Who's Buying Kindle 2?

[Jhalkias]

Mine arrives tomorrow . . . and my wife's as I bought two.

I was convinced after sitting next to a devoted 63 year old Kindle user on a recent flight, and I started making the analogies to the ipod in my mind . . .

1. We read a LOT. Many, many books per year between my wife and I - magazines and newspapers too. To be able to get that content instantly is a HUGE plus. Not only does it decrease your carbon footprint in paper, but also in getting in the car to go to the bookstore.

2. I bought an ipod when it was 2g, and re-discovered my music collection after it had become too much of a pain to put in a cd every time I wanted to listen, to MY music in the house - let alone having the music in the car I wanted. Portable CD players were too big and clunky. Just like the book, the ipod was the "perfect" thing.

3. We have too many books! While it may seem healthy, my house is being over-run with books. I have lots and lots boxed and stored. I am out of bookshelf space.

In sum, I think this is a perfect analogy to what the ipod did for music and media. Do I wish Apple would have done an iReader? YES. But since they lagged and Amazon has the device I ordered a Kindle. While I can watch a movie or TV show on a touch or iphone OK, I really don't like reading on one - as I age, and wear glasses, that has become more difficult.

We'll see tomorrow after I get it and use it if I feel the same.

 

[evilyankeefan]

I love my Kindle. So much I bought myself another one. Unfortunately I lost the 1st one and just needed to have one to replace it so I bought a refurb.

Very little in the new model to make me get it. So I'll hold onto this one until comes up with their own and partners with Amazon. LOL

If Amazon content was able to be on the iPhone for those days I don't have the Kindle with me, I'd be happy as well.

A man can dream.

 

[gan6660]

Mine arrives tomorrow . . . and my wife's as I bought two.

I was convinced after sitting next to a devoted 63 year old Kindle user on a recent flight, and I started making the analogies to the ipod in my mind . . .

1. We read a LOT. Many, many books per year between my wife and I - magazines and newspapers too. To be able to get that content instantly is a HUGE plus. Not only does it decrease your carbon footprint in paper, but also in getting in the car to go to the bookstore.

2. I bought an ipod when it was 2g, and re-discovered my music collection after it had become too much of a pain to put in a cd every time I wanted to listen, to MY music in the house - let alone having the music in the car I wanted. Portable CD players were too big and clunky. Just like the book, the ipod was the "perfect" thing.

3. We have too many books! While it may seem healthy, my house is being over-run with books. I have lots and lots boxed and stored. I am out of bookshelf space.

In sum, I think this is a perfect analogy to what the ipod did for music and media. Do I wish Apple would have done an iReader? YES. But since they lagged and Amazon has the device I ordered a Kindle. While I can watch a movie or TV show on a touch or iphone OK, I really don't like reading on one - as I age, and wear glasses, that has become more difficult.

We'll see tomorrow after I get it and use it if I feel the same.

Tell tomorrow about how you like it. I am really interested in buying one.

 

[akm3]

Looks like they solved a lot of the issues with the first version. Still a bit too pricey for me, and I want PDF capability.

But they're on the right track.

I thought it had PDF capability - you just had to mail them the PDF ?

 

[Jeremy81]

Mine is being delivered tomorrow. Absolutely can't wait to get it. I've been reading ebooks for years and have always wanted something like the Kindle. I didn't really care for the design of the first one and have been considering the Sony Reader but finally decided on the Kindle 2 since it has wireless built-in. I also trust Amazon more than Sony to continue to support it's ebook platform in the long term.

 

[Abstract]

If you want, you may as well start a review thread once you get it rather than just posting it in here. A new thread would be more than justified, since a review in this thread would be off-topic anyway.

We're not expecting an essay. Just give us a general idea of what you think about your new toy.

 

[Jhalkias]

I will go hunt down a review thread so I can tell you what I think.

 

[Acorn]

my aunt has the first Kindle. she got it as a gift and uses it quite often. I would consider a kindle if it was a color screen and 11 inches. basically I want it to look like an 11 inch ipod hah. Just the design though. not to be used for music.

 

[akm3]

my aunt has the first Kindle. she got it as a gift and uses it quite often. I would consider a kindle if it was a color screen and 11 inches. basically I want it to look like an 11 inch ipod hah. Just the design though. not to be used for music.

Why color? That would destroy the value of the Kindle, by having an eye straining, backlit LCD screen that eats battery life?

eInk is really neat.

Color eInk WOULD be better, but I don't think they've invented that yet.

 

[JBazz]

I am expecting mine tomorrow. I read at least 4 newspapers daily and hope this cuts down on the mess and waist that habit generates. If it is not easy/convenient for newspapers, not sure if I will keep it.

I read books, but mostly obscure non-fiction. Not the stuff off the best sellers list.

I also hope to be able to leave my laptop at home more. Carrying around a 20lb bag every where I go gets old.

 

[gloss]

I bought a handful of books today on the Amazon store, as well as downloaded a bunch of DRM-free public domain classics I've been meaning to read. When my device arrives tomorrow, the loadout will be:

Foundation by Issac Asimov
Foundation and Empire by Issac Asimov
Second Foundation by Issac Asimov
Heretics of Dune by Frank Herbert
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Alice in Wonderland / Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Bible (ESV)
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce
The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Ulysses by James Joyce
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
The Prince by Machiavelli
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The $30000 Bequest and Other Short Stories by Mark Twain
The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain
Candide by Voltaire
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft
The Dunwich Horror by H.P. Lovecraft
The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

Should keep me occupied for a bit.

