Kindle - I love it

Recently during my visit to USA, I bought Kindle 3G+WiFi 6". I must say it is a great device one must have. Thanks to Arvind to prime me to buy one.

Advice: Create an account on Amazon website (you need your credit card details to be entered) before buying Kindle. Go through the books available on Kindle bookstore. See if they are useful to you. One of my friends (CA) could not find the book he wanted on taxation (the basic motive to buy Kindle). I would also suggest using Kindle apps on your PC, MAC or mobile and experiencing it before investing on Kindle device. There are thousands of free books you can get from Kindle bookstore. Just sort them by "Price: Low to High".

There are a lot of eBook readers in the market. What makes kindle so special is:
1. The Free 3G connectivity to buy books wherever you are in the world (as long as you have GSM network in that area) under 60 Sec.
2. The "Buy once and Read on many" approach of Amazon (up to 6 devices)
3. One need not be disappointed by the Grey scale (B/W) eBooks on Kindle, as there are apps that can be installed on PC, MAC, IPhone, Android and Blackberry to read the same in Color.
4. Excellent support & service.
To elaborate on this: My Kindle gave up after 70 days. It was not connecting to my account. Wi-Fi works but only on the browser and 3G is not at all working. I called up the support and asked them what to do. They asked me to perform few basic things on the device to revive it. After it failed, they sent a fresh device configured to my account and the new Kindle reached my home in less than 96 hours (from Cincinnati, USA to Bangalore, India). All this without a single Rupee spent by me except an international call to their support center.

The Device:
I liked the package of Kindle, as it is hassle free unpacking. When I held the device for the first time in my hand, there were instructions on the screen, tried peeling that paper off to see the screen. To my surprise the instructions were on the screen. This is superb. This is as good as reading any book holding in hand. If you have ordered through your Amazon account, & if you already have books in your account, they are pre-loaded into your device and you are ready to go. There are more you can do here:
1. Change the font size or orientation of the screen to suite your reading comfort.
2. Highlight the sentences or words, just like we do in the normal book
3. If you come across any tough word, just move the cursor onto it to see the meaning in the dictionary.
4. Read highlights done by others
5. Bookmark a page as you fold your page in the normal book
6. Let your friends on Facebook or twitter know that you have completed this book and give your recommendations or share your notes or highlights with them.
7. It also has a built in browser (the most basic) provided on experimental basis. (a free 3G browser wherever you are ;-))
8. You can play MP3 songs (to be uploaded through your PC or MAC by connecting the device) Not a great idea but not a bad one too.
9. If you are traveling in a bus and cannot read it as your eyes may get strained, just press (shift+sym) it reads it for you. You can use standard headphones to isolate the sound only to you. I think some of the books don’t support this feature please check the Kindle store.
10. If you have read a book on other devices using Kindle app, when you connect Kindle device to network it synchronizes pages where you stopped on the other devices.
11. You can also subscribe to magazines, news papers etc.
12. Up to 2 months battery charge.

You can go through a huge list of shortcuts and tricks at http://blog.diannegorman.net/2010/09/kindle-3-keyboard-shortcuts-et-al/

Please remember to buy a good cover for your Kindle. I bought the one that has light in the cover (uses Kindle battery) to read in the dark. Kindle does not emanate light.

Now talking about the new trends in the competition: Barnes and Noble has recently launched new Nook (touch). This seems to be a great device with complete touch. Also faster than Kindle 3 and very intuitive. However only WiFi.
It also has the color nook (readers tablet). Actually you can hack and installed Android OS on it. I found a lot of readers preferring a b/w device than a color one.

A lot of others are also in the market Sony, Samsung, Kobo and a dozen of them. I am interested in watching how Kobo does as they seems to be fast catchers of technology.

What Amazon is doing: Amazon 'may' come up with color + touch Kindle very soon. Going by Jeff's words "it will complement the existing Kindle readers stay tuned". The e-Ink technology is growing faster. No surprise if you see a complete tablet with e-Ink technology (except that you may need a table lamp to read them in dark).