Kindle 2 review (Gadgets)

Amazon Kindle 2 arrives!

I’ve had the Kindle 2 for 3 days now and I am loving it. I held off on purchasing the original version that Amazon offered over a year ago. I really didn’t care for the cosmetic design and I heard various reports of accidental page turning. This was brought about by the relatively large buttons for next and previous pages. Well, the Kindle 2 has redesigned page buttons and a thinner body which make it very easy to hold and navigate. It uses the E-Ink technology which gives a more or less ink on paper look. The Kindle is about as thick as a number 2 pencil and very similar in size to a paperback book. Using Amazon’s Whispernet (free Sprint 3G service included) you can browse the Amazon online book store for Kindle formatted books very easy. Purchasing them is almost too easy and if you are an avid book reader, you can really rack up the $$$. Heck, it only takes about a minute from purchase to having the book delivered wirelessly to your Kindle. However, most books are around $9.99 which is much less that what you can get it in paper form. As for technical books…well, there are not a lot on the Kindle store and the prices are only slightly less than the printed versions. I found a thread on  blogkindle.com about Pragmatic Programmer books becoming available. The PragProg guys have been toying around with offering Kindle versions of their books, but the formatting of code examples is not that great. I do have a couple of their books in PDF format, so to convert them to the Kindle format, you merely send an email with the PDF as an attachment to yourkindlename@free.Kindle.com. After about 5 minutes or so, you will receive an email back from Amazon with a link to download your Kindle formatted PDF (.asw extension). Make sure you set up your Kindle on the Amazon web site under Manage Your Kindle first however. You will need to add your regular email address to the list of authorized addresses that are allowed to email stuff for your Kindle. According to the Amazon web site, there are other supported formats that you can use with the Kindle. Kindle (AZW), TXT, Audible (formats 4, Audible Enhanced (AAX)), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; PDF, HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion.

On a scale of 1 – 10, the Kindle 2 receives an “It Rocks!” (aka…10) Ease of use, book purchasing (their site states over 240,000 books in Kindle format) and the ability to carry around 1,500 books puts this device as one that I will use on a daily basis. Oh..and nightly basis too. I picked up a Mighty Bright XtraFlex2 Clip-On Light
so that I could read while in bed as the Kindle does not have any backlighting. This of course saves battery life and standard for these type of electronic books.

Update: You may want to get the extented warranty. The first known case of someone breaking theirs comes from Rob Bushway who is one of the editors at GottaBeMobile.com. He is getting a replacement due to the extended warranty. Here is a link to his Kindle’s demise. You may want to get the Amazon Kindle 2 Leather Cover as I did. It protects your Kindle 2, looks good, feels good and does offer a bit more drop protection.