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I've updated the post. Thank you Todd.
Book downloads are much quicker than 10 minutes. In my experience, if I order a book from the PC and Kindle's wireless is on, it's usually downloaded to the Kindle in the time it takes me to walk to the bedroom and check it.
Contrary to popular belief, EVDO is not everywhere here in the US, so there's plenty of territory where users won't be able to get content wirelessly (There are folks who live in rural areas that take their Kindles with them on trips “in town†to get the content wirelessly). There are coverage maps available on Amazon's site. You can always download the books from Amazon and transfer them to the Kindle via USB, but that’s not as easy as the content just “getting there†wirelessly.
Turns out you can read your blogs online using the built-in browser for free. Google reader works just fine.
You *can* get PDF's on the Kindle. Lack of PDF support on the Kindle has to be the biggest myth out there.
There are several ways to get your PDF content on the Kindle:
- You can email your PDF to Amazon and it gets converted and sent directly to the Kindle for a dime.
- You can email it to the free converter email and it emails the file back converted and you load it through USB.
- You can use the *free* MobiPocket Creator or MobiPocket Reader programs and convert the PDF yourself.
In the case of MobiPocket Reader, conversion is a drag-and-drop process, MobiPocket Creator allows a little more control (editing of metadata, covers, etc) but is a more involved process.
MobiPocket Reader (earlier versions) is very cool in that it connects directly to the Kindle and automatically syncs documents over. Additionally, you can subscribe to RSS feeds using MobiPocket Reader and they can be synced to the Kindle via USB. Yet another way to get free RSS.
Yes, the PDF is converted to Kindle's format, but so are HTML, and DOC files. To claim that HTML and DOC are supported but PDF is not is just plain wrong. Depending on your definition of "supported", they either all are, or all are not. I would think that most folks don't actually care what data format the content is in on the Kindle, just that it's readable on the device and easy to import.
Where the Kindle does fall flat on viewing PDF content is when the PDF is just a series large images of scanned pages (as is usually the case with magazine articles, comic books, etc.). In these situations, the images are resized down to fit on Kindle's screen and usually the text ends up being too small to be readable. I've read that the Sony e-reader allows you to zoom in on images, that's certainly a major feature the Kindle lacks.
Sorry to be so harsh, it's just painful how many "lets review the facts" articles there are out there that are written by folks who just don't actually have said facts.
Thank you for the update.
I still think it's a big lack that you have to convert PDFs. You can't have a ebook reader that doesn't support that without any conversion.
Of course if the conversion happened during the upload from PC to Kindle. That's no problem then.
I'm still a bit divided about paying for RSS-feeds. I know it's a service, but it feels wrong to pay for something that is free. I'm glad you told me about alternative with the built-in browser.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to try the Kindle yet. I live in Denmark and I don't think we support EVDO. I wrote this post purely based on the information I could find on various Kindle sites.
PDF's is a big deal as that is why I purchased the Kindle. It also has some issues with um what do they mean by screen size? because the text size on a graphic novel which they sell on Kindle is a hairsbreath wide, and it ain't crisp neithah.
Yes have had issues with using mobibook downloads that have their own protection code and so far have not figured out how to convert the purchased books to the kindle.
Another issue is that they lump everything together. so if you have articles which I do, it really is a mess, and hand writing an index is a pain, I really resent having to type an index into excel because the folders I have carefully arranged on the SD card of my kindle are not read as valid categories by the device.
Otherwise it is a lot of fun, and I really like it, I just wish I had the extra bucks to get a SonyEreader too.
On The RSS Feeds. I think the main issue here is this - you pay because of the Delivery, no the service. Think about it. You don't pay a monthly fee for the EVDO network. You get it free with the device. This makes sense because amazon can presumably cover the cost to Sprint, with a small division of cost of books etc.
So with RSS feeds, which are free, and you can get for free, the service makes sense, because it helps cover the cost of the EVDO network for the feed itself, as well as the free uses of the browser you might use.
I can understand not liking it. But really, it does make sense. How else are they going to ensure complete coverage of the EVDO network, without charging a per-minute download fee, or a per-device subscription?
I am not sure of the exact pricing, but if I were to setup a device like this I would try and distribute the cost in a way that minimized it amongst uses and users as well. Books, you can distribute the cost per book. One book, one download. Similar with Newspapers. But RSS, are a bit harder to balance because they usually are free, and there isn't a reliable per-day, per-month amount of updates. So a fixed charge per feed, possibly helps balance it between large feeds that update a lot, and slower feeds that don't, as well as going toward those free uses of the browser etc.
And who knows, maybe in the future, if there is a reliable enough income from books and newspapers, they can distribute the cost evenly there and make RSS free. Till then I think charging .99 cents makes perfect sense. And is actually for the users benefit.
On the PDF Support -
Maybe you don't know this, but PDF's are complex, and CPU hungry. They also often include all manner of things that simply don't scale to a device of this nature, even if it did have color.
From an engineering standpoint the Kindle would require much more powerful processing, a more complex OS, and a far better display, at the least. Just to support one format. Which also equate to a larger price tag.
It makes FAR more sense to convert them to another format, which can in the process scale images, convert to better color depths, dithering etc.
