My 2nd Gadget, My Kindle!
This is the second part of my shipment I had to fight for last Sunday besides the iPhone 3G S, so you can tell it was a rather big day, and it will be some time before I get any new gadgets. The Amazon Kindle 6”, quite a fascinating eBook reading device that made me dive into the eBook thing few years before I thought I would, and I owe it in the first place to the person who gave me a first hands on experience of it, and secondly to the continuous high pricing of Aramex which made any simple book a heavy purchase. Onn many occasions, I end up paying same or higher price on shipping, than on the book it self.
Now ofcourse thanks to the customs putting their hands on my valuable package, the joy of first hands on touch and opening the package was gone at the cargo place, so this is a reenactment of the box opening.
Here you can see a quick two steps startup guide made available on the screen. I wanted to take off the plastic piece with the instructions, but it just won’t peel off! It turns out it’s the screen content itself, but it looks so real. Thanks to the electronic-ink display technology, the Kindle doesn’t need power to hold up the ink in it’s place, allowing them to write the startup guide on the screen and ship it, adding a wow factor to the first impressions.
Once you follow the steps, Kindle starts loading and then takes you into the Kindle Guide book that comes pre-installed.
A browse through the guide would be of help to know all the features and shortcuts.
Reading Experience:
Compared to regular books, I thought I’d be missing some joy. Once I started really reading using the Kindle, I felt the desire to convert part of my physical library into Kindle if I could. Especially for books with little or no coloring, reading on the Kindle is actually much more easier and eye friendly. Ofcourse, not all type of books might be suitable on Kindle, but great portion of them are.
Kindle books that are sold by Amazon are ofcourse always perfectly formatted for the device. But what about all the PDf files you have? Kindle 6” does not come with native PDF support, and you have to send your document to Kindle via email for conversion. If you don’t want it sent wirelessly to your device (at an extra small fee), you can always send it to
Kindle – Textmate Power Editing
Kindle – Textmate Power Editing
You can see some partly unrecognizable areas here.
Original – Lessons From Zen Habits
Kindle – Lessons From Zen Habits
Now I didn’t really expect this to pass through, but it actually did pretty well, with some minor issues.
Notice how the left border got converted into a single page by it self. This will come in from page to page, wasting another page flip. But other than that, it’s all neat and clear, and I can enjoy reading it using the Kindle. The Kindle even identifies the links in the PDF version of the book and are made clickable for jumping from one location to another.
Kindle – Arabic Book
No eBook Reader Is Perfect! Not Yet At Least!
Pros & Neat Features:
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Fast Delivery: You don’t have to wait as your book gets delivered instantaneously.
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FREE Delivery: After the last price drop of the Kindle 6”, I realized that if I buy on average one book per month, I would most likely be paying the same Kindle price on shipping in approximately 14 months or so. I’ve already purchased three books that account for like 10% of the Kindle price, and one of the books was even listed for $0.99.
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Readability: Reading eBooks on the computer screen is boring for many, and eye tiring as well. Great amount of books are also printed in low quality material that ink sticks to your finger while reading. Not the same here. It’s totally clean, and every eye friendly. I won’t be lying if I say it beats reading some physical books I have.
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One Place For All: This encourages you to read more and on different topics when you have just small break for instance.
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Bookmarks: No longer do I need to twist my page to recall where I stopped last time. No, I’m too lazy to use physical bookmarks.
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Notes & Highlights: How often do you read a book, and want to quote part of it? Or you want to write a note to get back to in the future, but you don’t wanna miss up with your precious book? Now you can!
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Definitions: Place the cursor infront of the word, and you will get instant definition of the word from Oxford dictionary.
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Text-to-Speech: Pretty much better than I expected it to be, my brother thought it’s an audio version of the text not on the fly text-to-speech.
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Search: You can search for words or phrases in the book. You can only hope the Index would save you in regular books.
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No Glare or Backlight: This is both good and bad. Good to give the Kindle longer battery life, and make it easier on the eye. Bad in that you need surrounding light to read it.
Cons:
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Speed: When flipping just to the next page, it really isn’t that bad at all. But say you frequently flip back and forth by few pages to recall on some paragraph. It can get boring here. Also, when moving cursor or writing, it feels like the old ages once again.
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Locked: You are kind of under the mercy of Amazon here. Ofcourse you can get your PDF files to your Kindle, but Amazon is controlling the conversion. Also, your Kindle books are locked with kindle. I would hope there is a way to convert them to PDF files and take them with you, but I guess you’re gonna have to figure a way for your self.
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No Borrowing: You can’t exchange books with others, unless you wanna exchange Kindles.
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Initial High Cost: I already explained how this can become cost-effective with time, making Kindle more than just a book cover.
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No native PDF support: Even though, I’m happy with the results I got so far.
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Lose One, You Lose Them All: Having all books in one device means you risk losing them all if you lose the device, and you will have to buy a new one to get your books back.
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Comments
nemo: thanks a lot nemo and welcome back. I’ve been away fir a while. ur trick was a lot of help. I’m really loving it and same with everyone who saw it.
And yes, ur points absolutely right
Hii thanks for the review .. but i recall that amazon does not allow buying kindle books with kuwait credit card only us.. is it still the same ?! or they changed thier policy
Mohammad: Welcome. Nope, it’s still the same. Check this.
woww u got it..! mabrook! I wanted to get it but I didn’t want to go through the shipment chaos.. :/
I got a sony e-reader instead. Ur making me i didn’t! i haven’t used it still but inshalla as soon as i do I’ll post about it, and we can compare their usages. Cool?;p
QuestionQ8: Great. I never saw a Sony reader infront of me. Although they are bringing a new touchscreen one, so I’m not sure about the timing :).
So are you saying you got Sony Reader from here, since you didn’t go through shipment chaos? My problem is the shipment had multiple items from Aramex, so they wanted more details on the inside. Other people got it swiftly without any hiccups.
I’ll sure like to hear your feedback on Sony Reader. If I miss it, as I have lots to follow, do me a favor and nudge me here will you :).
Hi everybody ,i finaly got my Kindle
but i need help , it does not read Arabic .
since i have arabic files and i need them on my Kindle.
mnhl42@hotmail.com
thanks
mnhl42: Hi. Congrats on the Kindle. For Arabic however, as far as I know and my experience has shown, it does not support Arabic. Not the 6″ at least. perhaps the Kindle DX through native PDF support? Maybe. Someone in this link mentioned Arabic books in the comments. Not sure though.
WOW Congratulations :))))
Great Review :)
*I would add portability to the list of pros – taking my books with me everywhere i go is awesome!
*Sometimes i wish that the font color is a bit darker but i’m fine with it.
*As for students, i think they will need to wait for a smarter device with more smart features. you can’t study with a kindle.
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As for me, I’m so in love with my kindle! (the best gadget i have ever bought!). I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading on the kindle :)
**lets see what (plastic logic/Barnes) will offer by next year :)