| | So is my recently acquired Amazon Kindle worth the $360 asking price? Truth be told, it's a mixed bag. I'll not go into the technical details here as they have been covered everywhere else. This is really an opinion piece, so here's my opinion.
Some of the "unofficial" features (like the 3G "where am I?" hack) that were available on the K1 were very attractive, but they've all gone with the newest update. The K2 (my version) never had them. A real shame. Even more annoying is the lack of the original's SD slot. Not Cricket!
As an e-book reader it's probably on a par with anything else out there, but most of the extra features aren't quite there yet. Audio book listening is at best primitive but that's what an iPod is for amiright? The text-to-speech synthesizer sounds ok, but it peeves me greatly that Amazon caved in to the Author's Guild and allowed T2S to be defeated for a book at the publisher's request. Unsurprisingly the Kindle's Digital Restrictions Management sucks big-time, and despite all the things that Amazon "allows" you to do with "your" books, you still don't really own them. If you decide to go with another e-book reader, you've lost all your books, but most DRM systems work that way. Doesn't make it right though. The handling of alternative formats leaves a lot to be desired, and in the case of PDFs it's just plain nasty. Apart from that, as long as you keep away from anything DRM you're good to go.
Now the good news. Free 3G access!
The Kindle does not have any form of WiFi... yet. Since the device has a USB port and is Linux based, there's no real reason for it not to support USB network adapters (or mass storage come to think of it) but I assume it will be a cold day in hell before they are supported without some major nefarious hackage. However all is not doom and gloom. Inside each kindle is a "modem" that works on Sprint's cellphone network. This means that even in the middle of nowhere, miles from the nearest WiFi access point or unsecured wireless network device, you can still get online. Online with what? Well there is a very basic web browser in the Kindle's "experimental" section. It's slow, flaky, and only really works well with mobile targetted websites. Having said that, you can get to the web anywhere Sprint has coverage for no extra charge. So you'll be getting mobile network access for free, forever! Or until Amazon/Sprint change the rules and/or you decide to switch to another device. I don't know what a 3G data plan costs, but if it's around $30 per month then the Kindle will have paid for itself after a year.
So it really depends what you look for in an e-book reader. for me the deal-maker was 3G access. For you, maybe not so much. Either way the Kindle holds up well to its competitors. So whichever one you choose, welcome to the 21st century paperback!
Oh, and coming soon... color!
|
| | Posted 3/9/2009 3:21 PM - 14 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
- recommend
  - recs0
- share
- email
 - sent0
|
