My Kindle Stuff

Well, it was a few days late, but I finally got my Kindle today.  As I knew I would be, I love the updated screen, the new button placement and smaller form factor.  Looking at the Kindle 2 and Kindle 3 side-by-side shows off my new Kindle to advantage.

There are a plethora of positive reviews, comparison videos and comparison reviews out there so I won’t go into any of those details.  You can google for those, or if you want a really thorough video comparison, Len Edgerly of The Kindle Chronicles has a great one.  Unfortunately, I am going to talk about the features that I don’t feel are an improvement, and a couple of items that I think should be changed right away.

Number Keys

(Edit:  I’ve been advised to hold down the ALT key to do the below, but I’m still not happy with the removal of the numbered row)

At first, I was resigned to accessing numbers via the SYM key.  It would be a little inconvenient, but I was willing to overlook it to have the smaller size. Not any longer.  The lack of a row for the numbers means that if you plan on storing more than a couple of pages of content, you are almost forced to use collections and it is an example of bad design.

Example:

On the Kindle 2, if you have a lot of pages, you can use the number keys to enter the number, and click to go to that page.

On the Kindle 3, you have to enter a letter, click the DEL key to remove it and then use the SYM key to enter the page number.  If Amazon has a UI expert, that one definitely slipped thru the cracks, but I’m pretty sure this can be solved with a software update adding the Go To item to the Home menu.

Wi-Fi/3G

There is no way to turn either off separate from the other.  Turning off wireless means both get turned off.  This is a pretty minor issue, but without an explanation of how/when 3G and/or Wi-Fi are accessed by the device, I’m left wondering how either setting on is affecting battery life.

Headphone/Speaker jack

Why, oh why is this on the bottom of the device?  If my device is on a stand or in my lap, that means that I’m going to have to bend the cord at an angle that will eventually break the wire.  It belongs back on the top or even on the side of the Kindle.

Volume bar

See above reaction.  This too should be moved back to the side of the device or up on top.  My vote is the side, but I’ll be happy with either.

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Okay–done with the griping.  On to the things that I love.

Font Settings

Yay for the sans serif font!  I won’t need to use the font hack any longer. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work for those awful topaz formatted books, but we can’t have everything.

Weight

I know that some of the reviews stated that you can’t tell the difference in weight between the Kindle 2 and Kindle 3, but I can.  And I know that anyone with weight sensitive hands and/or wrists will appreciate the marked (to me, anyway) difference in weight.

Top Bar

When you 0pen a book, you can see the Title, Time and wireless status on the top bar, but as soon as you turn the page, they disappear to make more room for the text of the book.  At first, I didn’t like it , but as I’ve been reading, I appreciate the extra text. I wish it worked the same on waking the device up.  If you read more than one book at a time, you won’t know (without skimming the page) which book you are in.

Contrast

This has been said over and over, but it is so improved that it can’t be overstated.  The Kindle 3 screen is very crisp; I can’t get over how good it looks.

All in all, I am very happy and satisfied with the Kindle 3.  Amazon did a lot of small improvements that really add up to a big improvement overall.  Well that’s it for me, its back to reading on Mr. Slate.  He’s naked now, but I’m expecting the Amazon cover tomorrow.

Well, I’m swamped by rumors, happy with Kindle news and what with all the good books I’ve found– just wallowing in Kindle-goodness.

Rumors

First for the rumors.  Sometime yesterday the 6″ Kindle went out of stock, there were refurbs available, but they’ve since sold out as well.  Rumors on Twitter, Amazon Discussion boards, Kindleboards and MobileReads speculate that the Kindle 3 is just around the corner.  In response, 3rd parties have already raised the prices of used Kindles upwards of $230, pretty much reflecting the old Kindle price of $259.  It will be interesting to watch the price gouging wars if the Kindle 2 stays out of stock for a few days.  I don’t dare look at the prices on ebay (ugh).

News

In Kindle news, Amazon issued a Press Release announcing that Stieg Larsson (author of the Millennium Trilogy)  is the frst author and first member of the “Kindle Million Club”.  That club is for writers whose books have sold over 1 million Kindle copies.
This kind of confuses me as I thought James Patterson was the 1st, but apparently that news was for selling a million ebooks (whether Kindle or otherwise) and was issued by his publisher, not Amazon.  So there you go.
For those thinking that the iPad was going to be the death of the Kindle–raspberries to you.  I say up with dedicated devices that do one thing great rather than focus on muli-ourpose ones that do a lot of stuff just okay. Don’t get me wrong, I love my iPad, but my Kindle is my baby!

My Lastest books (All VERY good! If you are into the Fantasy genre, be sure to check them out)

All that Lives Must Die (Mortal Coils #2) – Mortal Coils (Mortal Coils #1) by Eric Nylund – Mortal Coils was one of my Best Books of 2009

Tracking the Tempest (Jane True #2), Tempest Rising (Jane True, #1) by Nicole Peeler

Acacia: The War with the Mein (Acacia #1) by David Anthony Durham

Salute the Dark (Shadows of the Apt #4), Blood of the Mantis (Shadows of the Apt #3), Dragonfly Falling (Shadows of the Apt #2), Empire in Black & Gold (Shadows of the Apt #1) by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Raised by Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Amazon announced last night that they have made a deal to publish 20 books from the Wylie Agency.  They will be publishing electronic versions of these books and have 2 years of exclusivity.  12 of the 20 will be available globally.  The books are a mix of highy regarded literary works.

They are:  (I) indicates international availability

• “London Fields” by Martin Amis  (I)
• “The Adventures of Augie March” by Saul Bellow  (I)
• “Ficciones” (Spanish Edition) by Jorge Luis Borges(I)
• “Junky” by William Burroughs
• “The Stories of John Cheever” by John Cheever  (I)
• “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison  (I)
• “Love Medicine” by Louise Erdrich  (I) Pre-order
  
• “The Naked and the Dead” by Norman Mailer  (I)
• “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov  (I)
• “The Enigma of Arrival” by V.S. Naipaul
• “The White Castle” by Orhan Pamuk  (I)
• “Portnoy’s Complaint” by Philip Roth
• “Midnight’s Children” by Salman Rushdie (I)
• “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” by Oliver Sacks
• “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” by Hunter S. Thompson  (I)
• “Rabbit Run” by John Updike
• “Rabbit Redux” by John Updike
• “Rabbit is Rich” by John Updike
• “Rabbit at Rest” by John Updike
• “Brideshead Revisited” by Evelyn Waugh (I)

They will have an updated and uniform look that has been optimized for the Kindle  screen.  ALL are $9.99 with prices slightly higher outside of the U.S.

See the Press Release here and for more Kindle exclusives see this page.

There have been a lot of Kindle updates lately without actually releasing a new device.  Here’s the latest.  all you Android phone users can go to the Amazon website and download the newest member of the Kindle application family for your phones.

And just in case you haven’t been following:

Kindle 2 now only $189 with free shipping

Kindle for iPad/iPhone  now supports embedded audio/video

Kindle 2.5 update was released

Still to come? Kindle for iPad Search and instant dictionary lookup and of course the Kindle 3 

If you’ve been waiting and/or need the manual download because you’re in a spotty Whispernet area, you can head on over to the Amazon  Update page.  Be sure to note your model prior to downloading as you’ll need the correct file for your hardware. Posting of the manual update on the Amazon site means that they’ve got it going out via the regular update process.  No more testing–this baby is online for all.

As expected, still no word on an update for the Kindle 1 folks, but maybe they’ll think about getting one out now that they’ve silenced the ‘where’s the update’ screams.