Shep and the Kindle 3

[MKSheppard]

So I got mine finally. For the purposes of this quickie review (I will have some more info later) here goes a comparison of the K3 with my Sony SJ-20 Clie (it's a Palm Clone from 2003).


SJ-20


Kindle 3

Honestly...the Kindle 3 looks far better in reality than it does in this photo.

I'll try to offer my impressions after it's charged up completely and I've had a chance to play with it more.

[General Zod]

Did you get the Wifi or the 3g version?

[MKSheppard]

Wifi. I don't need to have constant wireless on wherever I go.

EDIT: I also got the lighted case. The lighted case is a bit tricky to pull out the light -- it's a bit harder than one expects. But the lighting capability of it is enough to light up all the page to a readable level in darkness (naturally the corner nearest the light will be the brightest).

Best bonus of the amazon lighted case? You don't need to carry batteries; it integrates and locks into the kindle and uses the kindle's batteries, saving weight.

I cannot emphasize how small and lightweight the kindle is -- to the point where the case adds significiantly to it's weight and thickness. But you will want to get a case of sorts, since the screen is pretty much unprotected; and from experience with my Palms...you WILL drop them eventually.

[MKSheppard]

Is this sadly geeky?



I found out why e-ink reader screens flash black between page turns. It's so that the screen can refresh to get rid of any "ink shadows" left behind by the previous page's text.

With a website....this is a problem as you scroll up and down.

[MKSheppard]

Ok.

This is how they arrived in Amazon's Frustration Free (TM) Packaging. And I must attest, it IS frustration free.



You can see how you open the packaging -- just rip that tab on the bottom of the box. The box on the left is my lighted cover -- I opened it up already because I got it on 2 September...but did not get the kindle (one on right) until the 16th.

So lets open them.



A close up of what's on the kindle:



Many people, including our very own PHONG thought that was simply the "scratch protective" film placed over the screen.

Oh Ho ho...that's the e-ink display. EVERYONE the first time they see it; goes "That's gotta be a fake sticker or printed display" -- I did that when I saw my first sony e-reader.

Overall, the screen's capability to represent complex color images as greyscale is pretty good as evidenced by this:

[JLTucker]

How is PDF support, Shep? Is it better than the previous Kindles?

[MKSheppard]

PDF Support is okay, but not great.

I loaded the Matrix Games' WITP AE Manual for a test run.



It takes longer than a conventional kindle text only book; but not that much. Page flips are a mite slower, but not that slow.

Didn't try the "search for stuff" part yet.

The picture's better than what this shows -- kindles don't photograph well.

The biggest problem so far is that the K3 is just not optimal for reading PDFs like this manual, due to it's screen size.

It can be done....but honestly you're better off getting a Kindle DX.

The problem is the DX costs $379, and is significantly larger than the K3.

Also, a word to note:

Specialist Tyrol at Al Shroomsad reports that Kindle PDF loading speed and pageturn speed varies according to which type of PDF is loaded (many US Army manuals are in PDF format).

If the PDF file has a lot of actual text, it goes by fast. But if it relies on huge amounts of complex graphics or big page scans, it slogs.

So if you want a portable PDF reader, wait one more generation for both the Tablets (iPad Clones) and Kindle DXes to come down in price and increase in value.

Right now, we are still in the "Early adopter" phase for portable PDF support.

[JLTucker]

Do you still have to upload the PDFs to your Kindle account? Can you connect the Kindle to your computer and just drag and drop?

[MKSheppard]

You can connect your Kindle 3 to your computer with the supplied USB cable and drag and drop to the documents folder (the kindle appears as a USB-style flash drive with 3.3 GB or so of free space).

It's how I put non DRMed stuff onto my Kindle.

Oh yes.

Forgot my only bitch with the Kindle 3 so far, other than the seeming flimsiness of the LED light.

Instead of using a 5-pin Mini USB port, they use a Micro USB port.

This means that you can't charge it off a bunch of standard chargers for your cell phone or the USB cable that came with say, your USB External Hard drive, etc.

While this is a niggling point, as you can just buy a Micro USB cable at Radio Shack; I just wish they hadn't felt the burning need to make the new K3 as thin as possible; so that they could at least use the 5-pin Mini USB port that's becoming the standard for powering devices.

There is another gripe about the K3; in that Amazon relocated the power switch the bottom of the unit. This means that for people who don't have a case, which provides standoff distance; if they prop the K3 on their chest to read, there is a chance they will inadverdently send the device into 'sleep' mode.

[MKSheppard]

The case is really quite nice.



There's a strap that wraps around it to keep the front cover from opening inadverdently and allowing the Kindle itself to be opened to damage.

PS: EASTER EGG!!! Trading cards from Amtrak Police on their K-9 Units from TRAIN DAY at Union Station at left.

Better close up of the strap:



You can see how absurdly thin the kindle is -- if a Micro USB port is that tight of a fit.

Anyway; notice how the strap protects the power switch; and does not interfere with the clear functioning of the micro USB port. This means you can strap up your kindle for protection and still charge it at night.

[JBG]

Shep, what does the LED set up look like? It sounds clunky compared to the back-lit iPad.

[MKSheppard]

Here you go good sir:







BTW, the book I am reading is sort of like a crazy cross between Harry Harrison's Bill the Galactic Hero and something Shroomie would dream up.

