Well I went a bit crazy and decided to order a Kindle as my Christmas present to myself. More money than brains you think! Well I thought why not spend some money cause if I don't the kids and the missus sure will!
Even the tech geek, John Davidson from the Australian Financial Review said the Kindle 2 was an event changing device and one of his most important tech devices of 2009. So I plunged in and ordered one from Amazon USA. In Australia you need to buy from this site. Mine was delivered through DHL. You need to have it delivered to a real address and not a PO Box. That's a pain! Amazon aren't bad with their deliveries! Was delivered on 8th Dec
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Well nice packaging. Needs a bit of umph to tear off the cardboard on both the Kindle and the Leather cover.
Then you plug it into the USB port of the PC. You can't use it while its connected so you have to wait for it to charge up. It charges in less than 2 hours.
Its a bit daunting at first. You need to go into Amazon and check you account and ensure its registered the way you want.
Also you can check the documentation on line whilst its charging. There is a Quick Start Guide and a User Guide (a mere 145 pages) both in PDF format which you can download and peruse. You should get a hard copy of the Quick Start Guide in the main package.
Wow! Its very small and amazingly thin. The text on the screen doesn't look large. Maybe I can resize it! Actually turns out to be Chapter 3 pages 47-48. Can have 6 different sizes. Can adjust the number of words per line and increase the size of a picture. Its easy just press the aA key on the pad.
See Kindle pictures
Here are some blogs from those who have used the Kindle and know what it can do
Scott Hanselman Blog well worth reading
Freshtech has some good advice on using the Kindle
More Impressions
Well I have now used the Kindle to read a downloaded novel and have started on an uploaded mobi version of a novel.
Reading a Kindle Novel
It started quite slowly. Then again Peter Temple's work starts off slowly. However after several pages (no screens is a better word) one can starts to get the feel of the thing. It needs a pet name, rather than Kindle or e-Book reader! Something like "monster". I'll leave that alone for now.
The size of the text is interesting. The very low sizes! Too damn small for us older folks. The top two largest ones aren't bad. Just press the "Aa" key to the right of spacebar on the Kindle takes one into the area where size, orientation etc can be adjusted. But note this doesn't work on pdf files you upload but does work on mobi files you upload. However you can alter the orientation for pdf files to landscape which helps a bit.
I found reading the Kindle strange at first. Once you master the toggle, layout and main keys, ie HOME, the Toggle, NEXT PAGE and PREVIOUS PAGE your well under way.
I think the key layout needs improving. I like to hold the device right where the NEXT PAGE is on the left and right sides. I still find the location of the PREV PAGE disconcerting. It would be better to have the keys higher and with just the PREV PAGE on the left and NEXT PAGE on the right. You could then hold it with left and right thumbs and slight the thumb or finger either to the right or left to advance or go back a screen.
The toggle is a bit awkward and needs some thinking about by Amazon.
Also the keys at the bottom are small and hard to see without good light.
It took me quite a while to see the Wireless and Battery icons at the top of the screen. This is not shown on a pdf file. Also didn't find the earplug socket for a while.
I finished that novel once I got into it and then towards the end I couldn't put it down.
Now I'm reading a mobi version of an uploaded file. If you can, it helps to convert the file to doc/rtf format, resize or use software such as Calibre or Free pdf to word converter. Calibre can output files in pdf or mobi to font sizes such as 20 TMS RMN that show up larger in the Kindle. Another useful site for those with Microsoft Book format files is Wikepedia which offers useful information on ways to convert Microsoft's LIT format.
Please note that altering pdf or other formats to large sizes and re saving as pdf or mobi formats, whilst it makes them more readable, the formatting will most likely be out of synch and you will get line returns and blank lines everywhere.
Listening to a Novel or Music
You can upload mp3 music files to the music folder over your USB connection. You access these on the Kindle through the MENU key and "Experimental" selection. Amazon needs to improve this as you can only play the music loaded, suspend it and move to the next track pressing ALT Spacebar, ALT F, etc
The same experimental menu provides access to text to speech playing. I still haven't figured this out.
You can listen on the units loudspeaker or though earphones. You can listen to music whilst reading as well.
Availability of Books
This is very annoying. Amazon lists many books and not all are available for downloading on the Kindle. Its further annoying as some authors have both hardcopy and Kindle available in the USA but only hardcopy available in Australia.
I actually raised a support email before Christmas about how this is possible but received no answer. They say they will answer most emails in 12 hours.
Overall Impressions
Its a useful device but not without faults. John Davidson, the Tech Guy in the Australian Financial Review, suggests the Kindle is one of the devices of 2009 you must have. However its not the last e-book reader you will ever buy. I concur totally. Its a useful entry into the future but needs lots of refinements to make it a long term loveable device.
Its has some pluses however. The international roaming wireless download facility is very functional, and with the price built into the price of the book is quite unique.
The screen could be better. Its graphics are not that flash but nearly adequate to read books and newspapers. Its controls are cluggy but in some sense easy to use. Some form of better screen with touch sensitive controls might make it better and more fashionable.
The size of the screen is just not large enough. Maybe the larger DX is better and that might help in this area. There is just not enough books available for download and of course there are not Australian newspapers.
The battery life between charging is nothing short of excellent. Having to use the USB port for charging on the international version is OK but lacks some flexibility.
A good early e-Reader but it needs work.
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This research below is what got me looking again at this device. I, like most intelligent vegemites, thought it was a passing fad! The more I read the more I got hooked. Well I hope it is worth it!
Amazon has released the Kindle 2e-reader into Australia. It has lots of benefits and of course quite some issues
Try reading the review in the SMH of 1st Nov 09 and The Australian of 7th Oct 09 and the International Kindle Review on Gizmodo of 28th Oct 09. Also have a look at Wikepedia for their information on the Kindle including a picture and technical details.
Comments by users include: Amazon reserves the right to withdraw any book at any time from your Kindle and you have no recourse. Not a great statement to win the hearts and minds of the public!
Books purchased and downloaded to a Kindle cannot be removed from a Kindle and stored on any other data storage system without hacking the Kindle's OS. You do not purchase a book when you buy it for your Kindle, you purchase the right to read a book on your Kindle. Finally, only books bought for a Kindle can be read on a Kindle due to the lack of a standard format being available for all e-books. For the tech heads, it is possible to upload books which are in PDF or MOBI format to the Kindle
Another said it was a very pleasant experience using the Kindle. You read more quickly because the eye span is narrower than in a printed book. The Kindle is light, easy to manipulate and the technology is intuitive in use
News.com.au 12th Nov 09. AMAZON has released free software that lets people read its electronic Kindle books on PCs.
The Kindle for PC application syncs with the KIndle so people can switch from one to the other without losing track of which page they were on in a given book.
Amazon e-books can also be read on Apple iPhone or iPod Touch devices, and a Mac version of the software is coming soon. It is presumed that to download books to the PC one will pay per book as per the Kindle reader.
The new application can be downloaded free in more than 100 countries at www.amazon.com/KindleforPC.
Amazon Kindle DX Adds Global Wireless. This article in Information Week of 6th Jan, 2010 discusses the availability of the Kindle DX to the world with the release of global world access on 3G wireless, essentially the same as the global Kindle 2.