Suprise!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Friday I came home to a mysterious package from Amazon. I say mysterious because I know that Michelle and I had not ordered anything from Amazon lately. My first thought is that Michelle might have surprised me with the new Call of Duty: Black Ops game I've been going on and on about.

As I opened it up I was shocked to see a new Amazon Kindle. I have been doing some pro bono for my old work and they most graciously decided to send me one.

As you can see it is very simple, which is the greatest thing about this fantastic little device. In the picture below you will notice writing on the kindle. No that is not a sticker on the screen it is the e-ink. The great thing about e-ink is that once the image is on the screen no power is consumed. So when you turn it off a portrait of a famous author or painting is put on the screen while it is off.

After spending about a day non-stop on my new Kindle I can say that this device far exceeds my expectations. Lately I've been feeling like I need to grow up and start bettering myself. For example, in High School I did all I could to slack off, so I've never read the classics like A Tale of Two Cities or anything from Steinbeck, and I've been wanting to start reading more. Well my Kindle has been the perfect catalyst.

First off about the Kindle. The e-ink display is awesome. It doesn't hurt your eyes because it is the same ink that is in a pen, but just electronically manipulated to form the image on your screen. Also the contrast is excellent, and the speed just great as well. But its the features that are so awesome. I have the Wifi-3G model, and I've signed up for the Wall Street Journal. Every morning it just loads onto my Kindle and I can read it. And navigating through the Journal is a breeze. I can sort through the articles by section or briefly read a half page from each.

The Kindle also has a new feature called text-to-speech. This makes the journal perfect to listen to on the way to work or while at work through some headphones.

The Kindle store is also great. I downloaded the new George W. Bush memoir from the store, which would be about $30.00 for the hardcover for $9.99, and it was on my kindle in seconds. There are also thousands of magazines, and newspapers. I have noticed that the price for newspapers is a bit higher than I would like, but for example the WSJ is $15.99, which I will happily pay, and that works out to about $191 per year. I could get the journal at my house everyday for about $120, but the Kindle version has no ads, which is kind of nice.

For other features, the Kindle can play mp3's, has a web browser for checking that is quite functional, and can upload any quotes you like to Facebook or Twitter.

As a close for the price you really cannot beat the Kindle. For those that think they may want an ipad, if you want to read the news and books this device has it beat hands down, which is saying a lot because there are those out there that know how much I like the ipad. I really love my Kindle and I can't wait for the many trips I have to make to Indiana and Canada over the next month.