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My Amazon Kindle review....finally!

Isabell

Active Member
I thought it would be about time to post my review for the much controversial Amazon Kindle.

I have now had the device for exactly a month and have had the pleasure of reading my downloaded books. I have to say that before the arrival of it, I was skeptical. I am a lover of paper books. I'm choking on paper in my house, and with the Kindle I have not fully given up on my real books.

Even still, I find a good balance of reading both types.

Now on to the technical part of my review:

The Kindle itself is an amazing little device. It's completely wireless for downloading books and newspapers. I don't need a hotspot and have tried using the wireless in the most unusual places (in the middle of nowhere) and still got a good signal. The Kindle uses EVDO just a cell phone would.

It's lightweight and easy to use. Yes, it does look primitive, but I look at it as it not taking away from the reason......reading!

It's simplicity is satisfactory in my opinion. I don't mind that it looks like it came from 1982. The main idea is to read, not play with the web.

It's obviously in gray scale--e-paper and no backlighting. It's just as easy on the eyes as paper would be. I have found myself to be reading faster with it.

One night in bed I found the perfect position to lay down and read in good external lighting, and it seemed to be easier to "turn" the pages with one finger by clicking the "next page" button on either side of the device.

I carry it with me everywhere and find little corners to read here and there.

Most books cost less than $10 (U.S.) that are on the bestsellers list, and you have tens of thousands of books on the web that are free. You can find all the classics on Gutenberg.org. There are plenty of books on Amazon that cost an average of $5 each. I have downloaded books in less than 15 seconds.

The Kindle is very easy to use, especially for those who are not electronics/computer savvy. It seems to be very straight forward and no special areas to have to figure out.

I guess the only downfall of this device--so far is the price. At $400, it's pretty steep and I'm sure that most of the general public really can't afford such extravagance. If it were up to me, I wouldn't buy it. My husband bought it for me as a gift and refusing it would be rude. I have it now and I love it. Would I return it? no....

My review is based on personal experience only. I've posted this based on interest of a few people. I know alot of you hate the idea of a reading device, and I'm hoping that this thread doesn't cause controversy amongst members here. I would rather see a disscussion of intellect.

I may have left out some information about the device, so questions are welcome.
 
Thank you for your positive report. You early users are a big help to people like me who hang back until the price comes down, as I'm sure it will.
 
Thank you for your positive report. You early users are a big help to people like me who hang back until the price comes down, as I'm sure it will.

Thank you....
This is the first time that I own something in it's first version. I'm usually the one that hangs around for a long while and watches a few generations pass on by. (ie..iPod) That was the first thing I thought of when I got word that it was purchased for me. I'll be honest, I was a bit nervous being the first on the scene.
 
Isabell,

My main concern is DRM. That's the devil :mad: of the Amazon. You do not own any rights on the books you read! It is as if it were yours, but you can not lend your books, sell it, share it, or whatever you would do with your book otherwise.

Here is a short article on the Amazon Kindle that I've found interesting. Another cynical article is here.

Can you comment on it, as a user? I'd be very interested!
 
Isabell,

My main concern is DRM. That's the devil :mad: of the Amazon. You do not own any rights on the books you read! It is as if it were yours, but you can not lend your books, sell it, share it, or whatever you would do with your book otherwise.

Here is a short article on the Amazon Kindle that I've found interesting. Another cynical article is here.

Can you comment on it, as a user? I'd be very interested!

It doesn't bother me in the least. I am not interested in selling, sharing or loaning out the book I download.
 
It doesn't bother me in the least. I am not interested in selling, sharing or loaning out the book I download.

Hm, I like the stuff I buy to be entirely MINE! I also do not like to be spied at...

Is it not why we all were so anti-communists just 20-30 years ago?

I actually still suggest to read "The future of reading" - the article is very intelligent, I guess you'd enjoy at least to see the citations of George Orwell and such...

Anyway, I believe you that the product is good, but I'll wait till some sort of "anti-amazon" will pop up with aDRM-free device.
 
Thank you, Isabell.

Amazon is usually sold out so they must be very popular with someone.

I think it's a great idea. Think of the tree one can save by not buying newspapers.

I'm thinking about purchasing one in the future. I'm going to be doing some touring on my motorcycle and saddle bags have plenty of room provided you don't plan to pack a lot of books. This looks like a perfect solution.

Tell me Isabell, can you back-up files on flash drive or something? I don't like the risk of spending money on books that are easily lost if the device is damaged.
 
Thank you, Isabell.

Amazon is usually sold out so they must be very popular with someone.

I think it's a great idea. Think of the tree one can save by not buying newspapers.

