that it's much worse in the long run.

In the comfort of your home, with rosebud asleep and no outside distractions, yes, it'll probably take you 4 or 5 "pages" to get past the distracting pause. But you can also change the font size, I typically read on the smallest or second-smallest font size, meaning I get more text in a single page before I need to turn it, so...

[zvuv.livejournal.com]

thanks! i've been waiting for this review. :)
question: how much does it cost to download books?
do you think price will affect the number of books you'll download?

[ntang.livejournal.com]

There's no cost to download books. You just pay for the book itself, and typically, the books are 10-20% cheaper than the physical version. Paperbacks you don't save much, just a few cents, but if you've got a hardcover you've wanted to read and dont' feel like dropping $20 or more on it, you can typically get new hardcover releases on the Kindle for $9.99, which is basically 50% off the cover price.

For Obama's book, for instance, I found that the Kindle copy was like $1.50 cheaper than the Amazon price, which was like $1.25 cheaper than the B&N price, which was like $2 cheaper than the cover price. And with the Kindle, I had it "in hand" in literally 30 seconds, after getting to read the first chapter for free.

[zvuv.livejournal.com]

impressive. :)

[ntang.livejournal.com]

Obama, Dreams From My Father

List price: $14.95
B&N price: $13.45
B&N member price: $12.10
Amazon price: $8.97
Kindle price: $8.76

(The Amazon price went down by like $1 since I last checked. But there you go. That's just one book, obviously not all will give you great discounts, but there are several that will. You lose the ability to hold it, which sucks, but you get it instantly, which rocks. :) )

[zvuv.livejournal.com]

it would be nice for me, i am not into collecting books once i've read them.

can you share them with other people, though? for instance, can you send (e-mail?) this book to a friend who's got a Kindle too?

[ntang.livejournal.com]

No, not yet - that's one of the things that bugs me. I think technically you can download it to your computer, and then presumably you could copy it to someone else's computer, but since I have no kindle-owning friends I can't test that theory. ;)

One thing is that it can read other e-book formats like Mobipocket - so for instance, you can buy books from them, or audio books from Audible.com, for instance, and then those could probably be shared. It's not ideal.

I think they ought to implement something similar to the Zune, where you can share books, or maybe even where you give them away - once I'm done with some of these books, I'd be fine with transferring them from my account to a friend's account. Maybe even charge a small fee, like $1, just to discourage casual trading, but still allow people to share books. I dunno.

I've been formulating a feedback email to their kindle team, they say they're eagerly looking for feedback. That's definitely one of the things that came up when I was thinking about it - I know a bunch of people that would enjoy Interworld, but short of lending them my expensive Kindle, I have no way of letting them read it.

[zvuv.livejournal.com]

how does Kindle handle audiobooks? is the audio pretty good on it? can you hook in headphones? i didn't consider that aspect of it.

this whole thing is fascinating to me. :)

[ntang.livejournal.com]

It has speakers and an audio jack, but I've never been into audiobooks so I've never tried it.

Since Amazon just announced that they're buying Audible.com, I suspect the integration's going to get as tight on that side as it is with the "print" books.

[leahpia77.livejournal.com]

It also has a dictionary built-in, so when you find a word you don't know, you can look it up while you're reading and then go right back to the story.

This feature excites me. I am known for flagging words and going to look them up later.

[ntang.livejournal.com]

It's a great feature. I typically never look up words, and just infer their meaning from the context - but, y'know, sometimes you guess wrong. I was always too lazy to look them up later, but now I can do it while I'm reading. It's pretty cool. Also, the dictionary is pre-loaded in the memory, it's not like it has to look it up.

But, if you DO have a network connection (anywhere you've got cell phone access), you can even do further research on wikipedia, which it links to as well, and that's pretty cool. When I had a question about some of the events Obama referred to, I was able to go and look up his wikipedia page (on the kindle) to read his bio on there. That's pretty awesome too.

(Hint: if you DO get the kindle, you may want to switch to "advanced" view in the browser. The default view is a single-column view, which means you have to scroll forever to read a page with a menu of options - like, say, Wikipedia, or the NY Times site. Advanced view is a standard browser view, actually.)

[asrai-d.livejournal.com]

I wish I could want one. But I prefer to get my books from the library at this point. Maybe in the future ...

[ntang.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting way of phrasing it, wish you could want one. Well, if you don't want one, no big deal. They'll probably come out with better versions over the next year or two or 10 and at some point maybe you'll really want one. :)

[asrai-d.livejournal.com]

there's no point of me wanting one becuase i'll never buy one. But it's cool looking and I love gadgets. So I stop myself from wanting.

It's all this environmental stuff I've immersed myself, I've become anti-shopper. Which is why my mp3 player is taped together :)