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Kindle: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device | 
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| Brand: Amazon
Category: Amazon Devices
Buy New: $359.00
Rating:  4192 reviews
Sales Rank: 1
Color: Bisque
Media: Electronics
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.7
UPC: 892685001003
EAN: 0892685001003
ASIN: B000FI73MA
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Features:
| • | Revolutionary electronic-paper display provides a sharp, high-resolution screen that looks and reads like real paper. | | • | Simple to use: no computer, no cables, no syncing. | | • | Wireless connectivity enables you to find, buy, and read instantly—whether you’re in the back of a taxi, at the airport, or in bed. | | • | Shop the Kindle Store directly from your Kindle. | | • | Buy a book and it is auto-delivered wirelessly in less than one minute. |
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| Accessories:
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4187 more reviews...
 Excellent device, but not without its flaws August 20, 2008
Michael L. Muth (Kansas City, KS USA)
These guys are a bit pricey ($359.99 for the basic system), but not
inordinately so. I've seen a few on e-bay, but decided to get mine fro
Amazon. Kindles ship 2d business day, so it wasn't a long wait.
The unit came in a box which was designed to resemble a book. Amazon
probably could have saved some bucks there since you'll likely not use
that box again. Included in the box were the kindle, the notebook-like
cover, AC Power supply/charger, and the USB cable
When the unit ships, it is registered to you and your Kindle account (with
e-mail addresses) is set up.
Pull the plastic strip which masks the battery, plug it in to charge
and wait a couple of hours. Two hours does a full charge and that's
good for 7 days without Whispernet or 2 days with. I think the best
bet is to leave the WiFi interface off except when you need it.
I also ordered accessories for my Kindle. First was an 8 gb SD card.
Amazon says the unit handles 4 gb cards, but my 8gb card works fine and
there are folks who report that 16 gb works fine. The other accessory
was a clip on LED reading light. The Kindle is *not* backlit, so the
light could come in handy.
Reading the Kindle is pretty much like reading a book, except that the
Kindle is lighter. There are two buttons for next Page and one for
previous page. You select the item to read or a navigation menu using
a scroll button just below the window. When you re-open a document,
the Kindle returns to the place at which you stopped reading.
The unit can hold quite a bit of material. I can put my 1300 volume e-
library on my Kindle and still have 7 gb to spare. You can also store
MP3 files in the music folder and play them as you read. Generally, I
move my books to a network drive at home and mainly keep music in that
8gb SD card. When I read, I plug in the headphones and press Alt-P to
start the music.
A few Pros and Cons:
Pro - holds lots of material, more than you want to store on it.
Con - the home menu shows *all* of the books on the unit which are in
Kindle (.azw), mobi (.prc) and Text (.txt) format. Well, those which
have those extensions. If you have a large number of texts stored on
the Kindle, it is cumbersome to manage. The display ignores
directory/folder organization and just shows all the appropriate files.
Pro - plays MP3 files. Using a headphone, the sound is pretty clear.
With the 8gb card in place, I have 400 songs sitting in place.
Con - Through the built in speaker, the sound quality is not so good.
Con - The headphone jack is at the bottom of the unit, next to the
power and usb ports. If you are laid back a bit and are holding the
kindle on your body rather than holding it up, the headphone jack is in
the wrong place and the plug is going to see unnecessary wear and tear.
Con - No play lists and no way to skip or select a song. The unit
simply plays the songs at random.
Con - Why didn't Amazon list the keyboard shortcut to play music (Alt-P)
or the shortcut to skip a song (Alt-T)?
Pro - paging through a document is convenient with buttons on both sides
Con - The right side button is too easy to accidentally trigger.
Con - rapidly moving through a text without a bookmark can be a nuisance.
Pro - the notebook-like cover protects the Kindle and contains a tab
which latches the Kindle in place.
Con - the on/off switches for WiFi and Power are on the back of the
unit. You have to put your hand between the cover and the Kindle to
operate those switches. This can cause the unit to pop loose from the
cover. Then, when you're putting the unit back in place (really a
simple operation) that right-side "next page" button is exactly where
you need to grab the Kindle. You can move quite a few pages before you
realize you did that. I've found the placement of the on/off switches to
be a real irritant.
