Initial reactions to my Kindle 2

Toward the end of last year, I more or less decided that I wanted to get myself a Kindle, but I wanted to hold off for the next generation. So when Amazon announced the Kindle 2 in February, I put my order in right away.

(Credit: David Carnoy/CNET)

I've now had it for a few days and have had a chance to play around with it a fair bit. Here are some early thoughts.

Yes, it's expensive. $359--and typically add to that at least $29 for a case. Although there are many free books available (more on this in a bit), and new releases are generally cheaper on the Kindle than in hardcover, it's a good bet that you're not going to save enough on book purchases to come close to paying for the device--especially if you buy a lot of books used (as I do) or get them from the library. This is a premium-price convenience device.

It's the convenience that the Kindle 2 offers that convinced me to buy one. I travel a lot, and the idea of having a library in the form factor of a single paperback is immensely appealing to me. Frankly, I probably would not have purchased a Kindle, if I didn't spend so much time traveling by air with as little luggage as I can get away with.

Plenty of others, including CNET Reviews' David Carnoy, have reviewed the device itself, and I agree with what seems to be the general consensus: the Kindle 2 is easy on the eyes, and the controls seem to work reasonably well.

For reading books, it is a qualitatively different experience from reading on a laptop or a phone. It's not that you can't read on those other devices--in fact, I do it all the time--but the Kindle's e-paper display and long battery life make it far better suited for reading books.

That said, I do believe that we're still in a relatively early stage of this device's evolution. There may or may not be any truth to these specific rumors from Fast Company. (After all, we heard various inaccurate Kindle 2 "leaks" and predictions throughout much of last year.)

However, it seems reasonable to assume that future versions of the Kindle and its competitors will move toward a size that's closer to an 8.5-inch by 11-inch notebook, a touch screen, and color, as the technology and its associated costs improve.

Partly as a consequence of its current form factor, it's best to think of the Kindle as a device that really is primarily for reading mostly text books. When it comes to magazines and newspapers--which you can subscribe to and have delivered wirelessly--there are some pretty consistent threads in the Amazon comments regarding subjects like omitted charts and graphics, missing stories, poor photo reproduction, and so forth. Given that the subscriptions aren't exactly inexpensive--The New York Times' is $13.99 per month--they seem of questionable value.

If you're into classics, the supply of books available for free on the Kindle is impressive. The magic year is 1923, though some later works are in the public domain for a variety of reasons or otherwise made available as free e-books. Good sources include Manybooks and Getfreebooks. I intend to catch up on some Victorian novels and some exploration books that I've missed. However, I suspect that I--like others--will read more of this sort of material in principle than in practice.

If you feel that my take is damning with faint praise, that's not my intention, though I may be reacting a bit to the widespread professions of wildly enthusiastic love for today's Kindle. To me, it's all a bit excessive, given that the pricey device we buy today clearly has some evolving to do and will undoubtedly seem antiquated in just two or three years.

However, even today's iteration lets you easily carry around an essentially limitless supply of reading material. And if you're like me, spending a lot of time traveling, that's a real value.

[gapplois]

The next time I read to my son I'll remember that according to you, I'm breaking copyright law.

[maniac42]

I think this comment would have been more appropriate in response to Peter Glaskowsky's 2/2/2009 CNET editorial, "Ex-default for Kindle 2 text-to-speech: Legal?" The text-to-speech feature isn't even mentioned in this editorial by Gordon Haff.

[rapier1]

If you make a recording of that then you may be breaking copyright law. However, just reading it aloud in private is not a copyright violation. The only people saying that are the breathless bloggers trying to drum up more page views to boost their sagging ad income. What the publishers are reacting to is the mechanical auditory reproduction of their works. While the currently technology is poor they are trying to get ahead of it so that they audio book market - which is lucrative - isn't ground into dust. Personally, I don't think mechanical reproduction is going to go anywhere until it can replicate inflection and pacing - which is going to require some sort of embedded notation system.

