Kindle. Opinions?

Now I'm glad I never got a Kindle.

 

Two wrongs don't make a right. Selling pirated books is a bad idea. So is "taking them back." But mistakes happen. When you buy stolen merchandise, even from a reputable dealer, you don't get to keep it. What is cool is that in this case the customers got a refund.

 

I DO have the Kindle app on my iPhone. It can read any book a Kindle can read. Can your Kindle take photos, send email, and even supposedly make a phone call?

 

Actually... An iPhone costs $99 for a 3G, $199 for a 3GS. The service contract with AT&T is $39.99 voice, $30.00 data per month - or $839.88 per year (plus tax). At a $489.00 one time cost, the Kindle DX is half of an iPhone's cost + 1-year contract. At $299.00, the Kindle is 1/3 that of an iPhone + 1-year contract.

The rest of your statements, i agree with

BTW, i've tried reading using the iPhone Kindle app... it sucks. Here's a sample from one of the free books (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle):

of these last which was so
remarkable in its details and so
startling in its results that i am
tempted to give some account
of it inspite of the fact that
there are pointsin connection
with it which never have been,
and probably never will be,
entirely cleared up.
The year '87 furnished us
with a long series of cases of
greated or less interest, of
which i retain the records.
Among my headings under this
one twelve months i find an
account of the adventure of the
Paradol Chamber, of the
Amateur Mendicant Society,



There's one page. A single paragraph often doesn't even fit on one page of the iPhone, and the lines are so short as to make reading difficult.


PS. Admins - if you want me to remove the above, i would be more than willing to. As the material is available on Amazon for free and is properly referenced, i don't think it would be a problem using it as an example, but then again i don't know all the particulars of copyright law...

 

daniel, now that you have had time to get familiar with Kindle, how is it in bright conditions outdoors? or is it even an option?

as far as ANY PDA phone. great for some, not for me. my eyes are bad enough without trying to ruin them. i have a regular phone with a keyboard and large type so i can text easily which i do a lot of (US stat...one TRILLION text msgs sent PER DAY...add in the rest of the world and then the number becomes really respectable!)

once in a while, i have to access email for info (fedex tracking #'s and such) so greatly expanded type is ok for that...have even posted from my Phone to PC before but only because i was bored...sitting in a waiting room for one thing or another or whatever.

also, does kindle only download books from a specific source or can you put in your own notes or just excerpts?

 

I don't know about the latest versions- with the Kindle 1, I read in the sun pretty frequently and think it's fine. Frankly it's better than most books- that nice white blinding reflection off the paper.

You're stuck with Amazon. However, I don't see any likelihood that I will get though all of the books there are to read from there. Most of the classics are free or $1. I don't know about notes or excerpts- I never made notes in my paper-bound books! You can send stuff to Amazon and have them digitize it and send it back to you. No idea how much that costs but an interesting idea.

 

the reason i ask about the personal files is because i would also use it for personal information and notes. i understand that you cant enter data directly but the option to upload to your device my internet, BT or whatever would greatly enhance the value in my mind since the capability is already there.

 

ok from the NY Times

The Kindle catalog is bigger, too; 230,000 books are
available [UPDATE: now 300,000]. New York Times bestsellers
are $10 each, which is less than the hardcover editions.
Older books run $3 to $6. That said, Amazon is still a
long way from its 'any book, any time' goal...You can have
any of 30 newspapers, including this one, wirelessly beamed
to your Kindle each morning ($10 to $14 a month) -- minus
ads, comics and crosswords. Magazines (22 so far, $1.50 to
$3 monthly) and blogs ($2 a month) can arrive
automatically, too. Finally, you can send Word, text, PDF
and JPEG documents to the Kindle using its private e-mail
address for 10 cents each. Or transfer them over a USB
cable for nothing."


http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2009/07/02/technology/circuitsemail/index.html?8cir&emc=cir

 

I have a question. Can the Kindle be used as a audio book? By that i mean can you get a book from Amazon and have the kindle read it to you?

 

My Kindle 2 can do that, but I think the publisher has a say in whether or not that feature can be used on a book-by-book basis.

 

the answer is yes... if you like that electronic voice. to be honest with ya, have had experience with screen readers before and the electronic voice is something i simply cannot tolerate in any but the very smallest of doses

 

Good points in this post. Is it back-lit? One thing I liked about reading on my PDAs was the backlight allowed reading in the dark. I also read on my notebook computer in the dark. I might consider one of the small (7" screen) netbooks (with a hard drive, not the chip storage) and would use that for the same purpose. However, the format of the Kindle is just so "2001 - A Space Odyssey" that it's hard to resist.

 

None of the Kindle models are back-lit; with the e-ink technology it's like reading a regular book, even outdoors. If you need more light, you can get a Mighty Brite Flexlite that works well with the Kindle.

 

I actually still love my Kindle 1, even after I've had it since it came out.... I pre-ordered mine actually.... It's really great when I have those times when I'll be somewhere and I have no control over the fact that I have to be there, because that doesn't happen a lot but it's nice to know there's something good to help you spend the time wisely when you need it.

 

I've had the Kindle 1 for a while now, since about a month after the Oprah promotion. It was a gift, not something I would have bought for myself.

I really like it, although I'm not sure that it really makes a positive impact on the environment. When you think of all the VOCs, heavy metals and petrochemicals in it, compared to the number of renewable trees it will save, I'm not sure it's on the right side of the equation.

Still, it's fun and friendly and I'm glad I have it.

 

I won't say that I know if it balances out, but the production and distribution of paper based books is more than trees. And since I buy my books mostly one at a time, UPS or USPS has made at least 40 fewer trips to my house in the past year.