historymakin

drgnldy129927

tennwalker15067

slappy145

Guess what, the newspapers were 49cents when I downloaded them on December 26th. But on December 28th, the per/copy cost changed to 75 cents. Still, the convenience was very nice. In an instant I was reading opinion letters published in a Dublin Ireland newspaper. It was fun to read short clips and humor pieces in Readers Digest.

Periodicals that are known to be photo and graphically rich will be a disappointment until Kindle can handle the color images as well. The Time Magazine download lacked most of the graphics and pictures and made for a rather dry, Black & White reading experience.At one point a block of text was followed by a statement saying: "a detailed diagram can be found by referencing a hardcopy version of this magazine.." or something to that effect.

Purchasing books and periodicals is rapid and the charges go instantly to my Amazon.Com quick one-step purchase account that I have had for several years. BUT, the Kindle has no password protection. So if someone else picked up my Kindle they could purchase hundreds of dollars of books and periodicals in no time at all. And it woull all go to my credit card instantly without my approval.

The large page turn bars on sides are too too easy to hit by accident if you have big or clumsy hands. Frequenly I have changed pages by accident, and did not know if I had gone forward or backward. Another time, I was doing text entry in the experimental "ask a question" mode, and I hit the page turn bar and all my text entry was lost. I did this 3 times before getting it right. How? well, to get certain keys depressed, I had to twist my hands a certain way and would end up hitting the large page turn bars. It is at first hard to hold the Kindle without hitting the page turn bars. I handed my friend the Kindle to read a page, and sure enough, he turned a page when he held the unit in his hands.

The clips option is great--an ability to save any page to a clip file. But it is in crude form-- you can't remove individual clips, you can't index the clips file. It just becomes one big clip CLUMP! You remove the whole thing or keep the whole thing.

So, my hope is the next generation Kindle will resolve this.

This unit is one of the most amazing things to behold and use. Books, magazines, national newspapers all in your hands, instantly, with very moderate expense. The big users?? Frequent fliers. No more magazine and newspaper page turning. Hundres of books to choose from on long flights. Hats off to Kindle team! You did something great, in a great way.

rickwa

On receiving it I started by reading completely through the eManual. I found myself frequently explaining, "Cool" as I tried out the various features. Here's what I want when it comes to buying and reading a good book:

. I want to be able to, right here and now, go to a listing of top sellers, read reviews by book reviewers as well as by readers like me, and then read some of the book to see if it's what I really want. If I do indeed want it I love the idea of having it available it in less than a minute with no need to connect to my PC.

. I want to be able to read books when they first come out without paying the ridiculous prices demanded for new hardcovers. If I can get it for less than $10 I'll buy it, otherwise I'll wait 'til it's in paperback. So far, with my Kindle the NY Times Bestseller prices have all been less than $10.

. When I come across a word I'm not familiar with I want a definition now. When I read the definition and am interested in even more information I love the idea of carrying on further to Wikipedia. It's all quick and simple with the Kindle.

. When I come upon a page I'd like to reference back to later, I want to bookmark it and then quickly return to it. There are a couple of quick and easy ways to do that with this gadget.

. When I want to highlight, I highlight .. In this case, you just put a box around the lines of text you're interested in.

. When I want to write notes, I write notes .. In this case I can type them up and then have a symbol along side the text of interest that I can call up later .. Or .. I can just call up a listing of notes, and read my them independently of the page I was reading.

Some people love cruising through book stores and thus don't see much value in a Kindle. That's not me. I just want to get the book with no hassle, pay no tax on it, and then pay no handling/shipping charges (even though it costs less than Amazon's book store $25 minimum for free shipping).

This thing, to me, is well worth the $400 .. for exactly the reasons mentioned above. It's a small price to pay for what I consider to be a marked improvement in lifestyle.