 

[McGiord]

EDIT: Moved from here. --mkrishnan

Why do you need a Kindle if you have an iPhone already?

 

[cleanup]

Why do you need a Kindle if you have an iPhone already?

I wouldn't enjoy reading books on my iPhone. I don't enjoy reading on screens in general. I've seen a couple Kindles over here (imported) and they're really quite easy on the eyes. Maybe not exactly like ink on paper but it's like reading something that's physically printed rather than displayed.

 

[mkrishnan]

I moved your posts to this thread to keep the other thread on the limited topic of cases / covers, since that was what the OP asked for... hope you understand.

Regarding the iPhone vs. Kindle thing, I'm really curious as a test case myself. I ordered my Kindle 2 because my mother offered to buy it as a birthday present (I could have just gotten it myself, but long story, my mother very rarely takes initiative to buy me presents, so I wanted to recognize a fairly rare moment).

In the meantime, I decided that I wanted to finish the book I had been reading in print before the Kindle came... I was moving along slowly and my edition of the book (a leatherbound hardcover compendium) was too big to just thrown in my briefcase everyday. So, I decided to buy a digital version as well, since it was only $3 (it's a classic -- Shirley by Charlotte Bronte).

And so I started reading that on my iPhone with the iPhone Kindle app in wait for the actual Kindle. And in that ten days or so, I finished Shirley, finally, and also decided to do likewise with the other print book on my to-read list (Wings of the Dove by James, likewise only $4 because it's a classic).

The bottom line is that in the ten days since my impetuous Kindle order, I found the iPhone Kindle experience far more satisfying than I expected, save for the caveats that it makes battery life more of an issue and that it's less suited for extended reading.

So now, today, the Kindle arrived, and the books I read on the iPhone are on it now, and we shall see, if I feel like I wasted $360 on the Kindle or if in fact I feel that it is worth the cost over just using the iPhone app.

 

[jetjaguar]

i got mine about a week after it got released and I absolutely love it .. i read so much faster

 

[kajitox]

Seems like it would be a great gadget to have, but that price point is steep to say the least.

 

[Tumbleweed666]

i got mine about a week after it got released and I absolutely love it .. i read so much faster

Serious question ; Doesn't the screen 'flashing' into reverse every time you turn a page give you the screaming ab dabs? First time I tried one I thought it was broken. Really.

I don't know how anyone can live with that, I'd be stamping on it after 5 minutes.

 

[Abstract]

The bottom line is that in the ten days since my impetuous Kindle order, I found the iPhone Kindle experience far more satisfying than I expected, save for the caveats that it makes battery life more of an issue and that it's less suited for extended reading.

So now, today, the Kindle arrived, and the books I read on the iPhone are on it now, and we shall see, if I feel like I wasted $360 on the Kindle or if in fact I feel that it is worth the cost over just using the iPhone app.

Can't wait to hear the report.

 

[mkrishnan]

Can't wait to hear the report.

My early impressions notes, (mostly) specifically from the perspective of having used and liked the iPhone version first...

Hardware - the Kindle does look like it would get scratched up in one's briefcase or bag without a sleeve or cover, but outside of that it's a very elegant device. The buttons are not as tactilely satisfying as one could hope, but they're passable. As long as they're durable I think one could live with them. The screen is easier on the eyes, but on the con side, it's obviously not usable in the dark, and it's not very high resolution. Also there doesn't seem to be much in the way of anti-aliasing / font smoothing. For instance this difference makes the smallest font size on the iPhone quite satisfactory and on the Kindle somewhat less so, although still usable.

Also it seems to take rather a long time to charge, balanced hopefully by the fact that this is rarely necessary.

Software - The whole user experience is generally very nice, including but not limited to the fact that the two books I bought from the iPhone were immediately available. As others reported, however, the whispersync feature to immediately bring the book to the last read location seems unreliable. Of the two books, it did not correctly sync Shirley, producing instead an error message stating the sync had failed and placing me several chapters away from where I had been (namely at the end of the book). Wings of the Dove did sync to the correct place but still produced the same error message.

The reader has some great extra features like being able to look up words. On the other hand, the visual page turn on the iPhone is lovely and it's probably the most sorely missing thing (being quite impossible, as I understand it at this point, in terms of the graphics speed of these e-ink displays).

The software overall isn't quite as intuitive as the best iPhone apps but it is passable. The 3G and Kindle Store integration is generally quite good. One of the minor quips about the iPhone version was that one could not only not purchase books from it but also could queue downloads of previews (which are free). The Kindle of course can do both. Also when the book is subsequently purchased, the iPhone app is not smart enough to automatically delete the sample, replace it with the purchased book, and then transfer the bookmark (but there really is no sensible reason it could not be improved to handle this).

Minor quips...
- I wish it would use my books' covers to make up the sleep screen and not random books which I don't own. The lock screen is very impressive (the e-ink means that there's no real power cost with having information displayed on screen while the reader is off), albeit in a geektoy way.

- The speech-to-text I can't personally see as being usable in more than a pinch. It has awful prosody, although in terms of pronunciation, it's not half bad.