Review: Update: Kindle 2.5 ebook reader

Updated to include the Black Friday deal
2010 Black Friday Special
Black Friday Deal: Limited number of previous gen Kindle (Kindle 2) (same E Ink as current Nook) for just $89!
Deal starts 11/26 at 9 am PST. This is an unbelievable price to try out a Kindle!

Longer Battery Life: Now read for up to 1 week on a single charge with wireless on, a significant improvement from the previous battery life of 4 days.

Built-in PDF Reader: Your Kindle can now display PDF documents natively. Native PDF support allows you to carry and read all of your personal and professional documents on the go.

[My take: it still doesn't work perfectly, but it is better.]

Adjustable Screen Rotation: The Kindle screen can now manually rotate between portrait and landscape views.

[My take: it is a help with some formats. The downside is having to change pages more often.]

The adjustable screen rotation is neat and works great, very easy. I believe there would be times to use this.

PDFs I checked my one pdf that didn't format very well, and it still did not read correctly, so I deleted it. I reinstalled it by dragging the actual pdf file into Kindle (I did not convert the file or use the converted file.) Unfortunately I can't change the font size and the font is about -3, it is so small. Additionally, some words are dark, some are light. The square is locked into only being able to change the direction of the reader. Changing the direction did not allow me to change the font size or correct that some is light; some is dark. This is my sample of 1.

I love my Kindle!
I'm really glad I decided to get the International Version -- just for the opportunity, if I wanted, to get books when out of the US.

For $40 less than the Kindle2 I had barely bought, I have the new International Version. Woo Hoo! You could always read the Kindle2 wherever you were, but the option to buy new books would have been limited only to being in the US. It has International Coverage: 3G wireless coverage at home or abroad in over 100 countries

It costs more to buy a book when you are outside the US, than buying it within the US, just fyi.

My take
I doubt Kindle will completely replace paper books for me, especially since I read a lot from the library. I wish Kindle was compatible with library books, the way the Sony eReader is, see below. I also don't intend to re-purchase the paper books I already own, unless I want them with me on a trip. I have replaced a couple when they came on offer for $0.00.

Deciding which ebook reader
I had a hard time deciding among various ebook readers. Each one is different and has different functions that work differently, including Sony's ability to read your local library ebooks (if, in fact, they have that format) (which isn't an issue for me because my library has none at the moment.) And after I bought it, the Nook (Barnes and Noble's entry into the field) has become available, but to date has not shipped. (I haven't bought it.) And now the Nook Color is available, but seriously how many books do I read in color? And one with a lot of pictures, I'd prefer as as coffee table book.

Comparing one eReader to another
You can find videos online that show you the resolution between different eReaders. The Kindle is sharper than the Sony was, in the one video comparison that I saw, for example.

Buying Kindle books
So far, I bought one book for $9.99, but it would be easy to do! I have taken a lot of free books.

Buying a Kindle book by mistake
I made one purchase by mistake and so did my 12 yo daughter. Amazon has a way to remedy that immediately by refunding your money and removing the book.

Bookmarks and notes
It is fairly easy to take notes and bookmark yet, and it is even easier to do so on the Kindle for PC, using the computer functions.

Here's what I like:
Ordering free samples
You can order a free sample chapter (some are several chapters, a lot more pages than I expected in a sample) of nearly any book that is Kindle ready -- then at your leisure you can read it and decide if you want to buy it. Or delete it. I've kept some of the samples and deleted others.

I use this function if I'm in an airport book store and see an interesting book that I want to give some thought to. I can order it from the library until I decide if I want to own it. In many cases the sample is enough to remind me to read it later, either in paper or on Kindle.

Iffy:
PDF files
Converting some pdf book files works better than others. Mine turned out pretty OK. A couple of my daughter's were less formatted and annoying. Converting my .doc file for a book worked perfectly (my sample of one.)

Audible sound as page is turned
There is an audible click between pages when you push the button. In a public silent room that would be annoying. I understand you can remedy that by setting up your book to read it to you, putting it on silent, and adjusting the speed of the reading to be your reading speed. Maybe that would work to increase your reading speed?? I haven't tried it. It sounds, pun intended, like it would be annoying.

Screen flash between pages
The screen flashes black between pages (as does the Sony.) (They probably all do.) Not really an issue because you don't focus on that any more than you do when you turn a page of a book.

Some people don't like:
Cannot delete purchased book from archives
A purchased book (even if free) cannot be deleted off your archive -- people don't like that function if they want to pass the Kindle to a child or someone else, but they read something they don't want the child or the other person to know about. It's not an issue for me at this point. I'm careful to read the book genre before I order.

If you permanently pass the Kindle to another, you can deregister it and the book wouldn't show up. You do have the option to share books between users if you link your Kindles together. This is not the same as Nook's function to loan a book to someone, during which time you cannot read it until it is off loan to them. (This is the same as if you loaned them a paper book.)

PDFs and CDs seem to come off just fine, because I took off the ones that didn't format right.

Audible books work only if purchased from audible.com
Audio books work only if purchased from audible.com

Any that I bought as CDs, then ripped into my computer do not work. Each track is treated as a new book so it stops between tracks, then you have to find the next track. If you put it into the experimental section that plays mp3s, it plays them in the (random) order in which it copied in, which is fine for music, but not fine for a book.

If a book becomes unavailable for whatever reason, generally by the publisher, Kindle deletes it and refunds your money
I don't have a problem with that so long as they refund your money. OTOH, it hasn't happened to me so I don't know how I'd really feel under the circumstances.

OTOH, if I had taken notes in the book, I would be really upset, because all my notes would be gone too. Hopefully this would not be something that would happen years after the book was purchased, but more in the immediate future of having bought a book.

There are people who are converting their paper library to Kindle and eliminating their ordinary books. The possibility of a book being deleted at some far off future point in time would be off-putting, especially if I had taken notes in it, because those would be gone too.

In a perfect world, what I would want
I would want the Kindle to be able to read library books, as the Sony does.

I would want an option whereby I could switch to backlit for night time reading, then switch it back for reading without being backlit.

I would like to be able to share a book with someone I have not linked to.

Do you have a Kindle?
What do you especially like or dislike?

Do you have another ebook reader?
Which one did you buy and why? Does it do what you hoped?

Do you have any hints to share?
I'd love to know how to avoid learning something the hard way!

Karin
www.savvythinker.com

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