Kindle Wireless Reading Device (6" Display, Global Wireless, Latest Generation) Review.
"263 Kindle 2 Reviews - Why Read Another?" 2009-02-27
By Doug Near Seattle
As I type this message there are 263 Kindle 2 reviews on Amazon's web site. Why bother with another? I'm not one inclined to writing reviews but I do examine them carefully before I make a significant purchase, here on Amazon.com and on other seller web sites. So on the chance that I might say something that helps a potential buyer make up their mind, particularly someone who has not owned the first Kindle, this is my small effort to give back to the process.
First of all, I loved Kindle 1 although I noted several shortcomings due primarily to the design of the hardware. I'm glad to learn that every shortcoming(except one) has been fixed beyond my expectations. When I received my Kindle 2 yesterday, I eagerly removed it from the shipping container, plugged it in and began to download my library. As I did I marveled at the new Kindle's fresh, sleek design. It is a beauty!
The main issue I had with Kindle 1 was the navigation button design and placement. My original thought was that I wanted to use my Kindle 1 without a cover but I quickly learned that doing so wasn't practical. I like to read holding the Kindle with one hand and it just didn't work well because I kept bumping the next, previous and back buttons. So I began to use the cover it came with so I could hold the Kindle by the cover, only to learn that this cover did not keep the device securely in place very well. So I bought an m-edge cover, which is bulkier and the front does not fold back easily. I was stuck reading using two hands and I didn't like that at all.
Kindle 2 solves all these problems. I'm not going to bother with a cover at all now. I love the way it feels in my hand without a cover. It is easy to navigate without any risk of accidentally changing the page I'm on. I will probably buy a Belkin sleeve to protect it when I take it out but that's all. Now my reading experience is complete! [Note added 3/5/09: instead of buying a Belkin sleeve, I did made my own protector. See the discussin thread and photos here: [...]
The Kindle 2's redesigned features are fantastic. The display is better and the 5-way button is a major improvement. I do a lot of highlighting and this design fix is huge. Looking up words is much easier and many times faster. One improved feature I haven't notice any comment on is the progress bar at the bottom of each book page. Now it shows the total number of locations and the percent already read. This is so much better than the old way of determining how far I'm into a book. Thank you, design team!
The fact that Kindle 2 has no SD card capability and the battery is not user-serviceable is not an issue with me. Even with a few hundred books in my library, it will be a long time before the 2 gig memory starts to be a limiting factor and when it does (if it does) I'll just archive what I've already read. Amazon's design team has made it simple to pull archived books back to the Kindle 2 without having to go to a computer.
The only item on my wish list that was not addressed in Kindle 2 is the lack of an improved file storage system. It would have been nice to have that but it doesn't take away from my enjoyment. [Note added 3/5/09: Bufo Calvo came up with an inovative method of catagorizing books on Kindle that works great so this item is no longer on my wish list. [...]
Page turns are significantly faster and the page reloads are less intrusive to the reading experience. On/off buttons are repositioned to be easily accessible. The home page is easier to navigate. There are other improvements that many others have already noted so I'm going to stop here without repeating everything that's been said already. But the biggest thing about Kindle (both 1 and 2) is the Amazon store and how simple it is to browse and buy books from. I'm so impressed with the way they have seamlessly brought the store together with the reading device via Whispernet to make the digital reading experience such a wonderful thing to enjoy.
"Soul of the e-reader; Kindle 2 gets closer to delivering the promise." 2009-02-24
By Joshua G. Feldman (New York)
I'm a great believer in the e-book concept; having been reading e-books since the Apple Newton (and down through various Palms, Sony Reader PRS505, and Kindle 1). The dream has always been a portable electronic device that could hold a ton of reading material, automate subscriptions and facilitate quick easy downloads, and be as portable, as easy on the eyes, and as intuitive as a book. The Kindle 1 was the first really practical device to get close to that dream. The combination of the reflective e-ink screen, effortless Whispernet wireless cellular connection to Amazon (and the Internet - without requiring hooking up to a computer, ever), and Amazon's tremendous ability to rope in a critical mass of book and periodical content made the promise of the e-reader real for the first time. But the Kindle 1 had some rough edges that got in the way of effortlessly reading. Things like the buttons that made it easy to accidentally turn pages; the separate cursor on the side that could only select lines and was sometimes hard to see; the occasionally awkward menus; the case which practically forced you to remove it to use it and sometimes pulled the battery door off. With the Kindle 2, Amazon has addressed all these issues and more. Each of the differences looks superficially subtle, but they collectively combine to make the Kindle 2 feel polished and comparatively effortless to use. It comes closer than any other device yet made to getting out the way and leaving the reader alone with the text, like a book.
