Sunday, June 21, 2009
The Kindle Review
Holy shize, kids, some people do not know how to read or understand what they are reading. It’s amazing the negative reviews on the Amazon page for the Kindle and the extended warranty. I’m going to share some of those with you before I give you my review.
No backlight.
No cover included.
Can’t get whispernet to download books.
When purchasing upgraded Kindle, can’t move purchased books, (THAT I PAID FOR), on to new device.
The audacity of Amazon to come up with the DX mere months after the K2 release.
It’s fragile.
I dropped it and Amazon won’t replace it unless I give them $200.
The warranty is NOT a “two year” extended warranty!
You want us to pay $65 for a one year warranty?
Have to buy books only from Amazon.
Jeff Bezos said that all books would be $9.99 or less and yet, they are not! Corporate GREED!
Screen savers are ugly, how dare Amazon control us in this.
I hate the fact that it only comes in white.
My Kindle was stolen and Amazon is doing nothing about it.
It costs too much.
It won’t play games.
It won’t cook my breakfast bacon.
It won’t walk my dog.
And, my favorite: Here is my review on a product I’ve never owned, seen or touched.
Now, let’s get to it, kids. Before I ever purchased the Kindle, I did a LOT of researching, a LOT of reading and spent a LOT of time at the review boards. I had some things I was apprehensive about. Just how delicate IS this thing? I’m not the most graceful swan on the planet so is this a good idea? And what about all these other complaints? Are they valid? Do these people have a point? Should I run screaming for the hills if someone holds a Kindle out to me?
For those of you who do not know what a Kindle is, you may click here: Amazon Kindle Basically it’s an electronic reader. The main purpose of the Kindle is to read books on one little device. As I stated in a previous post, I had to give up all of my books when I moved because I had no room for them. I miss those books and I’ve watched FAR too much television since I moved. I like reading. But what choice did I have?
Sure, I could go to the library but I don’t like reading a book with all those germs on it. I don’t know how many people have touched that thing, coughed in to it, wiped their nose on their hands and then touched the pages I’ll be touching, went to the bathroom and came back, picked up the book and started reading again without washing their hands...OR WORSE, read it while in the bathroom. Sometimes pages are torn out. Sometimes people write in the books. It’s all very distracting to me. I value books greatly and do not borrow or lend them out. I want my books brand new, clean and with an unbroken spine.
Also, when I was a little kid looking in the Sears, Montgomery Ward or JCPenny catalog to create my gift wish list, I would dream how wonderful it would be to be able to just touch the image and have the item appear right then and there. Well, the Kindle sort of does just that. So, a childhood fantasy has come true.
The Kindle arrived two days earlier than I was expecting it. I raced to the UPS store where I have a postal box and retrieved it the day after it was delivered. I turned it on, noticed there was about a half a battery charge and proceeded to find my way around the thing. The first thing I paid attention to was the gray screen that some people were whining about. I’m glad it’s a gray screen. White screens hurt my eyes after awhile. (ie: computer screens) and most books’ pages are not white like that. Most of them have a bit of a tint to them or are on the grayish side. So the screen kind of looks like the page of a book. It wasn’t too dark, it wasn’t too light. It was perfect.
Everything worked fine on the Kindle itself. I was pleased. Then I went to hook it up to my computer via the USB cord provided. Snag. Device was not recognized. This is not the fault of Amazon, this is the fault of the Vista OS. Because we all know how wonderful Vista can be. However, because I had done so much reading and researching before the Kindle arrived, I knew exactly where to go to find help. And I learned that if you just restart the Kindle, suddenly Vista stops being a little bitch and allows the device to be recognized and all is well. Fancy that.
So, in summary, everything works exactly as it should and the Kindle is exactly what I was told it would be. It’s a light weight, very small, electronic reader that I can take with me anywhere. I can store up to 1500 books on the reader itself and Amazon will store the rest of my books I’ve purchased from them on their site. OR I can also back up everything on my own hard drive. (Not a bad idea.) I have already read two books on the Kindle and have a library of 40 other books waiting. Most of these books were either free or under a dollar.
My only concern is how fragile it is. However, it has it’s own little “bed” in a clothing cupboard and the cats are not allowed to touch it.
