Saturday, May 14, 2011

Kindle Is Impressive

Since I've been bitching ...waaaaaaaaaaa...about Amazon its only fair to praise Caesar when he deserves it.

I received a Kindle for my birthday this past Monday and so far it is the cats' meow. Having a home router makes things easy enough for even dolts like me to download a massive tome in 5 seconds or so* and after using it all week am not missing paper one bit. Only problem is my paws find no purchase whereby they aren't accidentally interfacing with one tiny little key or another but I hope to solve that with a cover that's on the way.

The technology is impressive, as it uses real ink to create the display, and doesn't sap a lick of battery life to maintain the text. This means it cannot overheat and a single charge has lasted the entire week with the wireless connection on full time.

Capacity? Somewhere along the lines of 3GB usable and that translates to 3500 books (Amazon says) or thereabouts and yep, it can store audio files as well. Text to speech will even lullaby you to sleep if necessary.

For me the only con to date is that Amazon hasn't upgraded to USB 3.0, but a wireless connection makes it somewhat moot.

The prices range from $114 if you don't mind some advertising, to $139 for the basic wifi to $189 for the model with Amazon's free wifi to $379 for the DX that is tablet-sized and can make your morning coffee if you ask nicely.


If all you need is a book reader then no one makes a better one. Yet.

*I've downloaded 11 books and the average time from clicking yes to full download has been 5 seconds.

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