Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 4995
 Response to negative comments November 19, 2007
Kurt G. Schumacher (Broomfield, CO USA)
3152 out of 3436 found this review helpful
Now that I've had several months to use the Kindle, this is my "real review". And my rating is still a solid five stars.
Kindle has changed the way I read. In the past, I have always had a book at hand. Books in progress were in the bedroom, the living room, the family room, the bathroom, and in the car (for waiting rooms). Now, I just have my Kindle with me all the time, and I have *all* my books with me.
I got a 4 GB memory card so I have room for tons of books. As soon as I download a book, I move it to the storage card. I can decide what I want to read at any time. It's great!
I keep the text size at 5, which is great for my old eyes. I find that I actually read faster with the Kindle, and with less eyestrain, because I am looking at a flat page at the same angle all the time. I don't have to deal with curved pages when the print is too close to the spine.
The Kindle is light enough to read in bed comfortably. I can even read Stephen King novels without spraining my wrist! I got a clip-on light with works well for reading in the dark. Once I found a place to clip it, that is. There are buttons all over the Kindle, so finding a place for the lamp that doesn't cover a button was a trick. Best place I found is the upper right corner, over the "cursor window". It covers the power button, but I put the light on after I turn it on so it's not an inconvenience. It also covers the top of the window, so if you need to scroll to the top you can't see the cursor. But that's a minor problem that doesn't occur very often.
I've transferred text, HTML, PDF. MP3 and other files to the Kindle without any problem. An unexpected bonus is that the Kindle can play audio books from Audible.com. The Audible software recognizes the Kindle as a compatible device and moves files to it (even directly to the storage card) with no problem.
The ability to preview a book is awesome. It's helped a lot in my buying decisions.
There are a few things that are less convenient than a "real book".
- Illustrations, figures, tables, etc are usually so small that they're unreadable. This is the major problem I've found so far.
- Paging back and forth to find something is clunky. I sometimes find myself thinking "what was that I read a few minutes ago". Finding the right place in the book, and then getting back to where I was, is slow and cumbersome. I need to read the users guide to see if there are some navigation tricks that will help.
- There is a definite flicker when you go to a new page. But I find that I don't even notice it any more. It was only distracting for the first couple of days.
I love my Kindle. The benefits are great, the drawbacks are few. I know a lot of people don't like the proprietary format and DRM, but neither of those are an issue for me. I buy most of my books from Amazon anyway. I very seldom give books away. I sometimes sell books to used bookstores, but the inability to do that with electronic books isn't going to break my bank.
Generally the only person I share books with is my wife. And since the latched onto my Kindle the first day I got it and I almost didn't get it back, I bought her one of her own. We can download the books we buy to each of the Kindles. And there's another benefit. She is *much* harder on books than I am. So now we each have our own copy, and I don't get irritated by broken spines and bent paged. :-)
I also know that Amazon will come out with Kindle II or Kindle Pro or Kindle Plus or something better at some point. I'm not worried about that either. When that happens, I'll move my memory card over and find a new home for my old Kindle.
I love my Kindle. Five stars.
Read the manual. Please. December 6, 2007
J. Hassert
138 out of 145 found this review helpful
After having read through hundreds of these reviews, I find a common thread regarding some of the shortcomings of the Kindle. It's repeatedly mentioned that it's difficult to hold the Kindle without clicking on the navigation buttons.
Sure. For about 5 minutes. Until you read the manual.
It's mentioned that the cover that comes with the device is flimsy, and that the Kindle falls out all the time.
Sure. Until you read the manual.
It's pretty clear from reading the instructions: The Kindle was designed to be read while in the cover. If you do that, you'll find it much easier to have your hands in natural positions that tend to not result in excessive clicking about. Oh, yeah, after you read a bit, you tend to wind up having the thumb that may periodically rest on the "next page button", find a natural resting place on the groove through with the silver selector travels. But put the Kindle in it's cover. And if you read the manual, you can see there is a small clip that is designed to slip into the groove in the back of the Kindle to hold it in place. Just push the device solidly into the cover until the clip is in that groove. If the Kindle is falling out, you haven't set it into the cover properly.
