Week 1 – The Kindle experience
So, the first week has come and gone. I admit to falling in increasing love with my little toy. After several nights of reading my required bedtime-story on it, I branched off into newspaper articles and tried out the spiffy magazine subscription option. I have uploaded several of my own documents to read. I went shopping at the Amazon store directly from the Kindle and found it surprisingly easy to buy stuff although the UI needs some work.
The best thing so far is the screen. The text is truly beautiful and very easy on the eye. After months of reading mostly on a standard laptop monitor, I found that reading on the Kindle was stunningly easier and my reading was much faster. Hubby was quick to point out that the Kindle does not have the many distractions that my laptop does. That is definitely a point, but then he picked it up and read through the newspaper. Before I wrestled it back out of his grabby hands, he was lamenting that the ink-technology wasn’t available in full size screens and was making plans to try to tweak his fonts and contrast so that his monitor settings are more like the Kindle. Score 1.
I am also enjoying the content. The magazine and newspaper subscriptions offer trial periods and the newspaper navigation is well done – at least on the newspaper I’m trying out. One of the magazines I have downloaded is not so easy to navigate and I suspect that the Kindle is dependent upon the publishers to provide the nav. UI may be hit or miss.
Another nice discovery was that the Amazon Daily newsletter offers free downloads and 99cent deals. With room for 1000 books, I’m finding it easy to take advantage and try out the offers. The sample chapters from new books are fun too.
So far I’m finding that I drag my Kindle along everywhere. A new purse was required and happily acquired. I find all my paper books that have been stacked in piles around my room looking at me with expressions of disappointment. They will be ignored for a while while the shiny new toy gobbles my reading attention.