I'm thinking about purchasing one in the future. I'm going to be doing some touring on my motorcycle and saddle bags have plenty of room provided you don't plan to pack a lot of books. This looks like a perfect solution.

Tell me Isabell, can you back-up files on flash drive or something? I don't like the risk of spending money on books that are easily lost if the device is damaged.

Hi Robert,
I like the idea of saving a tree or two...

Yes, you have either the choice to keep your books on a SD card if you download books outside of Amazon. When you purchase directly from Amazon, they keep your book in a media library for you in case of theft of damage.
Run a google search "Amazon Media library" and see what I'm talking about.
 
I've been debating about the kindle for awhile. I can't decide if I'll be able to adapt to not having an actual paper copy of whatever I'm reading, which seems a bit silly. My birthday's not until August but I may be asking for it then.
 
I've been debating about the kindle for awhile. I can't decide if I'll be able to adapt to not having an actual paper copy of whatever I'm reading, which seems a bit silly. My birthday's not until August but I may be asking for it then.

I know what you mean. I was able to adapt pretty quickly. You seem to read quicker with the Kindle. You'll notice the reading time to go by fast.

I still read paper books, as a matter of fact, I bought one tonight at Barnes and Noble.

I'm leaving for a trip next week and I am not planning on taking the Kindle with me because of the nature of the trip itself. I will be near water and sand and don't want to take the chance of ruining it.
 
Thanks for posting this, Isabell! I don't think I'll ever buy one of these - just call me tree-killer ;) - but I'm glad you like it.
 
I would never buy one either. The only reason I would want one is if I was a professional in some capacity (programmer, doctor, lawyer, etc.) and wanted reference material to hand.
 
Thanks for the review!

Regarding Stewart's comment, I wonder how many technical titles are available.
 
Thanks for the review!

Regarding Stewart's comment, I wonder how many technical titles are available.

Yea, I guess I'm a part-time tree killer, beer good

There are many titles, but the technical ones I'm not sure about. They update and add Kindle versions everyday.

Here's the list I copied from Amazon...

Books
Fiction (38,912)
Nonfiction (68,763)
Advice & How-to (5,433)
Arts & Entertainment (2,927)
Biographies & Memoirs (3,444)
Business & Investing (10,727)
Children's Chapter Books (2,178)
Computers & Internet (5,983)
Fantasy (2,050)
History (7,875)
Humor (1,748)
Lifestyle & Home (3,078)
Literary Fiction (2,620)
Mystery & Thrillers (5,360)
Parenting & Families (1,606)
Politics & Current Events (4,763)
Reference (3,882)
Religion & Spirituality (4,970)
Romance (6,386)
Science (19,040)
Science Fiction (3,777)
Sports (930)
Travel (782)
 
I quickly checked and found:

110 Medical References (lots of the "standard" texts")

A few hundred Engineering References (I see they have Standard Handbook for Electrical Engineers. Nice! But it's $137. Yikes!)

No National Electric Code but I expect the next version should be there.

Overall, looks like they have a good enough selection of technical references to make health workers, coders, and engineers happy.

The idea of getting newspapers on the Kindle does greatly interest me.

Perhaps I am warming to the idea of the Kindle? :confused:
 
Over time I'm guessing that more and more publishers will go electronic because the cost savings are just too intense to ignore. Analogous to businesses migrating to the web, it seems inevitable. If this means more and more titles become available and publishing opens up to more "risky" ventures, that could provide a mini-renaissance for literature and reading in general. I hope that happens. Regardless, within the next 10 years, depending upon the price of paper and printing, we may no longer have a choice for traditional books without paying a hefty premium for them. The market giveth and the market taketh away.

In the meantime, $400 for a Kindle just makes my wallet ache.
 
Over time I'm guessing that more and more publishers will go electronic because the cost savings are just too intense to ignore. Analogous to businesses migrating to the web, it seems inevitable.
Maybe, but only if there's a market for it. If their customers don't want to buy the product, it doesn't matter how cheap it is to produce. And for it to be a complete medium shift - in other words, have e-books take over traditional books more or less completely, the way CDs did to LPs - we would have to be talking about a pretty large majority of the customers, not just 51% of them. Remember New Coke?

Then again, the big companies do have a way of getting us to go along with things, don't they?
 
I wonder what the EULA says when you buy a book. Do you own the book for the lifetime of the product or do you own it as long as Amazon sells ebooks?
 
The product is good enough to be sold out.

Don't forget that that thing reads other document formats as well.

Borders store has a similar unit from sony for $300, but I gather it requires the internet to download books and (I'm guessing here) there appears to be more books available for Kindle.

You would get the $400 back sooner or later from the cost savings of ebooks over paper. If you only saved $5 per book then you break even at about 80 books.
 
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