Saturday, May 16, 2009

Kindle: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly



The Good:

Love, Love, Love the screen saver. It's my favorite thing. New author's portraits every day.



I can send an attachment to my kindle email and read my pattern on the kindle; very cool and convenient.

It certainly beats carrying around books. It is great to read with in bed. I haven't tried reading and knitting at the same time, which is one of the appeals of the thing.

Definitely has a WOW factor, everyone wants to try it.

It reads g-mail.

I can read blogs and newspapers without subscribing.

It has a few very convenient links in the pre-set browser bookmarks.

It acts like a GPS - but I can't figure that out yet.

There are lots of free classics - which is great, because who wants to spring for poor-quality paperbacks and than have to find a place for them to live in my already book-saturated household.

The Wispernet syncing and book downloading is quick.


The Bad:

It is like reading on an etch-a-sketch.

The gray-scale of the print is not so great on the eyes. I'm reading slower on the Kindle than I read a book. I'm sure it is because of the contrast.

NO PAGE NUMBERS!!!!! There is a % scale on the bottom of the page.

The browser is slow, and it freaks out on occasion. I do not get a great signal.

It is not comfortable to hold, it is kinda slippery, and too thin. I did not buy the Amazon cover, I bought the Octovo sleeve - which I love, but the cover probably gives it more of a "book" feel.

I have charged it 4 times in 1 week and most of the time the browser is OFF. It takes a VERY long time to charge - 3 hours.

Cannot read Mac mail on it.

The Ugly:

The Browser - very ugly - not easy to manipulate at all. I know that this is not its primary use - but still, in this day and age it should fly. It is probably a limitation of the e-ink, and how it refreshes itself.

Also hate that the browser doesn't go to a fresh search page when you wake the computer and turn on the browser. It goes back to the last page that you were on, kind of annoying.

Strongly dislike the fact that I cannot use Stanza on my computer to read Kindle content, even though the e-books are Mobi files and I should be able to do what I like with content that I paid for.




Myrtle progress, nice, huh?

No comments: