My Kindle eBook Experience
discman -- Fri, 06/20/2008 - 19:02
I've had a Kindle electronic book for about 2 months. Previously I had the Sony eBook (still do actually). Let me say that the Kindle is a breakthrough.
Both products have about the same screen, which is quite good. Given how important the screen is to the overall experience, this is the foundation for having these devices be usable. Text is crisp and very readable in low light or bright light (the screens are not backlit, unlike a laptop, so low light readability is the big potential issue since you're relying on reflected light).
The reason the Kindle is a breakthrough is the fact that it is wireless. This means that every morning the New York Times downloads automatically to my Kindle. Every month, I get the Atlantic Monthly magazine. And I can order books online in seconds while I'm sitting in my easy chair or in an airport gate lounge.
I guess the Kindle is sold out (again) through February. It seems that between my review in Playback and Oprah mentioning it on her show, demand has skyrocketed.
Sony has also announced that they will, eventually:
a. come out with a WiFi connected version of the Sony reader
b. get from the current 50k titles up to a much bigger number (though Amazon has 200k now)
c. will make the Sony device an open platform for books from "any" source
The first two are catch-up items, but the latter could be interesting.
My Kindle piece is here:
http://playback.avguide.com/issue/14
on page 44
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