I’ve been wanting a Kindle for awhile. I’ve vacilated on getting one since they’ve come out. I’m kind of a hardcover book guy. I like filling my bookshelfs with each finished book. They act as a testiment to my accomplishment. A sort of trophy.
Despite my narcisism, my gut was telling me I needed a Kindle. Reading from a device like I listen to my music on an I-Pod just had a nice appeal to it.
My New Kindle
Putting an end to my indecision, BigE gave me a Kindle for Fathers Day. I’ve been playing with it since yesterday and over all I like it.
The Kindle kills it in one area and is a dog in another.
As an ebook reader and from a software perspective the Kindle is fantastic. You can download a book from the Amazon store in less than 60 seconds from anywhere there is Sprint network. When I did it, it was more like 15 seconds. You can bookmark pages, highlight sections, and add notes to passages. All your notes and highlights are stored in a central place called “My Clippings” and can be easilty retrieved. I love this feature. I like to take notes on what I read. This makes it a cake walk to get to them later. There is a decent search function as well. One of my favorite features is the active dictionary. The Kindle gives you the definition of a word by simply putting the cursor next it. This is big for me, because I am constantly unaware of the words I’m reading. The screen is clear and easy to read, and the text or font can be adjusted to whatever size works best for you. As a ebook reader the Kindle has it nailed.
From a hardware perspective, I am a little disappointed in the Kindle. Navigation through the menu and home screens is done through a little 5-way controller or toggle system. This 5-way controller system is very cluncky. It requires lots of extra steps to move through the menu system, to clip or to highlight passages. Performing functions can take as manny 10+ clicks or movements, that could be performed in one or two with a touchscreen. I was also disappointed to find that out the Kindle doesn’t have an illuminating screen, so I can’t read it in bed without a light on. I like to read in bed and not disturb BigE. I was hoping this would solve the problem. I guess not. Although you can add notes, the typing buttons are difficult to use. Hunt and peck is the only way to use them. It’s almost impossible to type with two hands. The positive is it ensures my notes are precise and simple. As a hardward device I was rather disappointed in The Kindle.
Despite the hardware shortcomings, I am enjoying my Kindle. The first book I downloaded was Crowdsourcing by Jeff Howe. (I’ll share my thoughts and Quotes on the book here later). I’m glad BigE took the leap for me. In future releases I’d like to see a touchscreen to make navigation easier. I’d like to see more sharing capabilities, including integration with Facebook and Twitter. This way I could let people know what books I’m downloading on Twitter and create book clubs on Facebook. I’d also like to see an illuminating screen so I can read it in the dark and not keep BigE up.
The Kindle is a pretty cool device and will change how we read and learn. I’m enjoying it. As I spend more time using it, I will share more of my thoughts here.
Do any of you have a Kindle? Do you like it? What do you think?