The first thing that grabs you about the Kindle 2 is how elegantly thin it is. The Kindle 2 is THIN. It positively disappears in your briefcase. The second thing is the buttons. They are smaller, but well placed and critically pivot from the edge inwards towards the screen. This means that when you handle the Kindle 2 by the edges, the pages don't change even if you grab by the buttons. Yet changing pages is effortless when you do - the buttons are right between your thumbs and the slightest pressure on their faces is enough to activate them. The problem with the case was addressed by using a post-in-slot locking arrangement reminiscent of recent Palm organizers. The fact that you must buy the case now is disappointing but the silver lining is that you can opt to individualize your Kindle. The issue with the battery door opening is thus solved, but Amazon went further, eliminating the door altogether and wrapping the back with sleek stainless steel. It is tactile and elegant, but doing away with the door means doing away with the SD memory card slot that the Kindle 1 had, as well as the ability to change batteries. This is, undoubtedly, the most controversial aspect of Kindle 2. Frankly, I never used either the card slot or changed the battery on my Kindle 1 but I liked that they were there and I miss them on the Kindle 2, even though, I have to admit, I don't actually need them. In practice it's no hardship to live within a 2GB (1.4 GB available) limit, especially if you are willing to trust Amazon to archive items you are done reading. The screen is incrementally improved. 16 shades of gray is WAY better than 4. They say it's faster, but only a tiny bit. I notice the snappiness of Kindle 2's performance, but it's certainly not a dramatic difference. The e-ink screen's text quality is basically unchanged from Kindle 1. 40% white is pretty good, but the Kindle 2's screen looks just like the one on Kindle 1. Where the improved e-ink screen really shines is dynamic update - which is fast enough to allow a live cursor within the text area. This does away with the scroll wheel and side cursor of Kindle 1. In Kindle 2 this has been replaced with a 5 way joystick (4 directions plus click down to select). The joystick does plenty more than just allow you to actually select a word to get a definition on. It lets you quickly navigate periodicals - moving to the next article with just a click right or left, or up to the section or article list with a flick up or down. Losing the side cursor gives Kindle 2 a cleaner look - but it's the greatly improved navigation that's the real benefit. This ease of navigation is one of the most compelling new features of Kindle 2 for me. As for the text to speech feature, it is probably invaluable to some - but not me. I like Stephen Hawking a lot but don't want that voice to read me a book. Talk to me later and maybe I'll have changed my mind.
All in all, Kindle 2 feels like Amazon is getting to the soul of the e-reader. Most of the annoying things about Kindle 1 are gone, but almost all the strengths remain, or are accentuated. The trouble is, the differences are subtle. At first glance, Kindle 2's enhancements look very incremental; almost trivial. Clearly the future will hold color, and better contrast than 40% - but these enhancements are in E-ink's court, not Amazon's. I have other items on my wish list for the future - like being able to fold out a larger screen to better display bigger books. I'd like the content manager to allow me to create folders so I can organize my growing collection of titles. I really really want Kindle to be able to read PDF files natively (you still have to e-mail in your PDFs for conversion with Kindle 2). These thing will come, I'm sure, in time. Meanwhile, the Kindle 2 is currently the best e-reader on the planet. In terms of in-the-hand usability it blows Kindle 1 away.
Some of my colleagues and I at work have been talking lately about the implications of the Kindle on the future of the book. Kindle eradicates page numbers, loses the physical form, forces all books into a common size and shape, and homogenizes the typeface. Clearly something is lost compared with a printed book. Yet, what is gained is undeniable and as impending as the weather. The ability to carry whole libraries (like the iPod did for music), and the ability to get the daily paper, magazine, or a new book automatically - practically instantly - at a savings - is literally a dream come true. There's little doubt that Kindle has utterly transformed the book distribution model. The big divide seems to be Amazon's .azw, Kindle's file format, and .pdf, Adobe's Acrobat format which has become almost universal. PDF's universality has the feeling of almost being open source (which it is not) because the there's no copy protection or copyright features built into it. While .pdf-only format readers are around, and tons of .pdf titles are available, they tend to be composed disproportionately of public domain, technical libraries, and other arcana. That's because mainstream publishers don't want to sign on to a format that doesn't protect them. Amazon's .azw format does, and thus Kindle has that awesome selection of content. In the modern economics of increasing returns, early critical leads in technology tend to become dominant trends. Kindle's .awz format seems to be on the verge of having an unsurmountable lock on the e-book market as a result. When it comes to the actual book titles (and periodicals) you'd like to read, Amazon's Kindle has no competition. For me, the dream of a workable e-book is realized.
"The Dinosaur & the Kindle" 2009-05-06
By Susan Tunis (San Francisco, CA)
I am not a gadget girl. I am not an early adopter. I am a dinosaur. I am in love with books. I like the feel of them, the smell of them, and I am a passionate supporter of independent booksellers. I am the last person in the world who would buy a Kindle. However, Amazon likes me. They gave me a Kindle 2 as a reward for services rendered. Well, who would turn that down?
