Gadget Source

We have thoroughly enjoyed the Kindle. We have already read several books and we have downloaded different versions of the Bible. When we are in church or a class, we have the different versions available for reference without having to carry several different Bibles. This has been great. Wish we both had one.

This was a gift to me and I was anxious to try it. It reads well but is quite cheaply made, doesn’t fit in the cover and has no light. I think that the books are overpriced considering that they cannot be passed on or otherwise shared. It hasn’t been more than six weeks and now I’m having battery problems. This might be easier to take if it didn’t cost so much. It’s probably worth about half of the $400 it costs. And, to add insult to injury they have come out with an updated version! I would not recommend until it is improved and less costly.

I bought a Kindle after watching Oprah talk about it on her show. While it is a good idea to have all your books in one small notebook, don’t believe the idea that the books are a lot less than a print book. The last book I bought was only $2 less than the hardcover. And also, there are many books that are not yet on Kindle, so I still have to purchase them in hardcover. There are no graphics, but I understand the Kindle 2 has newer features. If I had to do it over again, I would wait until the price is reduced both on the Kindle and the books and a lot more books are available on Kindle.

This is not only good for me, but for my children also. The other day my husband and daughter took much longer than plan doing something. My son and I was sitting outside, because the delay was unplan; I was not prepared for the delay or so I thought. I just turn on the wifi and was able to down load books that my son enjoyed. The pictures were clean and my son enjoyed the stories. plus some of the books were free.

Firstly, this product is really great. Unlike the PC, this machine allows me to read newspapers without eye fatigue. I feel Kindle can save journalism by creating new incentives for readers to make payments for newspapers and magazines. Sony does not provide such a service.

Nevertheless, I need to limit the star to only three because I am a non-US citizen. After purchasing my Kindle, I learned that a customer who does not have a US credit card fails to buy any digital content from the Kindle Shop. I have only Japanese credit cards. Amazon should mention this important point in the above explanation about oversea use, instead of the last part of FAQ. Even though I spent a lot of time to understand Kindle before buying it, I could not know the geographical limitation. This is not kind. I feel sad. I dreamed reading New York Times and Washington Post on Kindle even after returning to my country.

Before the ends of free trials of newspapers and magazines, I will enjoy my limited opportunity to use Kindle. I really hope that the Amazon will provide this service in other countries in the near future. Also, I wish that the next owner of my kindle loves this one (I will inevitably sell it).

Thank you for reading this comment. Usually, I avoid creating reviews because of my limited English capability. However, this time was so sad that I wrote…

Each day has me anxious to get into my kindle; I am truly amazed by it. Only one problem, and that’s with the book cover. The kindle kept sliding out of the cover until I velcroed it in. Problem solved.

I love to read and I thought, “How Green is this?” I was so excited. I loved Amazon.com. I had been with them since their inception as a bookstore. But four hundred dollars was a lot of money for me. And I never buy the first version of anything. So I waited.
Then Oprah did a show on the Kindle in October 2008. She talked about all of the features and function and offered fifty dollars off if you bought it that weekend. My birthday was coming up and so, I took the plunge.
My Kindle arrived at the beginning of the next week, which was the last week in Oct.
I pulled it out of the box and poured over it like it was heaven sent. It was going to be the object that went everywhere with me, that I trusted to hold my most favorite reading materials. I was so ready for it to change my life.
But then I began to use it. Reality seeped in and she wasn’t dressed for a party.
1. First of all: Whispernet – Our Sprint coverage is fine in this area, and sometimes whispernet works and sometimes it doesn’t. You takes your chances and you rolls the dice….and if it does work it is only occasionally within the sixty seconds they tell you about. I have tried this all over my house. On occasion I have had to download a book in order to get it onto the Kindle.
2. The cover is romantic looking with the little band that closes over it like a journal to protect the Kindle and it does keep it from falling out. But for reading purposes, its very clumsy and the reader does not disappear in your hands.
3. My Kindle has a problem in that you have to jiggle the wire to get the reader to start charging. Jiggle the wire, the light finally comes on and you are in business. I called the tech dept on this and they told me to keep jiggling. I called them recently and they told me to send it in and they would send me a refurbished one at their discretion. Which means I guess how much jiggling is required to get the thing to charge, because they do not repair their Kindles from what they told me. The techs are also very rude and condescending. The first one made me feel like I was wasting his time.
4. I keep accidently flipping pages and so I lose patience and I have yet to make it through one whole book.
5. This reader is a device that keeps making money for Amazon and therefore they should have a better support team and method for handling unhappy customers. The Boston Globe has stated that The Kindle II and Kindle downloads will make the company a billion dollars by 2010.
6. If you dare to express your opinion about the Kindle I on any of these forums you will be eaten up and spit out by “other” posters. I wouldn’t be surprised if you clicked on comments below this and found out exactly what I mean. How cool would that be if writing this actually stopped them from doing it?
But honestly, if you want to keep your faith in Amazon.com don’t buy the Kindle in whatever incarnation it shows up in. I loved this company, spent all my money with them in the past and even had a link for them on my website. I am sincerely grieving over my “innocence lost” with Amazon.com
P.S. 7. If you are going to have a brand spanking new version of a product in three months, why do you have an icon like Oprah build a show about the first one that indicates the Kindle I will be around a long time. I wasn’t upset about the Kindle II. I was upset about the way it was handled as I don’t have money just sitting around nor the time to have a whole “auction” or sale for a product I just purchased that won’t sell because its faulty in the first place.

