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Has anyone tried the Kindle as a means of getting WSJ and other relevant tools? The model sounds attractive, particularly the automatic download when I'm travelling, but I also expect it could be far less effective for scanning than the hardcopy.

Tx

ladydewey's picture
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I thought about purchasing one; however I am not a fan of reading a great deal of text on a screen, I prefer old fashioned hardcopies. Even though the device's display is supposed to be like reading printed text, I'm skeptical. The two benefits that I could think of for this device are the downloads available on it - newspapers, blogs, books and the fact that you can bring your reading material with you without breaking your back. For $400 this seems like a very pricey gadget. Since my commute time is spent driving, I'll stick with audio books (cds or those downloaded to my iPod) or my favorite Podcasts - like MT.

HMac's picture

It's attractive, but I'm holding off spending the money until the next generation of the technology (because it will likely be better and cheaper..). You've probably already scanned the reviews, but a particularly helpful one was by Steve Wildstrom in his Business Week column on November 19, 2007. In case you missed it, here's how he summarized it:

[i]I don't think any form of electronic print will ever surpass the experience of ink on paper, but the Kindle comes as close as anything I've tried. I wish the contrast of the page was higher. The turning of pages could also be a bit faster. And I'd really like it if a brief but annoying fade to black with each page flip could be eliminated. E Ink is working on improved displays, including color.

Past e-book efforts forced you to accept a reading experience that was inferior to print in exchange for the ability to carry a huge volume of text in a small package. Not many people found the deal worth it. The Kindle's wireless connection and the quality of the Amazon store add a new and exciting dimension to the e-book. I just hope Amazon can do the one thing that no e-book vendor has accomplished: sell enough Kindles to drive the price down to the point where it becomes a true mass-market product. [/i]

pmoriarty's picture
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I don't agree with Business Week here. I switched to reading ebooks on a [b]PDA[/b] three years ago and now I can't imagine doing without it. It does take a few weeks to get used to though and I doubt the journalist used it that long before making up his mind.

sholden's picture
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I have not purchased one but I got to demo one for about 30 minutes.

The one thing that seems distracting is the 'blip' screen refresh when you change a page. The screen technology is very cool ... very low battery.

But I found the page change effect very distracting, so much so, I've decided to wait to version 2.0 and see if that fixes it.

I have downloaded a couple of books recently to my AT&T Tilt but only read a few pages so far so I can't really recommend that either.

Steve

WillDuke's picture
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I listen to another podcast, Security Now, over on the TWIT network. Those guys are both big E-Reader fans. They said that the screen flash is on the Sony readers too. I wonder if it's technologically necessary to clear the screen for re-draw.

stevenguy's picture

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