First off, I really like it. Its a great little device for reading and the screen is much better than I expected. Mostly I've been downloading classics on to it and reading them. One of the things I find I particularly like about it is holding it. I find it so much more comfortable to hold than a book, I can read one handed without having to hold the spine open. I even figured out I can quickly check the time on it if I don't want to look at the clock on my bedside table. And as a bonus Lok likes it too. She likes making the font bigger because its easier on her eyes. She has also been spending money on Amazon buying books she'd otherwise have to go to a city and spend lots of money on. All in all its seeing a lot of use.
Being a geek I have tried to read some RPGs on it. And its about as good for that as I'd hoped. But thats not saying much. I'm reading Deadlands Reloaded on it at the moment. I cropped off the edges and took a couple of pages out before loading it on to the device. Landscaped its a bit small but readable. Portrait its tiny but actually just about readable. But its a slow affair skipping forwards and back to read 2 columns. And it takes up way more space than a book. But heres the thing - I'm reading Deadlands cover to cover, when I'm done I'll probably take it off the Kindle and use the PC to reference it. I'm okay with this. It takes me off the PC for most of the books reading time. This is a good thing.
It does sum up one of my main ideas about this kind of eReader though. Which is that its great for books but the further you get away from simple books the worse the experience gets. I can see why newspapers would be nice on the device, but you'd really have to work on cutting up the text and pictures to fit it better. This is not the device for comics or magazines (though manga could work).
Talking of newspapers Amazon has a service for that. But I'm not so happy with how they charge in the wider world. Not very happy at all. Good thing there are python scripts that let me get content from any of the UK or international eBook stores.
And finally, a bit of a look to the future. The distribution network and content design is going to be key if these devices are going to take off. Amazons Kindle is a good (if restrictive) example of a first attempt. With the right devices coming out (at CES today) publishers and retailers are going to have to work hard to come up with the winning services and products. It will probably take years though until we see the same freedom and options which we have in mp3's today. Its going to be really interesting seeing what comes out though. I'm hoping for a way to download comic books so that I can get rid of the rest of my bookshelves contents (moving all that stuff was a ******).
Your comments pretty much mirror my experiences with my sony eReader. I wanted a kindle for a while but decided there DRM was a bit scary at times. I prefer the DRMed ePUB format from Adobe as its multi-device so I'm not locked to Amazon (for example I think the new barnes and noble eBook reader supports it) and I can buy from multiple stores.
ReplyDeleteThere are some A4 eBook readers out there which I imagine are much better for RPG books and the like. I tried a couple of times and then gave up on them.
If your interested in making your own files from html or text to view on it then I recommend http://www.juliansmart.com/ecub (assuming the kindle supports DRM free ePUB or mobipocket). I'm finding that the files tend to load quicker and are more responsive in proper ebook format than raw txt. Takes some of the formatting strain off the device I guess.
Oh, I was wondering which one you got. I really wasn't going to go for the Kindle in the beginning because of the DRM. But eventually every ereader available got eliminated for some reason or other and the Kindle was the only one left. Once I realised I could easily remove DRM that was all the convincing I needed. Also the Kindle was the easiest to import. It took 3 days from order to delivery.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip about ecub. I have been trying to work out a way to put a recipy folder onto the device so might take a look at that. Mostly I have been using Calibre to get everything formated right. It works pretty well.