It'll be delivered to my hotel in Hampton on Tuesday. I'll let you know how it turns out. Most of the considered reviews are pretty positive, but I still think it looks like ass. Hope all the raving about how you forget the thing once you start reading is true!

A propos de bottes, I'll be in the Hampton, VA vicinity next week and Arlington/Washington the week after. . .anyone in the area? I'll buy you a beer, presuming you're of an appropriate age.

However, I'm really interested in your opinion on the Kindle, and I am looking forward to it.

Edit: *As far as I know you don't even need to register a new account for it, as I can use my German Amazon account to order stuff from the the British and US sites just fine.

Captain Tarquinn fucked around with this message on 06-15-2008 at 04:04 PM.

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Bloodsage had this to say about Punky Brewster:
Despite the fact that there are sexier devices currently on the market, I've caved to Amazon's near-monopoly on e-books and ordered a Kindle. Normally, I'd wait a couple more years 'til the technology was a bit further along. . .but living here in the wilderness Europe, I can't conveniently buy enough books to keep up with my reading habits and end up endlessly re-reading my existing library.

It'll be delivered to my hotel in Hampton on Tuesday. I'll let you know how it turns out. Most of the considered reviews are pretty positive, but I still think it looks like ass. Hope all the raving about how you forget the thing once you start reading is true!

A propos de bottes, I'll be in the Hampton, VA vicinity next week and Arlington/Washington the week after. . .anyone in the area? I'll buy you a beer, presuming you're of an appropriate age.

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If I hadn't just spent 26 consecutive hours in a car with my brother driving from Wisconsin to NC, I'd come up there to say hi.

I ordered the Kindle before I flew back to the US, and had it delivered to my hotel room in Hampton. Delivery success!

The first thing I noticed upon opening the ugly UPS box is that Amazon took a page out of Apple's book with the packaging. Just like opening most Apple products is an experience in itself, the Kindle came in a folding box shaped like a big hardcover book, with all the stuff neatly squirreled away inside in a manner that just screamed, "Look at me; I'm cool!"

Upon opening said cool box, my first thought was, "Wow. That's much smaller than I thought it'd be. But, damn, it's every bit as fugly as I thought. At least it comes with a leather cover to hide it!"

Then an odd transformation happened: I put the leather slip case on it, and it ceased being fugly and started to look (from the outside) just like a small hardcover book. Cool.

Having read the horror stories from the comments section on Amazon, I was prepared for the cover to be in the way and the Kindle to fall out of it at the slightest hint of motion. Not so. Just sliding the thing in there doesn't seem secure, but you can grab it by the opposite cover and shake it and it won't come loose.

Verdict: properly put into the rather nice leather cover, it's quite an attractive product.

Ah, but is it easy to use?

My next task, after pacing my hotel room while it charged, was to see how readable it was. First, I read through the user guide that came pre-installed. I was amazed at how readable--and how much like text--the screen was. Only drawback was the flashing screen and long delay for each page change.

Next, I had to check the cool wireless order and delivery system. Lacking cellular reception in my hotel room, I bundled up my new toy and went to Barnes & Noble to appease my caffeine addiction while perusing the online store.

Here, the results were more tempered. Cellular connections are, after all, slow. It's the old story of the singing pig, though--it's not the quality of the pig's singing that matters; it's just amazing it can sing at all. Same here. Sure, it's a bit slow to browse titles (though searching is easy if you know what you're looking for), but it's amazingly cool that you can essentially do it anywhere there's good cellular coverage.

That was one of the main reasons I bought the thing: no more need to carry 50lbs of books to read for a 2 week trip. I can just download new ones as I read the old. Time from ordering to delivery is typically 1-2 minutes.

Downside is the service only works in the US for now.

Verdict: way cool ability to download books wirelessly directly to the device.

But what if you live in BFE or outside the US? Well, I just downloaded three new books from Amazon's web site and, after a bit of tinkering to find the well-hidden menu, transferred them via USB to the Kindle. Success!

That's an important point: all your purchases stay available on the Amazon site and you can dynamically manage content on your Kindle or recover anything lost from your Kindle.

Verdict: meh. Counterintuitive process is a pain the first time, though subseqently no problem.

