Amazon Kindle 2.0 Review

When I first heard about the new Amazon Kindle 2.0, I thought “another flashy gadget heavy in price and light on utility.” I certainly would not have ordered such a device for myself. However, my girlfriend seemed very interested in the new eBook reader after reading about it and so I decided to score some points with my lady friend and order one for her as a surprise gift.

The selling point for me was the new text-to-speech feature that will have a computer voice read a book or periodical to you out loud via the built in speaker or headphones. When I first heard about this feature, I was expecting Stephen Hawking with a stutter, but when I finally heard the Kindle 2, I was amazed at how clear the computer voice was. Although the voice was far from seamless and at times was difficult to comprehend, it is definitely useful when driving or relaxing. The voice toggles between male and female. Personally, I think the male voice is easier to understand.

The controls are somewhat clumsy at first, but I am quickly getting used to them. Much like any new device without a mouse or a touch screen, I tend to be lost initially. However, the built in user’s guide takes you through this step by step and I expect to be cruising through the machine in no time.

The buttons on the kindle are somewhat rigid and difficult to push. I found myself shifting my grip on it several times in order to put enough force on the page turn button. Although this is an inconvenience at first, you soon learn to hold the Kindle 2 in a manner that allows for easy page turning. The nice thing about this is it indicates that the device is well built and will stand up to the drops and beatings many high priced doohickeys crumble under.

The Kindle Store is one of the best aspects of the reader. You can access the Amazon Kindle Store directly from the device using the built in wireless connection. It utilizes the 3G network and I am yet to find a location that the Kindle 2 cannot connect from. You can search, browse, and buy from the Kindle itself, or from your PC. Your Amazon account is linked to your Kindle, so any Kindle product you buy from your PC will be available on your Kindle within 60 seconds of the click! This of course makes it incredibly easy to spend money at an unreasonable rate, which, depending on your girlfriend may not be a good thing (note to self: reregister Kindle 2 under girlfriends own Amazon account before she runs up my credit card!).

The selection at the Kindle Store does leave some to be desired. So far, I find the odds of the book you want being available in Kindle format are about 50/50. Of course, my reading habits are somewhat obscure. If you read directly from the New York Times Bestseller list then you will most likely have better luck than I do. You can make a request to have any book made available on the device but it remains unclear just how responsive Amazon is to these requests. There are currently about 240,000 titles available on the Kindle 2 with more being added every day.

Also available on the Kindle are newspapers, magazines, and blogs. Prices vary, but in general magazine and newspaper subscription prices are comparable to the paper copies , and blogs are only about $1/month. One things to note is the display is only black and white so I would not expect a National Geographic to illicit the same response via Kindle that the hard copy would.

The prices of the books are also reasonable. A bestseller will cost you about $10.00 and your average classic will be less than that. Considering the ease at which you can purchase the eBooks it is a wonder that they are so cheap.

The storage capacity of the Kindle 2 is excellent. It can hold as many as 1,500 eBooks and you can store additional books on your PC. Also, each title in your library is backed up by Amazon. In the event your device is lost, stolen, or damaged, you will be able to recover your library from the backup.

One of the most interesting features of the Kindle 2 is the display screen. It uses a technology called Electronic Paper and it is remarkably similar to reading off of a piece of white printer paper. Ever better than that, the device is virtually glare-proof. As I sat in the car today, I pointed the device directly towards the sun at various different angles yet I was able to read the text the whole time.

Another nice thing about the display is it is incredibly energy efficient. Think of an old fashioned Etch-a-Sketch. The device only requires power to load the display onto the screen. It requires no power to maintain the image. Only when the on screen text is wiped and replaced with new text does the Kindle 2 draw power from its battery. This results in a battery life that can last for up to 14 straight days of nonstop reading without recharging!

The price, of course, is disgusting at best. At $359.00 you will need to do quite a bit of reading if you are looking for a return on your investment. As I said, I would likely not buy this product for myself. However, if you have someone special who likes to read and with whom you seek to curry favor, then the Kindle 2 does make an excellent gift.

One thing that upset me tremendously was the news that Amazon had allowed publishers the option to disable the text-to-speech feature. The publishers were threatening a lawsuit on the grounds that the feature violated copyright laws for audio books. Amazon was unwilling to strain a relationship with its suppliers and thus granted them the option to disable what I consider the strongest feature of the device. I learned of this after I had placed my order and before I received it. Because of this I nearly returned the Kindle 2 before I even took it out of the box. However, I decided to keep the expensive new toy in hopes that the publishers would opt out of disabling text-to-speech.

So what is the future of the Amazon Kindle product line? Who knows. Some improvements I might suggest are to add a color display. The user interface could be streamlined by a touch screen or a laptop style control pad. Also, the web browser and MP3 players are both lousy and would benefit from some thorough software upgrades.

One thing I was thinking about is schools and colleges. Consider how much an elementary school pays for science, math, language, history, reading, spelling, and other textbooks for each and every student. Now think about how much paper, production, shipping, and storage costs are involved with all of those books. Although this device might now be considered luxury, excessive, and unnecessary; a few adjustments to the price and function of this little gadget might just make the Kindle a standard issue educational tool for children all over the country.

~Man Overboard