Amazon Kindle Review (Pros vs Cons)
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The Kindle. Hoping to re-invent the electronic books or at least the way we read them, Amazon launched a hand-held digital reader capable of downloading thousands of books without a connection to a personal computer.
The Kindle, is about the size of a paperback book, it costs 400 dollars and uses the same electronic ink technology found in Sony’s Reader. Amazon offered 90,000 titles for download at launch, including most current bestsellers, and said it plans to eventually offer its entire catalog of 5.8 million books in print. As Kindle is still a novelty, let’s take a closer look at the Pro’s and Con’s of Amazon’s latest device.
Pro’s
The Wireless connection. The books from Kindle store are downloaded through Sprint’s EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized) network and you don’t need to pay for the wireless connection because the cost is included in the price of the books. As you have wireless access to the store, this means you won’t have to use a PC to download and transfer the books. But if you are out of wireless coverage, such as traveling overseas, you can download books to your computer from Your Media Library and transfer via USB to your Kindle.
The storage. According to Amazon, Kindle can hold on its internal memory somewhere around 200 books and by using a SD card you can always have a huge library in your pocket as the average size of a book is somewhere around 500Kbytes to 800Kbytes.
A dedicated device. If you are really into reading e-books, Kindle will be your new best friend. Weighing just over 10 ounces and displaying text on a 6-inch diagonal screen, Kindle is the prefect reading device, and easy on the eye.
Kindle uses the passive display technology invented by E-Ink which produces no light. Not only is Kindle’s display perfect for reading, but a two-hour charge of its battery lasts for 30 hours of uninterrupted reading, which means that you will never run out of power while reading your book.
Additional features. With Kindle, Amazon tried to go beyond electronic books and the device has built-in access to The New Oxford American Dictionary and to Wikipedia.org. Also it has search capabilities.
Con’s
The Design. Kindle looks like a tablet with big buttons and a keyboard which can be used to take notes. With sharp edges and a bit too big to fit in a pocket, Kindle looks like it has landed straight from the 80s. In a world in which Apple and its fancy gadgets are setting the trend, Amazon proved some courage to unveil such a plain device.
Black-and-White display. Although it has a remarkable technology, E-Ink is years away from adding color to its display. While this aspect won’t matter too much as you are using Kindle only for reading books, it can become very frustrating when reading newspapers, magazines, or blogs.
The Price/Prices. Charging $399 for a device that knows to do only one thing, unable to browse the Web although it is wireless connected and displays the pages only in black-and-white seems very bold on Amazon’s part. Also while it is understandable to pay $9,99 for the electronic version of a bestseller, charging $5.99 to $14.99 per month for newspaper subscriptions and $1.25 to $3.49 per month for magazines doesn’t seem a smart move as most of them are available for smaller fees or free of charge. I understand that the price includes the cost of the wireless connectivity, but maybe Amazon should have considered a better policy about the prices.
All in all, I believe that kindle is a huge step in the e-book / digital world. It will be really interesting to see how the consumers plan to take advantage of such a instrument. My first thought was how cool it would be to have all of your school books in 1 place, instead of having 6 different books in your book bag. I really hope education takes a stab at what the geeks are offering them!
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