I recently bought an Amazon Kindle and thought I would share my thoughts on it. Before someone drops $400 on something, they usually want to know if it's worth it.
Overall, the Kindle is amazing. The text is completely clear and readable. I quickly forget that I am looking at a screen at all. The technology draws no power to keep text on the screen, it only uses juice to refresh the screen. There is no "burn in": if you put it down and pick it up two weeks later, you're still fine, and it used no power to keep the screen that way the whole time.
The device uses Sprint's EVDO 3G network to connect to Amazon and let you download the books that you buy. They download in under 30 seconds. The device has enough memory to store a ridiculous number of books, and if you want to drop $20 for a 4 Gb SD card, you basically go to unlimited storage space.
The books are generally 30-50% less than the printed versions. For about $100 so far, I have the entire H.P. Lovecraft library (of course), 1984, The Singularity is Near, Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture, Implementation Patterns, Agile Java Development with Spring, Hibernate and Eclipse, and more.
Further, you can email yourself documents to a special Kindle email address for automatic conversion and downloading to your Kindle. The address only accepts mail for addresses you specify to avoid any spam. The conversion costs 10 cents, and it even works with PDFs, though the PDF conversion is still labeled "experimental" and the results are not perfect. Even so, I emailed the entire Flex 3 Developers Guide, the Flex 3 ActionScript Guide, and other big PDFs to myself and now have a vast set of things to read at any time.
The real hidden power of the Kindle, though, is it's built-in cellular connection. In addition to letting you get to the Amazon Kindle store, it includes a basic web browser. You can see where this is going already. Because you don't pay for any of your wireless usage (it is just included with the cost of the device) and don't have any sort of account with Sprint, this high-speed internet access is really, really kick ass. The browser works best for text-based sites, so hitting things that are optimized for cell phones is preferred. You can go to any site you want, but the layout can be screwy for "wide" sites with complex layout or graphics.
Even still, this opens up a gigantic range of options. I've been using Google Mobile, including Google Reader for all my RSS and blog needs, GMail, Wikipedia, Google Maps, and more. They all work very well, which basically makes the Kindle a free portable internet reader as well. And this is arguably as big a deal as the Kindle's book reading capabilities. Between the net access, PDF reading, and Kindle bookstore, I have an unlimited store of interesting things to read, any time, anywhere.
The device is easy to use. It is very light. Which makes reading tech books that are normally big and bulky much nicer. You can change font sizes any time. It has a built-in search which lets you search for anything across your whole library. And it has inline lookup against dictionaries and Wikipedia if you're reading something and want a definition or more information on something.
If there are any drawback to the Kindle, it is with the design of it. First, it's not very cool looking. This was not made by Apple. I mean, it's not horribly ugly, it's just meh. The other issue is that it will take you a few minutes to get used to holding it. The sides of the device have "next page" and "previous page" buttons to let you "turn pages", which means you have to be careful about how you hold it to avoid accidentally turning the page. Clearly, this is a pretty minor deal, since you will quickly figure this out, and if you do flip the page you can just go back again. It just means figuring out how to hold the Kindle comfortably will take you a minute or two. Yes, these are about the only two "drawbacks" I could come up with.
Overall I'd recommend this thing to any serious reader. $400 sounds like a lot, and I guess it is, but it is a pretty amazing piece of technology, and when you factor in the unlimited 3G net access the price quickly becomes a lot more justifiable. Since anyone reading this blog is probably already a pretty hard core reader, just set aside some money and buy one. I'd wager you'll love it too.
Overall, the Kindle is amazing. The text is completely clear and readable. I quickly forget that I am looking at a screen at all. The technology draws no power to keep text on the screen, it only uses juice to refresh the screen. There is no "burn in": if you put it down and pick it up two weeks later, you're still fine, and it used no power to keep the screen that way the whole time.
The device uses Sprint's EVDO 3G network to connect to Amazon and let you download the books that you buy. They download in under 30 seconds. The device has enough memory to store a ridiculous number of books, and if you want to drop $20 for a 4 Gb SD card, you basically go to unlimited storage space.
The books are generally 30-50% less than the printed versions. For about $100 so far, I have the entire H.P. Lovecraft library (of course), 1984, The Singularity is Near, Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture, Implementation Patterns, Agile Java Development with Spring, Hibernate and Eclipse, and more.
