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http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=365797001&pf_rd_i=507846
Just wondering, has anyone been interested in this thing yet or has any impressions? I'm actually quite interested in acquiring a unit since I'm a college student with a lot of reading to do... and it seems easier on the eyes which is a very big plus to me (I wear glasses and my eyesight is getting worse by the day -_-..guess it's not a good idea I'm on here so much ^^')
Oh and it's an e-book reader for the uninitiated (and those that don't want to check the link out). It's pretty cool; it uses "electronic ink" so it displays like a real newspaper. You can get monthly/daily subscriptions delivered to it as you sleep! However, this thing is going to suck up money like no tomorrow if you're really an avid reader...
Furthermore, the EVDO network it uses (so you can access wireless anywhere without a wifi hotspot...the same network cellphones use) is as stated from the user's manual "Free for now". That makes me pretty wary about hidden costs later on... besides, as it is I think the unit should have a lower initial cost considering all the money we'd spend to put e-books on there anywho, no?
Here's a review by a fellow student:
"I have been beta testing the Kindle for the past few weeks, and I can say without equivocation that this device will soon become a MUST HAVE in many professional fields (but it also is great for the avid reader of books for entertainment). If you travel a lot, or require rapid and accurate access to references (as I do), the Kindle is definitely soon to be a necessity. I am a medical student, and I loaded a medical library onto the one I've been beta testing (including everything I need to study for the board exams I'll be taking in a few months). I've been an avid reader my entire life- rarely without reading material close at hand from the time I learned. If anyone is a book connoisseur, it's me.
The Kindle is fantastic. If I need to look up a term, or a treatment, I just type it in, and seconds later, the Kindle returns with all references to it within the entire library. Now, I know how valuable this is... it's a reference library I can carry with me. More than that, though, the ability to find the information I need quickly could save lives. Also, the readability is superior to any PDA. The "Electronic Ink" format reduces strain on the eyes, and those of you with vision problems can adjust the font size to VERY LARGE fonts. Sure, the PDA has plenty of useful medical tools you can download, but I find more often than not, I want to be able to see the full text involving the condition, diagnosis, and treatment of the term I'm looking up.
I know that I can't feasibly carry a medical library with me for some of my future endeavors (volunteering with Doctor's Without Borders), but with the Kindle, that's possible now... I just put the library on the Kindle, and pack it with me.
It's more than that, though. The Now Now service allows the user to ask any question in the world, and real people will research it for you, and within 24 hours, you will have answers on your kindle, waiting to be read. You can also upload music to your device, so that you may listen to a background melody as you read. In addition, the web browsing features are also useful, and while at the moment are still limited, are bound to get better with time. The most useful sites, namely reference sites, though, are easily accessed and browsed.
Also, there is the 24/7 access to the Kindle store directly on your unit, so you can access new books any time you want. The connection also lets you access any books that are stored on your Amazon account. It doesn't matter if you can't fit every book on your Kindle (although I've fit over $1000 of books on it, with room to spare)... the ones that don't fit are stored remotely with 24/7 access.
Oh, and don't worry about PDF's. I believe they're working on adding that to the accepted formats, and in the meantime you can just use a MOBI tool to convert your PDFs to MOBI format, and they'll read fine on your Kindle. I also see in the Kindle forums that Amazon has a conversion service that Kindle users may use to have PDF's converted to Kindle formats.
Flying on planes? No problem. Just a flip of a switch turns the wireless off, and your Kindle is safe to use on your flight. Plus, if you have the wireless off, your battery can last up to a MONTH!!!
Other stuff? I can check my webmail, sub to my favorite news sources (Various Reuters blogs), sub to magazines, etc. Annotations, bookmarks, and highlighted text are saved to your "Clippings" files, which are text files you can load to your computer for editing and printing.
Is this worth the $399? DEFINITELY. And it's only going to get better. I've already made suggestions for useful upgrades, accessories, and services, and it's been clear that they've been heard. One accessory I've suggested is a solar cover that can charge it, so that it is completely autonomous (good for in the field with Doctors Without Borders). As it is, the battery is extremely long lived, particularly when the cellular connection is turned off... far longer than any PDA I've used. With the wireless turned off, the battery can last up to a MONTH.
One service I've requested for Kindle is an edition upgrade service. A lot of textbooks come out with new editions every couple of years. I've already had to replace most of my medical textbooks because of this, selling the old ones. I have suggested an edition upgrade service, where the user is notified of the new edition, and Amazon could buy back the old one at market value, letting the user get the new one at a price that is the difference between the market value of the old edition and the price of the new one, with a small commission.
Finally, I've also suggested parental controls. Some parents may not want their kids to have access to all of the content they've loaded to their Kindle, or direct access to the Kindle store.
When the beta program is over and I have to return it, I will only do so very reluctantly... It's worth the $399, but that's money I just don't have.
**** The bad: Well, there is no security on purchases at the Kindle store, which means that if it's stolen, or if the kids get a hold of it, you can have your bank account drained pretty quickly. However, I have addressed this issue with the development team and tech support, and my understanding is that they are working on correcting it as we speak. I have asked that they put a password requirement for purchases. The nice thing is, for software bugs, if you have your wireless activated, the updates will automatically download and install to your unit.
Also, yes, the content available is somewhat limited, but not by much, and it expands every day (I just subscribed to a magazine that I like, and it wasn't available a couple of weeks ago).
