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Kindle: Reading in hi-def

Matt Hewitt,
Grand Central Magazine

The Kindle may very well be one of the first electronic book readers to gain enough buzz to capture the attention of the average person, writes Matt Hewitt. The device uses e-paper rather than a liquid crystal display to provide crisp, clear text that can compete with traditional text printed on paper with ink. Photograph by Matt Hewitt
(Click here for more images.)

For technology enthusiasts, the widespread use of e-paper is an important step towards the transition to a fully digital society.  The Kindle may very well be one of the first electronic book readers to gain enough buzz to capture the attention of the mainstream 

The device uses electronic paper rather than a liquid crystal display to provide crisp, clear text that can compete with traditional text printed on paper with ink.  The text on the Kindle looks amazing; it is almost like reading in high definition. 

The Kindle itself is about the size of a hardcover novel, but much thinner.  The Kindle sports a six-inch diagonal display, a small QWERTY keyboard, a navigational dial as well as various buttons for moving forward and backward in a book.  Unfortunately, the Kindle is a bit too large to fit in a standard size pocket, so carrying it around without a book bag or briefcase is a bit difficult.

I’ll admit it; the Kindle is a bit odd looking.  It is functional but not very elegant.  Many new consumer devices have taken the iPod approach – few buttons, sleek, sexy design – but the Kindle has many buttons and is rather boxy, with sharp angled edges.

The Kindle is also expensive at $359.99. And with that steep of a price, you’d expect it to be easy on the eyes.  Fortunately, it makes up for its ugliness by being an amazing device that I believe will make reading fun for a whole new generation of people.

Navigation on the Kindle takes some getting used to.  A scroll wheel is provided to select different books or publications, and once you are in a book, you use the next page/previous page buttons to navigate through the document. 

At first I found myself wanting to use the scroll wheel to scroll down as you would a document on the computer, but after a few minutes with the device, I became accustom to the buttons.

The Kindle is somewhat hard to hold.  The sharp corners push into the palm of my hands, which can be uncomfortable over time. I find myself constantly bumping the buttons on the side, accidentally skipping ahead a few pages in the book I’m reading.

Photograph by Matt Hewitt
(Click here for more images.)

After spending more time with the Kindle and adapting the way I hold the device, I find myself hitting less buttons automatically.

Books can easily be purchased and downloaded onto the Kindle without the use of a computer at all.  The Kindle can connect to Amazon.com and download books straight to the device over Amazon’s Whispernet, a wireless network that uses cell phone towers to transfer the data.  This means books can be downloaded almost anywhere that has cell phone coverage.

Whispernet is free, but book prices range from 50 cents (for classics in the public domain such as “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”) to over $6,000 for various text and reference books.  Fortunately, most best-sellers and new releases are $9.99 or less.  The Kindle store has a good selection of books; chances are if you have heard of a title and it has been published recently, you will be able to find it.

Books usually take under a minute to download and can be deleted and re-downloaded at any time.  You can also download samples of certain books for free – usually consisting of a table of contents and the first chapter – to see if the book is worth paying for.

Amazon also allows users to pay for a subscription to their favorite magazines, newspapers or blogs.  New issues are downloaded as they become available providing the device is left on, and can usually be revisited for up to three weeks.  The selection of magazines and newspapers is limited, but more will be added over time. 

Leaving the device on at all times is encouraged so that new subscription content is downloaded automatically.  The Kindle gets amazing battery life.  I have been using a device Amazon sent for review for over week and have only had to charge it twice. 

The electronic paper display is a power saver; it only draws power when a page is redrawn. This means if the device is left on the same page for a long period of time, no power is being used to display the text on that page.

The Kindle can also play audio books and MP3s, but these files must be transferred to the device via a USB connector.

The Kindle can also be used as a limited Web browser.  Browsing the Web isn’t easy, but it is nice to have the Web at your fingertips if you need to check movie times or quickly look up information on Wikipedia.

Overall:

I believe the Kindle to be a solid, albeit expensive, device and recommend it if you can afford it.  It would be nice to see something like this catch on, and the price decrease overtime.  I believe a large portion of the price comes from the Whispernet downloading service.  If Amazon gave people the option to use regular Wi-Fi or a USB connector to download content, the device may be less expensive overall.

I’d also like to see a price drop on the books themselves.  You’d think a digital copy of a book would be cheaper to publish than a print book because you aren’t using paper or having a machine bind the book together.  It is still a bit much at $9.99, to pay for something that can’t be resold or displayed on a bookshelf.

It would be nice to see a slightly smaller, thinner Kindle with an equally large screen, so that the device could easily fit inside a pocket.  Rumor has it Amazon is already working on the next generation of Kindle devices, and a smaller form factor is something they are looking into. 

For avid readers, mass transit commuters, and people that travel a lot, the Kindle is worth the price.  The convenience of having thousands of books at your fingertips while trapped in layover limbo at an airport greatly outweighs the hefty price tag. 

The Kindle may take a few minutes to get used to, but after becoming familiar with the device, I am not looking forward to sending it back to Amazon.