Kindle - Fi
Mar 18, 2009 at 1:10 AM Post #2 of 26
Bought one a couple of weeks ago, my wife took one look and 30 seconds later I was ordering my 2nd! so much for the first one!

Overall, I am not a big reader, but take the train to work and as such need to occupy 3 hours a day.. and I do listen to my various audio rigs, but wanted to see how this would work as I see many people on the train with them and they all speak highly of them. Most coming from Kindle 1s to the new 2.

Well I'm a believer, the ability to cut and paste sections of text on the fly and edit a quick tag to it to then review later is perfect for my style of reading, I like religious and motivational stuff, The ability to quickly change the text size and leading etc, makes it perfect, as I need corrective lenses to read and often when I am tired, its nice to just bump it up one size and Im good.

I have now read 3 books in the past week.. more than I read before K2 since the beginning of this year! its just so easy to read and after a few minutes it just melts away leaving you in the world of words... I am totally becoming a fan of this product. I like being able to quickly use the broadband 3g to find books and grab the first 5% (about 2 chapters) to see if I want the the whole thing, if I do then its in front of me to read in about 30 seconds... so much for waiting for a few days to get the hard copy from any internet source. The pricing is better too, most books are 10 bucks or less and I use my IPhone 3g to sometimes fill in the gaps, just hit Sync when I am done, and the K2 will then know where I left off on my Iphone.. pretty slick.

I dont use the text to speech, I do use the brower a lot more than I thought I would as it does support Java Script in the advanced mode so the web experience is good enough for me. I also use m.google.com to get all my mobile applications email etc, which is handy in a pinch.

The screen is stunning, the keyboard is very comfortable, but I wish someone would come out with a little rubber button like the Thinkpads use so the mouse/toggle thing was a bit easier to control, other than that, its amazing. I get about 4-5 days with the broadband on, and my wife now has gone about 2 weeks with it off... with about 1-2 hours a day of reading. She loves hers and reads a lot so probably a better testimony to the virtues of this thing than I.

I also dont normally buy extended warranties for anything but Apple Laptops, as I find them to be a good value for portable stuff, but after handling this for a while did spring for the 65.00 warranty on both of mine, I figure if it gets dropped its toast.. and I just place a call within 2 years and they send me another one, I drop the crashed one back in their box and they cover shipping both ways. I hope I dont have to use it, but I think its worth the extra pop, if you can afford it. I also bought leather Amazon Kindle2 cover for 29.95 and the small light they sell with it 13.95, both very worthy investments.
 
Mar 18, 2009 at 2:45 AM Post #4 of 26
one more caveat... to be honest on both sides. I just finished a book by Tony Dungy of the Baltimore Colts (Quiet Strength) excellent book if you like inspirational stuff with a Christian center. I was telling some people at work what a great read it was.. and then it dawned on me when they asked to borrow it.. with an E Reader.. you cant extend them the favor.. but that is true of all E Readers not just the K2.. I do believe however, that just the impact to our world in terms of resources saved is worth the investment and once you want to read a book and in less than a minute are.. its going to be hard to ever go back to to waiting ever again.. I dont tend to go back and re-read books, but do extend them to others, so I will have to get used to that part of this new technology.

Also to me, the screen is MUCH easier to read than a hardcopy... I tried the Sony and didnt care for it much, the touch screen made it look mushy to my eyes, its much clearer on the K2, and the ability to change the Leading and font size on the fly is something I wont ever give up, it alone extends my reading time when I would normally be putting a hard copy back down.
 
Mar 18, 2009 at 4:02 AM Post #5 of 26
Thanks for the comments. My biggest pause in getting one is that I worry I won't like the reading experience as compared to physical books, but almost every review and comment I've read favors the Kindle. Also, looking at my reading habits, I've estimated that only about one third of the books I'm interested in or purchased are available on the Kindle, so it may not yet be worth it for me.
 
Mar 18, 2009 at 5:25 AM Post #6 of 26
I haven't seen a Kindle 2 yet, I would certainly buy one if it was available, but one thing I would like to interject is that you do not need to purchase books exclusively from Amazon. There are places where you can purchase DRM free books should you desire and at prices that are usually cheaper than Amazon. The only caveat is that you have to download them to a computer and then transfer them via USB.
 
Mar 18, 2009 at 12:45 PM Post #7 of 26
Quote:

Originally Posted by CMasten /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Bought one a couple of weeks ago, my wife took one look and 30 seconds later I was ordering my 2nd! so much for the first one!

Overall, I am not a big reader, but take the train to work and as such need to occupy 3 hours a day.. and I do listen to my various audio rigs, but wanted to see how this would work as I see many people on the train with them and they all speak highly of them. Most coming from Kindle 1s to the new 2.

Well I'm a believer, the ability to cut and paste sections of text on the fly and edit a quick tag to it to then review later is perfect for my style of reading, I like religious and motivational stuff, The ability to quickly change the text size and leading etc, makes it perfect, as I need corrective lenses to read and often when I am tired, its nice to just bump it up one size and Im good.