Here's the shocker... I LOVE it! I can't even believe how much I love my Kindle. A friend of mine wrote a detailed critique of the first Kindle, and I have to say that the new design is a vast improvement. Aside from being slimmer and sleeker, there are plenty of places to hold the device comfortably without activating any functions. The screen is easy to read off of, and I honestly believe that I can read faster on a Kindle than I do with a traditional book. I'm not sure why. Faster page turns? What I can tell you is that it's exceedingly comfortable and easy to read off the Kindle anywhere, but especially when you have limited space--like on public transportation. You can easily hold the Kindle and turn pages with a single hand.
The Kindle has several features that could best be described as... cool. My eyesight is fine, but I can choose the font size that suits me best. Likewise, I love the text-to-speech feature. A big frustration in my life is that I can't work on my embroidery (I'm a dinosaur, remember?) and read at the same time. Now, I can have the Kindle read to me while I stitch. Yes, it's sort of tinny and mechanical, but it's still a really nice option to use occasionally. In addition to reading published books, I read a lot of unpublished manuscripts. It's not uncommon to see me schlepping around 600 pages of loosely bound paper. The other day I had the amazing experience of forwarding an email with a manuscript attached to my dedicated Kindle address. Within seconds, the entire MS was in my Kindle, formatted and ready to go. Amazing! I can even make notes on the MS in the machine.
However, possibly the best thing about the Kindle is the fact that I can get internet access for free, almost anywhere. I use it to check my email all the time now. I wouldn't want to write a novel on the keyboard, but it's sufficient for brief communications. Now when I go away for the weekend, I can leave my laptop at home! It also works fine for basic internet surfing.
One last thing I was unaware of is how much free or nominally-priced content there is for the Kindle. I've got plenty to read, and I haven't purchased one $9.99 book yet. My first Kindle "purchases" were all free public domain titles. Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle--how can you do better than that? I also read the Kindle Daily Post in the Kindle store religiously. You never know when you'll be offered free content like a back-listed Lee Child novel or some contemporary fantasy. Other authors such as Boyd Morrison and J.A. Konrath are offering novels at prices ranging from $1 to $2 dollars, as a way to find new readers. One more favorite is the free Amazon Daily blog, which is like a fun, timely magazine with short articles that update constantly. The perfect entertainment for brief snatches of time.
No, I never would have bought a Kindle. And "real" books will still be a big part of my life, but I will never be without a Kindle again. This dinosaur is evolving.
"Kindling a Revolution" 2009-02-25
By Jonathan Appleseed
When the first Kindle was announced my Christmas list was immediately complete. It was populated with one request: Amazon Gift Certificates. My excitement was difficult to measure and probably difficult for people to tolerate. A device that carried 250 books? With an "onboard" dictionary? That's all I needed to know. What surprised me, though, was that none of my family or friends knew what I was talking about. "What's a Kindle?" they would ask, to which I would squint my eyes and reply, "Huh?"
How so many people could be unaware of what was to me a revolution - many of whom were avid readers - was puzzling. Even after receiving the Kindle (finally - after months of waiting) people who saw me with it would ask, "What is that?" When my answer, "It's Amazon's Kindle!" succeeded only in deepening the creases in their foreheads I was dumbfounded. This is the Kindle! Hello?
Apparently Amazon's website, one of the most heavily trafficked web sites on the internet, wasn't enough marketing. The Kindle wasn't close to being a household name, even a year after its release. And people to whom I showed the Kindle often weren't that impressed.
That has all changed with the release of the Kindle 2. Big change in the so-called impression department.
The Kindle 2 arrived about an hour before I left for a class and I took it with me intending to explore the Kindle 2 during the break. I arrived at class early and with the extra time started familiarizing myself with the new device.
I didn't have it out for more than ten seconds before someone asked, "Is that the new Kindle?" Another, "Is that the one that talks?" All seven classmates were keenly interested in this second generation Kindle, and all had heard of it - the Kindle 2, that is, not just the Kindle. They all knew that a second had been unveiled, and at least one wasn't aware of the first until they became aware of the second. Class started, and I had to put the new Kindle away.
When break time came, I thought I'd have a bit of time. Nope! People stayed in the room, demanding that I,"Make it talk!" or "Show me the dictionary!"
While I understand that there's been a good deal of time for word-of-mouth to advertise the Kindle, there's something else at work here. This device has caught people's attention; it's a head turner. The design is slick, attractive, thin and, I would say, sexy! That it doesn't have the quirky, clunky, annoying buttons that filled ¾ of each side of its predecessor, buttons that caused dozens upon dozens of accidental page turns makes it that much sexier. I found that the Kindle 2 is immediately appealing to the eye and once described in the barest of terms people want one for themselves. And I mean everyone. Every single person that has seen my Kindle and heard my thirty-second advertisement of its features has expressed a desire to own one NOW. That wasn't the reaction the first Kindle had, and my thirty-second advertisement was roughly the same.
Congratulations, Amazon. You've just invented the equivalent of the iPhone for e-books.
