captpackrat | Entries tagged with kindle

When I upgraded to the Kindle 2, I gave my Kindle 1 to my SO. He recently started complaining about the poor battery life, so I popped the cover off to check on it. The battery was swollen up like a balloon, and was actually starting to push the cover off. Obviously it needed to be disposed of before it caught fire or exploded. Fortunately it was pretty much discharged, so I just tossed it (I know, you're supposed to recycle batteries, but who takes defective, about to explode batteries?) I had a choice, buy a new battery for an obsolete device, or buy myself the newest version of the Kindle and give my SO my current model.

Since they've come so far down in price, and the Kindle 3 is a pretty significant upgrade, I chose the latter option. I gave the K1 to my other roommate, the K2 to my SO and ordered the K3 with 3G for myself. I went with the "graphite" version because I thought the dark case would be easier on the eyes in bright sunlight.

The Kindle 3 is slightly smaller than the previous generation. They've managed to shave about 1/2 inch off the sides and drop about 2 ounces. The screen is still the same size as the two previous models. The back cover has a slightly rubbery feel to it; it feels better than the aluminum back the K2 used. It's now available in two colors, white or black.

The Kindle 3 has a greatly improved e-ink screen. Refresh rates are much faster and the contrast has been improved significantly. The previous Kindles had a sort of light-grayish screen with dark-gray ink, but the K3 has a very slightly-grayish screen with almost black ink. It's very easy on the eyes and I feel no strain at all, even after spending several hours reading. Pictures, while still grayscale, really stand out. Like the previous models, the screen is perfectly readable even in full summer sun.

The original Kindle 1 and the early Kindle 2s had Sprint 3G radios, which worked almost flawlessly here (in fact, the reason I switched to Sprint for my cellphone is because I got such a good signal). The Kindle 3, alas, has an AT&T radio, which doesn't work worth beans here. On the rare occasion that I've managed to pick up a signal, it's slow-ass EDGE, not 3G. Fortunately the Kindle 3 also has WiFi, so I can still get my newspaper and magazines wirelessly at home. In Omaha, I get a decent 3G signal most places I've tried it. As with past versions, cellular service is free for the life of the device. Amazon also offers a WiFi-only version of the Kindle 3 for just $139.

The power switch, volume buttons and ports have been moved back to the bottom of the device. I think I like this arrangement better than the scattered approach used by the K2. The page turning buttons are smaller on the K3, and there is now a previous page button on both sides of the Kindle. The Home, Menu and Back buttons are no longer along the side and have been moved to the keyboard, making it less likely to hit them by mistake. The tricky "joystick" from the K2 has been replaced by a D-pad which sits lower and is harder to accidentally bump. The keyboard seems more responsive than the previous versions. I am rather disappointed that they removed the number keys from the keyboard; now you have to press the Sym key and use the D-pad to select any numerals.

The Kindle 3 has a microphone on the bottom, but there isn't any software on the device to actually make use of it; the user guide claims it's for "future use". The K3 has stereo speakers on the back, just like the K2, though the built-in MP3 player still blows (but really, it's a book, not a iPod. I wouldn't expect an MP3 player to have a decent book reader either.)

Like the K2, the K3 doesn't come with a cover, you have to buy it separately, and they're not cheap. The top end Amazon-branded cover costs $60, about 1/3 as much as the Kindle 3G itself! On the plus side, it now comes with a built-in book light that is powered off the Kindle and shuts off automatically when the Kindle goes to sleep. It's also available in 7 colors. (They also offer a non-lighted leather cover for $35, and there are third party covers and cases for as little as $20.)

There are lots of other minor improvements and tweaks. Storage has been bumped from 2 GB to 4 (supposedly about 3500 books). The web browser is now based on WebKit. You can choose from 3 different fonts to read (Caecila, Caecila Condensed. and a san serif font). Battery life has been improved, supposedly up to one month with wireless turned off (I got 3 days of very heavy use, about 3-5 hours a day reading mostly newspapers and magazines). Amazon has announced a future upgrade will allow Kindle users to lend books to other users.

Three generations of Kindle

Comparison of the thickness of the various models

Size comparison between the Kindle 2 and 3

The new lighted cover at work.

Current Mood: pleased

I probably shouldn't have, but I ordered the Kindle 2. I didn't expect it to ship as fast as it did; when I ordered the original Kindle, it was backordered for months. I got this one just a couple weeks after they started taking pre-orders.

The new version is much thinner, like iPod thin. The keyboard is more streamlined (and Apple-like) and the side buttons are smaller and pivot inwards instead of outwards, making them harder to press by mistake (a common complaint with the Kindle 1). The back is stainless steel and non-removable (another common complaint about the Kindle 1 was the flimsy battery cover), but this means the battery is not user-replaceable (Apple Apple Apple!). Storage has been increased from 128 Megs to 2 Gigabytes, however the SD card slot (located inside the battery door on the Kindle 1) has been eliminated. The screen is slightly bigger and has been upgraded from 4 shades of gray to 16; you can really see the difference when you place the two side by side with the same image. The scroll wheel and weird shiny silver scroll bar have been replaced with a joystick; instead of highlighting entire lines, you can select specific words. The built-in dictionary is now automatic, you just select the word you want defined using the joystick and it displays the definition at the bottom of the screen. The new Kindle offers stereo speakers and a text-to-speech function that actually sounds close to human; it still has a problem with pacing, however. The new Kindle is MUCH faster than the old version, which is especially noticeable when searching through a large library. The new Kindle gets an improved cover lock system that actually works, however the cover is no longer included with the Kindle. Charging is done through a standard micro-USB cable and a computer or a USB power adaptor (the Kindle 1 required a dedicated power plug).