I have now read 3 books in the past week.. more than I read before K2 since the beginning of this year! its just so easy to read and after a few minutes it just melts away leaving you in the world of words... I am totally becoming a fan of this product. I like being able to quickly use the broadband 3g to find books and grab the first 5% (about 2 chapters) to see if I want the the whole thing, if I do then its in front of me to read in about 30 seconds... so much for waiting for a few days to get the hard copy from any internet source. The pricing is better too, most books are 10 bucks or less and I use my IPhone 3g to sometimes fill in the gaps, just hit Sync when I am done, and the K2 will then know where I left off on my Iphone.. pretty slick.

I dont use the text to speech, I do use the brower a lot more than I thought I would as it does support Java Script in the advanced mode so the web experience is good enough for me. I also use m.google.com to get all my mobile applications email etc, which is handy in a pinch.

The screen is stunning, the keyboard is very comfortable, but I wish someone would come out with a little rubber button like the Thinkpads use so the mouse/toggle thing was a bit easier to control, other than that, its amazing. I get about 4-5 days with the broadband on, and my wife now has gone about 2 weeks with it off... with about 1-2 hours a day of reading. She loves hers and reads a lot so probably a better testimony to the virtues of this thing than I.

I also dont normally buy extended warranties for anything but Apple Laptops, as I find them to be a good value for portable stuff, but after handling this for a while did spring for the 65.00 warranty on both of mine, I figure if it gets dropped its toast.. and I just place a call within 2 years and they send me another one, I drop the crashed one back in their box and they cover shipping both ways. I hope I dont have to use it, but I think its worth the extra pop, if you can afford it. I also bought leather Amazon Kindle2 cover for 29.95 and the small light they sell with it 13.95, both very worthy investments.


Thanks so much for your observations. If I do go ahead with this (even closer after reading your comments) I too am hoping that I will increase my reading. I spend hours each evening pouring over this site and others instead of picking up a book. It's about time I rearrange my priorities and get back on track. I think the Kindle will help me do just that!
 
Mar 18, 2009 at 4:02 PM Post #8 of 26
That is an excellent point, Quality of Life is key.. I find that reading is far more beneficial than just cruising the Net which I have been more prone to do as of late. I am not much of a TV or Movie person, outside of The Discovery Channel etc. Listening to nice audio rigs is also high quality time, but I find that the books enhance my life, as I find bits and pieces of wisdom that I can use throughout my life. I could certainly get that from a good show or movie, but find that books are more concentrated in that regard.

Overall the K2 is definitely enhancing my quality of life time, as I am reading more and learning more, Its ease of use and great interface make it so easy to just pick up and enjoy. Having all of my books plus a bunch of ones I am sampling push it way beyond just hard covers..

Also yes there are LOTS of free and paid sources for other books outside of Amazon. The only difference is using the USB cable to push them over, instead of the quick push down over the broadband that Amazon has set up, its fun to show people that inquire though, I just grab a sample of a book and let the cool factor begin. Because its so easy and convenient however I do find that I tend to load up a lot of new samples to then create a cue of books that I would like to purchase as I have the time, something I never did before K2.
 
Mar 18, 2009 at 4:49 PM Post #9 of 26
Quote:

Originally Posted by jpstereo /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I spend hours each evening pouring over this site and others instead of picking up a book.


Ya, and what's so odd about that?
L3000.gif


Quote:

It's about time I rearrange my priorities and get back on track. I think the Kindle will help me do just that!


Quitter!
tongue_smile.gif


Actually, I'll probably buy a K2 myself, but not just yet! I'm afraid I'd spend most of the summer reading instead of enjoying my travel time in other ways. That, and I need to put a lot of work into a writing project this summer. So I think I'll wait until the Fall when things settle down again.
 
Mar 18, 2009 at 4:58 PM Post #10 of 26
Very good. Oh, how I love this site and I certainly do learn here but I also tend to use head-fi as an excuse to keep busy when I really should be doing something else - like reading more books!
 
Mar 20, 2009 at 2:20 PM Post #12 of 26
I have thought about getting one for a while but the Kindle 1 at that price just did not do it for me. With the release of the Kindle 2 I have been seriously considering picking one up.

The ease of buying books could lead to further depletion of the wallet
biggrin.gif
 
Mar 20, 2009 at 5:58 PM Post #14 of 26
Quote:

Originally Posted by Wmcmanus /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Quitter!
tongue_smile.gif



LOL - this made me laugh.

I think it's about balance.

I feel the same as the OP when I read. It's a very rich experience. For me, It's like working out. I have to push myself to do it, but once I do it is always well worth it and rewarding. A friend of mine who is an avid reader doesn't understand that it's hard to get started, but I have to be honest it just is for me. Once engaged though, and I'm good.

My only reservation is the fact that I like physical books. I know it's not as practical, but I like looking at text as apposed to a computer screen. I just wonder if this device fatigues the eyes more than printed text?

I think I'm old school and would be happier going one book at a time, but I think the Kindle is a good way to help people (like the OP) get back to the rewarding world of reading (internet browsing doesn't count as reading
tongue.gif
)
 
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