KenJr

I bought a Kindle with high hopes. I live in Missoula, Montana, which is one of the largest cities in the state. It turns out that the wireless connectivity that the Kindle requires does NOT work in Montana. After several tech support calls they admitted that there is no coverage in Montana. There may also be no coverage in other states, such as Wyoming and Alaska. This means that the Service component of the device is useless, and that many, many people may be duped. I think this is bait and switch advertising, and I think Amazon owes people in Montana, as well as other non-coverage areas, an apology.

ssaroff

franklindelanorangutan

WHEN IT COMES DOWN TO IT, MAGAZINES SHOULD BE ON THESE NOT BOOK! WE MUST STOP WASTING TREES ON MAGAZINES, AND ENVELOPES, AND FLYERS, AND JUNK MAIL. ALL THIS CRAP IS WASTING PAPER AND WE ARE LOOKING AT WAYS TO PUT BOOK, THE MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL ON THESE COMPUTER PADS! UNACCEPTABLE UNACCEPTABLE UNACCEPTABLE!!!!!!!!!!!

Daimyo Nintendo

Buford T. Justice

The one area where Amazon screwed up and wasn't thinking was in device color. The display appears more gray because the mirror-LCD-indicator thingy to the left is 'whiter', as is the case. A black Kindle would fix that. I never thought the PRS-500 was 'grey' and it's the earlier gen screen that's not as good.

Make no mistake, if you focus on everything else, the screen looks a little grey. If you just read, it's great. It's *amazingly* readable. Any conditions you can read a book in, you can read this in. Also, everyone's bitching about the contrast but newsprint is FAR worse in that respect... and I don't see people complaining about the contrast of newspapers. As with anything else, proper lighting enhances readability but it works in non-ideal situations as well.

Buford T. Justice

side

alin0steglinski

gizmodo, if u guys are reading this, please do a comparison okay? i'd love to know the results of such a study.

jrghoull

BigSlide

I have to agree with you on this Anwill... I absolutely LOVE technology, but there is a part of me that will always love the the texture and feel of a well worn and loved book, and viewing my collections in a room my house that I call "the library" And sorry for getting too girly, but I love reading my book in the tub or at the beach. I just cant see myself "cuddling up with a good Kindle" I don't think this Kindle is for me, as I am old school when it comes to reading.

VSorceress

stonecoldcleric

The UI is cluttered as well. Not even my DS has globally persistent battery level/signal strength indicators--why should a book?

senorbelly

Beyond screen resolution, there's just something about it that seems bloodless and antiseptic, making reading a joyless chore rather than a warm, cozy and, when scanning newspapers and magazines, efficient pleasure. If you were on a hammock in Hawaii, would you rather read from dead tree pulp or a Kindle?

Also, does it not bother you that the Kindle communicates every page you've read, every highlight you've made, and every comment you've written into it back to Amazon? Shouldn't reading patterns and annotations be exempt from monitoring and non-local storage (unless chosen)? As I understand it, there is no opt-out for Amazon to regularly send your reading habits, highlights and annotations back to the mothership.

As for selling out, I'm not surprised. Amazon is pimping the kindle on virtually every page of their site.

I don't mean to sound cynical. I'm all for electronic readers. I guess I just see the Kindle as a harbinger (or complement at best) rather than replacement for slaughtered trees in its current incarnation.

frigg

AdmNaismith

I never could figure out how people sit in the bathroom long enough to read...the only time I would be in there that long, I'd probably be too sick to read.

girly

conglomerate

aidan_cage

takemetoyourtoaster

Regarding price; if and when the technology catches on, the price of these things will drop.

Regarding backlit screens; focussing on large amounts of small text for hours on end on a backlit screen is not enjoyable for most folks. That's the whole point behind the technology. Having said that, I do agree that it would be nice to have dimmable backlight for cases where ambient light is unavailable.

I am a heavy reader too, and I am pretty excited about where this technology is going. I travel a lot for work, and it would be sweet to have a number of books on hand without the bulk of paper.

