Kindle. Opinions?

Sorry for not answering sooner. I was away hiking in Canada.

The Kindle DX is fine in sunlight outdoors. With any light source directly behind you, there is a reflection of the light. You need to tilt it so the light is not dirctly behind you.

The wireless download is from Amazon only. However, the Kindle DX will read a few other formats, including PDF.

According to Amazon it will, read:

So you can buy books from other sources and download them to the Kindle DX from your computer via USB.

If you have a document you want to put on the Kindle DX you can create your own PDF file from it and put that on the Kindle DX. Note that there is no subdirectory structure, so managing a lot of files will be difficult.

The thing really shines for reading books. You can delete them once you've finished and keep the directory clean. You don't need to carry around all the books you're finished with. You can back them up on your computer.

The Kindle has a voice, and it can read books to you if the publisher permits the feature, but the reviews say it's not very good at it. I've never tried it. Of course, audio books and MP3s play the same as on an MP3 player.

jay_man2 is correct: There is no backlighting or built-in light. You can buy a separate clip-on light, or use a headlamp.

Note that reading on a Kindle is as comfortable on the eyes as reading on paper, and much much more comfortable than reading glossy paper. You can read on a computer but I find it a great strain to read long documents on a computer. This is one of the principle selling points of all the readers using the e-ink technology.

Libraries are fabulous!

The Kindle, at least in its present state, will not replace books. There are many things it does poorly. Reference works, color illustrations, text books that have diagrams or pictures, any book whose appeal is the artictic quality of its fonts or printing, none of these is suitable for Kindle.

Kindle only does one thing well: text. And for reading straight text it is the best thing there is. And it can do B&W illustrations quite well. (The Kindle DX has more shades of grey than the Kindle 1 or 2, and the DX and Kindle 1 have much better contrast for reading than does the Kindle 2.)

Some authors have hit on a concept which exploits the strength of e-books in general: there is no printing cost, and minimal delivery cost: So they'll give away the first book in series for free and sell the following books. This is capitalism at its best because it is not dishonest (like most advertising is). Also, Amazon gives a fairly long sample of any book free. I have now paid for the second and third books of two different trilogies after getting the first book free. In both cases the writing was excellent and the stories fun.

Some of the Kindle nay-sayers choose to criticize it for the things it does poorly, but they're missing the point: It is intended for those books which consist of nothing but plain text.

And I find it much easier to read than a paper book.

 

With ebook reader software for computers and PDAs you are still stuck with reading on a computer screen, which I find uncomfortable.

I looked at the Sony reader. The two reasons I didn't get it are the small size (the Kindle DX is the largest reader available right now) and the fact that Amazon seems to have the largest selection, and growing.

I've looked for those free books on Google and have not yet had any luck locating anything. Lots of web pages with books that do not interest me in oddball formats. This page is Google's book search, but does not appear to be free books, though some books may be free. And books in PDF format do not allow you to change the type size, though you can zoom; the difference being that if you zoom you have to scroll to read.

There are free books in the Kindle store, and as per my earlier posting, the Kindle can read several formats, so you are not tied to Amazon, though the free wireless delivery is only from the Kindle store. Some out-of-copyright classics are free, and some authors offer one of their books free as a teaser, which is great for both author and reader: The author lures in readers, and the reader can sample a whole book before deciding whether or not to buy that author's other books.

I do not define myself by my possessions. I define myself by my actions. But I am a gadget freak. I love gadgets. And the Kindle DX is at present my favorite gadget. But I love libraries and will always support my local library with my vote in favor of taxes to support it.

 

Note that I have the Kindle DX, which is the latest model. The Kindle 1 and 2 are, I believe, the same size as the Sony. The screen on the DX is 9.5 inches diagonal (8 by 5.5) while the Kindle 1 and 2 have a 6-inch diagonal screen, and I think the Sony is the same.

The trade-offs are price and weight, favoring the smaller units; and ease of reading favoring the larger DX. I looked at the Sony in a store, and I much prefer the larger screen for reading comfort, even though it is heavier. Cost was not an issue for me, though five years ago I probably could not have justified it.

 

While I think that digitizing books for free distribution (where copyright permits) is an excellent idea, that in itself falls far short of what Kindle and Sony and the other ebook readers do. Given my choice between a free book that has merely been scanned, so one page of the book goes onto one screen of the reader no matter what, and a properly formatted Kindle book that allows me to set type size to my comfort level and eliminates issues of blurry copies, I'll happily pay for the Kindle book.

I recognize that the Kindle and similar devices are rich peoples' toys, and most folks cannot afford them or cannot justify the cost, given other needs. Thus there is a very important role for projects like Gutenberg and the Google books project. But for those who can afford it, Kindle is the easier way to read books.

(And I think a job scanning books would be deathly boring, and probably lead to carpel tunnel syndrome from the repetitive motion of turning pages and laying the book on the scanner.)

 

Definitely a rich person's toy, as I've said. But far and away the easiest, most convenient way to read. I'm reading three times as much as I have done in years, and spending less than half as much time at the computer. This is all to the good. Of course, not everyone can afford it. I expect the price will come down as the market becomes saturated.

But I stress that the Kindle is one thing and one thing only: a text reader. Anyone who expects it to be more will be disappointed.