Cache and Carry: A Review of the Kindle

[one...two...tree 2,762]

(Dear Santa, I would love to have one of these...)

By Steve Mirsky, Scientific American

I’m not your classic “early adopter” when it comes to new electronic gizardry (a word I just made up that means a combination of gizmo and wizardry, with a secondary definition of bird digestion). I’m not even what one ersatz electronics guru referred to as an “early adapter,” although I do sometimes wonder if my purpose in life has been reduced to making sure my various devices are all plugged in correctly.

So I’m a bit surprised to be a longtime owner (since February!) of a second-generation Amazon Kindle. The e-reader looks both futuristic and pedestrian, like something Harrison Ford in Blade Runner might be reading from and then bleeding on.

My sister, who travels a great deal for work and is fond of airplane fiction of the Dan Brown and Robin Cook schools, adopted a first-generation model early. Borrowing hers, I was thus able to experiment when I had some travel of my own. I usually take a bunch of books on the road. So I weighed the Kindle against the books—seriously, I put them on a scale—and promptly decided to get one of them there newfangled, thin, low-mass reading machines of my own.

Amazon sells Kindle versions of many new books at a discount. But one of the first things I discovered is how much stuff you can cram on it that is totally free. Project Gutenberg, which is trying to get everything that’s now off copyright onto the Web, has posted thousands of classics, and it’s easy to download them in seconds on a home computer and then move them over to the Kindle. Three decades ago I bought (but still have not read) a copy of The Brothers Karamazov, which sits on a shelf at home. Now, with the Kindle, in less than five months I already have not read the electronic edition of The Brothers Karamazov on three continents.

(By the way, the 1958 movie version of that book stars a very young, very subdued William Shatner, who later, as Captain Kirk, was often handed a Kindle-looking device, which he then invariably glanced at, signed and returned. So rather than being an e-reader, it was probably a deep-space requisition-generating machine with which to authorize the purchase of red Starfleet shirts, which are tough to keep in stock.)

Users can also easily move PDF and text documents over to the device. So instead of printing out the 125 pages of manuscripts and proposals that we may go over in a given editorial meeting, I just load the whole PDF onto the Kindle. At the meeting, it’s then a snap to shuttle between the editorial notes and a Dan Jenkins golf novel called Slim and None, which unfortunately also describes the chances that I will read The Brothers Karamazov before you read this column.

But the Kindle is not without its drawbacks. The ease with which one can sample a book’s first chapter for free and then buy the complete work can lead the less careful reader astray. That was how, before a recent flight to London, I wound up getting a Dean Koontz best seller called Relentless. The plot was man-bites-dog intriguing: a novelist gets a bad review, after which the reviewer appears to be intent on tracking down and killing the writer.

But then (SPOILER ALERT!, although “spoiler” suggests there is something that could be ruined), I unexpectedly descended into a Bizarro world of good-guy survivalists, bad-guy intellectuals and a six-year-old physics super­genius named Milo who actually does read Dostoyevsky, albeit a comic book edition of Crime and Punishment. I was alternately shaking and scratching my head long before Milo builds a teleportation apparatus that can’t handle the boy’s weight but can deal with the 10-pounds-lighter family dog. Which quickly learns how to teleport itself without the device. You know, the way Pavlov’s dogs learned to salivate without the food. With his new power, the dog foils a nefarious plot. Woof.

In the climactic confrontation, Milo saves the day with salt shakers that he’s converted into localized, short-interval time-reversal machines (of the Galaxy Quest Omega 13 variety). The six-year-old undoes the murder of his father, the novelist, who, given a second chance, gets the jump on his assailant, the reviewer’s mother, head of a giant conspiracy to lower American cultural standards. (I’m not kidding, that’s the actual plot.) Which leads me to the biggest drawback of the Kindle: at $299, you can’t really afford to hurl it into the Thames.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article....cache-and-carry

[Heracles 417]

I recently bought one of these as a graduation gift for a family member who has muscular dystrophy and is restricted to a wheel chair. He loves it.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I recently bought one of these as a graduation gift for a family member who has muscular dystrophy and is restricted to a wheel chair. He loves it.

Was it a 3rd generation?

That pick I posted here is an older version. The newer ones are about as thin as a folder. (Like this...)

Edited September 16, 2009 by Col. 'Bat' Guano

[pedroh 21]

steven get off your iphone, and read a freakin book..

[TayRivers 4]

I have used the Sony E-Reader for about 5 years now. I have looked into the Kindle but for now I will carry on using my Sony E-Reader.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

steven get off your iphone, and read a freakin book..

Dude - the Kindle is amazing. If I were rich, I'd ship you one just so you can appreciate its awesomeness.

from Amazon:

Slim: Just over 1/3 of an inch, as thin as most magazines

Lightweight: At 10.2 ounces, lighter than a typical paperback

Wireless: 3G wireless lets you download books right from your Kindle, anytime, anywhere; no monthly fees, service plans, or hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots

Books in Under 60 Seconds: Get books delivered in less than 60 seconds; no PC required

Paper-like Display: Reads like real paper; now boasts 16 shades of gray for clear text and even crisper images

Long Battery Life: 25% longer battery life; read for days without recharging

Carry Your Library: Holds over 1,500 books

Read-to-Me: With the new text-to-speech feature, Kindle can read every newspaper, magazine, blog, and book out loud to you, unless the book's rights holder made the feature unavailable

Free Book Samples: Download and read first chapters for free before you decide to buy.

Large Selection: Over 350,000 books plus U.S. and international newspapers, magazines, and blogs available

[pedroh 21]

nah thx, u still can send me the money though..

but I prefer reading from a normal old school book

[one...two...tree 2,762]

nah thx, u still can send me the money though..

but I prefer reading from a normal old school book

You know when paper was invented, it was the stone writers who were most resistant to the change...

[pedroh 21]

dude, u don't even use batteries.. don't tell me about progress

[Ms. Squirrel 11]

I love all the books I have in my livingroom. And I love hanging around a book store for hours, I would hate to see that gone. So I have no interest in the book game boy.

[Heracles 417]

I recently bought one of these as a graduation gift for a family member who has muscular dystrophy and is restricted to a wheel chair. He loves it.

Was it a 3rd generation?

That pick I posted here is an older version. The newer ones are about as thin as a folder. (Like this...)

Yeah it was the latest model. I was pretty impressed with it myself.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

dude, u don't even use batteries.. don't tell me about progress

6th Generation Kindle will have a hand crank and a detachable solar panel.

I love all the books I have in my livingroom. And I love hanging around a book store for hours, I would hate to see that gone. So I have no interest in the book game boy.

I don't think the books will ever be replaced...but for people who are on the go or travel a lot, the Kindle would be a lot less cumbersome than bringing books.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Its an interesting device, but I wouldn't shell out for it. I don't like proprietary technology (one of the reasons why I won't buy an iPod).

[HAL 9000 96]

I for one don't like the fact that Amazon can access the content via IP and delete any material it sees fit to delete.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

That bugs me too - I won't buy anything that enforces DRM.