Product Review: Amazon Kindle

Since the Washington Capitals did not make it past the First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, let alone to the Finals, I got a Kindle for my birthday.

I have been interested in them since they came out, and wanted one for the novelty of it, even though when they first hit the market I wasn't reading at all.  Recently I began reading again, and at quite a pace, so I figured it was time to buck up and get one.  I wasn't keen on the idea of not having a physical book but for the first time in my life I'm reading multiple books at once.  I used to get one book, read it cover to cover, then get another.  I never even had two books to be read in my posession at any one time.  Now, keeping up with more than one book let alone carrying them around has become a hassle and I was looking forward to having them all in one compact device.

I had not even seen a Kindle in person until I took mine out of the box Saturday night and I must say I was astounded by how small, thin and light it was.  On Sunday I downloaded one of the books I was already reading but had misplaced.  Today I downloaded ones on my "wait list."  The other hard copy books I'm reading are anywhere from 2/3 to 3/4 finished, so I figured I could just finish them in their primative form.

I'm still not sure I am OK with not having a physical book.  Overall its a really cool device, and I like the ease and speed of buying books and the fact that you can basically get them anywhere, anytime.  I already discovered that one book (actually three, part of one series) is not available for Kindle.  Its not high up on my list anyway, so its not a big deal.  I've rounded up some hard copy books to take and sell to pay for my first Kindle purchases.  I still worry that the majority of the books I may want to read won't be available for the Kindle, but I haven't done any extensive browsing in that regard.  So far, I'll give the purchasing of books an A-.

It is super easy to use with basically no learning curve.  I'll give it an A for ease of use.  I'm still adapting to the pages "turning" and I'm trying to get used to going ahead and reading the last few words on the "page" before hitting the button to turn the page since there is transition time and a sort of wierd thing that the screen does when a page "turns."  I'll give it a B in that area.  I also like that it has a progress bar letting you know how far you are into a book, since I get more motivated as I get farther into a book and I was wondering how the Kindle would compensate for not being able to visually see how much book is left.  A+ for that idea, for sure.

Used the text to speech function on the way home from work today.  If you don't have headphones or something to plug it into the volume is really low.  The text to speech feature does sound like your answering maching reading a book to you, though, and the pauses and adaptation of punctuation is WAY off.  Pronunciation is also WAY off.  You really have to concentrate to know what it is "saying," so this function still needs quite a bit of work.  Def a D in this area.

Even though I've only had it a few days and have yet to do too much reading on it, I'll give the device overall a B.  It has met my expectations in most areas, and in all others exceeded them.  Certainly a great device for anyone who likes to read, and I'm sure the majority of eReaders have similar functions and pros and cons.  I did alot of research before I decided on the Kindle over the Nook or Sony versions, and there doesn't seem to be any really important distinctions between the units overall.