Now, let’s get to some of the negative reviews and address some of those “concerns”.
No backlight Pointless. The Kindle uses e-ink. You cannot back light e-ink anymore than you can backlight a page of a book. I have used mine in all sorts of lighting and except for extremely low light, it works fine. Low lighting on the Kindle is solved just like low lighting with a book. You get a book lamp if you don’t want to disturb those around you. Sony does have lights on the side but I’ve seen reviews stating that it really does a disservice rather than help.
No cover included Frankly, now that I have the Kindle, I’m glad they didn’t include the cover. The reason? They would have given us the cheapest one and not only was it ugly, I don’t think it would have protected as well as some of the other covers. We have a choice. And seriously, anyone who thinks that they are “getting” the cover for free from Sony has not been paying attention. Trust me, we have all paid for our covers whether it’s an “extra” cost or added in to the price of the e-reader. You’ve paid for it. I’d rather have the choice to pick the one I want.
Can’t get whispernet to download books Ok, whispernet is a service that Amazon has, (only for the Kindle, no other ereader has this), where you can get on to your Kindle, shop the Amazon store from your Kindle, purchase a book with 1 click purchasing and your book is there within 60 seconds. Seriously. How cool is that? Again, no other ereader offers this or even has it to offer. Now, just like with cell phones, not all areas are covered. Them’s the breaks. That’s how it happens sometimes. It’s reality. I live away from civilization and was not expecting any coverage. However, I did my research and checked out the coverage area map that Amazon provides for everyone to look at. You can see before you buy if you are in the orange covered area. Naturally, I was not. I was in the green coverage area which meant I may or may not get any coverage. However, for the Kindle 2, Amazon has apparently implemented 3G to reach farther out and believe it or not, I get whispernet coverage out here. Sometimes it may take a moment or two to get the signal but it works. However, if you can’t get the coverage, you can still download the books to your computer and then put them on your Kindle so to imply that the whole thing is a wash because you can’t get whispernet is simply false. You have internet connection, you can get books. Some people are upset and feel entitled to whispernet because Amazon said you don’t need a computer to use the Kindle.....well, I’d like to drive around in a Mercedes 560 SL convertible but you don’t see me crying that I’m not. It is what it is and there are other options.
When purchasing upgraded Kindle, can’t move purchased books, (THAT I PAID FOR), on to new device. Completely untrue. It can be done and has been done several times. Again, one needs to READ CAREFULLY the steps to take to get this done. And, again, it’s a smart thing to back up everything, all your purchases, on to a hard drive. As long as the upgraded Kindle is on the same account then yes, transfer is possible.
The audacity of Amazon to come up with the DX mere months after the K2 release. The Kindle DX is a 9” screen compared to the Kindle 2 being a 6” screen. Also, with the DX you can load your .pdf directly instead of having to get it converted by Amazon. You can still read .pdf on Kindle 2 but you have to email it, get it converted and then they will either send it directly to your Kindle or email it back to you and you put it on the Kindle. Not much difference other than that, I can see. So, if you want the DX, return the K2 and put that money towards the DX or sell your K2 and anything that goes with it on eBay or wherever, as I saw some people had done and use that money to get the DX. Problem solved.
It’s fragile Yep. It is. Some people have dropped theirs and rendered it useless and some have banged their Kindles all around and nothing has gone wrong. Again, them’s the breaks. That’s how it goes sometimes. As with anything electronic, treat it with care. I learned the hard way never to have any liquid around my laptop even though I had seen it time and again when I worked in offices. For some of us, I guess it doesn’t sink in until it happens to us. This is not something I recommend for a child. Maybe a very responsible teen ager but definitely not for kids.
I dropped it and Amazon won’t replace it unless I give them $200. And? Who would? My cat spilled milk in my keyboard and Dell didn’t give me a free keyboard. Amazon is not charging full price to replace a broken or damaged Kindle. That says a LOT about them. Buy the extended warranty and it would have only cost you $65.
The warranty is NOT a “two year” extended warranty! Actually, yes it is. You GET a one year warranty with the Kindle. You may purchase an extended warranty that will make your full warranty last two years and will cover the cost of a user caused broken or damaged Kindle, hence the name, “Two year” extended warranty. If you do not purchase this warranty, you do NOT get a replaced Kindle for nothing if you drop it or break it. The warranty is extended. It’s for two years. What is the problem here?