Pro - the screen is easy to read with black text on a light, almost
white background. You can vary text size for easier reading or, if you
wish, more text on the page.
Pro/con depending on the user - the screen flashes a bit when you flip
pages. It was annoying at first, until I realized that it was a good
thing to have a visual cue that the page had changed.
Pro - Easy file conversion.
Con - Content Manager is a little cumbersome - no surprise on such a unit.
To really move files about easily, hook up the Kindle to your PC and use
the PC's file management utilities to move and delete files.
Pro - Although this is not documented, you can get a sort-of GPS when using
Google Maps. It seems to be based on cell towers rather than the real GPS
system, so don't expect pinpoint accuracy - especially if there are tall
buildings around.
Pro/Con - Although you can load pictures and even do a slide show, that ability
is undocumented. Basically, you dump the files into a folder, do an Alt-Z,
and then open the folder as you would a book. Rendering of photos is pretty
much the quality you would expect of a low-res B/W screen.
There are quite a few texts out there (Amazon says more than 140,000 in
Kindle format). You usually pay $9.99 for a book at Amazon. This can
be a deal if the alternative is the hardback (29.95) version of the
book. You also get immediate delivery. Some individual stories are
listed - usually for a dollar or so. I suspect that the number of
individual stories inflates the total count of titles. You can read a
sample of the book without obligation to buy and then buy with a quick
click if you like what you saw.
There are some free e-text sites, such as University of Pennsylvania,
U of Virginia, Baen Books, Gutenberg, and Gutenberg Australia. Orwell
fans can get all of his books at Gutenberg.au. Quite a few of those
books on the "must read" lists are available at free sites.
Now, having said all that, I guess I should answer the question, "was
it a good value and would you buy it if you knew then what you know
now?" Yes, in a heartbeat. I think it's a big plus for me. I've
replaced several hundred dead tree editions with e-books - saving space,
and getting money for the books at the local used book store and found
the Kindle pretty easy to use and convenient to tote about.
Good reading device, but with some design flaw August 20, 2008
Will H (Boston, MA USA)
Overall this is a good device to reading books, magazines, newspapers, blogs, etc. Some of the kindle books are not formatted good enough especially ones with lots of images, charts, drawings, etc.
One of the biggest flaw I found is the design of the device, the next & previous page buttons are way too big, you can easily press it by accident. And the power buttons are on the bottom of the device, which make turning on/off a little awkward.
 What about the students? August 19, 2008
E. Brehm (taylor mill, KY USA)
0 out of 8 found this review helpful
I think the kindle is a great product and a huge step up from the Sony ebook. I would purchase one in a heartbeat if it had college textbooks. College textbooks are expensive and heavy. It is impossible to fit the twelve college textbooks, that i am required to have for this upcoming semester, into my backpack. Even if the books did fit in my bag they would be too heavy for me to carry. College books are also very expensive. I often find myself spending hundereds of dollars each semester on books. Some of which a never even end up using. I would absolutley love to buy all my college textbooks and store them on the kindle. I feel that this piece of technology would be well worth the money if I could use it for school. I am sure that many other students feel the same way.
Love My Kindle August 19, 2008
Mia (The Land of OZ)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I tend to expect "less than", especially when purchasing a new gadget. What I got was More Than I expected with the Kindle. It is simple to operate and does everything it is supposed to do.
It is lightweight & easy on the eyes. There are thousands of books to choose from. Look forward to more newspapers and magazines becoming available.
The Kindle has me reading again! I highly recommend it!
Must Have for Commuters August 19, 2008
AB (Bay Area, CA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
It's not perfect, but in my opinion its the best new device since Tivo. Although not as flashy most new gadgets, it grows on you very quicikly. I was initially annoyed with how easy it is to accidentally turn pages, but got over it once I figured out how to hold it just right, which is no different that what is required of a new book, magazine or newspaper.
If you commute via public transportaion its great to be able to read the paper while standing and "turn pages" with one hand. Web-browser is more functional than I expected and does the job for reading news and sports scores. By turning off the wireless after downloading morning papaers it only needs a charge about once a week.
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