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From:Amazon.com , Amazon ,
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User Rating: Amazon Sales Rank:#1 |
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49 of 52 customers found the following review helpful:
 I love it!, 2007-12-27
I got a Kindle for Christmas and I love it. I gave a lot of thought to the Sony -v- Kindle debate and while I agree the Sony is "prettier", the ability to shop for books on the Kindle won me over. I buy all my books on Amazon anyway, so it seemed a no-brainer for me.
I admit the first hour or so was a little strange and it crossed my mind that I might not get used to it. That soon passed though and now I am reading without noticing that I am using an electronic reader. One unexpected advantage is that when reading in bed it is easier to accommodate the device than books of various sizes, especially when it comes to turning the page.
I have been an avid and continual reader since I was a child. This device is perfect for people like me, who have more boxes of books than anything else when they pack up to move house and who are always looking for somewhere to pass on used books. I can get through 2 books (or more) in a week. They soon build up and make travel a nightmare when you have to tote several books on a trip to make sure you have enough to read.
The sampling makes it easy to make sure that you are buying something you want. If (like me) you like to own books you really love, you can always buy the book later if you want to own a hard copy.
Could the Kindle look slightly nicer (even as nice as the Sony)? Probably, but the keyboard is functional and allows you to shop on the device, so I can put up with it. It might be nice to have a detachable keyboard, or a hidden keyboard... anyway - no biggie, it is what it is and in the end doesn't spoil my enjoyment using the device.
It might also be nice to have a choice of covers (colors & styles) and be able to get covers that were a little better quality. The cover that is currently available is functional, but it does not have a particularly nice "feel". A soft leather cover with some kind of snap or flap faster might be a great feature. Book-aholics like me (who often will buy leather covers for their real books) would probably go for that even if it cost a little more.
I don't understand all the complaints about .pdfs, word docs, hi-def and so on. This device is meant to replace BOOKS. Books folks... not work material, videos, etc. This is for readers - and as far as I am concerned it works very well for that.
Thanks Amazon... great device.
Lyn
20 of 23 customers found the following review helpful:
picky but important..., 2007-12-27
The cover needs to be redesigned. It's difficult to hold, as the Kindle always slides out. Waiting the second generation of covers...
Battery life excellent. Convenience great--I always have three or four things to read. My travel schedule makes the Kindle great for several books at once.
You need to work on the indexing of magazines and newspapers, moreso the latter. I stopped NYTIMES because it's easier to move through the inernet version. Time Magazine is okay but a little awkward. I misss the grpahics, though.
Good investment that I'm sure will improve as the "system" is tweaked!!
25 of 27 customers found the following review helpful:
Better than I imagined ebook reader could be, 2007-12-27
I'll underscore the incredible quality of particular feature of the Kindle: the screen technology. I have always avoided ebook readers because I spend enough time looking at back-lit computer screens, but looking at the Kindle really is like looking at the page of a book. I've been impressed with the performance of the Kindle overall; obviously it doesn't perform like a BlackBerry or a laptop, but it's not meant to replace those. Finally, it took me 15 minutes to figure the whole thing out-- a definite bonus, given that I've never worked with an ebook reader before.
For the price of the product and the books, I'm in love. Highly recommended. I'm looking forward to seeing more books available.
40 of 44 customers found the following review helpful:
 Changes the way I approach reading, with caveats, 2007-12-27
I got my Kindle on Christmas Eve, which was a surprise because Amazon had marked it as shipping after Christmas. It came almost fully charged, and already had the several books, blogs and New York Times subscriptions loaded on it by the time I got to it a few minutes after turning it on.
The good:
I think it's a fabulous text reader. I have already read more in several days than I would in a month, besides online content. It really does get out of your way, provided you hold it in the right place. The picture to my right called "Item being reviewed" right now is of a kindle, handheld with the left hand, pinching it with a thumb on the top and the palm on the rubberized back. That's how I read with it.
I love the text resizing feature. Very nice.
The articles are downloaded automatically, and I have read the NY Times every day now, and find myself becoming more connected with the real, non cyberspace world a bit more. Time, Slate and Salon come as well, and I am finding myself reading content I would pass over online.
