I spent a good hour today reading reviews on Amazon's new e-book devise, the Kindle.It's quite interesting-- at first I didn't really pay attention to its big ad on the frontpage of Amazon because... well, it looks kind of ugly, and I have never warmed up to the idea of an electronic device replacing the experience of reading from a real book.
But after reading reviews from people who have actually tried it out (most of the negatives are from people who haven't), it actually sounds like it might be something worth buying when I have the money.
The main point is that the screen reads like paper, with something called "e-ink" technology. There isn't the subtle flicker of, say, laptops, and so it's easy on the eyes like a normal book.
Some other major features include the fact that there is free wireless on it so that you can review, purchase, and download ebooks without having to find wifi or be plugged in. You can also subscribe to newspapers and blogs and magazines, which automatically dL onto the Kindle. There's even access to wikipedia-- I don't know the extent of the wireless usage beyond that.
This isn't meant to be a multi-media devise. For example, there's no color (I believe the technology for color 'e-ink' isn't there yet) and mp3s supposedly can only be played at random. But it seems to be really attractive for someone who wants to be able to easily carry a lot of reading material around (esp for traveling). It's light, so you could just pop it out and read it when you have a random five minutes here and there. That would be nice.
But at this very moment, $400 would have to be spent more wisely for me...
Some books I bought/ordered today:
I've been wanting to get Water for Elephants for a while... should be a good beach read in Hawaii :) The reviews on it are great, and from people who like similar books as I do.
Well, actually, these all have great reviews because I am OCD when it comes to reading reviews. I will research all similar products to death before coming down to a decision. It's probably a big waste of my time but I can't help it.
The Knowledge Book I bought from Borders, so it's the only one I have so far. It's awesome. It's by National Geographic and is very well laid out, with full color and lots of pictures (my favorite :) ). It was also really inexpensive for such a well made book.
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Picture of the Post:
What used to be on the Hotel Figueroa (next to the Staples Center). I really liked it.
