Quote:
Originally Posted by NatCh
So, gteague, does that mean you haven't really "decided" on the Kindle? Was there any one factor that lead you to try it over one of the other devices?
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no, i have to say i haven't decided to keep it. reasons being that:
1) very slow everywhere. even next page or prev page flashes the display to a negative image and takes nearly 2 seconds (at my estimate). i read fast and this really, really slows me down.
2) the web browsing is even more painful. i realize this is a 'beta' feature, but to pay $400 i have to have the feature included to feel right about the purchase. then i come across a line from bezos that indicates that they may charge for this feature at a future date. they'd have to improve it by a factor of 1000x to get me to pay for it! although i must say i just downloaded 5 items from project gutenberg. but it took me at least 20 minutes and drained the battery from 100% to 50%.
3) the damm buttons. they are everywhere. 4 days i've had this thing and i still cannot figure out how to hold it. drives me nuts. couple that with the slow response and it seems to take forever to recover from the inevitable erroneous button presses. worse: the interface seems to be designed by the anti-ipod guys--it takes 3 presses and 3 delays to get anything useful done.
4) i shouldn't have to pay for file conversions. give me a desktop program and an emulator perhaps. emailing conversion attachments is clunky and prone to slow response. and, like the potential web browsing charge, amazon could decide to charge for more wireless activity if kindle users start saturating the network.
5) although i'm not interested, blog and news content way too expensive, even for the 'push'. many tech books are way over $9.99 and i've seen up to $200. for an ebook! that's insane! someone needs to explain the facts of life to those publishers. i might pay $29.99 for say, 2 or 4 or 6 volumes of the norton anthologies or for an outstanding o'reilly tech book which i could also access on their web bookshelf, but most else over $15 is just too ridiculous to mention.
6) so far, i can't zoom images. even images in amazons users guide which is on the kindle are unreadable the text in the images is so small. i downloaded a chapter of 'clash of thrones' which had a map of the kingdom. unreadable. why are people clamoring for pdf format when the result would be useless? perhaps i'm missing something here ...
7) in spite of bezos' quotes about appealing to book lovers, i think this device appeals to the opposite camp: book consumers. book lovers keep dozens, if not hundreds or thousands of volumes on shelves so they can reach for them at a whim. i remember reading something about amazon cancelling ownership and viewing of video downloads for a group of people who thought they'd bought these videos. could they do the same for the 'media library' they claim to be keeping safe for you? no, i think this device will appeal more to, and work better for, those who read nearly exclusively nytimes bestsellers and periodicals. i don't think it's for those of us who want 300 volumes of english literature to hand to read slowly and seriously.
to be fair, i'll list the factors tempting me to keep it:
1) i have to believe that it will improve since it runs linux and can be firmware updated and software updated. unfortunately, many manufacturers think an 'improvement' is to screw the early adopters by coming out with v2.0 and abandoning all fixes to v1.0. and the only thing that will improve the bad button layout is a 3rd-party cover that might provide hand grips or somesuch. am i willing to bet someone will solve the problem before v2.0 arrives and solves it (for another $400?).
2) instant gratification. the wireless service works flawlessly and amazon support (in the form of having your kindle page and account working and ready) was perfect. being able to download a sample chapter of nearly 100k selections in seconds nearly anywhere you are is a huge draw.
3) works with my mac. and linux. brilliant move to let the internal and external memory mount on the desktop where i can manually manipulate the files. great decision also for removable battery, sd storage (perhaps sdhc with a firmware/software update) and industry standard usb cable. points off for the flimsy plug on the ac adaptor though.
4) in spite of the howling about proprietary formats you can get nearly anything into this thing with only a little effort. witness the gutenberg downloads i mentioned. mobipocket reader and creator will let you sync content such as time, wired mag &c and your ebooks. and it's free. but it doesn't 'push' the content to you as amazon does.
5) 'indie' publishing. i followed a link on an amazon page where they were soliciting content for sale to kindle owners and decided to try it on a lark. i took a very short story i had written long ago and within an hour i had it uploaded to amazon and 12 hours later it was actually for sale! i know it's stupid, but this is a huge deal to a wanna-be writer like me. my writing rate is about a page per month in a good year, but if the kindle takes off this could convince me to actually start writing seriously.
so yes, i'm still undecided. i can already tell the negatives about the user interface will frustrate me beyond belief, so as i posted elsewhere, the go/no-go is about 40%/60% right now.
/guy