Review: Amazon's Kindle
Mar. 26th, 2009 09:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jennythereaderThe Amazon Kindle is, quite simply, the most amazing gadget I've ever owned.
The most wonderful thing about it is that I can carry an entire library around with me, in a package smaller than the average issue of National Geographic. The text is clear, crisp and readable in any conditions a paper book would be readable and gives the reader the advantage of being able to adjust the text size.
Getting new reading material from Amazon's website is as easy a clicking a single link (once you've set up the 1-Click pay system) and buying through the Kindle itself is almost as simple. You can also get free samples of any of the Kindle books Amazon offers.
Converting into the Kindle format from other types of documents is easy. You simply attach the document to an email sent to yourself at a unique @kindle.com address. You have a choice of having the document sent directly to your Kindle for a small fee, or having it sent back to your computer and manually transferring it for no charge.
I do think that Amazon did get a few things wrong.
1) I would have put the USB port at the top or on a side near the top rather than on the bottom. The location they chose makes reading while it's plugged in somewhat awkward.
2) While the ability to view simple websites works fine, you are unable to log into sites that require a password.
3) It's not touch screen. I expect this to change in future versions.
4) It doesn't hold a charge as long as Amazon claims. I have to charge mine about once a week, as opposed to the 2 weeks that Amazon says you can go.
And as for the oh so controversial "Text-to-speech" feature: Yeah, it's a threat to real audio books... in the same way that Engrish.com or Babelfish are threats to real translators.
If anyone has any questions I will do my best to answer them.
(Cross-posted to my review blog)
The most wonderful thing about it is that I can carry an entire library around with me, in a package smaller than the average issue of National Geographic. The text is clear, crisp and readable in any conditions a paper book would be readable and gives the reader the advantage of being able to adjust the text size.
Getting new reading material from Amazon's website is as easy a clicking a single link (once you've set up the 1-Click pay system) and buying through the Kindle itself is almost as simple. You can also get free samples of any of the Kindle books Amazon offers.
Converting into the Kindle format from other types of documents is easy. You simply attach the document to an email sent to yourself at a unique @kindle.com address. You have a choice of having the document sent directly to your Kindle for a small fee, or having it sent back to your computer and manually transferring it for no charge.
I do think that Amazon did get a few things wrong.
1) I would have put the USB port at the top or on a side near the top rather than on the bottom. The location they chose makes reading while it's plugged in somewhat awkward.
2) While the ability to view simple websites works fine, you are unable to log into sites that require a password.
3) It's not touch screen. I expect this to change in future versions.
4) It doesn't hold a charge as long as Amazon claims. I have to charge mine about once a week, as opposed to the 2 weeks that Amazon says you can go.
And as for the oh so controversial "Text-to-speech" feature: Yeah, it's a threat to real audio books... in the same way that Engrish.com or Babelfish are threats to real translators.
If anyone has any questions I will do my best to answer them.
(Cross-posted to my review blog)
