Kindle, anyone?
 

Thinking of getting my wife a Kindle. Anyone know anything about them?

For example, can you surf the net with them, as they claim to be wireless.

Also, can a netbook double as a Kindle?

Any info would be appreciated.

There are a whole bunch of eBook appliances. I remember reading an article about them. I think there was a thread here about them a few months back too.

Here's a link to a thread about ebook readers.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/455033-sony-ebook-reader.html

Here's another thread.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/455289-anyone-get-newspapers-books-kindle.html

See previous thread about Kindle. Also various Kindle blogs out there.

I don't have one, but have been researching them and thinking about a purchase.

- Not practical for websurfing, browser is weak, screen is only grayscale, connection not speedy. You see, the wireless access is lifetime, no monthly fee, paid by Amazon, so they don't want you to use the Kindle for general surfing, that would blow up their business model. The wireless is meant for getting books and magazines etc.

- Kindle is not the same as netbook. Of course you can buy, download, and read e-books on any netbook or other PC, and you can go to a magazine or newspaper's website to read it online. The advantage of a Kindle is the screen is like paper and doesn't give you eyestrain, the battery lasts for days, the content shows up wirelessly from Amazon, the device turns on and off instantly rather than booting up, it displays a page at a time so no scrolling up and down, etc.

- FYI, a larger-screen Kindle is rumoured to be announced this week. Not as pocketable, but meant to display newspapers, magazines, textbooks, etc in nearly their print layout.

Thanks everyone - just purchased the current model for Mother's Day. We'll see if she likes it!

I've had mine for a few months now and really like it. I'm on the road full time and it makes carrying the paper, a magazine and books completely unnecessary. Love having the Journal downloaded by the time I wake up in the morning. I just wish they had some car mags!

I got my wife the Sony eReader. She loves it. It will last 10 days easy on one battery charge!

I got one recently (Kindle2). I travel a lot and that is my justification - otherwise I am fine with paper media. It is really a single-purpose device, specialized for reading. It is not suitable for web surfing and doesn't do email or SMS or much else but documents. I travel with an iPhone, Macbook Air and digital camera so I am fully geek equipped :)

I have far too many books - some of them are falling apart. I plan to make a list of the books, then donate those that are still readable, and buy a Kindle2 on which I'll download the old books.

I'll relish in the new bookshelf and garage space, as well as join modern technology since book and newspaper publishing, as an industry, is pretty much dying out. :(

I've had my Kindle for a few months now and I love it! There are a good selection of books available, and I love the highlighting and notation functions. I highly reccomend one if you're an avid reader.

Michael

The larger form factor "DX" version was just officially announced. It is targeted as more of an everyday newspaper/magazine reader as opposed to an electronic book reader. For my purposes, the smaller the better.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0015TCML0

If, by chance, a person runs out of hard drive space with their Kindle, can they offload the books and other media to a computer?

Yes, you can copy files to/from it via USB similar to a thumb drive. Also apparently (I have not tried this) if you 'delete' files from the device they are actually backed-up in the cloud (at Amazon) and you can bring them by going into an archive folder and invoking a restore function.

Terrific!

BTW iTunes doesn't back up purchases, right?