A while back I bought a kindle. First let me say I LOVE THIS THING! Probably the best gadget bang for my buck in a long time. Since purchasing I've heard many different opinions, mostly you should've bought (insert competitors reading device or tablet-like gadget here) . Why did I buy a kindle rather than any of those other devices? Well, there were several reasons. Let me summarize:
1) It can read PDFs. You will find many complaints/reviews/misconceptions about this on the web. What finally convinced me to buy it was some you tube videos reviewing this exact feature. (It will take me more than 10 minutes to find it so you'll have to google them yourself). Simply put I'm an academic. I read a lot of PDFs. I care about the environment. I hate printing them. I also find reading them on the screen to be useless. 5 minutes in I'm just scrolling on through, not blinking and not absorbing any of the information. The kindle has solved this for me. I like it. There is a caveat on this however. Not all pdfs are created equal. I have found most will easily convert to the native Kindle format. I can highlight and bookmark to my heart's content. Some won't and then I have to use the clunkier pdf interface, which I don't find awful as some reviews would lead you to believe, but it's a personal tolerance level thing. I find more do work than don't so it's a definite net gain for me. In addition I found the highlights to be gold when I actually went to write the paper I was reading the pdf for so it had definitely been a winner for me.
2) Cost. The price point was right for me. It was about what I wanted to spend on a device that might not work or become a staple use in my life. $139 was worth the risk. The cost of an ipad was not at this particular point in my life.
3) Weight. I lug a bunch of stuff around. The kindle is lighter than any of it's main competitors, and while the weight difference doesn't seem like much, for this gal every ounce counts.
4) Availability. I just hopped on over to my nearest best buy and picked one up. Just like that easy peasy. Plus we had some best buy gift cards, so cost went down a little.
Now that I have it, I've actually been reading more. I really enjoy reading on it. Hub and I are fighting over it sometimes and we may need to buy a second one for him. We got my Mom one for Christmas and she's happy with it as well.
There you have it, my 10 minutes on the kindle.
Side note. I reactivated my google ads and this "amazon associates" program through blogger, mostly just because I'm curious about it. Likely it will go away sometime soon because I'll feel guilty about it, but for now they are there. To balance out my corporate karma I will say I got an awesome sleeve for it from Rouge Theory on Etsy.
The Kindle-verse is a happy place. Nothing will ever really replace paper, but for travel and simplicity, I love mine!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kate on nothing replacing paper. That said, I think you made the right call on the Kindle vs iPad and that's coming from a huge iPad user and fan.
ReplyDeleteI've used both and for reading the Kindle is so superior to the iPad it's not even a competition. The biggest difference for me is the complete lack of eye strain with the Kindle. It's feels to my eyes like I'm reading paper.
My dad just told me, rather unceremoniously, that I'll be getting a Kindle in the mail for my birthday. I hadn't actually asked for one or done any research on them. So, I was a little worried. I have the same concerns/needs as the ones you listed. Now I'm excited and can't wait to get it in the mail!
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