Tech Advice: Re-‘Kindling’ the need to read

by Jonathan Sessions

January 12,2008

From the moment I got my hands on a Kindle, I was impressed. Amazon.com's electronic book reader is smaller than it looks in the Web site photos, but it is very light and fits comfortably in either hand. And it holds 200 books.

But it wasn't easy getting one to test for CBT.

Amazon released the Kindle just before Christmas. However, people interested in buying them as gifts or for themselves found the Kindle supply sold out less than six hours after going on sale. It's still backordered on Amazon's Web site, and right now the only place to score a Kindle is on eBay—for almost double the retail price of $400. But through a friend of a friend, I managed to borrow a Kindle for a weekend to see whether it lived up to the grandeur.

I picked up the Kindle on a Friday night with the promise I would not flee the country. The first step was going online and deactivating the Kindle from its owner's Amazon account and linking it to my own Amazon account (the same account I use to purchase "regular" books). Within five minutes and without having to connect the Kindle to a computer, the device was linked to my Amazon account.

There have been many complaints about the design. Philippe Starck (a famous product designer) has called Kindle's design "not courageous," "a little sad" and "almost modern." I understand the criticism. In a world of iPhones and sleeker, smaller, minimalist design, the Kindle does not break any barriers. However, the simple design and small size work very well. The Kindle has large buttons running the length of the screen on both sides for changing pages; a full keyboard; and a scroll wheel for navigating menus and selecting.

While it may not be "modern" enough for some, all aspects of the design function well. The wheel is solid and responsive; the forward/back buttons are in a great place for reading; and the keyboard and menu buttons are located at a comfortable place for thumb typing (even with short thumbs).

While the Kindle is not as small as some of the other electronic book readers on the market, it approaches the eBook process in a whole new way. All other eBook readers require computer hookup. They either link via USB directly to a computer, or the computer is used to load information onto a flash card, which is inserted into the reader. The Kindle is wireless, though it does not use Wi-Fi. The Kindle uses Sprint's EV-DO. Amazon has created Whispernet, a network using EV-DO to wirelessly transfer data directly to Kindles without contracts or monthly fees.

Once I got the Kindle linked to my Amazon account, I started shopping—not on Amazon.com but directly on the Kindle. I am an avid reader, and like most readers I know, I have a shelves filled with books I plan to read. So I scanned the shelf until I came across Charles Dickens's Bleak House. I have wanted to read it for some time, but my edition is too thick (930 pages) and too old (1904) to be tossed into a bag. This is the perfect novel with which to experiment.

Using the intuitive scroll wheel and cursor bar (which reacts as I select), I navigate to the Kindle Store and, using the built-in keyboard, search for Bleak House, hoping for a hit. It turns out there are eight editions (the Kindle store currently contains more than 90,000 books available for download). I was even able to read an excerpt of the book, before buying it, directly on the Kindle. Since I didn't own the device, I invested in the edition costing 99 cents. In just over a minute the book downloaded and was ready to read.

The reading experience is great. The E Ink display is very impressive. This is not a display from a laptop or a mobile phone, which uses light. The display has no light and is as sharp as a page from a book. I spent the rest of the evening reading. I was amazed at how easy the E Ink display was to read. There were moments when I almost forgot it was an electronic page because it is so clear. It is easy to read because it is not backlit; the backlight in LCD is what puts major strain on the eyes. However, as the sun set, I had to turn on a lamp to read, just as I would if I were reading a book. The Kindle can hold scores of books but has still not mastered the built-in book lamp. However, for another $20, you can order the Kindle-compatible Mighty Bright XtraFlex2 Light from Amazon.com.

Later that night, I signed up for several online subscription services with 14-day free trials, offered by Amazon: The New York Times, Frankfurter Allgemeine (I cannot read German; I just wanted to see what it looked like), The Onion, Slashdot, PopGadget, Overheard in New York (brilliant; I recommend you investigate) and Time magazine.

When I awoke the next morning, I found that the Times, Frankfurter Allgemeine and several blog posts had been downloaded to the Kindle overnight—pictures and all. The screen is only a very basic gray scale, so the image quality is slightly lower than that of a newspaper. Blogs continued to download throughout the day; it was convenient not to have to log onto a computer. Time magazine did not come because the issue already had been released and I would have had to pay an additional 50 cents or wait for the next issue. Since I already had read about how Vladimir Putin believes Russia owns the North Pole, I decided to buy a Coke instead.

That next morning I decided to challenge the veracity of a promotional video on Amazon's Web site that shows a young guy reading a Kindle. E-Books and laptop computer screens with back lighting are often unreadable in sunlight, but the E Ink display is perfectly clear outside. In direct sunlight I read the Times, looked at some German, got my Onion satire and updated myself on the foolish things people say in public in New York (again, it's a must read).

Later that day, I went to Amazon.com on my computer and browsed a while before purchasing Slam by Nick Hornby (author of High Fidelity and About a Boy) and had it pushed to the Kindle. The book appeared within minutes, and I spent the rest of the day reading on the Kindle.

The Kindle, while great, does have some limitations. The books I bought can be read only on the Kindle; they can't be read on a computer or printed out. While this is frustrating because I'm reading the Kindle on borrowed time and just bought two books, Amazon stores all Kindle purchases on their servers, allowing for download at any time. That feature comes in handy when readers need to delete books from the Kindle to clear up space. Also, the Kindle has an SD slot for memory expansion.

After reading some really harsh reviews, I had almost written off the Kindle, but now that I've gotten to use one, I am impressed. The reading experience was great; I love the idea of being able to take a huge number of books with me everywhere. Plus, the Kindle has many features I did not get a good chance to explore during my brief time with the device, including a dictionary, Wikipedia access, annotation and e-mailing of Kindle Word documents for on-the-go viewing. The battery life was also impressive; I used it heavily for two days and still had not made it past the halfway point.

After getting my trial period, I have decided I probably will buy one. There is no way I will get a $750 Kindle from eBay, but once they are in supply again, I will certainly pick one up. Even given the limitations of Kindle reading—and forgoing the nostalgic pleasure associated with holding a book bound in the early 20th century—the Kindle has its niche. Personally, I believe I will always prefer the real thing, but carrying 200 books in my pocket has its benefits.

Jonathan Sessions is managing partner and consultant for Tech 2. He can be reached at 573-442-1555 or jonathan@tech2consulting.com

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