kindle 2

[cahn]

Yeah, so, I've been busy with frivolosities, and I'm not going to post more than once more until after the Kid's wedding on 4 April. Meanwhile, I've been playing with gadgets! Just the kindle today so I can get it out for julianyap, though I may quickly post on cameras in the near future.

A really wonderful co-worker let me borrow his kindle 2 for a couple of days. (He's a tech geek, not a lit geek, so only really bought it for travel.) Oh, man, I so wanted to like this. Some of it is awesome. The free web access? Worth the purchase price. The amazon store easy access is both really great and also will make a mint for amazon once I get one of these things.

But. BUT. The buttons are lame, more like pushing a (rather hard) mouse button and not at all like tapping an Ipod button, which is what it should be like. Since I have longstanding struggles with RSI, this was by itself a dealbreaker. If I wanted to push a mouse button to turn a page, I'd read on my computer.

Also, I do not read linearly. I read a page, wonder if the protagonist is going to die, flip to the end, decide I can read further since the protagonist still seems to be alive, realize I may have missed a Clew a chapter back, remember that oh, wait, something that was said at the very beginning was relevant... On the Kindle, you have to access a menu to flip to different parts. A menu! ...No.

And yet... once I gave it back to my co-worker, I missed it. I missed being able to carry lots of books in one package. I missed having (free!) web access all the time. I missed being able to download free sample chapters on practically anything that struck my fancy. I missed not struggling with a huge hardback book on the reading rack on the exercise machine. Bah.

Comments

[julianyap.livejournal.com]

Huh, thanks for the review. That is annoying about the button hardness. I read one review which said that the Kindle 2 actually made it harder than the Kindle 1 because people were turning pages by accident.

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

Yeah. What they should do is change the design to have relatively small, easily-tappable buttons near the screen, not large ones near the edge as they actually have (which it is easy to touch by mistake as you pick it up). I think that large buttons near the edge was meant to simulate the idea of "turning a page," but it's stupid design! I feel like someone at amazon had completely the wrong idea as to how to make it "like a paper book"-- focusing on silly cosmetic things like that and ignoring actual functionality (I don't want it to take effort to turn a page; or effort to scroll-- it desperately needs an ipod-like scroll wheel). Maybe after a couple more iterations they'll figure it out...

All that being said, if you're not picky about your buttons, as I think a lot of people are not, it might be okay. I definitely have Special Issues.

[julianyap.livejournal.com]

So, I just got Kindle for iPhone, I've only fooled around with it a little bit, but it strikes me as having the perfect user interface. You turn pages by just flicking to the right or the left, and it has a drag bar for jumping ahead. Still no good for flipping/browsing/skimming, (though I fear nothing but actual paper will be good for that) but a great interface nonetheless

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

ooh. That sounds exactly like what I want!... except for the monthly service charge :)