The new Kindle has landed

by Volker Weber

Kindle

Kindle

Kindle

Comments

Wow, it just looks like as it's printed on glossy paper :-)

Christian Tennigkeit, 2011-02-10

With 3G?
I'm curious about the use cases you will find in Germany for this gadget.

Stefan Domanske, 2011-02-10

Christian, it looks less glossy then it appears in this photo. But yes, it does look like printed.

Stefan, it is our second Kindle. The use case is pretty clear: reading books. Period.

Volker Weber, 2011-02-10

I've recently bought my first Kindle.

It's perfect for books that I would have purchased in paperback format and pretty poor for book that need a larger page for tables and images. The book buying experience is surprising good.

The flash between pages isn't as annoying as I thought it would be, battery life is great. The lack of illumination isn't great if you like to read at night and you have a companion who is bothered by a bedside lamp.

My first Kindle developed a fault but has been replaced quickly by Amazon.

For me it's a good companion for the iPad and it's so light you'd hardly notice carrying it as well.

Jason Hook, 2011-02-10

Jason, we have a Kindle night light that gets occasionally used. And yes, it's only good for reading novels, not so much for textbooks.

Volker Weber, 2011-02-10

That looks great thank you for the tip. The Kindle looks like the DX do you think that's more suited to reading textbooks?

Jason

Jason Hook, 2011-02-10

The DX is too large for me. We have a Kindle 2 and now a Kindle 3.

Volker Weber, 2011-02-10

Having recently bought one of these, I was curious to see how the 3G aspect worked. It seems to work very well. I think it's well worth the small increment in unit cost.

When used with a tool such as Calibre, the 3G service comes into it own when travelling, since you can set Calibre on your home desktop to 'scrape' the BBC news website (for example) without images and send to your kindle wherever you are. Ok, so there is a small cost involved, but for 20p per 'issue' you can have all the news. I was in Egypt recently and it worked really well, even though I was at sea for a week. It only stopped working because the authorities 'turned off' the internet :).

I used it to check email periodically (via Gmail) for free and that's a great facility. I just keep my fingers crossed that it doesn't get abused and so can remain free for all of us.

It was a choice between an iPad and a Kindle. Given the overriding objective was to read books, the battery life and low cost - both to buy and own - make the Kindle a winner. I'm not even that bothered about having to take an LED light with me if I think it will be required. Great product.

John Ash, 2011-02-10

very interresting.
How is the WAF (woman acceptance factor)?

Thx
Werner

Werner Motzet, 2011-02-10

In my case, the WAF was off the scale! I had to buy another one....with a pink cover.

N.B. Make a second registered to the same account as the first and you'll be able to have the same books on both. Up to 6 devices I believe.

John Ash, 2011-02-10

Wife is the bookworm and early adopter. I am only trailing.

Volker Weber, 2011-02-10

Concerning the WAF: I personally know 8 Kindle users, all women. Each and every of them loves it.

Concerning lighting: My mom and my wife each have a cover with a built-in light. The light gets its power from the Kindle itself. The cover gives it more of a real book feel but is easily removed if necessary.

Timothy Briley, 2011-02-10

Let me put that on my wish list ... :-)

Volker Weber, 2011-02-10

Now that's one of the items on my hardware wishlist, which is already on sale and which you're actually allowed to talk about, Volker. :) Do you use it for German novels as well? Is that even possible yet? My perception is, that there's only a very limited variety of German books available if any from Amazon at the moment. I guess there are workarounds converting ePubs but I would like to use it the way it was intended to and buy books wirelessly.

Henning Störk, 2011-02-10

One of the things I downloaded recently was the Kindle App for the iPad which is a great app and lets me read Kindle titles. I don't believe the iPad is as easy on the eyes as the Kindle when reading though. On the other hand Mind you it is in colour on the iPad.

Does this mean I have to buy ANOTHER gadget? ;-)

John Lindsay, 2011-02-10

LOVE Kindle. Best gadget to enter our house last year and longest honeymoon period ever.

Colin Williams, 2011-02-10

got myself a Kindle3 with 3G as a instant purchase from Dixons when I was in London last November and love it for reading books. Also with Calibre and other tools to get other stuff onto it. Zweitausendeins has a DVD with a large eBook-Library (German and other classics) that you can move easy via Calibre from ePub to Kindle format. And I am a bookworm with a lot of dead wood on my bookshelves...

Armin Auth, 2011-02-10

@Volker: Which books, Amazon DRM-eBooks? No Instapaper? And: is there any use for the 3G model outside the U. S.?

Stefan Domanske, 2011-02-10

3G gives you connectivity where there is no Wi-Fi. It works outside the US just as well and allows you to buy books. You can also download docs mailed to your Kindle account for a small fee. Kindle also has a very rudimentary web browser that I never use.

What kind of books? All sorts of books I have in my Calibre library, and yes, also Amazon books. Instapaper? No. Remember, I also have an iPad.

Volker Weber, 2011-02-10

I got a Kindle at LS and have to say it is really great for reading. The quality is amazing even at bright sunlight.
I haven't looked into reading pdfs or other formats yet, only downloaded books from Amazon. Since I want to read books in other languages as well I will do some more research, haven't found much useful stuff for now.
I did try the browser, the quality is good and some pages are fun because of the b&w look. If you need to check something quickly it's OK to use.
Volker, you should get one of those covers with the built-in light, it was perfect on the flight back home after LS :-)

Andreas Ponte, 2011-02-11

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