[inkjet_guy]

Gordon,

Thanks for themore grounded review. Did you happen to test the text to speech function? If so, can you give a review of the clarity of the audio, the voice inflection, etc.?

Bill

[ghaff]

Just briefly. I'd describe it as pretty much par for the course for mechanical text-to-speech. Which is to say it could be a boon for people who, have trouble reading for one reason or another but isn't something that the average person would probably want to use on a regular basis. Certainly isn't a replacement for human-read audiobooks in the general case. Text-to-speech has gottena lot better but it's still a long way from a person--especially a professional voice actor.

[Inconnux]

I wouldn't spend more than $50 for a text reader. Complete waste of money

[Farthing Haypenny]

I agree. For the money why not get an e-book and get color, the internet as well as a wealth of other capabilities?

[Bertbaby]

As a new author with a free eBook novel that was just released, Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot, I am struggling to keep up with the different formats these readers utilize and the different DRM strategies. Can't the publishing industry get their act together and create some real standards or do they all have to pretend to be the next Microsoft?

Erik John Bertel

[iPhoneUser]

This is a real issue that gets zero attention these days. DRM cripples more than it helps, and it would be ok if there was a standardized format that everyone would follow, but everyone thinks their format is the best. I can't believe they'd make it this difficult to simply read text on a screen. I guess Napster set the digital copyright business back about 100 years it seems...

[blueonionsoftware]

The Kindle 2 is clearly an "early adopter" device. That said, it works well for what it does. I find reading books on the Kindle much more comfortable than real books. I can make the font bigger which is a big plus for me.

[john94857]

Amazon caved in on the text-to-speech feature... In any case, Amazon appears to be quite serious about ebooks this time. We will probably see faster advancements in this area in the near future as competition heats up.

While I am very interested in Kindle, I am still waiting for these books to be DRM free. It's just so much easier and "thought-free" when I don't have to worry about DRM and how I use something. The higher the resolution, the better it is too. We are nowhere near true 300-dpi but that's a technical limitation at this point.

Speaking of DRM-free, Amazon does have an awesome MP3 store that is DRM-free with a large selection and often good prices. It would be nice if they had the same thing with books.

On the note about Amazon, I recently came across an interesting table that details the discounts on Amazon. Maybe someone will find it useful too.

It is at <a href="http://www.uberi.com">http://www.uberi.com</a>

[ghaff]

I deliberately avoided getting into the whole DRM issue. I don't consider it a showstopper but it does get me thinking about whether a given book is something I want to re-read (and therefore would be more inclined to buy in paper form) as opposed to just going ahead and buying it.

[star_navig8r]

A big "10-4" on the convenience factor, which is why I got one! Also, my eyes are fading and the option to read larger print whenever I choose, is really nice. I also have many audio books on my iPOD, so between my K2, iPod and iPaq211, I can travel light and have many references and entertainment texts with me in a very small kit!

[iPhoneUser]

Yeah, you can travel light if you don't take the 3 different chargers you'll need and all the associated cables.

I may be missing something here, but a e-reader? Who cares? This would've been technologically cutting-edge in 1983. Yes, the Kindle device itself is very well put together, but I'm going to spend over $350 for a glorified hard drive with a screen that all it does is allow me to read text? Wow, glad I don't have the wool pulled over my eyes as much as all of you!!

[ghaff]

iPhoneUser,

If you are bringing a laptop, you can generally get away with just carrying a cable these days and charging off the USB. In any case, the Kindle 2's plug adapter (which the USB end plugs into to use a wall socket) is pretty minimal.

The e-paper technology (which is very different from reading an LCD) is definitely not 1983 vintage. But if it isn't worth it to you to carry a (currently pricey) dedicated reader device I'm not going to argue with you. As I said, I see the Kindle as something for some fairly specific use cases today.

[svendsen7]

I've had an original Kindle for a few months, and bought my son a K2 just recently. We're both voracious readers, and for us the immediate gratification of having a book as soon as you decide you want it is well worth the price of admission.

I do agree the Kindle is virtually worthless for magazines, but the regular subscriptions I already have for the ones I'm interested in work fine.