Check out these Kindle Battery images:
Kindle the eBook 2.0
Image by jurvetson
Clare, the Kindle
Image by Stillframe
Lumatec reading light, best add-on I’ve tried for my Kindle
Image by dionhinchcliffe
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Kindle the eBook 2.036 comments to Kindle the eBook 2.0 |
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Copyright © 2010 Best Electronic Ebook Reader - All Rights Reserved - resources 
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Hmm, shexshay.
I am going to research this. Thanks for the heads up.
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Seen on my Flickr home page. (?)
Nice review, Steve.
It’s a very bold move for Amazon to enter the portable electronics market!
other than a few ergonomic design flaws it sounds like a pretty nice device. I’d never heard of e-ink before, interesting stuff.
I would think that a large part of reading a book comes from the tactile enjoyment of turning pages and sifting through a big paper brick of literature, which you wouldn’t get with a kindle. Personally, I can’t wait to get my hands on one to give it a try, I just wonder if it will be a tough sale for anyone who’s not as technologically literate.
Oh well, innovate or die, right!?
I was hoping the design issues would keep it from being widely adopted and force them to come back with something that pays attention to human factors, but it doesnt appear to be happening.
I wish it would have a feature where I could download a certain amount of the Wikipedia. I would love to have that at my fingertips when traveling or offline.
I had assumed it was a closed, proprietary platform, but having checked I see you can load plain text files onto it yourself. I’ve been using an old Palm for ebooks and its screen is really pretty bad.
I prefer a real book, but some are not available in this country due to our broken copyright system, and on a trip it can be more convenient to carry a smaller and lighter package.
I think technologically this Kindle is a great idea, it has all the features I’d want in a portable eBook.
But- its fugly. There seems to have been only half-hearted attempts at making the Kindle ergonomic(whatever that term is worth now), and while its thin and small and squarish, it just doesn’t have that visual appeal like say, iPods, or Nintendo DS Lite or the Playstation 2. Unfortunately, Kindle’s physical designs liken it more to some klunky plastic kitchen device my grandmother would have had laying around for slicing onions, instead of something I really want to fondle and caress.
Once the outer design is able to hold up against the sexier devices I mentioned, I’m on board. Til then, actual paperbacks still have more allure for me.
Just give you the perspective of another kindle fan, I made the purchase 2 months ago, and whereas I probably would have read 3 books in that time and attempted 3 others, I’ve read about 7 and tried out probably 10 others. I’ve learned so much more than I would have without it!
What I love most is sitting down in my seat for a long flight, realizing I already finished my magazine and only other book I had on my last flight, then opening up the kindle, skimming through my samples, and buying one and downloading it right then. By the samples, I mean that for any book available for the kindle, you can download about the first couple dozen pages for free to see if you like it. So now, whenever I read of a book I might want to dive into soon, if I’m on my computer I hop over to amazon, and if the book’s published for the kindle, I get the sample right then. It’s sent to my kindle, and it’s there when I’m next trying to decide what to buy.
Only thing I’d add about the ergonomics is that it really feels pretty good, aside from the annoying placement of the buttons Steve mentions. Oh, and yeah, the kindle’s supposed to be able to stick in that leather cover. You have to look on the back of the kindle for the notch, and sort of wiggle it in, then it usually sticks pretty well for a while.
…if only it supported PDFs properly… and the embedded graphics in almost any scientific paper.
Really, is there a problem with PDFs on Kindle? Anyone? Bueller?
yeah, it does seem very strange not to consider the ergonomics of the human hand when designing this. i am, however, increasingly attracted by the idea of owning one…
I don’t buy many books. I take them out of the library. If I bought every book I read, my house would fill up with dead trees and I would go broke.
I wonder how these devices will interact with the public library of the future. If we continue the current library model, it should be possible to "check out" a library book, load it on your ebook, then keep it until the due date. During that time no one else can check out the same book.
But I can’t see the publishers going for this. And the whole buy vs borrow vs rent model seems to be breaking down in the digital age.
If it could only allow me to pre-load office documents + pdfs for readings it would be absolutely perfect
I am waiting for version 2.0. Maybe by then they will have hired a good industrial designer. Color would be nice too.
Great documenting!
I suppose the diagonality in Kindle is trying to mimic an open hardcover book’s page stack.
re: "the stress of battery life optimization"
we need a new word for this…
and a word for the closet/battery bench at my house devoted to recharging and organizing the myriad power vessels my world needs to run…
last weekend I gave serious thought to fireproofing that room…or moving it out of the house entirely (like they used to move furnace rooms to separate buildings for safety) It is definitely the highest fire risk in my life…
good review, I may now consider it. I thought much of the same…plus I do like to the feel of paper every so often(but that adds weight)
my only complaint is the sprint card, which limits me from downloading content when outside the US.
Really interesting review and comments
The size difference is pretty interesting. I can only imagine how much lighter the Kindle must be.
I don’t suppose it can display a book’s illustrations, can it? Imagine an art history book with the text only…
why not? (video too, given a demo I saw at Ricoh recently)
kindle has been on my dream wishlist ever since it came on the market. unfortunately amazon doesn’t deliver where i live.
Ah, the Softbook. Haven’t seen one of those for such a long time. I so wanted it to be what the Kindle is…
I can’t wait until I can fold and roll e paper and generally abuse it and it remains intact. Also in the future I would also like to see the ability to take notes on a e-pad connected to your reader like a tablet, then we can do math or doodle in meetings.
I love my Kindle As well. I got it a week before they announced the Kindle DX. She is a beautiful machine.
Do you really read blogs on it? I’ve had mine a year and have never done so. Nor have I read a pdf on it.
That looks purdy
If only you could buy one north of the 49th parallel… sigh.
sarahhatter – I do. I subscribed to The Onion, TechCrunch, NYT, and a few others for the month. Delivered daily and waiting on me when I hit the couch and/or subway. Not sure if I’ll stick with it, but enjoying it so far.
scottboms – Yeah, that integrated Sprint EVDO card does lock it down to a specific carrier. Do you not have the option to purchase it ‘oer there in Canada, and manually sync it via USB?
apartofm3died & nathanborror – Agreed. Agreed.
Nope. No love from Amazon.
We *just* got a Computers/Electronics section on Amazon.ca in the last month. I’m guessing they have to sort out electronic distribution rights. It took Apple over a year to launch the iTunes Music Store in Canada after opening it in the US.
I’m sure I could get one but I think the problem I’d run into fast would be getting content to put on it. I suppose since there’s a PDF reader built in that might not be so bad. Hmmmm… Fathers Day is coming up
http://www.nstperfume.com/2009/06/09/a-revolutionary-new-aerosol...
@hayjane: Hahah!
Thank you so much for licensing your photos Creative Commons! Your work helped to illustrate the science content on ideonexus, which helps to enlighten and educate our visitors. We greatly appreciate your contributions to the Commons!
The battery will stay charged for a long time since it only uses power when the display changes. Otherwise it sits there not consuming power.
This is a great Kindle picture. It looks so perfect against the city background. Thank you so much for making it available as a Creative Commons License. You can see how it is used here. (If you have any other tips, please consider posting them in the comment section so other people can see them! I didn’t even know about the cool light, and I am an early adopter.) It is so nice that people offer their art to the world so that it can be built upon by others.
I used your picture again … right here … because it is so cool. Thank you for keeping it available as a creative commons photo. If you get Kindle2, take some cool pictures with that!
Hi, I’m an admin for a group called Enabled by Design, and we’d love to have this added to the group!