GregH

nincompoop

I love to read in bed, and my wife is very sensitive to book lights. I've tried at least six different kinds of book lights and they all keep her awake. The only thing that ever worked was my old Treo 650, since I could download ebooks (from the library) and watch them with the backlight turned quite low. I found it to be very legible in a dark room, and my wife could sleep soundly.

If the Amazon or Sony reader had a dimmable backlight, I would buy one immediately, but until then, no deal.

zgecko

xxsk84life69

I bought the eReader to take on vacation (I travel 4 - 5 weeks a year). A 9 ounce device is a phenomenal space and weight saver compared to the many paperbacks I would otherwise carry. I hate that I need to scrounge to find content for two vacations a year.

If the Kindle comes down in price and real content is available, I'll buy one in a year or two and not worry much about the details.

My eReader and Asus eee are one sweet combo.

Ikat

My blackberry is back lit, the font is adjustable, and the wheel makes it fairly easy to use.

I am a voracious reader (4-6 books a week). About half of the books I read are ebooks. The rest are from a book rental service. I buy maybe one book a month, these days.

If the screen were backlit and the titles a little cheaper, I would consider the Kindle. I would crave the Kindle if it looked nicer. I don't get why it's ugly.

erratapage

But back to the matter at hand...
If the Kindle was $100 or $150 OR had more utility (a color screen, for example), it would be a home run.

As it stands now, it would be hard to convince most people to buy a kindle instead of a book. Or instead of 20 books, for that matter....

ThriftyTechie

bobdobbs

Canoehead

So even Jeff Bezos himself recognizes the ugliness.

Marty_MacFly

NeoPoliticus

popstand

I'm surprised by all the negative and mostly uninformed comments the Kindle has gotten. I think Sony and the book printing companies might be behind a lot of it.

AintLDS

The only ones who seem to benefit from a Kindle are the publishers and distributors (Amazon) who get Kindle users to pay for the companies to reduce their marginal unit costs to zero.

I think we'll see substantial adoption when either a) Amazon starts giving them away for free, or b) the product provides a substantially better interface than a paperback.

ndonahue

Wilson Rothman

Wilson Rothman

Wilson Rothman

If it arrived automagically the same time every week, in a single format I could hold onto that weighed (about) as much as the paper form - great! And that form could hold more books - great!

I really think of this thing more as a magazine/newspaper physical replacement. It's better than sitting at a PC.

It just needs more content that I specifically want - if there were more small press or cartoonists producing material, I'd be all for it, even if I had to subscribe. I mean, hell, I mostly just get the newspaper for cartoons these days.

fupjack

tin

Also, is there some way in which we can make this benefit local bookstores? If, for example, we can browse local bookstores for books, and then buy our online wares with a product key that lets the supplier know where we saw the thing. If people just buy online, no one's ever going to browse locally anymore.

Pope John Peeps II

odysseus

If Amazon could lower the price, increase screen contrast, and straighten out the format compatibility, I'd be all over it. The physical appearance doesn't bother me a bit.

Improbable

However, I will be far more impressed when textbooks become available for the Kindle or Sony reader. I am sick of carrying my Law books around everywhere and I would love something with the convenience of the Kindle to handle textbooks. That would be worth the price premium for me.

A man can dream...

mastercha

chueychihuahua

designguybrown

anwill

rlreif

MagnoliaBoy

geschmidtt

fpn1010

Except, you know, everywhere else in the World. Wireless, on the other hand, is available in almost every coffee shop, airport and university campus and isn't restricted by geography.

Aubin

Rh1n0

How does the text quality compare with traditional books? Are the letters / words as easy on the eye as typeset / printed ones?

wbremner

I'm not going to be able to move on it until I can get my grubby hands on it and play with it a bit. Not giving Bezos $400 without really touching it first. Amazon really needs a brick & mortar partner to make this truly successful.

I just don't know why all designers just don't say "What Would Apple Do?" when they build this stuff.

Again, thanks for the review... we'll see what happens.

Again, thanks for the review.

ComicDork