Who Needs a Kindle?

Published 21 Jan 2010 11:57 AM

I've been reading a lot of books published by Amazon Kindle, but I refuse to carry (and pay for) another device. I've been reading books from Kindle on my iPhone, and it works great for me. Yes, you end up flipping pages a lot, but you can make the font quite large, and it works great for me. Recently, Amazon also released a Kindle app for the PC (Mac coming soon). You can download the free app here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_pc_mkt_lnd?docId=1000426311. I've tried it, and it works great, syncing the current page with my iPhone, so I can flip back and forth between devices. With a tablet PC, this would be a killer app. I do wish you could print pages directly from the application, but I understand why you cannot. On the other hand, armed with any screen capture utility, you can capture and print individual pages quite nicely (which I'm doing at this moment with the free "Cook's Illustrated How-To-Cook Library" that I have in my Kindle library.

Will I read books on my PC? Probably not. But I'm far more likely now to buy technical books from Kindle than I would have otherwise, and to be honest, I'm pretty tired of buying technical books in dead-tree format. On the other hand, you can resell a physical book when you're done with it, and you cannot with a kindle book.

 

by KenG

Comments

# CraigJ said on Friday, February 05, 2010 4:04 PM

Ken , you need to get with it. . .

I have a kindle and love it.   It is fabulous when traveling, I have newspapers and too many books to read on it.

I don't think the ipad will ever make it. . .

Craig

# KenG said on Monday, February 15, 2010 11:39 AM

You have to be kidding. Unless they give away the Kindle (which is apparently an option under discussion, since Amazon knows it can't compete), it will just wither away (that's my guess). Since the Kindle with the comparable screen size costs only $10 less than the cheapest iPad, why would anyone buy a Kindle? Color, touchscreen, same-priced books: I don't see it.

# CraigJ said on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 9:04 PM

When I read a book I read the type and not look at the color pictures. . . If I wanted to look at color I would use a pc or an iphone, or a zune , , , why use a large "iphone"  which is called an ipad?

How about a friendly bet Ken,     I would bet the ipad will flop.

Craig

# KenG said on Tuesday, March 09, 2010 9:42 AM

If all it could do was present books for reading, I would bet with you. Battery life won't be nearly as long as Kindle's, and it's way heavier. But you might as well compare Kindle to a laptop, from the laptop user's perspective. What laptop user would give up a laptop for a Kindle? As I've said elsewhere, the iPad doesn't compete with a Kindle. People who want to read books will still buy Kindles. People who want a device that travels well, performs a large portion of what they need to do on the road for work (email, web browsing, etc.) are more likely to buy the iPad. But what's more, it's all leading towards a more mobile platform for computers. Even my luddite neighbor (who uses a computer ONLY to play solitaire) is convinced that libraries, with paper books, are history in 30 years. I have to agree, sad as it is. My young friends are very happy to read without paper books. And to text their friends while having dinner with me, which I guess we'd all better get used to.