Recommended for: Any avid reader, college students, professionals, military (after all, they can't take a lot of books to many of the places they're sent), people who travel a lot, etc. "
(guess that was a wall of text)
Anyways.. so there it is
Just wondering, has anyone been interested in this thing yet or has any impressions? I'm actually quite interested in acquiring a unit since I'm a college student with a lot of reading to do... and it seems easier on the eyes which is a very big plus to me (I wear glasses and my eyesight is getting worse by the day -_-..guess it's not a good idea I'm on here so much ^^')
Oh and it's an e-book reader for the uninitiated (and those that don't want to check the link out). It's pretty cool; it uses "electronic ink" so it displays like a real newspaper. You can get monthly/daily subscriptions delivered to it as you sleep! However, this thing is going to suck up money like no tomorrow if you're really an avid reader...
Furthermore, the EVDO network it uses (so you can access wireless anywhere without a wifi hotspot...the same network cellphones use) is as stated from the user's manual "Free for now". That makes me pretty wary about hidden costs later on... besides, as it is I think the unit should have a lower initial cost considering all the money we'd spend to put e-books on there anywho, no?
Here's a review by a fellow student:
"I have been beta testing the Kindle for the past few weeks, and I can say without equivocation that this device will soon become a MUST HAVE in many professional fields (but it also is great for the avid reader of books for entertainment). If you travel a lot, or require rapid and accurate access to references (as I do), the Kindle is definitely soon to be a necessity. I am a medical student, and I loaded a medical library onto the one I've been beta testing (including everything I need to study for the board exams I'll be taking in a few months). I've been an avid reader my entire life- rarely without reading material close at hand from the time I learned. If anyone is a book connoisseur, it's me.
The Kindle is fantastic. If I need to look up a term, or a treatment, I just type it in, and seconds later, the Kindle returns with all references to it within the entire library. Now, I know how valuable this is... it's a reference library I can carry with me. More than that, though, the ability to find the information I need quickly could save lives. Also, the readability is superior to any PDA. The "Electronic Ink" format reduces strain on the eyes, and those of you with vision problems can adjust the font size to VERY LARGE fonts. Sure, the PDA has plenty of useful medical tools you can download, but I find more often than not, I want to be able to see the full text involving the condition, diagnosis, and treatment of the term I'm looking up.
I know that I can't feasibly carry a medical library with me for some of my future endeavors (volunteering with Doctor's Without Borders), but with the Kindle, that's possible now... I just put the library on the Kindle, and pack it with me.
It's more than that, though. The Now Now service allows the user to ask any question in the world, and real people will research it for you, and within 24 hours, you will have answers on your kindle, waiting to be read. You can also upload music to your device, so that you may listen to a background melody as you read. In addition, the web browsing features are also useful, and while at the moment are still limited, are bound to get better with time. The most useful sites, namely reference sites, though, are easily accessed and browsed.
Also, there is the 24/7 access to the Kindle store directly on your unit, so you can access new books any time you want. The connection also lets you access any books that are stored on your Amazon account. It doesn't matter if you can't fit every book on your Kindle (although I've fit over $1000 of books on it, with room to spare)... the ones that don't fit are stored remotely with 24/7 access.
Oh, and don't worry about PDF's. I believe they're working on adding that to the accepted formats, and in the meantime you can just use a MOBI tool to convert your PDFs to MOBI format, and they'll read fine on your Kindle. I also see in the Kindle forums that Amazon has a conversion service that Kindle users may use to have PDF's converted to Kindle formats.
Flying on planes? No problem. Just a flip of a switch turns the wireless off, and your Kindle is safe to use on your flight. Plus, if you have the wireless off, your battery can last up to a MONTH!!!
Other stuff? I can check my webmail, sub to my favorite news sources (Various Reuters blogs), sub to magazines, etc. Annotations, bookmarks, and highlighted text are saved to your "Clippings" files, which are text files you can load to your computer for editing and printing.
Is this worth the $399? DEFINITELY. And it's only going to get better. I've already made suggestions for useful upgrades, accessories, and services, and it's been clear that they've been heard. One accessory I've suggested is a solar cover that can charge it, so that it is completely autonomous (good for in the field with Doctors Without Borders). As it is, the battery is extremely long lived, particularly when the cellular connection is turned off... far longer than any PDA I've used. With the wireless turned off, the battery can last up to a MONTH.
One service I've requested for Kindle is an edition upgrade service. A lot of textbooks come out with new editions every couple of years. I've already had to replace most of my medical textbooks because of this, selling the old ones. I have suggested an edition upgrade service, where the user is notified of the new edition, and Amazon could buy back the old one at market value, letting the user get the new one at a price that is the difference between the market value of the old edition and the price of the new one, with a small commission.
Finally, I've also suggested parental controls. Some parents may not want their kids to have access to all of the content they've loaded to their Kindle, or direct access to the Kindle store.
When the beta program is over and I have to return it, I will only do so very reluctantly... It's worth the $399, but that's money I just don't have.
**** The bad: Well, there is no security on purchases at the Kindle store, which means that if it's stolen, or if the kids get a hold of it, you can have your bank account drained pretty quickly. However, I have addressed this issue with the development team and tech support, and my understanding is that they are working on correcting it as we speak. I have asked that they put a password requirement for purchases. The nice thing is, for software bugs, if you have your wireless activated, the updates will automatically download and install to your unit.
Also, yes, the content available is somewhat limited, but not by much, and it expands every day (I just subscribed to a magazine that I like, and it wasn't available a couple of weeks ago).
Recommended for: Any avid reader, college students, professionals, military (after all, they can't take a lot of books to many of the places they're sent), people who travel a lot, etc. "
(guess that was a wall of text)
Anyways.. so there it is