My Kindle Come! Initial thoughts....

So, after a year and a half or so of lusting after one and trying to dream up justifications for the purchase, I finally ordered a Kindle 2 and it arrived today, care of our trusty mailman Rich, who also took away four books that I was shipping out. (A nice touch on Amazon's part: the bar code pictured on the right.)

The Kindle is still so new to me--it's now fully charged, so I'm finally untethered from the wall--that I don't fully know my thoughts about it yet. But here are my initial reactions, with pictures.

I knew going in precisely how small it was and what it looked like and how the e-ink made the screen very different from, say, an iPod screen. Still, it's a bit of a shock just how small and thin it is. It's very elegant. I'd say beautiful. And the screen really is astonishingly different. It really does look like paper, and it's easy to forget that it's an electronic screen you're looking at.

 

Together with the Kindle I ordered Amazon's default case for it. It is, I think, gorgeous. The whole package is about the size of a day planner--a thin, solid one. The case has a wonderful feel to it. And the Kindle snaps into it with two ingenious hooks that fit into slits in the Kindle's left side.

I am by no means fully comfortable yet with the navigation of menus. I imagine this will become easier the more I use it. It feels a little clunky now, though, particularly after having become used to the iPod Touch's touch screen. Meanwhile, I had once considered as justification for the purchase of a Kindle the fact that it is an always-on web browser. I'm glad in retrospect that I did not buy it primarily for that reason--I bought the iPod Touch instead--because I would probably have been disappointed if had intended to rely on the Kindle for that purpose. I haven't used the browser much yet, but it does not seem very convenient. Good if you've nothing better on hand, of course.

As for reading, I've only dipped in so far to Chris Anderson's Free (free on Kindle for a limited time) and to a magazine subscription (Alfred Hitchcock, free trial). So far it feels very like reading a book, without the trouble of keeping the pages held open while you're eating.

One major complaint about the Kindle 1 was that the next page buttons were big and one could hit them accidentally. I don't think there's much chance of that happening with the Kindle 2. The buttons are in fact a little stiff, so it takes some effort to push them--or it is at least not something that one does unthinkingly. The keyboard is also a bit stiff, which makes typing on it much harder (to me, at least, and counter-intuitively) than typing on the much smaller keyboard of the iPod Touch. That's another reason why I don't see this becoming a frequently used mobile web browser for me.

And now, to read!

Comments

[Clare D]

1.

Kindle lust developing here this side of the Atlantic. The way it fits into that case is just gorgeous! Probably a good job I can't get one here just yet. Does that Free book suddenly disappear like an Orwell after a while - or does it stay there if you download it in time?

[Medbie]

2.

Oh, it is so beautiful! Am SO jealous!!

[Debra Hamel]

3.

Well, hopefully it will be available over there soon as well! Actually, I think you can get one now, but you can't get the wireless connection, so you'd have to input texts to it through your computer.

One thing that's really neat but that takes some getting used to: it apparently doesn't use any energy when it's just sitting there, with a page showing, or with the sleep screen on. So in that sense it's very much like a piece of paper, but not what we expect from electronic gadgetry.

[Debra Hamel]

4.

Oh, no Clare: it doesn't disappear like the Orwell books :) I think it was just being offered free for a limited time. I don't know if it still is.

[Bibliolatrist]

5.

I am thisclose to getting a Kindle...I'm just hoping that Barnes and Noble doesn't come up w/ something better immediately after I decide to do it.

Just be careful attaching those case hooks to the Kindle. I recently read an article in which people are suing b/c the clips are cracking the Kindle, sometimes irreparably: http://bit.ly/RwbSf

[Debra Hamel]

6.

Yes, I read about that too, though I also heard that Amazon is now making good on this. I can't see how this could be happening. The clips are really tiny. Ah, Amazon says that it's caused by people opening the case backwards. I can see how that might be a problem.

Well, one crosses one's fingers....

[Hsien]

7.

Re: sleep mode not using up battery life, I haven't found that to be true for my Kindle v1. After a few days in sleep mode, the battery is drained. Have you tested it on yours?

[Debra Hamel]

8.

I have not tested. I assume you mean with wireless off. Problem is it doesn't sit unused for very long, at least not yet, so it would be hard for me to test.

[Hsien]

9.

Oops. Sorry should have followed up on this earlier. For my Kindle v1, if I don't touch it for a week in either sleep mode or completely off even, the battery drains. My wireless is always off since I'm in Singapore and have no use for it.

[Debra Hamel]

10.

Hmmmm. I'm not sure how long it takes for my battery to drain, but I suspect it lasts longer. I did just recharge it I think over Thursday night (though it could have been Wednesday). I'll try to remember to see how long it lasts before the next charge (albeit with use and some wireless).