Wednesday, March 11, 2009

The Kindle2 – Awesome!

A few months ago, I was at a meeting and one of the guys there had a Kindle. If you are unaware what a ‘Kindle’ is, it is an electronic reading device – designed and marketed by Amazon (www.amazon.com). My friend at the meeting was evangelizing the product. Being a ‘gadget’ guy I was interested and intrigued, but wasn’t compelled to act! A couple of months later, I learned that I was going to have ankle surgery and would be spending a few weeks lying around - my wife asked if I had thought of getting an electronic reader.

Referring to me as a ‘gadget’ guy may be an understatement. I had a pretty early release of the ‘Newton’. I owned a number of different mp3 players BEFORE buying one of the very early production releases of the first iPod. Gadgets are a big part of my life, but over time I have become much more selective about new adoptions. When my wife asked if I had thought of getting an electronic reader, I interpreted that akin to divine intervention. My friend at the meeting and then my wife making independent and unrelated suggestions equals ‘MUST ACT’ to me. I almost immediately went online to order my Kindle.

Unfortunately, they were out of stock and indicated that it was going to be several weeks until the unit would be shipping. Shortly thereafter, Amazon announced ‘The Kindle2’ – a new and improved model. I was informed that my Kindle back-order would be converted to the Kindle2. This strongly reinforced my ‘divine intervention’ theory – falling on a backlog that turns out to be a new and improved model – ‘YES’! After watching the online video tour of the new release – I couldn’t wait. I started anticipating the release about a week before the scheduled shipping date. Finally, it arrived!

Over the years, I have been introduced to the term ‘out of package experience’ or OPE by our marketing team. Personally, I don’t feel that OPE can make a product, but bad OPE can certainly tarnish the experience. I thought the ‘OPE’ for the Kindle2 was very strong. The inner carton for the device is secured by a very sharply designed sleeve. The sleeve is black on black with subtle, yet quite noticeable combination of glossy and matt finished floating letters, very in sync with the Kindle2 branding. The environmentally friendly inner package opens well and is ‘Applesque’ in its smart design! The Quick Start instructions are extremely easy and well written. The units come pre-registered to your Amazon account, requiring enough of a charge to operate. Of course, the manual suggests that you charge the device before use – right! I am guilty of never doing that unless absolutely required and I give Kudos to companies that are smart enough to have the unit charged enough to immediately play with. Who wants to wait to charge something?!?

The screen is way cool. The ‘electronic ink’ looks like a books print – very impressive. The device is light enough that you can hold it forever, but carries enough weight that it feels sturdy. As I referenced above, the unit is pre-configured to your Amazon account and they instruct you what to do if you are giving the Kindle as a gift. The 275 page book that I ordered downloaded fast – no more than 90 seconds. Amazon claims that the device can hold about 1,500 BOOKS – WOW. For my use – being able to replace the several books that I might lug around when traveling – I am satisfied, but for the fervid reader – having virtually an unlimited library available on this device might be attractive.

There are several different font sizes to accommodate those of us that need reading glasses. The battery life is impressive – especially when you remember to turn off the wireless function. For that matter, the battery life is impressive when the wireless function remains on. I have not tested the battery for length of life, but I have gone a few of days without a charge and have yet to challenge battery availability. The unit puts itself to sleep after sitting idle. When it goes to sleep, a portrait of an author and other literary figurines populate the display giving the unit an always changing ‘cover’. Sliding the conveniently located power switch awakes the unit returning you to where you left off.

I ordered my three favorite newspapers for daily delivery and they are delivered and ready to read each morning. I love the live dictionary – simply move the cursor to the unfamiliar word and the definition appears at the bottom of the page – sweet! Moving from page to page is easy, quick and intuitive – in fact the navigation in general, whether while reading or when moving from different books or publications is great! The center of the navigation tools is the 5-way toggle button which is very intuitive and perfectly located. Turning pages is also extremely intuitive with the ‘Next Page’ buttons also in the perfect location.

