On the road with Kindle
I went to Chicago for a few days last week and brought the Kindle with me as my only reading material. Due to the problems I’ve had with Whispernet service (well documented here) I only had one book loaded onto the device, but hoped if I made it through Wikinomics I could grab some more content while in the Windy City.
My observations:
- Since Kindle is an electronic device, you can’t read it during takeoffs or landings. If you’re like me and need some distraction during these points of a flight, bring along something else for those first and last 10,000 feet.
- In Chicago, Whispernet service actually works. It was quick to create a connection and even quicker to access the Kindle store. I didn’t buy another book, but I did grab a free subscription to Amazon’s blog, which will now be delivered daily to my Kindle. So the question is whether poor service in Lawrence is an anomaly, or if you have to be in a major city to get a decent connection.
- At some point, I had to set down the Kindle and found myself reaching for a paper bookmark. Of course, Kindle has a bookmarking mechanism, but the fact that my mind apparently mistook the device for a real book says something about its capability of replacing print.
- I read Kindle text pretty fast. I don’t know if this is a good or bad thing yet.
Tags: kindle
October 27th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Aaron,
Can you annotate on Kindle? Is it wireless? How do you download books? What is Whispernet? I know this is a lot of questions in a row, but you are a very smart cookie! I’m seriously considering getting one (or at least asking for one for Christmas.)
Sue
October 27th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Sue–yes, you can annotate. There is a “Notes” feature. Your notes are stored in a text file you can save by connecting Kindle via USB to your computer. I haven’t added manynotes but I do use the virtual highlighter quite a bit.
The device is wireless, in the way that a cell phone is wireless (not wi-fi). Whispernet is the service that Amazon uses to connect Kindle. It’s basically a subset of Sprint’s data service. You don’t have to pay for this–it’s included in the price of the Kindle. I will say I’ve had problems connecting to it sometimes, especially at first, but it’s been working better of late.
Books can be downloaded directly from the device. This took me some time to get up and running because Amazon automatically registers the device with the Amazon account of the individual who purchased it–so mine was registered to Shanna. It works really well, though, and you can also download certain newspapers and blogs. You can also use their conversion service to convert your own documents to Kindle’s format and then either send those wirelessly or over USB.
Hope that helps! Supposedly some new models are coming out next year, but not in time for the holidays.
October 27th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Thanks, Aaron. I appreciate your quick response. It sounds like something I would like. One more question - how big is it?
October 27th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
About the size of a medium-sized paperback–just eyeballing it, I’d say about 6×8, 1″ thick with the case.