The Kindle 2

By Jamie York

As an avid reader, I decided to fork over $299 for an Amazon Kindle 2. The new, larger, 3rd generation Kindle DX is out too, but I opted for the Kindle 2 because of price and because I wanted something closer to the size of a paperback book.

Kindles use a technology called "electronic ink," which uses actual ink that organizes electronically when you go from page to page. It is this ink that gives the Kindle a realistic-looking page that is easy on the eyes, even when reading in bright light.

Content for the Kindle is available from Amazon.com and the cost of a new hardback book in Kindle format is $9.99. This seems a fair, discounted price if the authors are duly compensated. But pricing is not settled for Kindle content by any means. Some books are more than $9.99 and some are less. And then there are thousands of books without copyrights, as well as self-published books and rss feeds, that are available for free downloading, often in Kindle-ready format. Amazon also offers subscriptions to newspapers, magazines, and a few blogs, that are delivered automatically right to your Kindle via Amazon's Whispernet service.

In addition to purchasing content, the Kindle user can add content through a personal computer and as an email attachment. As a rule of thumb, I would advise against anyone paying more than $9.99 for a Kindle book. This should be the maximum pricing, with a possible exception being specialty and technical books used for education -- and even then the content must be greatly discounted from print books.

Since I usually read a fiction and non-fiction book at the same time, alternating from one to the other, the Kindle is a convenience for me. I can easily navigate from book to book. Kindle comes with an on-board dictionary, a searchable user's guide, and a web browser for access to Wikipedia and other sites.

One piece of advice though if you are considering purchasing a Kindle. Spend a little extra and buy a leather protective cover for it. I have read enough horror stories of people dropping and breaking their Kindles. This extra protection may just save your Kindle from damage. Otherwise, you can purchase insurance from Amazon and have your Kindle replaced free if you break it -- but they will only replace it once, so don't drop it again! Kindle apps are now available for the iphone, too, if one could stand reading a book on such a small screen.

Amazon's Whispernet service, which provides content to your Kindle via 3G carriers like Sprint, can also remove content without your knowledge or consent when the device is connected to the service. Users recently reported that two George Orwell books, Animal Farm and 1984, were taken off of Kindles by Amazon.com and the speculation is that the publisher either did not authorize the Kindle content or for some reason or withdrew consent. Users did get refunds, but it is odd, almost prophetic, that Orwell's books about paranoid totalitarian regimes, in which everyone is watched by the government, was the content removed by Amazon.com. What other content might they remove? Could Amazon.com be made subject to Patriot Act provisions and turn over Kindle content to the FBI without the knowledge or consent of the owner, without a court warrant or any judicial oversight? Hmmmm. Makes you wonder. These are, as Thomas Paine said, the times that try men's souls. Seems that our technology advanced for more rapidly than our common sense, than our humanity.