As my wife loves reading, so I decided to buy her an Amazon Kindle for Christmas. I wouldn’t classify myself as a dedicated reader, however since buying her the Kindle I found myself drawn towards it and reading. I’m sure the reason, but the whole experience of reading has been enhanced by the Kindle, so much so that I had to go and purchase one for myself as my wife was getting annoyed at me borrowing it.
The Amazon Kindle comes in two different models, a Wi-Fi only model at £111 and a slightly more expensive 3G model that will set you back £152. Both models are identical in appearance, size and the weight difference is negligible. The 3G model offers you free worldwide (100 countries and territories) access via Amazon’s Whispernet network and therefore allows you to buy books anytime, anywhere, without having to find a Wi-Fi hotspot. For this reason I opted to buy my wife the 3G model, however I personally went for the Wi-Fi only model for myself as I have tethering on my mobile phone and can therefore create my own Wi-Fi hotspot wherever I am, and most places seem to have Wi-Fi access nowadays.
The Kindle is extremely light, weighing less than your average paper back book and the screen is amazingly similar to reading from paper. Amazon’s key design approach was to make the Kindle disappear in your hand and let the user immerse themselves in the story, as you would with a physical book. The key to this, is the e-ink technology, the text bursts onto the screen which is not backlit and therefore offers the reader a sharp image and screen that reflects light like ordinary paper. The screen does not suffer glare in direct sunlight but does mean that you’ll need a reading light after dark.
Loading books onto the device couldn’t be easier, simply hit the Menu button and select “Shop in Kindle Store” and once you hit the Buy button the book appears on your device in less than 60 seconds ready to read! Many books available on the Kindle store are cheaper than buying the physical book, however they could in theory be cheaper still, as at the moment, e-books are, unlike physical books, subject to VAT, which is a little disappointing.
A brilliant feature that both my wife and I have made use of, is the Personal Document Service Via Whispernet. This service allows you to send, and convert, personal documents via the unique email address associated to your Kindle. I have found this of particular benefit at work as I hate reading documents on screen and I can now avoid printing large documents. The Kindle allows you to bookmark, highlight, make notes and even share them on Facebook and Twitter.
Whilst reading books, you may come across words that you have not seen before or do not know, simply move the cursor to the word and the definition automatically pops up at the top or bottom of the screen thanks to the built in dictionary.
If you are reading this article, you are probably a fan of reading blogs and Kindle also comes into its own in this space too, Amazon allow bloggers to publish their content in the Kindle Store. The great thing about Kindle Blogs is that they are automatically sent to your Kindle throughout the day so you are always kept up to date on your favourite blog.
If you’re a bit of a gadget geek like myself and own all sorts of fancy devices such as an Android mobile or iPhone, an iPad or Tablet, a Mac or PC, Kindle allows you to read on all devices and keeps them all in sync thanks to the free application download and Whispersync technology, so even if you forget your Kindle, you can pick up your mobile phone and carry on reading right where you left off on your other devices!
Overall, I’m thrilled to bits with my Kindle and the savings I’m making on each book I purchase, I’m almost at the point where the Kindle has paid for itself.
You can find the Daily Waffle Blog in the Amazon Kindle Store here