So, about reading on the thing.

I've read 3 novels on it so far, and have to say that the initial annoyance with the flash/pause of page turning fades into the background. With the cover on, it acts just like any book, and is comfortable whether laying in bed, stretched out on the couch, in an airline seat, or in a car. There were some comments on Amazon about it being too easy to press the next/last page buttons, but I think that must be morons trying to use it without the cover on. I had no problems in that area.

There are I think 6 different font sizes you can choose from. I find that the #2 font is closest to a typical paperback font, and I use it unless in low light where I need a bigger one.

Speaking of light, this is not a backlit device. You can read it anywhere you could read a regular book. But not in the dark.

Battery life is short with the wireless on, but quite good (I went 5 days) with wireless off. Unless you have a newspaper subscription, though, there's no reason to keep that on.

Verdict: the reading experience is superb. I notice I read a tad slower on the Kindle, but it's quite natural after the first hour or so.

I'm not reviewing the much-vaunted "experimental" features, because, frankly, if you're using the thing to access the internet, you're an idiot. I honestly don't know why they thought that a good feature to include.

Other features, however, like the ability to look up words, are quite cool.

So, would I recommend buying one?

It depends. It's expensive for what it is. I paid $359. If you've got a clear need (for me, it's the ability to get English books when they come out combined with ease of travel), I think it's a no-brainer. If you're strapped for cash and don't buy that many books, it may not be a good idea. There is a slight savings on the Kindle books, though, (another area Amazon kicked the pants off the competition) so over time it sort of works out if you buy a lot of books.

Speaking of the library, it's the true selling point of the Kindle. Amazon has not only managed to sell their e-books at a discount (some formats actually cost more than the paper version!), but has a huge selection of books, including new releases. Of the three books I just bought, one was a new release to paperback, and two are new hardcover releases. The first was $6 and the other two were $9.99.

If you're unsure, you can also download previews of books. Cool idea.

Overall verdict: best thing since spermicidal lubricant.

Don't forget that there are a few authors - Stephen King comes to mind - who occasionally write novels that can only be obtained as an ebook.

I like the idea behind the kindle a lot, but I'm pretty disappointed that Amazon fell to the siren song of the proprietary format for their books.

Sounds rather good, and as I'm running out of shelf space, this sounds like a good idea.

Edit: Heh, the kindle isn't available in Germany yet.

Captain Tarquinn fucked around with this message on 07-03-2008 at 11:51 AM.

I think I mentioned that Amazon makes free samples available of all the books for Kindle. Use it.

One of their stupider ideas for the Kindle store is to enable self-publishing. . .and it seems a lot of folks are taking advantage. The truly amateur efforts are easy to spot, but I downloaded a couple of books last night--cover art in the store, good reviews on the site, priced like real books--only to find as I started reading them that not only are they entirely self published by amateur hacks, but they suck. Bad. Another book I bought tuned out, while professionally published, turned out to be written in present tense.

There are a couple of clues, I've found, though. Avoid anything with a "product descripton" but not "editorial reviews" section describing it. Avoid names you've never heard of, or which googling turns up only an author's web site.

While I suppose it's truly liberating and democratic and all that nonsense that, just like the Internet gave voice to the ignorant morons, Amazon is allowing any illiterate hack the chance to be published in a mainstream venue, the result is not only a collective lowering of standards (as judged by the number of good customer reviews these ridiculous works get), but also a raising of the bar in terms of research a shopper should do prior to purchase. This is not a print book store, where one can pretty much assume that, matters of taste aside, anything on the shelves has passed a certain minimum test to be there (a real, for-profit company is betting cash that it'll be marketable).

So if you're at all picky about what you read or spend your money on, take advantage of the free samples and do a bit of minimum google research if you're thinking about buying something you've never heard of.

It's a shame, since I was kind of looking forward to a convenient way to try things I might not have otherwise. . .but there seem to be no standards at all for what is made available on the store, and no easy way to tell electronic versions of published works from DIY hacks e-publishing because they can't get past a real editor.

