Kindle: The Power Reading Device

I got a 3G Kindle 3 several weeks ago.

I find that I mostly use it to read fiction. I'll probably eventually find it good for nice linear nonfiction like autobiographies. That's good because I've really gotten away from reading fiction, instead spending my reading time reading short-attention-span junk online. I love getting back to really reading.

I've tried it for a number of technical books, but it's just not that useful for that. It does an ok job displaying an unconverted PDF and a pretty good job working with a Calibre-converted PDF or CHM. I haven't tried an actual Kindle-formatted technical book, which could have better navigation. It's not displaying the page that's a problem. It's that when I'm reading a technical book, I need to flip around a lot. Search helps a bit, but flipping back and forth between sections is really cumbersome. Even with highlights and bookmarks, it's still tremendously slower than sticking a few post-it notes or thumbs in an actual print book. And most of the time that I want to look at a technical book, I'm already in front of at least one computer.

I haven't tried RSS feeds to the Kindle, but Instapaper is awesome for it and will only get better.

I rarely use the wireless at all. I struggled with buying the 3G vs. the wifi-only model. In the end I thought the 3G feature would extend the usefulness enough to make it worthwhile. In a pinch it's a decent email client and Wikipedia renders well. If I didn't have an Android and iPod Touch with me most of the time, I might use the Kindle wireless more.

One really important thing about the Kindle wifi: it won't connect to ad-hoc networks. This would have burned me if I'd bought the wifi-only model because I'd figured I could wifi tether it to my Android phone, but that runs in ad-hoc mode, so no connection.

Nice Kindle review. I'd like to offer a few additional points, though.

1. For document conversion and for library management, I haven't found anything that beats Calibre. I recommend it to any Kindle user who isn't intimidated by having lots of options in the UI ;)

2. Books on Kindle are not really organized into folders. Kindle collections are more like tags than folders. I do agree that we sorely need the ability to bulk update collections and to filter by more than one collection at a time. The "smart collection" idea is also great.

3. Be careful with the "article mode" and the browser in general. This is still an experimental feature and I've had my Kindle freeze and stop responding on more than one occasion. This is not really such a big deal, as it can be solved using hard reset. There's no loss of data involved at all, but it will scare the living daylights out of you when it first happens :P

All in all, I'm extremely pleased with Kindle.

"Due to local restrictions web browsing is not available for all countries" is what I get when I try the web on my Kindle 3G bought a few weeks ago here in the EU.

Outside of getting books off whispernet Wikipedia works and that's it. Not really worth my paying extra for the 3G at all. Read the fine print, I should have. I know dealing with mobile carriers is a complete nightmare but Amazon is very crafty in calling the browser "experimental" and burying the information about browsing deep in their pages (I looked hard for it on purchase but only found it on the page now looking again).

All that said, if the browser is there you will probably get distracted. They could easily add tons of features to it but that would move it away from being a single purpose device. The more features are added to the Kindle the less you will see people raving about it. Kindle will have trouble selling against a colour e-ink device with some kind of android that's been modded for that type of screen at the same price point. I suspect what will happen is that features will stay largely the same but the price of the kindle will dive down amazingly. Thus you will see a kindle 4 and kindle 5 wifi for $80 then $50. Perhaps university editions, branded to particular universities, will gain the colour e-ink, a more advanced browser and more features like email and push the collaborative/community features more as there is compulsion connected to that reading. But for just reading, getting the device as cheap as possible and into as many hands as possible is a better option for them than adding distractions.

I use Instapaper and have it configured to send me a digest of my active Instapaper pages. All I have to do is click once the 'I' icon provided by the Instapaper Chrome extension. Then they send my active items to my Kindle email each day (if I have new items). Very Nice!!

The only time I could see myself wanting the 3G feature is if I am traveling and out of books. OTOH, is that worth $50, as a just in case? I don't travel THAT much.

He's right that the 3g Kindle is worth it, but not because of web browsing. Using the browser will make you want to stab yourself in the eye. It's because if you're reading somewhere that doesn't have free Wi-Fi it will still sync your last place read, so that if you then pick up the Kindle app on your phone or iPad or wherever it will be synced.

Also on any OS, Rekindle.it is a much easier way to send articles to your device.

I absolutely love my Kindle, I used it 1-2 hours each day.

One issue I have with it though: sometimes when I email the kindle address and ebook, or instapaper sends an email, it doesn't get downloaded to the device. When I hit sync it says "No new downloads".

There should be a better way to sync it over the internet besides email.

I agree, my kindle allows me to read long form articles that are just too intensive for a tea-break.

I bundle them up using instapaper ( http://www.instapaper.com/ ) which the article does not mention, but which is excellent.

i use my kindle 3 with 3g in china just fine. whispernet works fine, the browser works fine (just tried www.google.com). you have to go to the manage kindle web page and change your region to usa.

then again, i don't really care for the browser, if i wanted browsing, i'd have bought an ipad or used my laptop, web is about color.

the kindle to me is just an excellent reading device, the battery life is excellent, the form factor is excellent. i can't complain about anything really and the thing i like the most is the e-ink display, it's easy on the eyes.

added bonus is all the free classics you can download from amazon such as charles dickens and mark twain, i literally downloaded 100 classics.

"You are not authorized to access this page."

Instapaper + calibre (news) + sony prs-650