As many others here have indicated, it's not difficult to put the Kindle into sleep mode prior to closing the cover. Get into the habit.
Really...the angst about a couple of things that are really easy to fix through habit and reading the instructions. It's ironic that so many don't read the instructions about this reading device.
I really appreciate the device and don't have issues around handling it. I read all the small print before ordering. I don't have any problem with the fact that this is not a PDA or PC. I also don't have issue with the possibility of losing the free "right" to surf using the experimental browser if the expense becomes too much for Amazon. It's about obtaining content and reading. And that, folks, is what the Kindle accomplishes most successfully.
Highly recommended.
A disabled reader's perspective April 18, 2008
Mahlon Christensen (Monterey, CA United States)
61 out of 61 found this review helpful
I have Cerebral Palsy, which requires that I use an Electric
Wheelchair to get around, because of my disability I'm always on the
lookout for devices that will make my life even the slightest bit
easier. I've owned my Kindle for three months now,and I must say that
its the most life-altering piece of technology I've had since I
received my first electric wheelchair at age 8. Prior to Kindle, I
often grew tired of lifting heavy hardbacks off of tables or shelves
and onto my tray to read. There were days when I didn't even want to
read because of the energy I'd have to expend, and when I did read I
almost never bothered to use a dictionary for the same reason. Kindle
has taken the psychical strain out of reading for me and I'm grateful
for that.
Many great reviews have been written that discuss the Kindle's
features in great detail, for that reason, I will focus primarily on
those that I think would be most helpful to people with disabilities.
The big next/prev page buttons are the perfect size for those that
have trouble pushing the ultra-small buttons which seem prevalent on
all modern electronic devices. In fact button size was the main reason
I elected not to purchase the Sony reader. I also appreciate the cover
because it helps me securely grip the Kindle when transferring it from
table to my tray and back again, I tried lifting it without the cover
but found that it often slipped out of my hand. I can unfortunately
but happily attest that the Kindle drop test video is accurate, I
dropped it on the sidewalk in the cover, and it landed on one of the
corners, just like it shows in the video, the corner absorbed all the
shock with no further damage.
As many reviewers have mentioned the Kindle makes traveling easier, I'm
enjoying the versatility it gives me, and the ease with which I can
switch between volumes as the mood strikes me. I used to take only my
lightest books with me on trips, often leaving the books I really
wanted to read at home.
Another great thing about Kindle is that it has completely eliminated
the need for bookmarks because it always remembers where you are in
each book. The whispernet delivery system that Amazon uses has also
changed the way I read, I used to get my orders from Amazon, and then
have to wait, sometimes hours for someone to open the box for me. With
Kindle, I can simply order books and have them delivered in under two
minutes!
Initially I had trouble working the scroll wheel, it took about 24
hours for me to get the hang of pressing it firmly with my thumb in
order to select something.
My only complaint would be that the switches on the back are hard to
use with the cover on, otherwise the Kindle is the perfect product!
Disruptive? You Bet! November 28, 2007
J. Lanctot
122 out of 128 found this review helpful
I've never felt strongly enough about a book or product to post a review. Guess there's a first time for everything!
Personally, I believe that a good yardstick of whether a technology will qualifiy as 'disruptive' is by measuring how polarizing the initial commentary on a product or service is. True to form, commentators (professional or otherwise) either seem to love the Kindle or hate it... I was an early adopter for the iPod as well and it is interesting to realize that I can replace the word 'Kindle' with 'iPod' and reconstruct almost exactly the reasons why critics insisted that the iPod was doomed to failure. Way to call it, boys!
I'm admittedly biased, but I do think my review deserves a little bit of cache (+1 mod point, if you're a Slashdotter!) for one simple reason: unlike many 'reviewers' who have taken the time to rate the Kindle sight unseen, I have *actually and personally* shelled-out $400 of my hard-earned dollars to purchase a Kindle. I am a 'Joe Consumer Book Lover,' and according to Jeff Bezos, I am the target market for this product: tech savvy, male who makes between 1 and 3 Amazon orders every month, I love to read, I have more books than I know what to do with, and I love the idea of carrying a bunch of books around on a device like the Kindle because I am usually reading several books at any one time and books are... wait for it... HEAVY! :-)
My Kindle wasn't given to me because I'm a technology commentator, I wasn't privy to the beta program (where's the love, Amazon!), and I haven't had one for the last 10 weeks prior to the public launch. I simply logged on to Amazon last Tuesday, saw the announcement, watched the video, read the words, saw the genius of the product, and bought one on the spot.
