cathyr19355 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cathyr19355) wrote2009-02-14 01:27 pm
cathyr19355) wrote2009-02-14 01:27 pm
The Kindle 2
The updated version of Amazon's e-book reader device, the Kindle 2 is out.
So far as I can tell from a quick look at the website, the major differences between it and the original Kindle are: 1) it's thinner (only 1/3 of an inch!!!); it can talk to you (text to speech feature!); 3) longer battery life (by about 25%); and 4) a faster refresh rate (by about 20%).
And only $359.00!
Somehow, I think I'll continue to pass on e-books for awhile--for at least as long as new books on Kindle continue not to be price-competitive with paperback prices.
So far as I can tell from a quick look at the website, the major differences between it and the original Kindle are: 1) it's thinner (only 1/3 of an inch!!!); it can talk to you (text to speech feature!); 3) longer battery life (by about 25%); and 4) a faster refresh rate (by about 20%).
And only $359.00!
Somehow, I think I'll continue to pass on e-books for awhile--for at least as long as new books on Kindle continue not to be price-competitive with paperback prices.
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For what it's worth, I don't have much of an argument with the Kindle's design. But for the types of material I want to read, the Kindle remains a losing proposition economically. I mean to blog about this, but keep having a gap between when I'm in the mood to do so and when I have the time to give the issue the attention I think it deserves.
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I didn't think you were dissing on the Kindle, so much as expressing how it is not right for you, yet (if ever it might be). Therefore, I didn't take anything you said as indicative that I might not enjoy my Kindle. I do wish it had more textbooks available, though a lot of my texts now are actually non-fiction books and so I can hope that I can get some of those in electronic format for my last couple of semesters. I do spend a lot of time having to read journal articles in .pdf format, however, and this is a problem for me.
Like many of my fellow students, I am forced to choose between printing out said articles (many of which are thirty or more pages long) or reading them on a standard computer screen (which lessens retention of material covered and causes eye strain). It is my intention to just spend the couple of dollars on each article, so that I can covert them into Kindle format. That way, I can read them without the eye strain, notate them without writing all over what I am reading (that just drives me crazy), and take them every where with me without lugging around a lot of extra weight.
I originally wanted a Kindle for traveling, if for no other reason than to allow me to take trips without lugging around a lot of paper books. The extra cost on luggage these days means I was paying to take my pleasure reading with me on vacation. That just burns. Once I started wanting a Kindle for that, my brain naturally realized all other sorts of benefits to having one with respect to my coursework. So, for me, it's worth it. I could see how it is not where it needs to be for other segments of the population, however, just like some of its features are completely lost on me. I mean, I'm not going to buy e-subscriptions to a bunch of magazines and newspapers, you know?
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I was certainly expressing my belief that the Kindle isn't right for me (or, at least, not yet). However, I am trying to get my thoughts together about a blog entry in which I propose to try to examine who the Kindle is right for, and whether Amazon's apparent success with the Kindle (http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2008/08/despite-flaws-kindle-a-growing-success-for-amazon.ars) so far is sustainable.
I can see the benefits of having textbooks and other books a student must read for class on a Kindle, and it may well be that the student market will be a permanent market for such devices. On the other hand, your description of annotating books on your Kindle suggests, to me, that an even better idea might be a notebook computer with Kindle capabilities (or that is Kindle-compatible, at least), so that the student can have the annotated books, *and* his or her related notes/term papers/other works, etc. all on the same machine.
One might also ask why the Sony reader hasn't had comparable success, but I think I can guess the answer to that; Amazon cleverly has arranged to market not just the Kindle, but a large supply of downloadable books for it, adding a convenience factor that the Sony lacks. We'll see if that "tying" strategy continues to work over time.
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Anyway, my point is that unless the document is in some weird format or a .xls or something not based on words, it is possible to have all of one's class related papers, annotated texts, and other notes on a Kindle.
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That's an interesting point and one I was not aware of, thanks. Though I've seen the "keyboard" on a Kindle 1 and wouldn't want to have to use it for long bouts of typing. If I wanted a device to hold my books and notes for academic purposes, I'd want something I could easily write on as well.
That may just be me, however.
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