That’s it..You decide. But I wouldn’t invite anyone to this h-e-double hockey sticks, not fun and even less book reading gets done here.

Yes, there is a new one out now, but I recently purchased the original Kindle, and I can honesty say that few devices I have purchased have gotten so much use in their first few days. While the engineering of the plastic is a bit awkward (why didn’t you make it symmetrical, Jeff?)-I bought it after seeing it, so I wasn’t disappointed in that. The reality is that before Kindle, I did most of my reading online-staring at an LCD screen, and refusing to read anything past five or six pages deep in an article. Basically, I conditioned myself to only get headlines and snippets, and refused to read anything with any depth. Kindle altered that entirely.

Since I started using Kindle, I am reading more in-depth analysis of issues (I’m not a big fiction reader or anything like that), and therefore gaining a greater understanding of things than I have had in a long time. The promos are correct: it will literally change how you read.

Will 2.0 be better? Certainly there will be improvements…but I think that the are modest at best, and that a nice, used 1.0 will serve you in ways you never imagined (plus, you can sell all your old books you’ll never read again on amazon to help pay for it!). Trust me, Kindle is an amazing tool. I just wish they had launched it in about 1997!

I love that you can just download books anywhere.
We have ordered the new Kindle 2 – but this thing is awesome and started the craze.

I ordered my kindle back in october. It was fine for a few weeks and now it freezes up constantly. Half the time when i’m trying to order books it says I have a full wireless signal and it says i’m not connected. I can’t even stay online long enough to browse and order books. I would tell you to seriously rethink buying this.

Granted, I’ve only had the Kindle 2 for three days and I am still getting used to it but it’s been a struggle. I’m a mega-reader and a very fast reader and it has been a struggle to adjust to the electronic book format. I’ll continue to try it but I am already procrastinating reading with it vs. reading a traditional book.

I only gave it 4 stars because I didn’t realize that it has a dark blip when the page is turned. That slows me down and is very distracting. When I get to the bottom of the page, I have to read the last sentence very s-l-o-w-l-y and keep it in my mind because the dark blip is so distracting that I forget what I just read. I don’t think I can be faster at flipping the pages of the book then the speed of the dark blip so I am assuming that it takes a while to adjust. Why have it though? Why not just have the second page appear, like scrolling through a pdf?

Also, the “turn page” buttons are too hard to push. They should be able to be touched, not pushed. I also wish it had a wireless remote control so that I can lay the book down and effortlessly go to the next page.

Would I buy it again for $359? Probably not but I plan to continue to become accustomed to my new toy.

The screen went out after reading just 1 book on the Kindle. Amazon kindly replaced it with no hassle, although everything I did on it was lost forever like the blocking off important information. The new one arrived, but it was not programmed for me so it has yet to be used almost a month later. Had I known I would lose all my important information due to faulty screens, I wouldn’t have purchased it in the first place. It is nice but beware of screen problems.

I purchased a used Kindle for the price of $359.00. Their was a very long waiting list and did not want to wait anymore…
So after a few days of using my new “used” Kindle, I noticed a few minor things. No big deal but it was annoying because the person who sold it to me said it was “like new” condition.
It was a bit beat up looking like someone dropped it! I was not happy about that since I paid full price..
After several calls to the Kindle techs at Amazon, they were always able to help me through the problem of the day.
After 2 days my battery was dead and that was with shutting it off after reading and not going on line..
So my Kindle tech told me it was almost out of it’s one year warranty and they sent me a brand new Kindle for free!Overnight express I might add…..
They also sent me a mailing lable to ship the old one back. I wanted to say Amazon really stands by their products..
I LOVE my new Kindle. I wish I waited just a little bit more for Kindle 2 but this one is great.. The battery life is outstanding if you turn it off after reading and don’t go on line. After the initial playing around, I don’t need to go online much and the battery lasts a very long time.
The only thing I would complain about is it is easy to advance pages forward & backward so be sure to always bookmark your pages. You do get used to where to hold it so that doesn’t happen.. Other than that, go ahead, make the investment if you are thinking about it. I have 3 books going at one time and it all fits neatly in to my purse when I go out. Great product, great company!

I love my Kindle. It is wonderful to have the option of reading so many different books at once without carrying pounds and pounds of books, especially when traveling. The downloading has been perfect so far.
The only thing that would make this better is to have a backlight. The Mighty Lite, which I bought, is just a real pain to use and continually slides off the Kindle if you move. I put little rubber bumpers in the clip, but it still slides.

