Anyone ever buy the Kindle 2?

[Slateman]

So if you don't know, Kindle 2 is Amazon.com's ebook reader.

Anyone ever buy one of these? Thoughts? Reviews?

The more I think about it, the more I'd like to buy one. I like to read, but keeping a lot of books around is a pain, especially when you go on a deployment or live in the barracks (I do both).

[SnyderShrugged]

I've been interested in this too, I spend about $20 a week on new books, go through one - two per week. My wife purged my collection of paperbacks by selling about 600 of them to a used book store. The Kindle seems like a good option for portability and clutter removal.

[Elessar78]

yeah, curious about it too. Same as SS. My local library isn't exactly a hotbed for good books. So I have to go to amazon often. And I swore (and subsequently failed) that I wouldn't buy anymore books until we bought a house. They ARE a pain in the behind (and lower back) to move.

[SnyderShrugged]

I have heard that the Kindle was overpriced, but I havnt seen anything that would work as an alternative yet (not saying there isnt anything out there though)

[Elessar78]

I really want to try it, since I heard that a person's reading comprehension (for extended reading) drops dramatically in a digital format.

[SnyderShrugged]

I really want to try it, since I heard that a person's reading comprehension (for extended reading) drops dramatically in a digital format.

really? I guess that makes sense. I have a hard time even reading long posts off my monitor.

Wouldnt that kind of push you away from wanting it though?

[SnyderShrugged]

10 reasons to buy one....and 10 not to.

1. It’s great if you travel. If you travel, the Kindle is a godsend. I’m the kind of guy who stocks up books for even short trips, fully expecting to finish War and Peace, Notes from Underground, and four Clive Cussler novels on a plane trip from Pittsburgh to Columbus. With the Kindle you have a full complement of books available at any time.

2. You can put anything you want on it. You can easily email DOC, TXT, and PDF files to your own Kindle email address for conversion to the Kindle - but that costs 10 cents.

3. It looks great. The Kindle 2 is an amazing improvement over the Kindle 1. If every manufacturer took cues on build quality and product life cycles from Amazon, we’d all be better off.

4. It feels great. This new version has excellent button placement and is thin enough to cut cheese. It’s eminently portable.

5. Almost any book at any time. Except for a few esoteric reference books I’ve found just about everything I need on the Kindle store. As more and more publishers go ebook - and I think an iPhone Kindle reader will truly blow the last bottlenecks out - this excuse will become ineffective.

6. It works in inclement conditions. I was in Mexico with the wife and kids and I wanted to test the Kindle out near the pool. Three books later and I felt like the laziest high-tech maven in the world. The ladies next to me brought twenty softcover novels with them and all of them got wet and messy. The Kindle worked like a dream.

7. The bookmarking and highlighting systems are vastly improved. The original Kindle had two methods for note-taking: you could select text and add a note or you could add a book mark. The new system refines those considerably and adds visual feedback whenever you take a note.

8. The dictionary is now in-line. When you move to a word, its definition appears at the bottom of the page. If you wanted a definition before, you had to pop out to a separate page.

9. You can almost see and understand the illustrations in 16 greyscale shades. Note the “almost.” However, it’s better than 4 shades, which was abysmal.

10. It is the future. Sorry, it is. Amazon nailed the ebook and they’re going to own the space for the next few years. Maybe they’ll pull a Netflix and sell the software to OEMs, which is fine by me. But ebooks are what we’ll be reading while we rocket to Mars in 2050. Or we’ll have our robotic concubines read them to us.

10 reasons not to buy a Kindle 2

1. It’s bad for research. I’m working on a book right now and I wanted to use the Kindle for all of my research. Sadly, this is almost impossible. The book is a physical object - you can move through it, skimming for notes and important points - and there is something in our education that gives us a sense of space inside a book. I don’t quite know how to explain it, but you know how you can pick up a book and show someone what you’re looking for in a few page turns? You know it was halfway through, maybe a third of the way down the page, and it was near another set of words. The Kindle is not conducive to that kind of mental map-making… yet.

2. It’s horrible for reference. Don’t buy a Kindle of you just read programming manuals. Programming manuals offer something different. While it seems counterintuitive that a document you can search programatically wouldn’t be good as reference material, you’re better off looking up function calls on a website and using the physical book as a guide to building your programs. This is a corallary of point 1, above, so this could change.

3. The Kindle is flimsy. You’ll go through your day thinking you will break your Kindle. You don’t fit that much screen on a thin device that is meant to be thrown into a bag without a care and not risk cracking it. There will come a day when you open your bag and see that your Kindle is dead, even in its case. It’s not your fault. Say it with me: it’s not your fault.

4. It’s not ready for students. Add points 1, 2, and 3 together and you come to the conclusion that this is not ready for students. This may be a good device for English classes requiring lots of long novel reading, but as an education tool it isn’t quite there.