The United States Galactic Foreign Legion has a proud battle-proven tradition of being the first to fight, dating back to the mid-Twenty-first Century, when the old United States decided to stop pussyfooting around and opened a can of whupass on Islamic fascist terrorists, communists, greeners, OPEC, China, and Democrats.

In many ways it's a direct parody of Paul Verhoeven's version of Starship Troopers -- they even get sent to a bug infested planet to clean it out.

[Stark]

Is it a memory metal strap or something? Who wants to read a book in the dark anyway?

Have they improved the interfaces (physical and software) for moving around inside documents? The older ones sucked for jumping to points in a document, browsing rapidly, etc.

[dragon]

nice looks better than my Kobo

[MKSheppard]

Is it a memory metal strap or something?

I have no idea.

Who wants to read a book in the dark anyway?

Uh, several reasons:

1.) You're on a long car trip in the passenger seat, and the sun has gone down; and you don't feel like sleeping in the car during the drive -- and the driver hates you turning on a angled spotlight for your seat -- it ruins his night vision.

2.) Your power just went off in the middle of the night due to a thunderstorm/snowstorm/idiot squirrel crossing several lines and frying himself. You don't feel like going to sleep.

3.) You are camping somewhere.

4.) You are reading a book in bed before bedtime, and your significant other wants to go to sleep NOW. And don't you dare turn on that desk lamp. (Some people are awfully sensitive to lighting conditions like me).

I know these aren't conditions that occur very often; but it was worth the extra convience for me to be able to just use the cover's built in light instead of having to lug around a full sized flashlight and then balance it just right during a power outage or whatever.

Have they improved the interfaces (physical and software) for moving around inside documents? The older ones sucked for jumping to points in a document, browsing rapidly, etc.

I...have no idea. This is my first Kindle.

[Beowulf]

Hey Shep! How easy is it to get an epub formatted ebook onto the kindle?

[MKSheppard]

I...don't know. But you could try using Calibre to convert EPUB into MOBI (Amazon bought out Mobipocket in 2005; and Kindle reads Mobi natively).

[Alyeska]

Shep, that Kindle 3 is downright sexy. With the prices as low as I've seen, I am strongly considering getting one.

[Lord Pounder]

I am truly jealous. I'm working for Amazon and provide tier 1 support for the Kindle, the more I have to talk about the features and benefits of the Kindle the more I want one. In training we spent a week just playing with the Kindle. I have hardly looked at my Sony E-Reader since. It just pales in comparison.

[JBG]

"Here you go good sir:"

Thanks Shep.

That looks much better than I feared.

I was imagining something with a flimsy wire and an alligator clip! As I alluded to on HPCA I love my iPad but the content (let alone the USB port) is just not there so you're making a good pitch for the Kindle.

[Medic]

I have to echo Shep's amazement that the screen protector wasn't the graphic display instructions when I opened the package. (I got one too)
Like him, this is my 1st Kindle and I like it. I would say love, but between some school work, my day job and NFL/fantasy football, I've left myself little reading time. Unread books remain unread.

I went ahead with the 3G version cause although I've been waiting for the price to come down to justify this to myself for a while, I don't know where I'll be stationed at any given time 2 years from now and that can include stints overseas; an extra $50 isn't hard to swallow.

For clarification on the pdf support, I'd first point out how a Kindle operates normally then contrast that to pdf's.
Normally, due to the digital format and the ability to dynamically adjust line spacing, font styles and text size, there aren't traditional pages on Kindle format files, but "locations" and these are many times as many "locations" as traditional pages. (at 6" of screen real estate, if you have average text size, spacing and margins, there's less than a traditional page of text) A 400 some page book I have translates to 7000 some "locations" for comparison. Well with a normal Kindle file, you might see 15 locations at a time with the smallest font / spacing / margin combinations, but if you make things bigger, you see only, say, 5 locations at a time. This way it dynamically adjusts for your viewer preference without being constrained to a paper or page like format.

Well not PDF's. When you open a PDF, how is it presented? One page stacked on top of another, and you repeat this cue as many times as pages. Same in the Kindle -- it does not 'read' the text and translate that into a format that can have it's text, margins or font changed, the pages are displayed as-is. And simply due to 6" of real estate and the limitations of the E-ink resolution, smaller-text PDF files become difficult to read. There is a zoom function but it's in the form of a big rectangular box which may or may not work with the particular file... I'd have to take pictures to clearly illustrate the idea.

Short version on PDF's is what Shep said: the quick fix is more screen real-estate, i.e., the DX and all the expense that entails. PDF functionality is certainly more than useless but the capability can be quite marginal depending on the individual pdf, and those run the gamut. Army Regs for example are text-heavy, but that text is small. I can scroll through them quickly but barely read the text. (there's distinguishable warping of the font characters due to the aforementioned resolution limitations of a 6" e-ink display) Others might be scanned documents with big, bold text and it's readable enough, however, these can load painfully slow, 2-3 seconds a page swap is the worst I have.

All in all awesome though. I did not order a case at the time I ordered my Kindle... once I held it in my hands, the razor-thin profile convinced me that was a mistake. Early adopters, as ever, are suckers. I never owned a previous Kindle but that can't prevent me from proclaiming: this is a polished product, and it's more affordable than ever.

[Alyeska]

It appears there are programs that can be used to convert PDFs into the Kindle format which make viewing them on the Kindle much nicer.