Posts Tagged e-book
Kindle e-book Reader – Under $200, Now Practical Travel Gear
[Editor's update - the Kindle price has now dropped even more, to below $150 if you don't care about the 3G wireless access.]
When Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader first came out, I was baffled that anyone was buying it. It seemed like very few other people saw it as a worthwhile value either. Two years ago I asked in this post, Do you know anyone actually using a Kindle?
When it first launched, the Kindle went for $399, which was just plain silly. Then it dropped to $299, which was still the price of 20 or so new hardback books. Then it dropped below $250 (when I bought it—grrrr) and has now come down to $189.
I still wouldn’t call that a steal, but it’s now not a hard purchase to justify if you’re a traveler or you have kids who come with you. I am a traveler, but had trouble pulling the trigger on it until the latter reason came into play: I was going to be moving to Mexico for a year and knew I’d need more books for my daughter than I could drag along or buy locally.
Which brings me to the greatest feature of this e-book reader: you can download books in an instant from international locations. So let’s say you’ve run out of reading material in Puerto Vallarta, London, or New Delhi. Press a few buttons and presto, you’ve got a new book loaded and ready to go. If you read a review that sounds promising, you can download a sample first. If you like it, click the buy button and it’s done. Publishers have jacked up the price of some books, but most are still $9.99 or less, down to free in the case of public domain titles—most of the classics.
But what’s it like to read on this thing? Not perfect, but not bad. I’d still rather have a real book on my nightstand, but when on the move this is a good substitute. It doesn’t strain your eyes, it’s easy to hold in bed, and it feels almost like reading real paper and ink instead of a glowing screen (like the iPad has). Since it really is meant to do just one thing—deliver a book to your eyes—you’re not tempted to check your e-mail or go surf a website. To me that’s a good thing: no temptation to remove yourself from the immersion. (You can post to Twitter or Facebook from the Kindle, but thankfully not many people seem to want to do this.)
Where it bests a regular book is its instant defining of any word you put the cursor on. It’s also searchable. When you make bookmarks or highlight text, you can see a list of all those places you marked later in one spot. Since you can store more than 1,000 books on it, there’s no limit to what you can carry around in this little 10.6-ounce package. The battery life is really impressive: you can read a whole long novel before it runs out of juice. I’ve gone weeks, then it recharges in four hours. The keypad works far better and faster than the electronic one on a pad/touch device.
There are downsides though. It only displays one page at a time, so you’re hitting that “next page” button (loud enough to irritate a bedside companion) quite often. It doesn’t show page numbers while you’re reading, rather a percentage of completion, which feels quite odd. It’s harder to flip though, to browse, to mark a page, etc. Using a search function for something like a guidebook is not nearly as simple or quick as just turning to it in the real thing. The e-pub format used is not kind to illustrations and maps, which is another reason this is still a sub-par experience compared to a regular guidebook. It works better for straight-text books like novels.
With most any e-reader, there’s no such thing as a used book and it’s hard to loan one to a friend—like you easily can with a real book—without giving them your $189 reader. What do you do with a book when you’ve finished it? Good for the environment, but it doesn’t feel like you really own an e-book.
There are some other features that I tried out quickly but don’t use, like a text-to-speech reading function, a built-in PDF reader, a newspaper subscription service (extra $), wireless Wikipedia access, and an MP3 player.
The pros far outweigh the cons, especially now that the price has dropped down below $200. If you’re a frequent traveler packing light or a parent whose kid plows through a lot of books, I would recommend plunking down the money for one of these sooner or later.
My colleague John has reviewed a few other e-readers, including the the Sony Reader, but neither of us has tried the Nook from Barnes & Noble to make a comparison. For me the worldwide 3G wireless access, included in the purchase price with no ongoing contract (compare that to your iPad bill) was the clincher.
Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Free Global 3G – $189 & free shipping
See other e-reader posts.
Posted by Tim L. in General Gear, Kids and Family, Travel Light on July 14th, 2010
Unique and Artsy Kindle Cases
When you buy a Kindle from Amazon, all that comes in the box is the unit and a charger. If you feel more than a little trepidation over putting this $279 investment into a bag where it can get jostled and scratched, you will find yourself scrambling to get some kind of case or pouch right away.
Most of the Kindle covers sold at Amazon are meant to look professional, business-like, or unobtrusive. They’re fine, but if you want something with more pizazz, check out the collection from FernFiddlehead at the Etsy.com store. Etsy is a place where individual craftspeople show off their work and sell directly to people like you and me. This way they get the word out and have a nice display space without building hundreds of individual stores. There’s a lot of cool stuff on there for people who want products with personality.