If you don't have one yet, the Kindle 2 is much nicer than the previous version and blows away the competition. If you already have the Kindle 1, the differences are probably not worth it to upgrade. The only reason I did is because I will be giving my old one to my SO.

And now the pics.

The Kindle 1 (left) is in the cover it came with, the Kindle 2 is in the optional Amazon cover. Other covers are offered

Backs of the Kindles. Note how the Kindle 1's battery door is barely attached.

The Kindle 1 cover is on top. It held the Kindle in place using a plastic tab and a notch in the battery cover. Any sideways pressure on the Kindle would tend to dislodge the battery cover, letting the Kindle fall out. The new Kindle cover requires rotating the Kindle on the bottom metal pin, then snapping the spring-loaded metal hook into a slot on the side of the Kindle. It can only be removed by pressing the hook downwards and rotating the Kindle off the bottom pin.

The Kindle 1 & 2 compared to typical hardback and paperback novels. The Kindle 2 can hold an entire library in a space less than half the size of a paperback book. The notches on the side of the K2 are part of the cover clip system.

Current Mood: amused

It's been one full month since I received my Kindle, and I'm still loving it. In the 29 days I've owned it, I've read 31 newspapers (2 issues of the San Francisco Chronicle and 29 of the San Jose Mercury News), 3 magazines (3 issues of Reader's Digest), 2-1/2 books (Little Fuzzy, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom and currently reading Roo'd), 2 short stories (The Masque of the Red Death and The Cask of Amontillado), 1 poem (The Raven), 1 audiobook (The Roads Must Roll) and hundreds of blog entries (Ars Technica, Amazon Daily and AP Strange). I've also used the Kindle's wireless web browser to check the weather forecast, movie times and stock prices when I wasn't home and I've performed dozens of Wikipedia lookups both at home and away.

I'm reading a lot more than I was before I got the Kindle, I'm watching much less television, spending less time on the computer, and I'm actually keeping up with news and current events.

Amazon released an upgrade to the Kindle 2 weeks ago, promising they would roll the update out gradually over a span of two weeks. I kind of figured I would be near the end of the list, since I had only received my Kindle a couple weeks previous, but I didn't realize I'd be nearly dead last. I still had version 1.0 this morning, but it updated some time this afternoon. Version 1.0.4 doesn't appear to offer much in the way of new features (so far I can only find some new screensaver images), but it definitely feels more responsive, especially the web browser. Trying to use an image intensive site like VCL was frustrating before; with the update it's almost as fast as using a regular computer.

I'm still getting 5 bars on the cellular modem, which is strange because I'm out in the middle of nowhere and my Verizon RAZR barely gets one bar. Even stranger is that my Kindle is getting a better signal out here than it does in Omaha (where it's usually 4 bars). My contract with Verizon expires in about a month, and although I've been a customer since the days of Airtouch Cellular, I'll likely switch to Sprint.

Current Mood: geeky

So far I'm seriously loving my Kindle book reader. I've subscribed to a newspaper (the San Jose Mercury News), a magazine (Reader's Digest) and a couple blogs (Ars Technica and AP Strange). I rather like being able to receive a newspaper, and having one with no messy ink and no stacks of old papers is even better. I go to bed at night, and when I get up the next morning, the latest newspaper has already been downloaded and is ready to read. And a month worth of the Mercury News is only $5.99, or less than 20 cents per issue.

The screen is really incredible. You have to see it to believe it. The letters are so crisp and clear that you don't feel like you're looking at a computer screen, it's almost as good as paper. (Not quite as white as a good, acid-free paper, but more like an old pulp paperback.) It's clear enough that I keep the font set on its smallest setting.

I'm absolutely amazed at the wireless signal strength I'm getting here. I live 15 miles as the crow flies from the edge of the city, out in the middle of corn and soybeans, yet I'm getting an EVDO signal with all 5 bars! Meanwhile my Verizon RAZR phone only gets 1 bar, if I'm lucky. The Whispernet service actually seems faster than our ISP!

I've tried the web browser, and while it works fine for some sites, like LiveJournal and Weather Underground, it's a bit wonky for some, like Wikipedia (unless you reduce the font size to minimum), and a few sites won't work at all. Pages with lots of graphics really slow things down. FurAffinity loads, but it's so graphics intensive that I gave up waiting for everything to render. Strangely, VCL would not load, though I've managed to load that site on my PDA, cellphone and Nintendo DS.

I've downloaded about 100 books from manybooks.net and WebScriptions.net, all free. I've managed to find many of my favorites, like Sherlock Holmes as well as some new books (like the sequel to Rats, Bats and Vats). I was pleasantly surprised to see that Amazon is offering The Fox Woman and Turning Point, both books I already have in dead tree version, and both wonderful anthropomorphic books that I highly recommend.

I hope these electronic books catch on; they'd be perfect for school textbooks. The first month or so in my Senior year of high school, we didn't have any lockers, so we had to carry all of our books to every class, then drag them all home again at night. I'd have killed to have one of these back then.

These pictures don't do the screen justice.

The Kindle without its cover.

The Kindle with its leather cover, displaying a page from Reader's Digest

One of the Kindle's Easter Eggs, Minesweeper! I won!

And yes, I managed to put furry porn on it. I'm really amazed at just how clear that screen is, despite being only 4 shades of gray. Again, the pictures don't do the screen justice.