The New Kindle

One thing that really pisses me off is the negative press for the Kindle, Amazon's book reader. I was lucky enough to be bought the original Kindle when they came out and I never travel without it.  I have read so many reviews where people are trying to match the relevance of the Kindle to the iPhone/Pod and other media players... this is not what it is trying to be... it is a book reader. Even more than  a book reader, it's a very clever device for wirelessly downloading books, magazines and newspapers. I daily get the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Paid Content, and monthly Fortune magazine. My kindle is also holding about 20 books on it at the moment.  I don't want to put music on it, I don't want to have movies on it... this is a device for reading, and I think it works really well.

The screen works with a unique "electric paper" that only uses battery life every time it "prints" a page, so your battery can last for days and days of heavy use. I find the screen and print very clean and clear, and do not miss or need a backlighted display.

The buttons and ergonomics of the Kindle take a little getting used to, but the complaints of hitting the wrong button really led to stoopid operator fault and not the design.

The packaging is like something Apple would make.

The battery life as I mentioned is excellent and charges in about an hour from empty to full.

The wireless download works everywhere, in airports, buildings... and is very quick, (average download for a book is under a minute).

The main rival, SONY has a far inferior machine.

So I LOVE THE KINDLE... don't compare it to a multi media device... it is what it is, it does it well and Amazon should be applauded for it.