The biggest selling point for me is still the onboard dictionary. If you're a true reader then you know the value of having a dictionary at hand and the frustration you experience if one isn't. My vocabulary is better than average but I still run into unfamiliar words (too often for my comfort!) and I'm one of those people who want to know the meaning of every single word I read. But who wants to go to the doctor's office with their favorite book AND a dictionary? Well, I did. I wanted to bring a dictionary along when I went places where I'd have to wait forever, but I rarely did. Now I don't have to. Everywhere I go I'll have the book I'm reading and a dictionary with which to lookup any words whose meaning I've either forgotten or never knew.
What I like most about the Kindle 2 is the placement of the buttons and their inversion. It's very difficult to accidentally turn a page (a far too frequent occurrence with the first generation Kindle), yet simple and effortless to purposefully turn a page. Page turning is quicker and the text and pictures are crisper. The reading experience, already an excellent one, is greatly improved. I'll miss the scroll wheel, even though it wasn't exactly the height of design innovation and was vaguely Coleco-esque, and it's replacement, the 5-way controller will take a bit of getting used to. It has the feel of the mouse button in the middle of a laptop keyboard and I never liked those. Manipulating that button reminded me of something I'd rather not think about when trying to get work done. (I'll leave that to your imagination since this is a family show.)
Another huge plus for Amazon is that plugging the Kindle into your computer via the USB port no longer drains the Kindle; instead, it charges it. They were smart and designed a USB cable and wall adapter that work together so that you don't have to keep track of two cables. It's also easy to charge the Kindle in the car if you have a battery charger with a USB port (some Bluetooth speakers come equipped with those). Though I wouldn't recommend using the Kindle while driving.
If you were hedging on the first Kindle and decided to wait, now is the time to pounce. This is the real deal. You'll love it.
If you have the first Kindle and are deciding whether to upgrade, do it now while you can still get a good price for your old Kindle on Amazon's Marketplace, craigslist, wherever. This I promise: if you don't upgrade, you will regret it every time you accidentally hit one of the obscenely large buttons and advance or retreat one, two, three, or even four pages. And the longer you go, the less you'll get for selling your old Kindle, and that, without question, will be frustrating. Another tip for selling: if you bought a cover to replace Amazon's ridiculous original cover, sell it packaged with the Kindle. You'll sell it quicker and for more money.
My only complaint is that the Amazon looked a bit too much to Apple when designing this. It's like a large iPod with a keyboard, sans the 32gb storage. (They could only get 1gb of storage into that, and Apple gets 32gb into the much, much smaller iPod Touch? Then again, I'm not an engineer so this issue may be moot.) You can't carry an extra battery - though with the extended battery life and extra charging options it's almost a non-issue - and you can't replace the battery because of the iPod-like fixed backing. They also took out the memory slot, and the SD card was a big selling point for people who liked to carry their entire library around with them. While I do understand that concern, 1500 titles is a LOT of titles.
I'm a book lover. The smell of old books is almost an aphrodisiac. The feel of a book - it's difficult to describe. Even the word itself has some magic to it. I'm old school when it comes to books, and I love this device.
You will too.
"Great in so many ways!!!" 2009-03-22
By Gina-Marie Hammer (Palm Coast, Florida)
There were many reasons I decided to purchase a Kindle - my hands ache when holding a book open, I get headaches from reading stuff on the computer, I wanted something I could throw in a bag and take anywhere, and it holds so many items that I don't have to carry three or four novels with me in case I'm bored or finish one. Nothing could prepare me for the actuality that is Kindle. It integrated seamlessly into my life. If I'm at the desk, it's beside me; if I'm in the bedroom, it's on the nightstand; I even take the silly thing to the john. It's so much easier than a book.
I expected it to be a little awkward at first, but it really *does* get lost in your hands. Suddenly, you look down after a couple of hours of reading, and realize you've been holding it all along and forgotten all about it. I expected to read novels and blogs on it. I never expected to be able to download all the .pdf technical manuals that I constantly have to weed through on the computer. I work effortlessly now, looking at the computer, working through a segment, picking up the Kindle, searching for what I need in the manual, even highlighting it, or putting a note in the manual about how well it works.
Note taking is my big thing. When I'm looking at a book, I always find note-taking to be an instinct I have to avoid. I see it as a destructive process. I don't want to ruin my books. Further, who can really concentrate on what they're reading with a pen in their hand? It's two different mindsets. Yet, with Kindle, I do just that. I read a segment, I find a passage, I underline it. I have an opinion, I drop in a note. A question equals another note. When I don't understand something, the dictionary is right at the bottom of the screen to define the word or teach me how to pronounce it; or I can surf to the web and find exactly what I need.
It's so much better than surfing the web on my phone - and far more practical. For one thing, there's no charge except battery power (no pun intended!). For another, all of my research is in one place. The book, notes, websites and highlights are all together - as they should be.
I know a lot of people complain that it should have a bright screen so that you can read it at night, or that it should have color. I say - nay! The main *strength* of Kindle is that it reads *exactly* like a book. No eye strain. No having to turn away every few minutes to relax your eyes; or ending a session of reading with a headache. No "hot lap" or mousing around to find the right page. It's just like a book. You hold it, you turn the page, it's effortless, you forget it's there. Only what you're reading matters, and that's exactly how it should be.
