Kindle 2: Amazon’s 6″ Wireless Reading Device

Kindle 2: Amazon’s 6″ Wireless Reading Device
By Jen E @ mommablogsalot | June 2nd, 2009 | Category: Featured Reviews, books, gadgets & electronics | 4 comments

I recently had the opportunity to spend a week with the Kindle 2, Amazon’s 6 inch wireless reading device. While I’m still on the fence about whether or not these electronic “books” will or should replace our beloved paper varieties, I did enjoy my Kindle experience. At $359 I’m not sure I’d consider this a purchase to make lightly, but if you can afford it, I think you’ll be very pleased with the Kindle 2. Here are some of my likes and dislikes:

    * Like: When your Kindle is delivered to you it wil come already registered to your Amazon.com account so you can start loading it up with books right away – no need to hook it up to the computer or anything, out of the box you are ready to go.
    * Like: So now that I know how to use my Kindle I find that I am loving it! With the help of that handy little button, navigation is a breeze. You can very easily access the Amazon store to buy books or preview them – and since the Kindle operates with a wireless connection similar to what a cellphone uses, you don’t have to worry about figuring out how to get online with it – it just works.
    * Like: The new “Instant Dictionary Lookup” – Kindle 2 comes pre-installed with the New Oxford American Dictionary and its 250,000 word definitions. With this, you can instantly look up a word while reading, simply by hovering over it with your little navigation tool. No more hopping online to Google a definition or stopping to pull out a dictionary – or just skimming over the word and hoping to figure it out, like I usually do – I think this feature is awesome especially for students reading an assigned book with it.
    * Like: The “Read To Me” feature and the Adjustable Text Sizes allow you to tailor your reading experience – people who need to read Large Print will be able to use the Kindle with ease and if your eyes are getting tired or you’d prefer to be read to, just turn on Text To Speech. You can switch back and forth between reading and listening and your spot will automatically be saved. You can choose from six different text sizes so the words are just the right size for you.
    * Like: Read your blogs, magazines and newspapers on the Kindle – Over 1,200 blogs are available on Kindle including blogs like Wired, VF Daily and James Wolcott’s Blog from Vanity Fair. These subscriptions are billed monthly – blogs starting at $0.99 a month, newspapers ranging from $5.99 – $14.99 a month and magazines from $1.25 to $3.49 a month.
    * Like: Another cool feature for students or anyone who likes to take notes, bookmark pages, highlight passages, etc. All these features are offered on the Kindle 2 – you can even view your notes, highlights, and bookmarks from one page – the My Clippings and the My Notes & Marks sections.
    * Like: Electronic Ink Technology – The actual reading experience is really nice – with their cool E Ink Technology you don’t have to worry about glares or a backlight – the Kindle never gets warm and it is light enough to hold comfortably. Flipping the pages is easy and you can pretty quickly forget that you are using a machine and focus on the story.
    * Like: I really can’t get passed the slim design. Imagine if you could put all your kids’ text books onto this one device – no more humongous backpacks! Or packing for a trip, trying to decide which books to take with you – take them all and it takes up the same space! You can hold over 1,500 books on your Kindle 2!

Those are probably my favorite things, but of course there are some things I didn’t like:

    * Dislike: I think I might be the dumbest person on the planet but it literally took me hours to figure out how to navigate this thing. It took my husband about three seconds. I’ll share with you the two important things you’ll need to know, that I didn’t figure out until after a lot of head banging and why me-ing:

   1. On the bottom right corner of your Kindle 2 you will see a small square button with the words MENU above and BACK below. That little square button is your “5-way navigation system” – you’ll use it anytime you want to scroll up, down, left or right within a page by simply pushing it slightly in that direction and you’ll press it anytime you want to click on something.
   2. The instruction manual for your Kindle 2 is underneath the black plastic tray that your Kindle will be resting in when it arrives to you. For some reason I didn’t think anything would be behind that – but you’ll find that and also the battery charger underneath the Kindle “tray” – pretty important!

    * Dislike: And okay, there’s that whole price thing again. $359 is a lot of money and most of the books you look at on the Kindle Store are about $10 – that’s not bad if you tend to buy all hardcover books, but it’s still a lot – and since you can only read it on your Kindle, you are bound to it.
    * Dislike: That it’s gone. ::sniff, sniff::

Seriously I had a lot of fun trying out the new Kindle 2 and I only wish I could afford to buy one of my very own.