5. The net connection doesn’t work internationally. For some reason last year I was convinced the Kindle had Wi-Fi built-in. I was trying to get on the Internet in Warsaw, Poland and I kept looking for that Wi-Fi button. Then I remembered - no Wi-Fi. And I cried. How I cried, my friends. Then I downloaded the Kindle book onto my desktop and dragged it over via the USB cable. So that’s, in essence, your international solution.

6. No SD slot. While the Kindle can easily hold 1,500 books, what if you’re the kind of person who likes to keep everything in its right place? Maybe you want to make a book playlist? Maybe you have 1,501 books? I don’t know. Sadly, the Kindle doesn’t allow for memory expansion. Not a big deal, but to some it’s a bad thing.

7. Flight attendants will tell you to turn it off on take off and landing. You can’t explain that it’s epaper and uses no current. You just can’t. It’s like explaining heaven to bears.

8. It contains a battery. Remember, Reader, the Kindle is mortal. It will die on you when you don’t have your charger.

9. It’s bottom heavy. The internal battery makes the device want to plop face down on your chest. I read it last night when I was sleepy and it kept getting ready to fall on me.

10. There’s just something about a dead tree book, isn’t there? It’s nice to pop into the airport news stand and pick up a novel. It just is. I’m sorry.

[Elessar78]

I couldn't get past "It's like explaining heaven to bears." hahaha.

[SnyderShrugged]

I couldn't get past "It's like explaining heaven to bears." hahaha.

I thought that was hysterical too! OLS:)

[Elessar78]

really? I guess that makes sense. I have a hard time even reading long posts off my monitor.

Wouldnt that kind of push you away from wanting it though?

Yeah. But there's never been a device made specifically for book type reading. So I'm assuming they've addressed some of those issues. But maybe not from the items on your pros and cons list.

The price may be what keeps me away. $359 is a lot of books. The durability is my next concern.

[SnyderShrugged]

Yeah. But there's never been a device made specifically for book type reading. So I'm assuming they've addressed some of those issues. But maybe not from the items on your pros and cons list.

The price may be what keeps me away. $359 is a lot of books. The durability is my next concern.

both my concerns too (especially that price! )

[Kosher Ham]

I have seen two of them recently and it made me want one for myself or as a gift. I tend not to keep any books because of the space involved, but if I could have 1500 books at the tip of my fingers to take with me wherever I go...that's pretty cool.

And the price is nothing for what it does.

[deejaydana]

I did some looking into this product, WSJ had a great write up on products like it earlier in the week and about the future of how books will be consumed (sorry, no link), but here's my thought about Kindle 2.0 : the technology and the publishing industry is just not quite there yet. Many have mentioned the price as being too high. I don't think that's the deal breaker, I think the deal breaker is that buying the titles you want to read on it are just too expensive. Presently I read, like others in this thread, a TON of books monthly but for now it's just too easy and economical to go to my local library and get the product for free (even if I have to carry it around). This will change. I think as you see more of these ebook readers come online prices will (somewhat) come down. I'm hoping for it, I can't wait to pick one of these things up, the practicality alone will make it worthwhile and as others get into the market, you'll see more features and an enhanced experience. I don't know if this will be as revolutionary as the iPod but I hope it is.

[Slateman]

Wow, some good info.

Does it have to have a specific format? Or like, if I have some books already downloaded (PDFs or even some Word Docs) could I put them in there as well?

SOunds like I should hold off as long as possible on buying an ebook tablet in hopes that they will finally get one right.

[PrettyInPink_SkinsGear]

If you have an iPhone, there is a free Kindle for iPhone app that allows you to download the Kindle books onto your phone. I haven't tested it enough to see if it has similar features as the Kindle (it does bookmark), but...

If your interest is only in having portable books, you have an iPhone, and you don't mind the smaller screen of the iPhone then...save yourself the $359

[Elessar78]

found some more info this weekend. There was a review of Kindle and similar devices in this month's WIRED magazine.

http://www.wired.com/reviews/product/kindle2

Also, saw this in the NY times this morning:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/fashion/26kindle.html?_r=1&ref=fashion

[Hooper]

I got one as a gift and I love it. In a way, I almost prefer using it to read. If you travel a lot and are a big reader, it's a must.

[RedskinFeathers]

Hey thanks for the review SS, that was great. I've been considering getting one for a while. I can easily read 5 books a day if I have nothing to do. I hate when I travel and I have to pack all my books, they're so heavy and take up so much space haha especially hardbacks!

I get the feeling that your pros outweigh your cons...and "it's like explaining Heaven to bears" had me :rotflmao:

I'm not too worried about the price, I feel it's well worth it....the only thing is that I don't have the best of luck with electronics...they usually end up dead...I'm assuming there are protective cases and whatnot you could buy to help? ...I guess I could just go look it up

[TK]

If you have an iPhone, there is a free Kindle for iPhone app that allows you to download the Kindle books onto your phone. I haven't tested it enough to see if it has similar features as the Kindle (it does bookmark), but...