Is the Kindle perfect? Nope. There's lots of room for improvement... But then they DID manage to get a whole lot right, especially considering that this is a version 1.0 product.
If you fit the following criteria, I think you'll love the Kindle:
- You don't mind that Amazon didn't choose form over function
- You don't mind that it doesn't try to roll every mobile electronic device ever invented into a single package. (It is a book/paper/magazine/blog/document reader... Not a calendar/contact list/phone/note-taking/PDA/Gaming device).
- You couldn't care less about DRM issues
- You read. A lot.
- You currently buy books at full-price (whether locally, or online)
- You like instant gratification when buying books and are often frustrated when a book you were looking for at a local B&N isn't in stock
- You have enough disposable income that $400 + $10 per book won't break the bank
If the above doesn't describe you, that's OK (nobody's perfect! ;-) ), you just may want to hold off for a couple versions... Or be willing to live with a product that isn't going to 100% meet your expectations. The truth is that if you hate the Kindle, and can't see it's potential, you probably weren't in the target market to begin with... Again, that's OK. As the old saying goes: "You can please some of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time." In the end the Kindle is a 'niche product' for (apparently) quite a large niche- those who think that books really are the 'killer app' of the 21st century.
For the rest of us, please try to remember that even the Apple took 6 generations of iPods and 7 years of development/refinement/advancement to be in a posisiton to launch the iPhone/iTouch. You may not think it's so 'killer' today, but I think the Kindle is here to stay and will only get better. "Rumors of death have been greatly exagerrated."
Happy Reading, All!
I just got my Kindle in the mail today November 28, 2007
Lego Superman (TN)
99 out of 104 found this review helpful
Wow. Just effing wow.
Before ordering I read every review on Amazon, dug through the forums and then searched out external review I could find for the Kindle. I was very well informed about what I was purchasing, as one would want to be when dropping $400. Its only been in-hand for four hours so this will be a cursory review. I'll come back after a week or so of use and do another, more in-depth review.
As a lifelong avid reader and ebook skeptic, I have to say I am completely blown away and in love with this thing.
The Kindle has a very nice weight and feel to it, I find I can hold it comfortably without tapping the large side buttons. The screen is amazing, I'm digging the E-Ink screen and I could care less that there is no color. I bought it to read books on, not see pretty pictures. While I'll be the first to admit the pictures online really have done it no favors, I think the device looks great in person. My girlfriend and best friend both thought it looked great. The case it comes with is nothing special, but it does hold the device in well and provides a good place to clip a backlight onto.
My main fear was the lag between screen changes. Turns out, the screen lag is not a problem, as some other reviewers have said, you learn to hit the button right before you finish the last sentence and the transition is smooth. It is actually less intrusive than turning pages on an actual book. It works great as a one-handed device unlike the oversized paperbacks that I usually prefer. I loathe reading hardbacks because I find them unwieldy and a real pain to work with when trying to eat and read at the same time. I will be investing more in new releases not only because the savings ($9.99 instead of $20+) but because reading on the Kindle is a much more enjoyable experience to me than trying to prop up a hardback in bed or at a restaurant table.
I have read about half of "The Call of Cthulhu" (which was 99c) and some of T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland" to test the device on. A few pages in and I forgot I was reading an ebook, this was a huge relief.
Overall, I feel confident recommending this to anyone interested in an ebook reader. The whispernet is fast and convenient, viewing my gmail account took seconds, I think the selection is great (though I would like to see a few more of my personal favorites make their way onto the Kindle Bookstore), and most importantly, I feel as though I really am getting my money's worth.
I've compared the features to the Cybook and the Sony eReader and I've found that the Kindle, while slightly more expensive, really is the better deal.
Well done, Mr. Bezos. I think Amazon has done something really special here and I am happy to be a part of it.
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