The best discovery for me was the “Reset” feature. I was really dissappointed with how it seemed like everytime I turned on the WIFI, I was unable to connect and had to take the back cover off and stick something into the “reset” hole. That was until I discovered the RESET OPTION located under Home, Menu, Settings and then Menu again. My entire Kindle experience has changed with that one little discovery. Since figuring that out, I have actually begun to use the WIFI for more than just purchasing material. The music sounds good too, however there’s no way to get to the song you want to hear, everytime you turn on the music it starts from the very first song.

I purchased the Kindle for my roommate for christmas. The Kindle “1″ was out of stock. My order was “upgraded” to a Kindle 2 it wasen’t shipped until Feb.22,09. She received it Feb.27. The wait was will worth it. She couldn’t be more pleased, works as advertised,user friendly,more books than I could read in a life time available. Pricey, yes, You pay for the wireless “up front”. It is a task specific device. You can read on other devices, (iphone…etc.), if you are a kid. Adults need a screen a bit larger.I’ve got boxes of books, you can store 1000+ in this little device. Check for “Whispernet” coverage availability in your area.

OMG Amazon did something that I’ve been waiting for my whole life, it combined my love for books and my love for gadgets.

It is so easy to see and read.

I have eye trouble and I love the fact that I can increase the font size.

I love my KINDLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My 82 year old Grandmother who never asks for anything really wanted this for Christmas although I could not understand why. But, I got it for her anyway. She loves it and cannot stop talking about it. I just wish they would have worked out the bugs before releasing it as now there is a “new and improved” version. She has no complaints about the function of her original though.

I really appreciate the size and portability of this “book”.
I do miss the “old fashioned” book habits of actually turning the page.
SAVE A LOT OF TREES!

When I first heard about Amazon Kindle about a year ago, I didn’t think much of it. Sure, it would be nice to have all my books with me, but $350 seemed like way too much for a 13 and a half year old to spend when all I do is babysit to make extra money. I know I will sound just like everyone else when I say this, but Oprah’s segment on the Kindle caught my interest. I searched it on Amazon and instantly fell in love with it. Oprah was offering a $50 off promotion, so I ordered one, now that I had a steady income. When I first opened the box, I was fascinated by how sleek and perfect it was. Once I had bought my first book, I began reading, and fell in love with it all over again. I have bought myself many new things, but this was literally my favorite. Reading on it is such a treat, and I love being able to jump back and forth between books, anywhere. I realize that there are many complaints currently circulating, but I haven’t had any problems with mine, and have no complaints. My mother loved mine so much, she decided to order herself one, and got the Kindle 2. I think it is great that Amazon added new features and fixed old ones, but I still think the original is the best. I highly recommend this to anyone and everyone, and am truly happy with mine.

I tried to use a pocket pc as a book reader for several years, but was continually frustrated by having to reinstall the reader if the battery went dead. Yeah! No problem with the Kindle. It is easy to read, and has such versatility in that you can not only download books, but get your own documents converted. And the books are reasonable priced so it’s not hard on the budget. My only wish would be that it was backlit so you could read in the dark. Thank you Amazon.

There are good things about the Kindle but many negative issues. First, the pictures, drawings, etc. are not good. There is not backlight. Please…. this should be a requirement in this device. To add yet another item you must purchase is ridiculous. Too expensive for what it is. I don’t like the “location” rather than page reference. Just another difference that isn’t needed. All-in-all it is an okay device but will never replace the book. My advice, buy the book.

Perfect for voracious readers. Books are cheaper, instantly available, and I no longer have stacks of old books to deal with. Display is good for displaying text, better than I expected. Highly recommend.

My husband and I love our Kindle. Only complaints are same as others, that it’s very easy to hit a button by accident (next page, prev page, back) but not a big deal to get back to where you were and the main upgrade I’d like is for the screen to be able to light up so you can read in the dark w/o a book light or such.

I Love the concept…Love the low price of titles….ergonomics are good….there’s a lot to love about the Kindle…..but what’s the deal with not including a mechanism for providing a lighting option for low light/ no light environments? Geeeze! Much of my reading is done in that situation. What’s up with the designed obsolesence? C’mon….that’s like Baskin Robbins having a fatal flaw in their vanilla flavor. My recommendation is for anyone considering a Kindle purchase to await the obvious upcoming epiphany by Amazon that some form of lighting mechanism would significantly increase the usefulness of the device.

PS: Why aren’t more of those thick, heavy travel guides available on Kindle? That would be amazing. Perhaps a brief respite by Amazon in carrying the print versions would be the feather that convinces the publishers to allow a Kindle version.

I am now on my third kindle since January. The first one had a defective wireless option and could not download any books. The replaced it. My second kindle froze. They replaced it. My third kindle now refuses to turn on. I would like my money back. I have just been told that even though I have had all these problems Amazon will not refund my money. I can get a new kindle AGAIN and that is it. I will be looking for another wireless book with better performance and reliability. Perhaps the Kindle 2 is better product but I have to sell my Kindle myself and than purchase a Kindle 2 to find out. What a pain. I will buy the Sony