By Doug Near Seattle
As I type this message there are 263 Kindle 2 reviews on Amazon's web site. Why bother with another? I'm not one inclined to writing reviews but I do examine them carefully before I make a significant purchase, here on Amazon.com and on other seller web sites. So on the chance that I might say something that helps a potential buyer make up their mind, particularly someone who has not owned the first Kindle, this is my small effort to give back to the process.
First of all, I loved Kindle 1 although I noted several shortcomings due primarily to the design of the hardware. I'm glad to learn that every shortcoming(except one) has been fixed beyond my expectations. When I received my Kindle 2 yesterday, I eagerly removed it from the shipping container, plugged it in and began to download my library. As I did I marveled at the new Kindle's fresh, sleek design. It is a beauty!
The main issue I had with Kindle 1 was the navigation button design and placement. My original thought was that I wanted to use my Kindle 1 without a cover but I quickly learned that doing so wasn't practical. I like to read holding the Kindle with one hand and it just didn't work well because I kept bumping the next, previous and back buttons. So I began to use the cover it came with so I could hold the Kindle by the cover, only to learn that this cover did not keep the device securely in place very well. So I bought an m-edge cover, which is bulkier and the front does not fold back easily. I was stuck reading using two hands and I didn't like that at all.
Kindle 2 solves all these problems. I'm not going to bother with a cover at all now. I love the way it feels in my hand without a cover. It is easy to navigate without any risk of accidentally changing the page I'm on. I will probably buy a Belkin sleeve to protect it when I take it out but that's all. Now my reading experience is complete! [Note added 3/5/09: instead of buying a Belkin sleeve, I did made my own protector. See the discussin thread and photos here: [...]
The Kindle 2's redesigned features are fantastic. The display is better and the 5-way button is a major improvement. I do a lot of highlighting and this design fix is huge. Looking up words is much easier and many times faster. One improved feature I haven't notice any comment on is the progress bar at the bottom of each book page. Now it shows the total number of locations and the percent already read. This is so much better than the old way of determining how far I'm into a book. Thank you, design team!
The fact that Kindle 2 has no SD card capability and the battery is not user-serviceable is not an issue with me. Even with a few hundred books in my library, it will be a long time before the 2 gig memory starts to be a limiting factor and when it does (if it does) I'll just archive what I've already read. Amazon's design team has made it simple to pull archived books back to the Kindle 2 without having to go to a computer.
The only item on my wish list that was not addressed in Kindle 2 is the lack of an improved file storage system. It would have been nice to have that but it doesn't take away from my enjoyment. [Note added 3/5/09: Bufo Calvo came up with an inovative method of catagorizing books on Kindle that works great so this item is no longer on my wish list. [...]
Page turns are significantly faster and the page reloads are less intrusive to the reading experience. On/off buttons are repositioned to be easily accessible. The home page is easier to navigate. There are other improvements that many others have already noted so I'm going to stop here without repeating everything that's been said already. But the biggest thing about Kindle (both 1 and 2) is the Amazon store and how simple it is to browse and buy books from. I'm so impressed with the way they have seamlessly brought the store together with the reading device via Whispernet to make the digital reading experience such a wonderful thing to enjoy.
By Joshua G. Feldman (New York)
I'm a great believer in the e-book concept; having been reading e-books since the Apple Newton (and down through various Palms, Sony Reader PRS505, and Kindle 1). The dream has always been a portable electronic device that could hold a ton of reading material, automate subscriptions and facilitate quick easy downloads, and be as portable, as easy on the eyes, and as intuitive as a book. The Kindle 1 was the first really practical device to get close to that dream. The combination of the reflective e-ink screen, effortless Whispernet wireless cellular connection to Amazon (and the Internet - without requiring hooking up to a computer, ever), and Amazon's tremendous ability to rope in a critical mass of book and periodical content made the promise of the e-reader real for the first time. But the Kindle 1 had some rough edges that got in the way of effortlessly reading. Things like the buttons that made it easy to accidentally turn pages; the separate cursor on the side that could only select lines and was sometimes hard to see; the occasionally awkward menus; the case which practically forced you to remove it to use it and sometimes pulled the battery door off. With the Kindle 2, Amazon has addressed all these issues and more. Each of the differences looks superficially subtle, but they collectively combine to make the Kindle 2 feel polished and comparatively effortless to use. It comes closer than any other device yet made to getting out the way and leaving the reader alone with the text, like a book.
