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For months I had been saying that I thought it
would be an excellent idea to get myself an Amazon
Kindle and save me having to build more shelves
at home to house my Zen books, a library of
mine that is always growing. Anyway after
looking at several brands of E-book readers, I took
the plunge and opted for the Amazon Kindle. The
Kindle is one of the cheapest e-book readers on
the market and I must say that I am very pleased
with it and got far more than I expected on this
little 8 by 5.5 inch gadget.
I have read many e-books before on my computer
screen but come late afternoon/early evening, particularly
in the winter-time, I would have close my curtains
to stop the sunlight shining on to my screen and
I found it was quite tiring on the eyes.
The claim with Kindle was that bright light would
make no difference at all, as reading from its screen
was no different to reading from the page of a conventional
book made of paper. All I can say is that this is
quite correct. Full sun has shone on my Kindle ,
and whilst there is a very slight hint of reflection,
it remains quite easy to read and there was same
quality of crisp black and white print under my
reading lamp as well. OK, I had to move it ever
so slightly, but I've had to do that with conventional
books.
As well as being able to read books I purchase
from Amazon in the Kindle format that Amazon calls,
Whispersync, I can also load text files into my
Kindle from my PC by connecting it to a USB port,
which is immediately recognized by my Windows 7
O/S without having to load any extra software. I
then simply select "View Files" from the
window that pops up when I connect it, open the
Documents folder on the Kindle and drag and drop
text files, from Wordpad (for instance), or any
PDF files that I have downloaded from the Internet.
I tried dragging some Word documents but Kindle
didn't recognize the files, but when I saved as
text documents, it worked. This I thought, was really
useful for when I went to meet up with my weekly
writing group to save having to carry printed pages.
Connecting to the Internet and Downloading
E-Books
Connecting to the home network was no problem
at all. As I switched on the Kindle for the first
time, the Kindle displayed a box showing the available
wireless network one of which was my own. I just
needed to get my password for the BT home hub and
enter it into the Kindle and I was on line on the
Amazon website easily and painlessly!
On Amazon there were several free classic and
other books, but I noticed that there was an interesting
E-book for 75 pence on how to get the best out of
Twitter, so I selected that and within seconds it
appeared on my Kindle. However, an account with
Amazon is needed to do this.
Getting an Amazon Account
One important thing to mention here is that I
have an Amazon account, and I needed to sign in.,
which was simplicity itself using the built-in QWERTY
keyboard on the Kindle itself. If you don't have
an Amazon account, then this can be done easily
by following the onscreen instructions to open an
account. You then simply need to register a credit/debit
card and all purchases are done quickly and easily
with just one click on site. You may wish to do
this on the larger screen of your computer as I
do.
When you order a Kindle E-book from Amazon, as
well as being downloaded within a minute, the book
is also stored in your Amazon Kindle account and
you can re-download it at any time. So if the file
becomes corrupt for any reason or your Kindle needs
repair (hopefully not), the book is always yours.
You can also download Kindle reading software to
your PC so that you can read in the Kindle format.
I have done this and it only took minutes to install.
On the Kindle, newly downloaded books are added
to the list on your first page that open when you
first turn it on - this is the home page. When you
turn on the machine on future occasions, it opens
to the last page you were reading, for instance
a book. But if you want to go to the home page,
you simply have to press the home button on the
keyboard.
You can organize books, other purchases and files
into Archived Items for storage and easy location
. You can also create what is known as Collections.
To do this, you need to go into the menu and select,
"Create New Collection," give it a name
and save it. You can then move books and other items
to be stored in the named collection which will
then appear as a listed item on your home page.
The Controls
The QWERTY keyboard of the Kindle works the same
as your computer keyboard, but of course it is much
smaller. There is a button for your Home Page that
takes you to your list of books, Collections and
Archived Items. There is a menu button where you
can select via a 4-way selector button to..
- Turn Wireless Off
- Shop in Kindle Store
- View Archived Items
- Search
- Create New Collection
- Sync and Check for Items.
- View Downloading Items (when you are downloading)
- Settings for your Kindle
- Experimental.
By pressing the Back button you can go back each
time it is pressed to the previously viewed page
of your menu and by pressing the Home button, you
go back to your Home Page.
When you are reading a book, the Kindle automatically
goes to the page you were reading the last time
you exited it. You can also cut and paste notes
from any book your are reading to access at a later
time. Turning pages forwards or backwards is done
by using arrow buttons situated on each side of
the Kindle.
On Your Amazon Kindle Account.
When you register your Kindle account on Amazon
you also get a Kindle e-mail address with Amazon
which would appear as yourname@kindle.com, with
that account you can e-mail documents as attachments,
to your Kindle reader via your Amazon account. I
have not tried this function yet and Amazon says
that there is a small charge for it. You can set
a maximum charge that is allowed for a single personal
document sent wirelessly to your Kindle.
I tend to use my computer to browse through Amazon's
books etc and order and pay for them from my computer
and my orders will then automatically be downloaded
to my Kindle device and also stored in my Kindle
account on the Amazon website.
Apart from reading books, via the Amazon site,
you can subscribe to daily newspapers that are delivered
to the device - there is a free 14-day trial so
you can judge whether you can enjoy reading the
daily news this way or not. Also, Kindle can play
audio books, and MP3 music files and download blog
updates that you may have subscribed to.
A few more facts about the Kindle...
There are two types of Kindle that Amazon sells,
there is the WiFi model that I paid £109 for
and this I can connect to my BT wireless home network,
and then there's the Wifi + 3G that connects to
both a home network and the 3G mobile phone network
and this latter model costs £149. According
to the Amazon website, the latest generation of
Kindles can hold up to 3,500 books.
The Kindle has a six inch reading screen that
can be read portrait or landscape, has no glare
at all and weighs just 241 grams, lighter than most
paperbacks.
On the Kindle itself, there are two mini speakers
at the back for listening to music or talking books,
there are connections for the USB cable to connect
to the computer where it will charge the batteries
whilst connected, or the same USB cable slots into
a (supplied) 3-pin plug for charging direct from
the mains. Battery life is said to be in the region
of 2 weeks whilst not connected to the Internet.
I tend to switch mine off when not in use and haven't
as yet disconnected from the Internet but the battery
on-board indicator is still showing almost fully
charged after 3 weeks of using it intermittently
every day in this way. The Kindle also has a earphone
socket.
I also purchased the optional black leather cover
for my Kindle at £29.99 and that makes it
feel even more like a real book as well as protecting
it. There are cheaper, non-leather covers as well
as more expensive ones.
So far I've got to admit that I am thoroughly
enjoying my Kindle experience and have to acknowledge
that maybe we will become a paper-less society after
all. Or will we? Anyway, for now, the Amazon
Kindle is something that I feel is one of the best
products I have bought in quite some time.
Thanks for reading,
Derek Ayre
Questions? I encourage you to
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