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Verily, the chocolate bunny rabbits doth run and play while Maradon! gently hums:
I don't know if that's anything new, 'Sage. I've bought a few books even from a print bookstore that appear to have been written by a mentally handicapped chimpanzee.

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Oh, I agree that it's not new; it's just so much easier for the idiots, now. Just as before the internet there was no shortage of crazy morons. . .but the internet not only gave more of them voice, but gave them all a global audience.

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Peanut butter ass Shaq Steven Steve booooze lime pole over bench lick:
Are there many (or any) text books available on this thing?

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That's a very good question. For a college student the thing could pay for itself in one semester!

You can go to the Kindle store on Amazon and browse around if you're curious. My only regret with the thing is I'm not in the States where I can use the wireless functions. That was cool, and, while easy, transferring purchases from Amazon to the Kindle via PC is sort of a pain.

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Bloodsage got all f'ed up on Angel Dust and wrote:
One important follow-up:

I think I mentioned that Amazon makes free samples available of all the books for Kindle. Use it.

One of their stupider ideas for the Kindle store is to enable self-publishing. . .and it seems a lot of folks are taking advantage. The truly amateur efforts are easy to spot, but I downloaded a couple of books last night--cover art in the store, good reviews on the site, priced like real books--only to find as I started reading them that not only are they entirely self published by amateur hacks, but they suck. Bad. Another book I bought tuned out, while professionally published, turned out to be written in present tense.

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You may have picked up 'As I Lay Dying,' or 'Rabbit Run.'

Buncha hacks I say.

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Bloodsage enlisted the help of an infinite number of monkeys to write:
I've run across a couple of textbooks, but they were still priced like textbooks. On the other hand, if your class has you reading classic lit, you'll be able to make out like a bandit. . .unless your prof--and many do--requires a specific edition.

You can go to the Kindle store on Amazon and browse around if you're curious. My only regret with the thing is I'm not in the States where I can use the wireless functions. That was cool, and, while easy, transferring purchases from Amazon to the Kindle via PC is sort of a pain.

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I looked around but shockingly they don't have such classics as "ATOMS, RADIATION, AND RADIATION PROTECTION" (special edition). Even looking at other books, they are still about the same price. I thought I'd be seeing ebook type prices... 50-60% off.

It would have been pretty cool to be able to carry around all my textbooks, even though I rarely take them anywhere.

What makes it worse is some professors write the books then make you get them. No conflict of interest there, no sirree.

Monster Island/Nation/Etc - An enjoyable series of zombie books, if you are into that sort of thing. Rather entertaining, if you can suspend your disbelief of the military stuff.

Project Gutenberg - A library of old public domain books, all free.

Ghost of Forums Past fucked around with this message on 07-21-2008 at 06:57 PM.

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The propaganda machine of Steven Steve's junta released this statement:
Last night my Kindle froze up. Quite annoying. Hopefully it won't happen this often (once per 1-2 hours of reading)

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Don't read it while you branle. The jolts will trigger the automatic shutdown after a while.

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Quoth Vallo, the Second Coming:
WTF is branle?

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Can't you google? Everyone knows it's a 16th century French dance style.

Duh.

OBTW, I happened onto it on a lark, but Lilith Saintcrow's Danny Valentine series is a pretty fun little romp if approached with the right attitude. Not nearly as insipid as some others in the genre, and with fairly interesting action and plots.

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Bloodsage screamed this from the crapper:
I haven't tried yet, but I'll give it a look in the next week or so and see wtf.

OBTW, I happened onto it on a lark, but Lilith Saintcrow's Danny Valentine series is a pretty fun little romp if approached with the right attitude. Not nearly as insipid as some others in the genre, and with fairly interesting action and plots.

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Trashy romance novels? I'm just going by the author's name.

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Channeling the spirit of Sherlock Holmes, Karnaj absently fondled Watson and proclaimed:
Trashy romance novels? I'm just going by the author's name.

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Not quite Danielle Steele territory. Their genre is apparently the latest fad: paranormal bad girls. (Not in the sense you're thinking!)

This series is the adventures of a psychic bounty hunter who gets trapped into a deal with the Devil, and shenanigans ensue. I've attempted some other books in the genre, and they are disguised Danielle Steele. These books are light, but fun.