Amazon Kindle 2.0: My first impressions

So after hesitating for about a week, I finally decided to treat myself to a Kindle. My New Year’s resolution was to make more time to read, so having a nice gadget to so with would make it easier (though other people seem to have done fine wihout it the past few thousand years).

First of all, the Amazon Kindle is both really light and thin (check out the Kindle image gallery below). In fact, when standing up it almost feel more natural to hold the Kindle in one hand rather than both. Luckily, there’s a next page button on each side of it, so it doesn’t matter if you’re a rightie or an inferior lefty.

Another interesting thing is that everyone I’ve seen try it (myself and a roommate which I consider a statistically relevant sample) have immediately tried to touch the screen. It looks like it would be touch-screen, and as soon as you hold it it feels like it should. Guess it ties in witht heir new advanced screen technology that isn’t backlit. That is, it looks almost just like you’re reading normal print - you need sufficient light to read, and a glaring sun only helps - rather than off a computer screen (see this image for a cunning demo of this). I’m pretty sure that at this stage, they chose to sacrifice touch-screen to get a screen that’s easier on the eyes. I’m positive it will show up for the Kindle 3.0 though - it just makes sense: if you ask me, one of the Kindle’s best features is the built-in dictionary that allows you to quickly look up any word. Right now the only way to navigate to the word in question is to use their little joystick which works OK, but no way near as easy as just touching the word with your finger.

My first Kindle book

My first book is called “The Drunkard’s Walk” and cost me $14.95. In my eyes this is a f-ing rip off for a digital download, but hey I’m already over $400 in (I got the optional extended warranty) so what’s fifteen bucks more? A few minor annoyances pop up:

• Kinda like the Iphone, the Amazon Kindle is so thin it’s sometimes hard to get a natrual grip on it. When standing up it works perfect - I can just let it rest in the palm of my hand. But when lying down Iying it’s a little trickier - anyone who’s texted on an Iphone will know what I’m talking about (the rest of you aren’t hip enough to deserve to know).
• The other minor nuisance is that since the font size is changeable, page numbers don’t really apply here. Instead you have some type of absolute reference number to where you are, which aren’t nearly as pretty as page numbers and also makes it a bit harder to figure out exactly how much of the book you have read.
• For the surface size of the actual kindle, the screen is fairly small. I expect in the future for the Kindle to looks more like an Iphone, PSP or a even a modern digital camera, with the whole device essential being a screen.

So those are the cons so far, but like I said, they are fairly minor. And initially it seems like the pro’s easily outweigh them:

• Instantly look up any word you come across. I can usually infer the rough meaning of a word fromt he context, but even then I might not be sure how to use it in a sentence of my own. Putting down a book to look it up is a pain in the ass, but the new Amazon Kindle makes this quite easy. Hopefully this will mean that I can read Poe and actually understand what he’s saying now.
• Add notes & highlights. This is fantastic, and if you check the annotations & highlights for a particular book the Kindles displays them nicely along with an excerpt from the surrounding text. No more dog-ears and scribbles in the margin.
• Search function. The biggest problem with scribbling stuff in the margin is that specific notes may be hard to find, specially if it’s been a while since you’ve written them. I used some color system where I’d color the edge of the page according to a complicated color scheme I had made up, so the location of my notes would be easily visible without having to leaf through the book. My system was a complete failure. With the search function however, finding specific passages and notes will be easy.

These are my personal favorites in terms of functions, but add to that wireless internet, reading news papers etc it’s easy to see that the Amazon Kindle 2.0 has a lot going for it. I’m going to do a follow up on this as soon as I’ve finished my first book, but in the meantime you can have a look at the image gallery.

Amazon Kindle 2.0 Image Gallery

Thanks to the wonders of Amazon Prime’s free 2-day shipping, this little package containing the new Kindle 2.0 was sitting at home waiting for me 2 days after ordering it.

The Amazon Kindle came in a very sleek looking matte box with a bunch of letters on it.

A closer look at the letters on the new Amazon Kindle 2.0 black casing. It adds a bit top the mystique that currently surrounds the Kindle.

Here’s what the Kindle looks like. It arrives with simple instructions on the screen on how to get started - nice touch.

Here’s me lighting up the Kindle with a flashlight to illustrate how the new Kindle screen works - light hitting the screen directly only makes it easier to read, and is necessary in dark environments.

Here’s everything that came in the Amazon Kindle box: instruction manual, the Kindle 2.0 itself & the power cord.

This is the Amazon Kindle 2.0 instruction manual. As you can see, the Kindle user guide is thankfully thin, and I never had to reference it during my setup. Setup instructions and more are contained on the actual Kindle

The cord for the Kindle 2.0 works with a USB jack, so if your USB port passes power you can charge your Kindle with your laptop.

This converts the Kindle’s USB cord to work with a regular electric outlet.