The Amazon Kindle

[Wren]

There are a number of pricey electronic devices I covet: a 32gb iPod Touch, the new Rebel Xsi camera body, and the Amazon wireless e-book reader, Kindle.

Does anyone out there have a Kindle, or a similar e-book reader? If so, would you share with us your experience with it.

Here is an article on it:

http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20080610_Is_Kindle_the_iPod_of_e-books_.html

happy day,

wren

[Bearmug]

Well, I used a pocket PC and liked it a lot. Take it anywhere, read it anywhere, with enough books to spend a week of rainy holiday reading, it is easier to carry than a book and it can't have damaged covers or pages from stuffing it in a bag.

On the other hand, there are some problems  that I found: LCD screen gets hard to read in stronger light (like on a beach or even brightly lit room), you need to watch out what you do with it (mine ended with a broken LCD matrix after it fell from 4 inches height *shrug* in 2 years I had it, it fell so many times I already thought it was indestructible) and... it doesn't have a feeling like a real book has.

[Kaid]

I have looked at these kinds of things but frankly I think I would get a bad headach trying to read from those things for any length of time. Still they are nice and compact for traveling and if you have one there are a number of places where you can get free books you can stick on it such as the baen library if you are into scifi.


kaid

[Reginald]

Wren, I've been looking at the Sony Reader Digital Book.  It has something they call e-ink technology that is supposed to make it look like reading on paper even in direct sunlight.  While it doesn't have the color screen and wireless technology available on the Kindle if you aren't planning on viewing/storing photos on it and have a computer with a spare USB port those shouldn't be problems.  It can hold up to 160 books and the battery is good for 7500 continuous page turns on a single charge.

You have to connect the Reader up to a PC in order to download or even delete books since it does not currently have wireless connectivity.  However, it does accept removable memory cards which allow for unlimited storage and is $60 or so cheaper than the Kindle.  Currently, if you purchase a Sony Reader before the end of September you will also get a $100 credit for Classic Books from the Sony eBook store and I think Borders was offering another $50 of free current titles if you purchase the Reader through their site (not sure how long that promo lasts or if it's expired already).

[DancesInTrees]

I've been looking att he various e-ink electronic readers - I neeed one (I'm a gadget junkie).
I've come to the conclusion they'll be a good buy in maybe 2 years.

Sony e-reader - sony's digital rights management & US only
Amazon kindle - has potential but again US only
Cybook - this has distinct possibilities - huge library available, but still has some problems - memory, page numbers
Iliad - rather pricey compared to the others


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_e-book_readers

[Wren]

Thanks for the info, everyone. I am still leaning towards the Kindle, but am not in a rush to get it. Getting the first version of a product like that can be tricky. I am not a huge early adopter, I'm more like a second-version adopter.

That said, here is some news:

http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/07/15/kindle-20-coming-around-october-2008/

happy day,

wren