I’ve been trying out the two FernFiddlehead Kindle cases pictured here. I’m using the version at the top as I move around with my Kindle, but this summer I’ll be moving to Mexico and my daughter will become the Kindle holder since we can’t lug 20 kids’ books down with us. So we’ll switch to the second cover pictured here when it’s in her hands.
Technically these are called “e-reader pouches” since you could also use them for a Nook, the Sony Reader John reviewed before, or some of the other e-book readers he checked out at the CES show this year. There’s basically just padded pouches (using polyfill) with a zipper, so they can hold any device that will fit the dimensions of 6 inches X 9 inches.
The only problem I’ve run into with these cases is that the length ends up being a shade less than 9 inches where the zipper closes, so you can’t just slide the Kindle in and out. You have to put it in at a slight angle and adjust, and pull it out at an angle when removing it from the case. No biggie, but a zipper that extends further than the case would make extraction easier.
These e-book reader pouches come in a variety of rotating designs according to what fabric the artist is currently working with, so what you see at the shop now will probably be different a few months from now. If you see a style you really like, in other words, snag it. These are not mass-produced cases that you’ll see other people using in the airport. These cases can show your own personal style.
Most can be washed in cold water and put in a dryer on low. They sell for $12 to $15 and shipping is a bargain: $2 in the U.S., $3.50 for Europe, $4 elsewhere, or free if you buy two or more items. See the whole line here.
My colleague Kara reviewed a line of padded laptop covers from FernFiddlehead a while back and liked the uniqueness of those as well. The shop also sells iPad covers, netbook covers, and iPod pouches. See it all at the Etsy FernFiddlehead store.
Posted by Tim L. in General Gear, Kids and Family on May 9th, 2010
CES Report: Year of the e-Reader?
Interead's newest e-readers are introduced at CES
LAS VEGAS—E-readers generated a lot of buzz at the 2010 International CES. And for many travelers, being able to carry around thousands of titles in an electronic reader less than the size of one book has a lot of appeal.
Amazon’s original e-reader is the best-selling item on the company’s website and now Sony and Barnes & Noble have introduced models of their own. But keep an eye on an upstart company, Interead, which is promising to ratchet up the competition with lower prices and a broad selection of titles.
“2010 is going to be the year of e-readers because of the content in our product,” says Phil Wood, marketing director for UK-based Interead.
Interead plans to bring three new models to the market by mid-year—the COOL-ER Compact, smaller than its competitors; COOL-ER Connect, adding Wi-Fi capabilities and a touch screen; and the COOL-ER 3G, adding high-speed connectivity via AT&T mobile phone channels. In addition, new case colors will be offered for the company’s current model, the COOL-ER Classic.
The new models fit well in in the inside pocket of my jacket. In fact, they were specifically designed that way. The COOL-ER Compact measures 6.7″ tall and 4.6″ wide and is less than half an inch thick. The 2 GB of onboard memory can be expanded to 6 GB with an SD memory card, easily holding thousands of titles.
The COOLER-ER Connect is expected to be competitively priced at $249 or less.
“We’re passing along the economy of scale and savings these new models have created,” says Wood.
The e-readers will work around the world and support e-books in every language, with menus in eight languages.
One of Interead’s strengths is its selection of titles—more than two million strong. About half of those titles are free Google e-books.
Also, a new application available from the company’s e-book site gives access to more than 1,400 global newspapers and magazines, along with millions of Twitter feeds. The prices of e-books are usually substantially less than printed volumes.
Sales figures are difficult to come by, since Amazon avoids releasing numbers for its popular Kindle e-readers that were first on the market. But industry estimates are that nine million e-readers were sold last year. Wood estimates industry-wide sales of 15 million units this year. He says Interead’s current model is positioned at number three in U.S. sales and number one in Europe.
Keep in mind that e-reader screens are still black and white. Wood says models with color screens should be available by December. While black and white screens are fine for most books, the color screens will make magazines and other periodicals look much better.
I know there are some purists who still like the smell and feel of physical books, just as some music lovers enjoyed the look and feel of vinyl albums. But e-readers, in the very near future, may well do for the printed word what the iPod did for music.
Posted by JohnG in Business Gear, General Gear, Travel Light on January 11th, 2010
