Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, 6 Kauf!
* Why I Bought a Kindle *
I'm one of those people who have been intrigued by the idea of eBook readers for some time but could never quite justify spending that much money on something for themselves. As a student at university, most weeks we seem to have great big PDFs to read which meant either developing really bad eye strain or murdering a good few trees just to print something I only planned on reading once or twice. Various reviews for the different readers seemed to imply PDFs were always awkward even on the most expensive of readers, so I kept telling myself that maybe if I waited for the next generation to be released additional functionality may be included. The day the newest model of the Kindle was announced in the UK I pre-ordered, with the affordable price tag and improved PDF handling I just couldn't resist.
* First Impressions *
Upon opening the box the first thing that struck me was how slim it was. I'd seen the Amazon photo showing it next sidewards on next to pencil, but it was only seeing it for myself that I realised it was incredibly sleek. The other thing I noticed was that the protective sticker on the screen telling me how to charge up my Kindle was just a transparent film & the writing was the actual Kindle display. Wow! I'd never so much as seen an eBook reader beforehand, so figured people were seriously overhyping when they claimed eInk looked just like a page from a book, turns out they weren't.
* Getting to Grips *
I stuck my Kindle on to charge and set about playing round with the settings. I expected setting up the wireless connection to be rather tricky and time consuming, but my network was immediately detected & I just needed to input my password. Very quick & pain-free. The eBooks I'd ordered from Amazon all started absolutely flying down, I was really impressed with the speed at which they downloaded (admittedly we do have a pretty fast internet connection though!) I'd heard negative feedback about how loud previous generation Kindles were when turning pages & that it took too long to load the next page, but to someone totally new to eReaders I didn't feel either were a problem. In fact, I was impressed with how quiet it was. One of the criticisms I do have is that when reading through a book I automatically expected the biggest key on the right to take me forwards a page & the largest key on the left to take me back one. Not a major gripe though & it's something I'm adapting to.
Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, 6 Kauf!
Next was time to try out the experimental browser, again I was impressed by just how crisp the pages were. Even without zooming in even the tiniest text was crisp & clear. One gripe I do have is that my Kindle doesn't seem to like dealing with secure connections, it has taken an instant dislike to both gmail & yahoo mail. Weirdly enough other uses have reported back theirs is totally fine, so please don't let this put you off. In fact, it disliked Yahoo so much my entire Kindle froze, which got me concerned I'd managed to break it within a couple of hours of receipt. Sliding the power button to the right for 15 seconds made everything better again though. I don't quite understand why Amazon decided against having an additional line of keys on the keyboard for numbers, I really think that was a mistake. Even with being able to use Alt & the keys from the top row it's still awkward, I find myself having to count along the top row in order to find the higher numbers. I have read some people saying they feel light grey on a dark grey background was a big design mistake but I think it looks nice & have no difficulties seeing which key is which even with my eyesight. In fact, I think if there was more contrast between the two it would be slightly distracting when trying to read. The keys may look much too close together, but my husband who normally has difficulties with tiny keys has tried out typing on it & had no problems at all.
* Document Transfer & PDFs *
I'd read through the help pages beforehand so knew how to go about getting a document converted by Amazon for free. I expected a lengthy delay, but within 2 minutes of e-mailing off my PDF it was available on my Kindle. I also manually loaded a PDF on via the USB lead. I actually preferred the PDF I'd manually added to the converted format, though I think that's just personal preference because it was much easier to navigate around the document. I found it particularly useful to rotate the screen 90 degrees & fit the document to width in order to easily read everything. I also liked how using the shift key & direction button gently nudged the PDF in the required direction - very nifty. Highlighting within the PDFs was rather hit & miss as sometimes it would save the line below the one highlighted, but then that sometimes happens on my PC so I think it's an accepted fact of PDFs. I liked being able to open the menu & have it tell me what all the highlighted parts or notes of the document were.
* MP3s & Text-to-Speech *
I already have several devices I can listen to MP3s on, so do not really intend on using this feature much. I added 3 songs to my Kindle though to test the sound quality. I certainly didn't expect that sort of sound quality from such a tiny device. I do think it's a shame you cannot easily go back a track, plus not being able to see what order the tracks are in or even what's playing is a shame, but isn't any cause of concern for me. The text-to-speech function was much better than expected, I was expecting a really flat, monotone voice & was pleasantly surprised by the variation in inflection. I also really liked being able to use the cursor to select where to start reading from. A nice addition would have been to have more than two options for voices (one male, one female - both american), but it works perfectly fine as is.
* Conclusion*
All in all I am really impressed with my newest little gadget. The text was clear enough for me to read without glasses, the reading experience itself was nice & quiet and the additional features such as the MP3 player & web browser may not be perfect but are not essential to the Kindle's main purpose. (Plus they are, after all, experimental) I haven't tried out a great selection of PDFs yet, but the ones I have seem to imply it really meets my needs. All I need now is to find a gorgeous purple cover to keep it safe & I'll be a very happy woman.
Get Books in as Little as 60 Seconds
Whispernet utilises Amazon's optimised technology plus Wi-Fi networks to enable you to wirelessly search, discover, and download content on the go. Your books and periodicals are delivered over Wi-Fi via Whispernet in less than 60 seconds. Wireless download times can vary based on file size.
New, Built-In Wi-Fi
Kindle automatically detects nearby Wi-Fi networks at school, home, or your favourite café. At a hotel or café that requires a password? Simply enter the password and connect to the network. Once you have added a Wi-Fi network, Kindle will automatically connect to that network the next time you're near the hotspot. Kindle does not currently connect to enterprise or peer-to-peer networks.
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