The screen is absolutely beautiful and fabulous, with no eye strain so far. And as a USB device, it mounts on my Mac and I just drop files into the e-book folder and away I go.
The bad:
Why couldn't we have shipped this thing with 16 shades of grey? I'm reading Steve Martin's standup comedy memoirs, and although I can do without the images, they really DO look horrible in four-shade black and white.
We need folders, or some sort of organization mechanism on the main screen. I will use the Kindle for personal, professional and kid content, as well as periodicals, etc. I want to place those things in folders. Why they haven't gotten to that does not make sense to me.
The thing is very strange to grip, as the buttons are really poorly placed. I can live with it due to the fact that it replaces my need to carry around everything I might read, but I think they need to hire an Apple designer.
The dial's clicker is a bit hard to push, and I find myself scrolling by accident now and then.
The ugly:
The case. It is ugly. But I really don't mind it one bit.
It can't handle content formatted for anything other than e-book text format well. I have several hundred presentations in PDF format that I would love to take along with me in the Kindle, but when I put them in PDF and email them to my kindle account, they come up very badly formatted (the background of each slide shows up above the slide, and the Kindle does not honor text bullet formatting).
Yes, all bestsellers are $9.95, but why do the tech publishers still think it makes sense to sell a Java book at $35.00 to Kindle owners when it costs next to nothing to distribute? I would think the publishers would make a WHOLE lot more money if they dropped tech book Kindle prices to the same $9.95 rate.
And finally, Jeff Bezos should really consider the whole lending concept. Since the files are DRM managed, why NOT allow them to be transferrable? Couldn't we set up a 'lend this book' button, and select another person's account? When they are done, they could send it back. Seems to me that, since we already know who a file belongs to, we can certainly set up transfer options.
Anemic memory in this device. I can see putting a 2GB SD card in there.
Search is slow, almost to the point of unusability. I would really love to limit my searches to the current book.
Overall: a C+ almost B. For what I need it for, it's excellent, but some of its' shortcomings should be solvable by firmware updates. I hope Amazon listens, as this could do for books what the iPod did for music (hey, I'm thinking the publishers DON'T think that is a Good Thing).
19 of 25 customers found the following review helpful:
Cool and Fun!, 2007-12-27
So, we just got this for my mom for Christmas, she reads like crazy and she's learning...we had a few initial problems, but we got it all worked out. Right now we're still learning how to use and do everything. But so far, it's cool and fun. My mom likes that you can adjust the font because her eyesight isn't the greatest. The screen is really clear and easy to use. The books are easy to download and it downloads quickly. It's also easy to manage everything on the kindle part of amazon. The full keyboard also comes in handy for convenience and speed. The fact that all your books are right there, when you travel, all you need is one device, not 5 bulky books or if you finish reading, just get another. It's great that you can expand the memory and play music. It's nice that you can read reviews of the books and or some of the book to see if you like it. The kindle is light and easy to hold on to. And we live in mid-Michigan, so we're pretty much covered by the wireless service. Oh and the kindle customer service people are very nice, patient and helpful...at least the guy I talked to. The reasons I didn't give it five stars: The page buttons are a little too easy to accidentally push and on the left side, the previous page button should be on the bottom and not the next. I don't like that you can't share with other people who have a kindle, I don't know if you can swap memory cards, but it seems like if you pay for it, you should be able to do what you want with the ebook. It takes a sec to load the content when you turn a page. I like that you can order on the computer or on the kindle. There is also a good selection of books. I think the content on the screen could use some color or something, it kind of gets boring to look at after a while...I know it's supposed to be like that, but get creative. I realize it's supposed to look like a book, but...it's not. Also, I haven't fully searched it out, but there should be a back light thing to make the screen dimmer or brighter to see better. The books are relatively cheap, but not really anymore than what you could find in a store...maybe the bestsellers and new releases are cheaper, but I think still overpriced for what you just paid for the initial product. I guess convenience plays into that. Would you rather drive all the way to a store and not be able to find the book, say in a series you're reading. Overall though the screen is easy to read the way they have it set up, no glare, very matte. I thought there was a thing you had to peel off of the screen at first it looked so real. So we still have a lot to try out, but what we've used so far is great. Convenient, Durable, Easy to use, plenty of functions, light, compact, blah blah blah...really cool! I want one.
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