The first thing that grabs you about the Kindle 2 is how elegantly thin it is. The Kindle 2 is THIN. It positively disappears in your briefcase. The second thing is the buttons. They are smaller, but well placed and critically pivot from the edge inwards towards the screen. This means that when you handle the Kindle 2 by the edges, the pages don't change even if you grab by the buttons. Yet changing pages is effortless when you do - the buttons are right between your thumbs and the slightest pressure on their faces is enough to activate them. The problem with the case was addressed by using a post-in-slot locking arrangement reminiscent of recent Palm organizers. The fact that you must buy the case now is disappointing but the silver lining is that you can opt to individualize your Kindle. The issue with the battery door opening is thus solved, but Amazon went further, eliminating the door altogether and wrapping the back with sleek stainless steel. It is tactile and elegant, but doing away with the door means doing away with the SD memory card slot that the Kindle 1 had, as well as the ability to change batteries. This is, undoubtedly, the most controversial aspect of Kindle 2. Frankly, I never used either the card slot or changed the battery on my Kindle 1 but I liked that they were there and I miss them on the Kindle 2, even though, I have to admit, I don't actually need them. In practice it's no hardship to live within a 2GB (1.4 GB available) limit, especially if you are willing to trust Amazon to archive items you are done reading. The screen is incrementally improved. 16 shades of gray is WAY better than 4. They say it's faster, but only a tiny bit. I notice the snappiness of Kindle 2's performance, but it's certainly not a dramatic difference. The e-ink screen's text quality is basically unchanged from Kindle 1. 40% white is pretty good, but the Kindle 2's screen looks just like the one on Kindle 1. Where the improved e-ink screen really shines is dynamic update - which is fast enough to allow a live cursor within the text area. This does away with the scroll wheel and side cursor of Kindle 1. In Kindle 2 this has been replaced with a 5 way joystick (4 directions plus click down to select). The joystick does plenty more than just allow you to actually select a word to get a definition on. It lets you quickly navigate periodicals - moving to the next article with just a click right or left, or up to the section or article list with a flick up or down. Losing the side cursor gives Kindle 2 a cleaner look - but it's the greatly improved navigation that's the real benefit. This ease of navigation is one of the most compelling new features of Kindle 2 for me. As for the text to speech feature, it is probably invaluable to some - but not me. I like Stephen Hawking a lot but don't want that voice to read me a book. Talk to me later and maybe I'll have changed my mind.
All in all, Kindle 2 feels like Amazon is getting to the soul of the e-reader. Most of the annoying things about Kindle 1 are gone, but almost all the strengths remain, or are accentuated. The trouble is, the differences are subtle. At first glance, Kindle 2's enhancements look very incremental; almost trivial. Clearly the future will hold color, and better contrast than 40% - but these enhancements are in E-ink's court, not Amazon's. I have other items on my wish list for the future - like being able to fold out a larger screen to better display bigger books. I'd like the content manager to allow me to create folders so I can organize my growing collection of titles. I really really want Kindle to be able to read PDF files natively (you still have to e-mail in your PDFs for conversion with Kindle 2). These thing will come, I'm sure, in time. Meanwhile, the Kindle 2 is currently the best e-reader on the planet. In terms of in-the-hand usability it blows Kindle 1 away.
Some of my colleagues and I at work have been talking lately about the implications of the Kindle on the future of the book. Kindle eradicates page numbers, loses the physical form, forces all books into a common size and shape, and homogenizes the typeface. Clearly something is lost compared with a printed book. Yet, what is gained is undeniable and as impending as the weather. The ability to carry whole libraries (like the iPod did for music), and the ability to get the daily paper, magazine, or a new book automatically - practically instantly - at a savings - is literally a dream come true. There's little doubt that Kindle has utterly transformed the book distribution model. The big divide seems to be Amazon's .azw, Kindle's file format, and .pdf, Adobe's Acrobat format which has become almost universal. PDF's universality has the feeling of almost being open source (which it is not) because the there's no copy protection or copyright features built into it. While .pdf-only format readers are around, and tons of .pdf titles are available, they tend to be composed disproportionately of public domain, technical libraries, and other arcana. That's because mainstream publishers don't want to sign on to a format that doesn't protect them. Amazon's .azw format does, and thus Kindle has that awesome selection of content. In the modern economics of increasing returns, early critical leads in technology tend to become dominant trends. Kindle's .awz format seems to be on the verge of having an unsurmountable lock on the e-book market as a result. When it comes to the actual book titles (and periodicals) you'd like to read, Amazon's Kindle has no competition. For me, the dream of a workable e-book is realized.
By Susan Tunis (San Francisco, CA)
I am not a gadget girl. I am not an early adopter. I am a dinosaur. I am in love with books. I like the feel of them, the smell of them, and I am a passionate supporter of independent booksellers. I am the last person in the world who would buy a Kindle. However, Amazon likes me. They gave me a Kindle 2 as a reward for services rendered. Well, who would turn that down?
Here's the shocker... I LOVE it! I can't even believe how much I love my Kindle. A friend of mine wrote a detailed critique of the first Kindle, and I have to say that the new design is a vast improvement. Aside from being slimmer and sleeker, there are plenty of places to hold the device comfortably without activating any functions. The screen is easy to read off of, and I honestly believe that I can read faster on a Kindle than I do with a traditional book. I'm not sure why. Faster page turns? What I can tell you is that it's exceedingly comfortable and easy to read off the Kindle anywhere, but especially when you have limited space--like on public transportation. You can easily hold the Kindle and turn pages with a single hand.
