Amazon Kindle
My loving wife and mother-in-law got me an Amazon Kindle for Christmas. I was still on the fence about them but decided that the number of free books and papers that were available on them for legal download was starting to make it make sense. Now that I have one, I think the name should be changed from Amazon Kindle to Amazin Kindle. I am truly thankful the gift and totally enamored with the device and it flexibility and usability. Of course, I am not sure I would have felt that way and would certainly have not put it on my list if had not been for the sweet price drop sometime in the late fall last year. So, some of the amazin features about the Kindle follow, but really when you get right down to it, the thing just so many incredible features that I am sure I am missing something.
- Wireless – It kind of goes without saying these days, but I thought will worth mentioning, the device is wireless and appears to support the latest protocols. It of course can be connected to your computer as well (and will charge while doing so). The wireless itself it super fast in downloaded books. I have made selections on both the device and the computer and had them in the entirety always in mere seconds.
- Free Books/Papers – Okay, no, certainly the large majority of things available are not free. However, there are a lot of things out there that are in the public domain legally which are available to download. The public domain tends to focus on things a few years old based on the nature of copyright. Given that I am such an avid reader of history and historical documents though, this is not a problem and is actually the largest reason of why I have wanted a Kindle. I have found more and more stuff every time I have thought to look for anything. I obviously really really like this feature, as I made a note or two about this blog and had legal free books in some way or another three times in my list.
- Internet – Kind of tied to the wireless aspect but not necessarily the same thing. You can browse the internet on the Kindle. No, you are not going to want to that for a large volume of things. However, when reading if something pops in your head, it is easy enough to pop on over if you are in range of a wireless access point and take a look at something.
- Social Media – Definitely related to the internet is the various social media platforms that are integrated in the system. I have not went into this very far at this point, but I know it works with both Twitter and Facebook. I know you can set statuses based what you are reading, but more interesting to me is you can tweet/link about a passage and quote it, right as you doing so, all in a matter of seconds right while you at the passage. I am sure I will use that when a few really profound things come to my mind.
- Highlighting/Notes – One of the coolest features that I had not really considered very much until I got it and used it is the note and highlighting features. You can make a note by just scrolling to the point in the text you want to note, and typing it in. This is so much better than my usual scraps of paper that end up stuck in the pages everywhere and of course eventually misplaced and or lost. Additionally, you can highlight it on the screen, without defacing or devaluing anything. Not that I am apt to use it very much, but one pretty cool thing is the ability to look and see what other people have noted or highlighted – of course you can turn off having your notes show up in the database if you are concerned over privacy in this matter. To many notes and highlights? No worries there either, turn them off while you just enjoying reading.
- Read Aloud – This was something else that really had me interested in pursuing the Kindle. It will take any text (that is not prohibited by copyrights otherwise, which is very few) and read it to you aloud though speakers or my preference attached headphones. No granted, it is a slightly robotic sound voice and it certainly looses those inflections you would get with other recorded medias. Then again, so many of those other recorded medias are only available in abridged copies. Further, so many titles I would like to listen to are just plan not available nor likely to ever be on any other media. I have not used this much at this point, but those long trips I make with jousting and such will sure find this feature handy.
- General - I am not sure what to call these last couple, but so far I am really impressed with both the capacity for storage in the Kindle. I am not sure how many books, papers, and such I have in mine, but it is several screens full now. Granted some are shorter than a hundred pages, but others are over that. I am also very impressed with the battery life, though that was expected based on the product advertising. Lastly, while not pointed out as a feature, I will call it one for me. It is not a touch screen. There is a full set of keys at the bottom of the screen, with a move around the screen set of buttons. I for one really appreciate it. I hate the touch screen phone I tried to use for three or four months. Also, reading through what would constantly be a dirty touch screen just drives me insane with the thought about it.
Do not get me wrong. I still love the books and will continue to do so for probably my days here on earth and if not for a long time. The features and relative inexpensive cost of books in this format though will likely curtail my physical book buying habit dramatically, outside of those historical tomes are odd off situations. In other words, I will likely never purchase another book for casual reading as so often been the case in the past.
