Wednesday March 11, 2009

Kindle 2

I recently purchased a Kindle 2. I've read electronic books in the past including on a laptop (I just got an Asus 1000HE netbook; I could see using it where good PDF reading or a backlight was necessary), a RocketBook (how fast does history disappear?), my old Palm based Treo, and my iPhone. I liked the RocketBook if content wasn't so hard to get or to put on the device. The week or so I've spent with my Kindle 2 has made it clear that it is miles ahead of those options. The iPhone Kindle Reader is a strong play in combination with the Kindle 2 but not on its own. This review from CNET gets the various iPhone options right in my experience. The biggest missing part to me from the iPhone Kindle reader isn't that the buying experience is way more painful then it needs to be but that you can't read subscriptions. The most common thing for me to read on the run is a periodical. My biggest current gripes with the Kindle 2 are the inability to organize my documents (hierarchy would be nice, tagging with multiple views would be even better) and the lame PDF reading/conversion (caveat I've only used free.kindle.com).

I believe the original Kindle shipped with a protective case. The Kindle 2 didn't. I purchased a Belkin Neoprene Sleeve. It seems like something that should have come with the Kindle 2. I feel better putting the Kindle 2 into my backpack with something between it and the rest of the random set of stuff I carry around. ( Mar 11 2009, 06:23:56 AM PDT ) Permalink