The Kindle has several features that could best be described as... cool. My eyesight is fine, but I can choose the font size that suits me best. Likewise, I love the text-to-speech feature. A big frustration in my life is that I can't work on my embroidery (I'm a dinosaur, remember?) and read at the same time. Now, I can have the Kindle read to me while I stitch. Yes, it's sort of tinny and mechanical, but it's still a really nice option to use occasionally. In addition to reading published books, I read a lot of unpublished manuscripts. It's not uncommon to see me schlepping around 600 pages of loosely bound paper. The other day I had the amazing experience of forwarding an email with a manuscript attached to my dedicated Kindle address. Within seconds, the entire MS was in my Kindle, formatted and ready to go. Amazing! I can even make notes on the MS in the machine.
However, possibly the best thing about the Kindle is the fact that I can get internet access for free, almost anywhere. I use it to check my email all the time now. I wouldn't want to write a novel on the keyboard, but it's sufficient for brief communications. Now when I go away for the weekend, I can leave my laptop at home! It also works fine for basic internet surfing.
One last thing I was unaware of is how much free or nominally-priced content there is for the Kindle. I've got plenty to read, and I haven't purchased one $9.99 book yet. My first Kindle "purchases" were all free public domain titles. Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle--how can you do better than that? I also read the Kindle Daily Post in the Kindle store religiously. You never know when you'll be offered free content like a back-listed Lee Child novel or some contemporary fantasy. Other authors such as Boyd Morrison and J.A. Konrath are offering novels at prices ranging from $1 to $2 dollars, as a way to find new readers. One more favorite is the free Amazon Daily blog, which is like a fun, timely magazine with short articles that update constantly. The perfect entertainment for brief snatches of time.
No, I never would have bought a Kindle. And "real" books will still be a big part of my life, but I will never be without a Kindle again. This dinosaur is evolving.
By Jonathan Appleseed
When the first Kindle was announced my Christmas list was immediately complete. It was populated with one request: Amazon Gift Certificates. My excitement was difficult to measure and probably difficult for people to tolerate. A device that carried 250 books? With an "onboard" dictionary? That's all I needed to know. What surprised me, though, was that none of my family or friends knew what I was talking about. "What's a Kindle?" they would ask, to which I would squint my eyes and reply, "Huh?"
How so many people could be unaware of what was to me a revolution - many of whom were avid readers - was puzzling. Even after receiving the Kindle (finally - after months of waiting) people who saw me with it would ask, "What is that?" When my answer, "It's Amazon's Kindle!" succeeded only in deepening the creases in their foreheads I was dumbfounded. This is the Kindle! Hello?
Apparently Amazon's website, one of the most heavily trafficked web sites on the internet, wasn't enough marketing. The Kindle wasn't close to being a household name, even a year after its release. And people to whom I showed the Kindle often weren't that impressed.
That has all changed with the release of the Kindle 2. Big change in the so-called impression department.
The Kindle 2 arrived about an hour before I left for a class and I took it with me intending to explore the Kindle 2 during the break. I arrived at class early and with the extra time started familiarizing myself with the new device.
I didn't have it out for more than ten seconds before someone asked, "Is that the new Kindle?" Another, "Is that the one that talks?" All seven classmates were keenly interested in this second generation Kindle, and all had heard of it - the Kindle 2, that is, not just the Kindle. They all knew that a second had been unveiled, and at least one wasn't aware of the first until they became aware of the second. Class started, and I had to put the new Kindle away.
When break time came, I thought I'd have a bit of time. Nope! People stayed in the room, demanding that I,"Make it talk!" or "Show me the dictionary!"
While I understand that there's been a good deal of time for word-of-mouth to advertise the Kindle, there's something else at work here. This device has caught people's attention; it's a head turner. The design is slick, attractive, thin and, I would say, sexy! That it doesn't have the quirky, clunky, annoying buttons that filled ¾ of each side of its predecessor, buttons that caused dozens upon dozens of accidental page turns makes it that much sexier. I found that the Kindle 2 is immediately appealing to the eye and once described in the barest of terms people want one for themselves. And I mean everyone. Every single person that has seen my Kindle and heard my thirty-second advertisement of its features has expressed a desire to own one NOW. That wasn't the reaction the first Kindle had, and my thirty-second advertisement was roughly the same.
Congratulations, Amazon. You've just invented the equivalent of the iPhone for e-books.
The biggest selling point for me is still the onboard dictionary. If you're a true reader then you know the value of having a dictionary at hand and the frustration you experience if one isn't. My vocabulary is better than average but I still run into unfamiliar words (too often for my comfort!) and I'm one of those people who want to know the meaning of every single word I read. But who wants to go to the doctor's office with their favorite book AND a dictionary? Well, I did. I wanted to bring a dictionary along when I went places where I'd have to wait forever, but I rarely did. Now I don't have to. Everywhere I go I'll have the book I'm reading and a dictionary with which to lookup any words whose meaning I've either forgotten or never knew.