You want us to pay $65 for a one year warranty? Again, that is not a one year warranty. It is an extended warranty. And again, if you drop or break your Kindle in that two years, Amazon will replace it. You do not have to pay $200 or $360 for a new one. Let’s see, I drop my Kindle on the bathroom floor. It cracks and no longer works. I have the extended warranty. I paid $65 for that extended warranty. Essentially, my replacement Kindle cost me $65 instead of $200-360. Yes, I must be an idiot for purchasing the extended warranty.
Have to buy books only from Amazon. Totally false. Many of the books I had to give away when I moved were classics. I paid no less than $5 for them and sometimes paid quite a bit more. Imagine how happy I was to find I could get those books for FREE on several websites INCLUDING Amazon.com to put on my Kindle. You can find books on many different websites that will convert to be readable on the Kindle.
Jeff Bezos said that all books would be $9.99 or less and yet, they are not! Corporate GREED! I’m sure if someone looked they could find the video clip but I don’t have it verbatim. However, I believe that what he said was that when the books were on the NYT Best Seller’s list, they would be priced at $9.99. When the book was no longer on that list, the price could change. Nor did this cover every last book available to man. Give me a break. There are text books and other books that run in the hundreds of dollars price range...of course they won’t be priced at $9.99
Screen savers are ugly, how dare Amazon control us in this. Agreed. The screen savers are ugly but there is a way around this and apparently Amazon has stated that it doesn’t void the warranty. Regardless, you see the screen saver for what, a second? Maybe two? It’s not that big of a deal.
I hate the fact that it only comes in white. I, too, wished it would come in other colors. And, through researching the product before I bought it, I found out that you can get skins for the Kindle. Quite a few websites have these available and some of the art work is amazing. Personalize the Kindle that way. Or get out a magic marker and start coloring.
My Kindle was stolen and Amazon is doing nothing about it. What can they do about it? If my car was stolen, should I contact the dealership and demand that they do something about it? We have too much crime going on and things get backlogged and the police don’t much care about your Kindle any more than they cared to find my friend’s car when it was stolen. Some have stated that Amazon should render the serial number dead should anyone try to re-register it under their account. Well, I guess if the police force wants to actually investigate it, they can contact Amazon. Unfortunately, until they do that, Amazon can’t do much. How do they know which Kindles were actually stolen and which Kindles are in the middle of some nasty argument between two people?
It costs too much. Hmm. Really? Let’s see now. I’ve got 43 books on my Kindle and I’ve spent about $16 thus far. Considering I could not find a NEW book in the store less than $5, (after tax and gas), we’re looking at $215 and I just got started. The difference between the books I’ve purchased and the price of the Kindle is about $166. I’ve had it less than a week. What could happen in TWO weeks?!!?
It won’t play games.
It won’t cook my breakfast bacon.
It won’t walk my dog. The Kindle is an e-reader. It’s not supposed to act as a phone, an MP3 player, a DVD player and a gaming system. It’s an e-reader. You read books on it. It does exactly what Amazon said it would do. It stores up to 1500 books and you can click on those books at any time and begin reading them anywhere. You can read a book on this device. Just like they told you that you could do.
Here is my review on a product I’ve never owned, seen or touched. Don’t even bother reading these. Why would I listen to someone talk about something they have no first hand experience with? It’s like asking me my opinion on seafood at any given restaurant. I’ve never eaten it and have no intention of eating it, and I hate seafood. Ask someone who HAS tried it.
To summarize: I am liking the Kindle so far. It has a cover so it feels more sturdy than if it were running around naked. It won out over the Sony PRS-505 because of book availability. That’s what this device is for and that’s what I’m expecting it to do. And it has not let me down. I was hesitant to buy this thing. I was wondering if I should have gone for the Sony. I was thinking maybe this was too much money. I wasn’t jumping for joy and anxiously awaiting its arrival like others were. Sure, I was looking forward to it but it wasn’t something I was giddy about. Until it got here. Amazon won me over with this product.