Further, you can email yourself documents to a special Kindle email address for automatic conversion and downloading to your Kindle. The address only accepts mail for addresses you specify to avoid any spam. The conversion costs 10 cents, and it even works with PDFs, though the PDF conversion is still labeled "experimental" and the results are not perfect. Even so, I emailed the entire Flex 3 Developers Guide, the Flex 3 ActionScript Guide, and other big PDFs to myself and now have a vast set of things to read at any time.
The real hidden power of the Kindle, though, is it's built-in cellular connection. In addition to letting you get to the Amazon Kindle store, it includes a basic web browser. You can see where this is going already. Because you don't pay for any of your wireless usage (it is just included with the cost of the device) and don't have any sort of account with Sprint, this high-speed internet access is really, really kick ass. The browser works best for text-based sites, so hitting things that are optimized for cell phones is preferred. You can go to any site you want, but the layout can be screwy for "wide" sites with complex layout or graphics.
Even still, this opens up a gigantic range of options. I've been using Google Mobile, including Google Reader for all my RSS and blog needs, GMail, Wikipedia, Google Maps, and more. They all work very well, which basically makes the Kindle a free portable internet reader as well. And this is arguably as big a deal as the Kindle's book reading capabilities. Between the net access, PDF reading, and Kindle bookstore, I have an unlimited store of interesting things to read, any time, anywhere.
The device is easy to use. It is very light. Which makes reading tech books that are normally big and bulky much nicer. You can change font sizes any time. It has a built-in search which lets you search for anything across your whole library. And it has inline lookup against dictionaries and Wikipedia if you're reading something and want a definition or more information on something.
If there are any drawback to the Kindle, it is with the design of it. First, it's not very cool looking. This was not made by Apple. I mean, it's not horribly ugly, it's just meh. The other issue is that it will take you a few minutes to get used to holding it. The sides of the device have "next page" and "previous page" buttons to let you "turn pages", which means you have to be careful about how you hold it to avoid accidentally turning the page. Clearly, this is a pretty minor deal, since you will quickly figure this out, and if you do flip the page you can just go back again. It just means figuring out how to hold the Kindle comfortably will take you a minute or two. Yes, these are about the only two "drawbacks" I could come up with.
Overall I'd recommend this thing to any serious reader. $400 sounds like a lot, and I guess it is, but it is a pretty amazing piece of technology, and when you factor in the unlimited 3G net access the price quickly becomes a lot more justifiable. Since anyone reading this blog is probably already a pretty hard core reader, just set aside some money and buy one. I'd wager you'll love it too.
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# Posted By Mario Talavera | 5/21/08 3:19 PM
Thanks for overview Brian, not too many reviews on Kindle by technical people.
Question if I may: You mention putting Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture in Kindle; how do you feel the Kindle handles these type of books. Specifically, this book has a bunch of UML Diagrams...
Not asking for pictures or anything lol, but, does it handle these ok for studying, etc? Device is very tempting but all reviews I've read relate reading novels, etc. on it.
Your take is appreciated. Thanks.
# Posted By Brian Kotek | 5/21/08 5:01 PM
Images are hit and miss. The device is high resolution enough to render most images pretty well, but they're limited by the width of the screen. Personally I don't find it a problem in most cases but some people might. I know better image support is something that they are working on and will probably push out as an update via the wireless connection.
# Posted By Mario Talavera | 5/23/08 1:46 PM
Thanks for your insight Brian. Maybe tech EBooks are the way to go :)
# Posted By David Betz | 5/27/08 1:18 PM
Brian - can the 3G access be "turned off"? Do you have any idea if the Kindle can be used on an airplane?
# Posted By Brian | 5/28/08 5:56 AM
Yes it can be turned off and used on a plane with the flip of a switch.
# Posted By Patti Brown | 6/4/08 1:51 PM
Hello Brian,
Is the Kindle screen back-lit? One of my biggest problems is finding a spot in my fairly dark house that has good lighting and is quiet and comfortable.
Thank you,
Patti
# Posted By Brian Kotek | 6/4/08 2:20 PM
No it isn't backlit, mainly for the preservation of battery life. Basically it is just like a book in that regard. If the screen were lit up it would drain the battery quickly, and I'm also not sure if the e-ink technology being used can even function with a backlit screen (it isn't an LCD screen in the traditional sense). Hope that helps.