What I like most about the Kindle 2 is the placement of the buttons and their inversion. It's very difficult to accidentally turn a page (a far too frequent occurrence with the first generation Kindle), yet simple and effortless to purposefully turn a page. Page turning is quicker and the text and pictures are crisper. The reading experience, already an excellent one, is greatly improved. I'll miss the scroll wheel, even though it wasn't exactly the height of design innovation and was vaguely Coleco-esque, and it's replacement, the 5-way controller will take a bit of getting used to. It has the feel of the mouse button in the middle of a laptop keyboard and I never liked those. Manipulating that button reminded me of something I'd rather not think about when trying to get work done. (I'll leave that to your imagination since this is a family show.)
Another huge plus for Amazon is that plugging the Kindle into your computer via the USB port no longer drains the Kindle; instead, it charges it. They were smart and designed a USB cable and wall adapter that work together so that you don't have to keep track of two cables. It's also easy to charge the Kindle in the car if you have a battery charger with a USB port (some Bluetooth speakers come equipped with those). Though I wouldn't recommend using the Kindle while driving.
If you were hedging on the first Kindle and decided to wait, now is the time to pounce. This is the real deal. You'll love it.
If you have the first Kindle and are deciding whether to upgrade, do it now while you can still get a good price for your old Kindle on Amazon's Marketplace, craigslist, wherever. This I promise: if you don't upgrade, you will regret it every time you accidentally hit one of the obscenely large buttons and advance or retreat one, two, three, or even four pages. And the longer you go, the less you'll get for selling your old Kindle, and that, without question, will be frustrating. Another tip for selling: if you bought a cover to replace Amazon's ridiculous original cover, sell it packaged with the Kindle. You'll sell it quicker and for more money.
My only complaint is that the Amazon looked a bit too much to Apple when designing this. It's like a large iPod with a keyboard, sans the 32gb storage. (They could only get 1gb of storage into that, and Apple gets 32gb into the much, much smaller iPod Touch? Then again, I'm not an engineer so this issue may be moot.) You can't carry an extra battery - though with the extended battery life and extra charging options it's almost a non-issue - and you can't replace the battery because of the iPod-like fixed backing. They also took out the memory slot, and the SD card was a big selling point for people who liked to carry their entire library around with them. While I do understand that concern, 1500 titles is a LOT of titles.
I'm a book lover. The smell of old books is almost an aphrodisiac. The feel of a book - it's difficult to describe. Even the word itself has some magic to it. I'm old school when it comes to books, and I love this device.
You will too.
By Gina-Marie Hammer (Palm Coast, Florida)
There were many reasons I decided to purchase a Kindle - my hands ache when holding a book open, I get headaches from reading stuff on the computer, I wanted something I could throw in a bag and take anywhere, and it holds so many items that I don't have to carry three or four novels with me in case I'm bored or finish one. Nothing could prepare me for the actuality that is Kindle. It integrated seamlessly into my life. If I'm at the desk, it's beside me; if I'm in the bedroom, it's on the nightstand; I even take the silly thing to the john. It's so much easier than a book.
I expected it to be a little awkward at first, but it really *does* get lost in your hands. Suddenly, you look down after a couple of hours of reading, and realize you've been holding it all along and forgotten all about it. I expected to read novels and blogs on it. I never expected to be able to download all the .pdf technical manuals that I constantly have to weed through on the computer. I work effortlessly now, looking at the computer, working through a segment, picking up the Kindle, searching for what I need in the manual, even highlighting it, or putting a note in the manual about how well it works.
Note taking is my big thing. When I'm looking at a book, I always find note-taking to be an instinct I have to avoid. I see it as a destructive process. I don't want to ruin my books. Further, who can really concentrate on what they're reading with a pen in their hand? It's two different mindsets. Yet, with Kindle, I do just that. I read a segment, I find a passage, I underline it. I have an opinion, I drop in a note. A question equals another note. When I don't understand something, the dictionary is right at the bottom of the screen to define the word or teach me how to pronounce it; or I can surf to the web and find exactly what I need.
It's so much better than surfing the web on my phone - and far more practical. For one thing, there's no charge except battery power (no pun intended!). For another, all of my research is in one place. The book, notes, websites and highlights are all together - as they should be.
I know a lot of people complain that it should have a bright screen so that you can read it at night, or that it should have color. I say - nay! The main *strength* of Kindle is that it reads *exactly* like a book. No eye strain. No having to turn away every few minutes to relax your eyes; or ending a session of reading with a headache. No "hot lap" or mousing around to find the right page. It's just like a book. You hold it, you turn the page, it's effortless, you forget it's there. Only what you're reading matters, and that's exactly how it should be.
