The Amazon Kindle- a practical review

I've had my Kindle now for a couple of weeks and thought I'd write a post about it. There are plenty of reviews of the Kindle out there so I won't go over old ground that is covered elsewhere but hopefully you'll find some of my points useful and finally take the plunge to the e-reader.

The Screen

The screen has to be seen to be believed. The liquid ink technology is up there with LCD for me as an achievement, it looks like ink on paper, if you don't believe how good it is you should go out of the way to a shop that stocks them and have a look. Reading on my Iphone was a bit of a chore and left me with a bit of eye and head ache. None of that with the Kindle, it is literally like reading a book with the added bonus you can change the text size if your eyes don't work as well as they used to.

The Weight

I think it weighs around 240 grammes, exceptionally light and can easily be held with one hand. I bought a cheapo fake leather case off ebay for £6 and it's still really comfortable. Taking a book with me to work is a pain in the arse, especially on the bike so this definitely gets brownie points.

The Price

The price is £111 for the wireless version and £154 for the wireless and 3G version. Admitedly not an impulse purchase for most of us and mine was funded by a month long ebay campaign of selling crap out of the loft. However the entry model is much cheaper than the Nook or the sony ereader, the main competition. There are cheapo ereaders on the market but I've only seen the one and the battery life was something like 12 hours.

Connectivity

I originally was hoping to save enough for the 3G version but in the end never bothered. I have to admit that I'm glad I did, I just don't think the additional outlay for the (free)3G would have been worthwhile for me. The kindle store is easy to navigate and there is an experimental web browser which I doubt anyone would use for an extended period of time. The speed of data transfer is reminiscent of a older internet enabled phone and not a laptop, I found the browser just a little frustrating. The Kindle is for reading books, not surfing. The USB cable is not a standard cable which is a little annoying as it means another cable on the desktop.

Interface and Storage

Accessing books is easy enough and the small keyboard is quite easy to add notes, etc. The turning of the page buttons are mirrored on both sides to make it easy no matter what hand you are holding the Kindle in, a nice touch. The Kindle holds up to 4500 books on the main memory, the books can be organised into collections which is good, I haven't found a way of bulk adding books to collections yet. I have almost a 1000 books on mine and the fact that it doesn't add authors automatically into collections is literally my only complaint so far. It isn't a touch screen like the sony or the nook but this is reflected in the price.

The screensavers are creepy as fuck and I'm not entirely sure whose  whacked out idea they were. The Agatha Christie one particularly creeps me out along with Emily Dickinson. The lack of choice or customisation options are a bit poor but thankfully the clever hacking chaps have made a jailbreak available which allows you to change the fonts and the screensavers.


Jailbreak your Kindle to get rid of creepy dead authors!

Books

Obviously the kindle is no good if you haven't got any books on it and I have found the prices vary widely. I wanted to buy Stewart Lee's new book but the electronic version is only 30 pence cheaper than the print copy so I won't buy it out of principle. There are few overheads with electronic books and I fear that the publisher will stifle the market with the pricing. I don't buy mp3s for the same reason, it's data and should be priced appropriately, I appreciate that its the content that should determine the price but such an insignificant price difference I feel is just taking the piss. Mostly there are reasonably priced ebooks and there are regular great offers, remember though that Amazon isn't the only place to get your books and you should shop around, different formats are not an issue with the right ebook library software (details below).

There are many classics out of copyright that are available for free via the amazon store or the project Gutenburg website. You can also get books from less legitimate sources, these can be useful if you want to get hold of books you already own but are reluctant to buy again digitally. You can also share amongst your friends,  people have always swapped and shared books they have enjoyed and ebooks aren't any different. There is DRM on some of them to prevent this but lets face it, my dog could get round that.

Calibre

The free ebook management software is an essential download to manage your now bursting library. It will convert ropey .doc files or shoddy .pdf's into the .mobi format perfectly. If it doesn't do it first time a quick tweak with the settings will have you up and running in no time. It's been called the Itunes for ebooks but don't let that tag put you off. It works.

But it's not the same as a book, I prefer turning pages.....

No it isn't a book,, its better and here are some reasons why.

-It doesn't weigh over a Kilo - hard back books are a pain in the arse to read, carry and post. These should have been phased out years ago.

-You don't have to track down a copy of something and then either go out to get it or wait weeks for it. You fancy a book and within seconds your reading it.

-You don't find half way through your second hand paperback or library book a previous reader's bogey or bit of dinner. Also you don't have to worry how many previous borrowers of this book have read it on the toilet. (If you have never thought this, now you will)

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