TOD:
So I guess I’ll tell you about my Amazon Kindle, which arrived a few days ago. For those of you who haven’t seen the reports in the media, it’s basically an e-book reader. It’s registered to your Amazon account, and allows you to browse and purchase content from Amazon wirelessly – not using WiFi, but much more broadly, using Sprint’s cell network. You can actually use it to connect to the Internet, too, but the interface is a bit clunky and it works best primarily with text that is not highly formatted. The entry price isn’t cheap – it’s $399.99 – BUT there is no monthly plan or bill – the wireless component is free.
And again, it’s primarily a text reader. I purchased about 8 books [it holds 200 or so, expandable with a memory card] and it downloaded the complete texts in just a minute or two. Content varies in price but most best-sellers are under $10.00. I am also subscribing to The New York Times, which is delivered wirelessly automatically and is ready for me when I wake up each morning. Reading a newspaper electronically takes a little getting used to, and I miss the serendipitous experience of reading the actual paper, but other than the crossword and the ads, it’s all there. The one downside is that you can’t lend, give, or share an e-book, magazine, or newspaper as you could with the equivalent print version.
The greatest thing is that the device disappears, and you can easily go into the “reading trance” of a good story. The screen uses a technology that approximates the written page – nothing like reading a computer screen – and the text is scalable, so you can find a size that is comfortable. It uses ambient light, so if you want to read in bed at night, you’ll need a book light.
I’m going to be traveling next week, and I look forward to having a whole library of books and newspapers in one small, lightweight device. Oh, and there’s a built-in dictionary and Wikipedia search capability. It bookmarks automatically so you return to the spot you left off. It can play audio books and mp3s that have been converted into compatible formats – and that is the only time you’d ever need to hook it up to a computer, to transfer those types of files into the device. I’m very pleased with it. It’s not an all-purpose machine – but it does what it’s designed to do very well.