If your interest is only in having portable books, you have an iPhone, and you don't mind the smaller screen of the iPhone then...save yourself the $359

There are also several free e-reader apps for Blackberry as well. Last time I checked, free > $359.

Hey thanks for the review SS, that was great. I've been considering getting one for a while. I can easily read 5 books a day if I have nothing to do. I hate when I travel and I have to pack all my books, they're so heavy and take up so much space haha especially hardbacks!

I get the feeling that your pros outweigh your cons...and "it's like explaining Heaven to bears" had me :rotflmao:

I'm not too worried about the price, I feel it's well worth it....the only thing is that I don't have the best of luck with electronics...they usually end up dead...I'm assuming there are protective cases and whatnot you could buy to help? ...I guess I could just go look it up

www.invisibleshield.com Greatest screen protector ever. I have one on my phone, & have thought about getting one for my camera. LOVE to get one for my HDTV.

"Heaven to bears" is good stuffs.

[Slateman]

Hey thanks for the review SS, that was great. I've been considering getting one for a while. I can easily read 5 books a day if I have nothing to do. I hate when I travel and I have to pack all my books, they're so heavy and take up so much space haha especially hardbacks!

This is the primary reason I want one. Here in Al Asad, its easy to get mail in and out. But when I go back to Afghanistan, I'm not gonna want to lug around books, and mail will most likely be slow.

My Company XO has one and loves it so I think I'm gonna buy one at some point.

[deejaydana]

here's an update for those interested, notice this upgrade comes with a bump up in cost to the consumer:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124162110396691937.html

Amazon.com Inc. introduced a larger -- and more expensive -- Kindle electronic-book reader, and announced deals with major textbook and newspaper publishers to expand the market for the device.

The new Kindle DX, which is designed to display pages about the size of standard letter-sized sheet of paper, will cost $489 and begin shipping this summer.

Amazon.For $130 more than earlier versions of the Kindle, it's unclear how many college students and other consumers will embrace the new device. But Jeff Bezos, Amazon's chief executive officer, said the company couldn't do much about the pricing.

"Kindle DX on the inside is a very significant computer," Mr. Bezos said in an interview. "It is a very expensive device to manufacture."

Kindle owners don't have to pay for the wireless service that lets them download materials, Mr. Bezos said, while U.S. buyers of Apple Inc.'s $199 iPhone have to commit to a two-year service contract. "We are offering it as inexpensively as we can," he said.

Unlike the iPhone or a low-priced laptop, the Kindle cannot show video or color images; it is designed to mimic the experience of reading printed black ink on paper. Mr. Bezos said Amazon is finding the Kindle is bought by "readers, not gadget people."

The Kindle DX features a 9.7-inch screen, more than doubling the screen real estate available in current models, and also can automatically display Adobe Acrobat files. Those features make it better suited for executives who often print out reports, for reading newspapers and for viewing academic textbooks, Mr. Bezos said.

The Seattle e-commerce company, which has seen the pace of growth in its sales of traditional media slow in recent years, is hoping to turn the Kindle into a mass-market device for distributing digital media. Amazon first rolled out the Kindle in late 2007 and updated it earlier this year.

More

Digits: Highlights from Amazon's press conference

All Things D: New Kindle Has Big Screen, Big Price

Join the Discussion: Will the new Kindle be a hit?

.As part of the efforts to broaden the Kindle's appeal, The Washington Post and the New York Times Co.'s flagship paper and its Boston Globe will test offering the new Kindle at a reduced rate for a small number of subscribers.

"We know that it will significantly enhance our ability to reach millions of readers," Times Co. Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said at a launch event in New York Wednesday.

The publishers offered few details about pricing and criteria for subscribers to qualify for reduced-rate Kindles. Both Mr. Sulzberger and Stephen Hills, president and general manager of the Washington Post, part of the Washington Post Co., characterized their involvement as an experiment.

Mr. Hills said the number of Washington Post subscribers to whom they may offer the discounted Kindle DX is in the "hundreds," and only in a slice of Baltimore where the paper doesn't have home delivery. The discounted price hasn't been finalized, he said.

"The idea of a bigger screen moves the ball forward," Mr. Hills said. "The business model issues are all works in progress."

Amazon also announced partnerships with textbook publishers including Cengage Learning, Pearson and Wiley, to sell their textbooks featuring complex images and charts on the Kindle DX.

A spokeswoman for Pearson PLC's Pearson Education, a textbook publisher that provides textbooks for all grade levels, said Pearson Education hasn't yet decided how many titles will be available on the new Kindle model, what disciplines will be covered, or how much the e-textbooks will cost.

Amazon also announced partnerships with five universities to give some students large-screen Kindles instead of textbooks. One of those universities, Case Western Reserve is planning a study to compare the experiences of students who are issued the devices and those who use traditional textbooks.

Geoffrey L. Brackett, provost at Pace University, which is also participating in the partnership, said that that the new Kindle will help shape the 21st century learning experience on campus. "I think students will find it both convenient and economical," he said.

—Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg contributed to this article.