I have nothing against Apple, especially since Apple needs to exist in order to prevent the government from filing an anti-trust suit against Microsoft. The iPod Touch was a winner though and surprisingly the best e-reader in my opinion.
On a side note, I was pretty excited to get a Kindle for Christmas, but you know how people pine for something - especially something shiny and blinking - really, really badly and then end up with failed expectations? Well, this was one of them. When I turned it on, the buttons felt more primitive than mashing buttons on a remote or withdrawing cash from an ATM machine. Its screen was monochromic; I can't forgive monochrome screens in the year 2011.
Amazon can't fool me. Although I'm all for environmental sustainability, its screen doesn't need to have the texture of the recyclable cardboard box it came in. But wait, there's more. The books I browsed cost nearly as much as the actual book; nobody I know actually buys e-books *cough* torrent *cough.* I've given up converting and downloading books in the Kindle format (Amazon should at least make the Kindle PDF compatible), especially when I can read them with about twice the area and half the time on my laptop. Its most interesting feature was probably the black and white sketches that appear when I turn the Kindle off. I'll wait and see what Google comes up with.
Nice picture Eric; do Macs really have that much higher of a price-tag? ( I wouldn't know)...
ReplyDeleteNo, no, don't torrent or ebook; how can you resist the smell of books that you get when you walk into bookstores or libraries? (Coffee too. Yum!)
I think the screen on the kindle was the whole point of the device. It's not supposed to look good; instead, it's supposed to read well in sunlight, and strain the eyes less than an LCD. It sounds like you bought the wrong device for what you wanted to do, which is always a pain, but doesn't mean the device is inherently flawed.
ReplyDeleteFeser is right on this one. Sounds like you should have gone for an iPad. E-ink screens trade readability for responsiveness. Some people really dislike reading on an LCD screen.
ReplyDeleteAlso, thought I'd point out that on the Kindle 3G, free wireless internet access + a readable screen = repository of all human knowledge.
The newest model of the Kindle is PDF compatible.
I got a Kindle for Christmas, too, and I am also underwhelmed. I'm just too cheap to buy an intangible book for only a couple bucks less than its glorious actual-book version. The only things I think my Kindle will come in handy for are 1. travelling, when I don't want to lug books coast to coast, 2. reading big, unweildy books, and 3. reading classics I don't already own (since you can get those for free from Amazon).
ReplyDeleteMy mother adores her Kindle, but I think that's just because she hates accumulating physical stuff, including books. Which I can understand, though I love actually holding a book.
ReplyDeleteI do think Jack is right about the screen issue, and the Kindle seems good at what it does to me.
Another great thing about PCs is you can build your own, which is the kind of thing my brother loves. Macs just aren't as versatile.