You can download files to the device – either by moving them to the device as ‘txt’ files when connected directly to a PC, or by emailing them to your ‘Kindle’ account. There is a small fee applied when emailing documents via your Kindle account to your device to cover the wireless cost – I believe that fee is 10 cents per attachment. Regardless, when I emailed myself a file, it appeared very quickly! I think I will find this function particularly useful when traveling. Transferring files to the Kindle – whether via direct transfer or email will allow me to remain productive while sitting at the gate, waiting for take-off, and while in air without having to pull my PC out – leaving PC battery life for other use. The other day, I was sitting in a meeting and the presenter had a Kindle. He was tracking his presentation notes to assure that he was covering the additional points that weren’t included in the on-screen PowerPoint – a use that I will certainly copy for speeches or presentations in the future.

Another feature that I really like is the ability to highlight and makes notes while reading. Most of my reading is business related and I love to mark pages. There have been a few times over the years that I have actually converted those marked pages into a ‘key message’ note cards in an attempt to reinforce key thoughts over time. The process of moving the clippings to your PC is a snap. Simply connect the provided USB Cable (as you might expect, I really like products that need cables) and your computer will recognize the Kindle. You can move documents and music (you can listen to your favorite MP3 files while reading) to and from the Kindle the same way you move files between folders on your computer. Documents need to be saved in the .txt format in order for the Kindle to be able to read them, but the transfer of files is easy and fast.

The Audio feature works really well, although Amazon has run into some well publicized licensing challenges that they quickly addressed and appeared to either have resolved or be in the process of resolving. I haven’t used the audio reading feature extensively, but I expect that there will be situations where it will come in handy –when driving, poolside times where I want to lounge listening to a book instead of music, and long cardio sessions are a few opportunities I can think of off the top of my head. I’m sure that others will come up over time.

I have not had the opportunity to test reading the device in the sunlight at the beach – hope to have that chance in the not too distant future. I understand that it is supposed to perform great out in the sun. The single, biggest disappointment I have with the device is the lack of backlighting. As a nighttime reader, the fact that you need to use a book light on a device that otherwise posts extraordinary features and functionality is really disappointing. My guess – Kindle3 will solve that complaint! I imagine that I will be quick to purchase that updated model when the time comes. Another issue that may impact adoption rates is the price point - $ 359. At that price point, I believe that they should include a protective cover and provide some content credits.

In terms of content, there is a broad range of books available – I believe that Amazon boasts of over 240,000 books with a lot of great books available for $ 9.99. In addition, there is a wide selection of newspapers and periodicals along with some of the more popular blogs available from Amazon. It’s easy to shop right on the Kindle device anytime the user is looking for something new to read. Arrival is fast – varying a little depending on the strength of the 3G signal, but a minute or slightly longer to download a book is amazing to me.

If you own an iPhone, there is a free Kindle App and you have the ability to read your books on the phone, syncing your stopping point with your Kindle2 – pretty slick! This was very easy to install and begin to use. It doesn’t appear from my brief use that the audio feature works on the iPhone, but it is pretty cool how the devices are able to keep your place in the book you are reading up to date.

All in all – I have been extremely satisfied with the purchase and am happy to be a Kindle2 owner. If you like to read and love great gadgets, I recommend the Kindle2 from Amazon.com!

5 comments:

  1. My Kindle2 came as a birthday gift - a little late, since the launch was a few days after my big day. The user experience is excellent, and so far, I'm impressed with the battery life. It's not something I would have gotten for myself. And I don't think I'll take it to read by the pool or on the beach. But it's a great new toy, and I'm really enjoying it!

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  2. I may just have to break down and get a Kindle2 too!

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  3. Walter Mossberg - watch out for Mike Shane ------- I just moved the Kindle2 to the top of my birthday wish list!

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  4. We really like it too and did a video review of it here : http://skipwisconsin.com/2009/03/kindle2/

    The implications of digital paper has changed my reading habits dramatically... I read a ton more now.

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  5. Kindle2 is pretty amazing. You can win one here @ www.helpusnameus.com All you have to do is submit an idea for a company name and if yours wins you get the kindle2.

    Easy way to possibly win one for free. Contest goes until April 3rd and you can enter as much as you like. just in case anyone else wants to maybe win one instead of buying it. I've got my fingers crossed.

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