Have you been following the development of the Kindle 2? Available from Amazon.com, just think of it as one of those electronic clipboards that Captain Picard used to access on Star Trek. It’s basically a dedicated reading machine. It’s as thin as a magazine, 10 ounces light, doesn’t require a computer, has a long-lasting battery that lasts for days, runs on its own fast 3G network (so no having to look for a Wi-Fi hotspot), and even reads PDFs in 16 shades of gray. Check it out at
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00154JDAI
It’ll set you back about $359… but your load will be a lot less than if you had taken an armload of *paper* books. And just think of how much better it is for the environment! :-) Books are $10 and up, basically. Access to Wikipedia and a ton of blogs is free. Pay for quick access to a ton of newspapers then read them on your Kindle before your friends get the paper versions.
What do *you* think of the Kindle 2? Please just click on “Comment”, below the location of this item on the web at…
I love it. I have a Kindle 1. I have several hundred books on it – many free, but also many I’ve purchased (for college). I rarely anywhere without it.
Best purchase we made in the States (Kindle 1) this fall. Like Justin, we have hundreds of books. Many free (manybooks.net), quite a few converted from pdf’s I bought or word documents, and certainly a number from Amazon. I think we have around 182 books in the Kindle and we’re not even close to halfway full. The best part is we can get books whenever and wherever we have an internet connection. No more condensed English classics from the Chinese bookstore for us! (We’ll download ’em from manybooks:)
I don’t have a Kindle, but I have the Kindle app for the iphone, which allows you to purchase, download, and read books from the Amazon Kindle store. It’s a great little app (read my review here).
I think it’s great for missionaries because we don’t have to lug books around all over the place with us. I wish the Kindle didn’t cost that much, though.
I was under the impression that Kindle was North America only due to the 3g network. Here I see people saying it’s good for missionaries and can be used anywhere there’s an internet connection. Can someone “in the know” comment on this?
The wireless does not work outside the US. You can still hook it up to a computer and transfer books to it that way. But there is no advantage of Kindle over a Sony Reader if you are outside the US. And Sony Reader is about $100 less. There is a good chance that the Kindle will come out in a world edition for sale outside the US. There is even a spot on the motherboard of the Kindle marked for SIM card.
The advantage that I think the Kindle has over the Sony Reader is the enormous (hundreds of thousands of books) library through Amazon.com, including many NYT best sellers and latest books. Sony Reader doesn’t have the same size library. But that’s the only real advantage if you’re outside the US. You can d/l the books (and magazines, newspapers, etc) from Amazon and upload via USB connection. That’s what I did all the time.
Just ordered a Kindle 2 thanks to Brigada. I am having my publisher, Asteroidea Books, pay for it. I figure it is a must since my book sells for Kindles. If you haven’t read it yet, “There’s a Sheep in my Bathtub: Birth of a Mongolian CPM” is available at a discount on Amazon.