No, it’s $90 cheaper than the DX, to which it’s not really equivalent. The DX is the larger Kindle, designed to natively support PDFs. The new Sony reader is smaller. There really isn’t an “equivalent” Kindle for it right now.
You have that on the Kindle. Not as fast as on a netbook, but with (generally) better access while roaming, because you’re connected to a cell network, not WiFi.
BTW, I heard on the television in the background that a Kindle was part of the final grand prize on Price Is Right today, and as he was announcing who won, Drew Carey said, “…and the Kindle - I have one and I love it!”
(And yes, the woman won the Kindle, plus a car…)
Ignorance fought. I’m planning to get set up with a cell connection on my netbook. So coverage should be the same. I have WiFi at home, and it’s spreading of course. There is good and bad to be sure. In a way I have a ‘pocket’ reader anyway - on my Storm.
I like that I have a very good browsing tools on the netbook as well. Photo editing and storage. Email too.(I can email from my Storm of course, and do, but it’s a lot, lot easier for me on areal key board. So is browsing). As you can guess, I’m not a ‘texter’.
But, it’s a heck of a lot bigger than a Kindle to be sure.
I made the Netbook recommendation as just something to think about.
Yup, I still miss my laptop that I used to read on all the time. (All the ebooks I had on it are part of the reason that I felt good about getting a Kindle–I knew I wasn’t going to be dropping tons of money on proprietary-format books just to get use out of it.)
I have another question - I see this as the future trend for classbooks here at the college where I teach and was wondering:
I ask as I have to assume in textbooks, it might be nice to photocopy, or print out, a page of assignments/exercises.
I suspect that is a double-no to your questions.
The whole idea of the Kindle is that (like an iPod) it is a “one-way box.” Stuff goes in but cannot come out in a file (or hard copy) form.
The glass screen is inset just a bit, just a bit too far for a copy machine to get it.
I’ve had a Kindle 2 since March. I love it to death.
The screen is great for text. Very, very easy on the eyes.
For graphics - less great. I’ve been a bit disappointed in how Kindle handles illustrations - not only is the 16-color greyscale (I think) limited, there also doesn’t seem to be a standard for how Kindle places illustrations. An example - I reread the Chronicles of Narnia on the Kindle. The illustrations sometimes got moved around a bit - I’d have one pop up probably three pages later in the book than it should. This is a publisher issue, not a Kindle one necessarily, but it’s still a distraction.
Battery life is excellent. I probably only have to charge mine every two weeks - charging is only a few hours. As others have pointed out, the big battery draw is the wireless connection, which you can disable at any time.
The Kindle is very comfortable to read. I keep it on my nightstand usually, and read in bed. It’s not very heavy. I’ve also taken it on planes and to restaurants for when I’m dining alone. Also great in coffeeshops.
It seems sturdy enough. I did buy a very pimp case (M-Edge) that protects the screen when I stuff it in my laptop bag. I have to say, I’m not a fan of the sterile, clinical Apple-rip-off white exterior. My lovely case solves this.
I’m not entirely happy with the book selection. I’m a fierce re-reader - I tend to read books I own or have owned several times. So as soon as I got the Kindle I went looking for a bunch of old favorites. Many weren’t available. This is improving constantly, but it’s still a disappointment to read a glowing review then hop on the Kindle and find out it’s not offered. Project Gutenberg is great and I use it, but of course it only has older texts.
The web browser is shit. Don’t waste your time.
My Kindle has crashed three times. It was never a big deal. It takes about 2-3 minutes to reboot. No data lost. It did typically “forget” my current page by maybe three clicks or so. No worries.
I hate the navigation clicker. It’s far too slow to move around in a page - which I most frequently use to highlight a word to look up in the (provided) dictionary. Amazon needs to improve this, and fast.
I’m also a bit disappointed in the page turn/refresh speed. I read at a hellacious speed - not a brag, just a fact. When you click “next page” there is sometimes a few second delay until when the next page actually shows up. I know this is a drawback of the electronic ink the kindle uses, but I’d like to see them speed it up a bit.
Prices on Amazon for most titles are pretty reasonable, IMO. Newer titles are usually $9.99. Older titles are often much cheaper. There’s lots of good free stuff too - browse the “Kindle Favorites” from the storefront, a lot of the most popular items are free. And of course Project Gutenberg and other sites offer more free stuff than you will ever get through.
Other than a few nitpicks (navigation clicker, refresh speed, book availability) I’m a huge fan of my Kindle 2. I’ve read far, far more in these past six months than I have in the last three years. The Kindle is a joy.
I sort of suspected as much. A PDA is not something that you would want to browse on. Surfing is out of the question. IMHO.
Boy oh Boy will I agree with you there. I go through reading periods like every one. But since I have them on my netbook and Storm, I read about 2 books a month.
I find out more and more every day what we can do on these devises and the net. And it always astonishes me. And I’m in the data business.
I sit on my couch, watching TV over the sat dish. My internet is going to the sat 20,000 miles in space by a wireless router and I can use my laser mouse on my jeans to help navigate on a small 2 pound machine. A machine that could hold the entire Alexandria library.
All while I discuss black hole theory to people that, well, I assume live somewhere else on the planet Earth.
I gotta tell ya… Star Trek has nothing on us.
LL-Bean is calling, I need some new sandals.
You can’t print, but I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t photocopy. Because the display depends on reflected light, it should photocopy or scan exactly like a printed page.
I’m going to disagree there. The browser is minimal, but that’s what it’s **supposed **to be. It performs best with sites that are mostly text, especially mobile versions of sites. I find mine very useful for reading the mobile version of WoW Insider, for example.
You can get a screenshot - Alt-Shift-G. This saves a .gif file that can be printed. Additionally any notes you enter can be extracted and printed as well.
Some other resources to note - Mobipocket has a freeware reader that not only can convert many other formats to Kindle friendly mobi files, but also has a robust feedreader that includes full article extraction. This opens up an awful lot of news and commentary content for the Kindle, plus numerous books in the public domain or developed under a commons license.
Instapaper has a service called Read Later - when implemented this puts a bookmark on your browser. If you see an article you are interested in, just hit the bookmark and Read Later will strip out the ads and other arcana and aggregate all of the content requested. Then a feed will be sent on a regular basis to the Kindle with the content you wanted to read.
Mobipocket is what I use on my netbook and Storm. I’m glad you feel it’s a good tool. I love it, and therefor have not bothered to look for anything else.
I just tried this on my DX. Yes, you can photocopy from it, and the copy is quite readable, but it’s a pretty mediocre quality. The black text/image copies quite well, but the “white” background is actually a light grey, and photocopies darker than it really is.
It’s perfectly usable, but pretty ugly.