The process to do the conversion isn't talked about yet, because it is experimental. Sometimes the PDF conversion works well. Sometimes it doesn't. But once it does work well, I think they have the exact right idea to do an automated conversion.
Which by the way, the e-mail solution which costs .10 cents - again note the cost is only to send to the device, not for the conversion, presumably to help cover EVDO costs.
If you have a PDF, you have to get it onto the device anyway, and e-mailing it to the device, takes no more effort than copying it to the device over a USB. So copying it, vs e-mailing it, same amount of effort. And I suspect if the device lasts long enough, they will improve the process as well.
On combining books and e-books. I completely agree. with one caveat. again, it should cost a small fee more to get the e-book as well. i.e. again. to cover the wireless delivery.
On colour - I agree for magazines it is needed, but it is coming, the limitation is a trade off. The e-ink is far far far better for reading books than an LCD. FAAR better. but the limitation is that the e-ink display for colour is new, and in fact only just hitting the market, so again cost, is prohibitive. That said. It should hit the Kindle in a future version, probably in the next 2 to 3 years. But it really depends on the Kindle market, as well as the production of the needed colour e-ink displays. (For practical purposes, the displays with colour are only just hitting the market this year, so amazon couldn't have used them in the first version anyway).
On the design - I disagree. Partly. I have heard a lot of complaints about it, and I was a bit unsure till I held it. But it is far better then images lead you to expect. Amazon wasn't perhaps as concerned with aesthetics as Apple would have been, they were instead concerned with READING. and using. the prime function of the device determined the design, not how well it looked. And I think they made the right choices.
In some cases it could totally be improved. In others however, letting appearance drive design, instead of use, is stupid. If you can't read as well, it doesn't matter how good it looks. This is the mistake Sony has made. The buttons are made to look nicer, but as a result, they make it harder to use. Amazon went the opposite route. Perhaps to the point the buttons are a bit too easy to hit, but when using it, they disappear. You forget what it looks like, because it is irrelevant to reading..
Which is why I am also a fan of NOT making it glossy. if it were glossy it would be a distraction to reading. Reflections catching the eye, etc.
Imagine if you tried to make the borders of pages in a real book gold and flashy. Every time you took it out they would distract from the text.
The Kindle SHOULD look a bit duller. It makes it easier to actually read text on it.
It isn't perfect. and it could be improved. But it was very well designed for a first outing. better I think than any of the competition. Amazon went for practical design, Not Pretty, and in the end, that is what makes it a better. It was designed for reading text on the screen, not looking at. And to a point, the two are mutually exclusive here.
Making it a matte black might be an improvement. But again not glossy. And one of the advantages in the e-ink is being able to take into the sun. Black would absorb light more, making it hot, harder to hold, and probably bad for it. So maybe white is actually a more practical choice as well.
I love the design -- it's perfect for the function Kindle provides. I don't want Apple attempting to jazz it up -- this is a BOOK -- not a telephone. I like the white plastic just fine thank you. I've even gotten used to the edge switches, and their location is even an advantage as I read with one hand, using my thumb to do page turns.
I don't like DRM -- and neither does Amazon, but they had no choice if they were to release books from major book publishers who are controlled by non-book reading lawyers. I hope this will change, or some smart programmers put out a program to strip it out like the anti-copy protection programs allowing you to copy DVDs, etc. Letal? Our copyright laws are legal, and should be followed. But I don't think anyone should attempt to overpower it.
I see the Kindle as a BOOK reader, and the facility to use it for magazines, blogs, newspapers, etc., are a convenience only, and certainly less than perfect. But nobody is trying to force users to use them. The same comment applies to the lack of color. We don't need it to read "words" in a book. And this is not a picture book reader.
And if you didn't guess it by now, I LOVE my Kindle, which I have had since Dec. 4th. I now have an 8 GB memory card holding over 500 books, many of which I got for free as out of copyright offerings from other ebook providers. But the Kindle Store offers "Sample Books" for free, which is just perfect for me to discover I want to read the entire book, while allowing me to not spend much time on books I decide not to read further. But if the Sample is good, I buy the book in order to keep reading. But I won't buy any book which costs more than $9.99, which Kindle should enforce as a maximum price much as they do $0.99 as a minimum price.
Charles Wilkes, San Jose, Calif.
If you are interested in images inside of books as in their graphic novels, the ones that Kindle sells on their web site do not produce well, except some of the one frame or four frame indies that are readable.
Improvements can always be made on every product, these are improvements other people who use the kindle would like to see, that might impact their decision to upgrade to a new kindle in the future.
for people who use PDFs intensively (for research purposes for example) the kindle lacks in it's pdf functionality. I've heard a lot of excuses, but one thing Kindle can do from their end is a double conversion process option, that should help with those of us who are researchers and they can charge 15 cents a conversion instead of the 10 for that.
This process will optimize the pdf into editable ocr that will be designed for ebook readers.
I think that Kindle can deal with that request. If not if they could put out a "how to deal with our sensitive feelings so we dont get hurt" manual, downloadable at a reduced rate on kindle, then I will try to phrase requests in a more genteel and perspicuous way.
Knowing the kindle does have PDF compatibility i've ordered my Kindle, also $.99 for an RSS feed isn't that bad but Amazon should make this free.