Thinking Kindle? Buy it here!
At least theoretically, Amazon’s super hyped Kindle “wireless reading device” could be a wonderful cruising gadget. Imagine waking up in one of the many U.S. coastal anchorages covered by the EVDO cellular service included in the thing’s $399 price. Any of the several major newspapers, magazines, and blogs that you can subscribe to would have already been downloaded into your Kindle, ready to read, along with 100 plus books you might already have stored in it (but which wouldn’t be weighing your boat down). Plus colleagues and family can send documents to your Kindle email, where they’re put into Kindle format and downloaded to you for a dime a piece. And the Kindle help files suggest that there’s even a basic Web browser among the “experimental” aspects of this gizmo. For more info here’s Newsweek’s thorough cover story (hey, that Ellison byline you may see around Newsweek is my kido!), and here’s Engadget’s more skeptical approach. But please don’t buy a Kindle without coming back here first. Even though currently sold out, Amazon is so anxious to get Kindles out in the field that they are offering Associates like Panbo an extraordinary 10% commission. So if you do decide to buy a Kindle, please start your purchase with this Amazon link, or the one below. Also tell us how you like it. Thanks.
Hi Ben… there are some strong counter-arguments to the Kindle that make me very wary of it, and not just the DRM and selling of open blogs. See this post by Mark Pilgrim for some interesting perspective. Although it’s certainly great in principle and apparently well-done technically, I think there are some issues that need to be resolved…
Cheers,
Steve
Hello Ben,
A lot of time has passed since your original post and many of those issues have been tackled, in my opinion.
The latest Kindle ( dx ) has improved navigation greatly and it comes with native pdf support, a larger screen, a better design, 3.5 gb storage capacity and much better text definition. It even has a landscape feature ( which acts like a zoom ) that lets small pdfs and big images to be viewed much better. Here’s a page about the Kindle, with in depth information and useful tips on all three versions of this reader.
Regards,
John T.