The Cranking Widgets Blog

The tech community has been all riled up of late with regard to Amazon’s new electronic reading device, the Kindle. Chances are, you’ve heard of it and probably developed an opinion about it.

From everything I’ve read on blogs and news sites and heard on podcasts, people seem to fall into one of two very distinct camps:

“The Kindle is an ugly, steaming pile that will fall flat on it’s face and I look forward to being there when it happens.”

or

“The Kindle is going to revolutionize the way people read and if it were a girl, I’d want to slow-dance with it.”

As you’ve probably gathered from the title of this post, I’m siding with the second band (though, I’m not really in the market for a waltz partner). Here’s why:

• It’s not just a book reader – Yes, it’s primary function is to buy and read books from Amazon. But imagine that you can – for free – email amazon copies of your employee handbook, software manuals or work-related reports. Amazon will convert them to a format readable on the Kindle and send them right back to you. Connect the Kindle to your computer and copy the ready-made documents, and you’re done. It only costs money to have things sent directly to your Kindle (at a whopping $0.10 per document).
• It comes with a web browser – Granted, it’s not Firefox or Opera, but it’s a bonafide browser. Several sources report that the mobile versions of Bloglines and Google Reader work flawlessly. If most mobile-enabled sites work with the Kindle, you’ll ostensibly be able to update Twitter, Facebook, Jaiku and a myriad of other social networking sites. Did I mention that this always-on connection is freaking *free*?
• It plays audio – I don’t know what the capabilities are here, but audiobooks are definitely a viable option on the Kindle.
• I regularly have multiple books going at once (a habit I’m trying to break, but I digress). Rather than having to lug around several books in my bag (and, if you’ve ever read a programming book, you know that 2 is usually the limit), I’ll be much happier with a Kindle (which weighs less than my super-sturdy coffee cup).

I’ve heard most of the criticisms, and I think a few of them have merit. The non-backlit display, while great for conserving battery power, would obviously preclude one from reading in low light. I can understand how this would be a deal-breaker for bed-time readers.

The “clunkiness” of the E Ink display and how it flashes every time you change what’s displayed – Again, I don’t imagine having a problem with this, personally. Once you understand how the technology actually works, it makes sense that it works that way.

The price! The price! Probably the most oft-mentioned complaint about the Kindle is the $400 price tag. I think this is partially due to the misconception that it’s just a glorified Etch-a-Sketch and just shows crummy books. If this is you, read the list above (more carefully this time . Just know that a big chunk of the price tag is probably there to offset the cost of the wireless connection.

So, as you’ve probably guessed, I’m hoping to pick one of these bad boys up as soon as I can scrape the cash together. If you’re planning on buying one and would like to support this blog (and my subsequent Kindle purchase), please consider using this link.

Does anybody actually have one of these things? Am I completely deluding myself? I’d love to hear some more reactions (specifically those that didn’t need the approval of some marketing department) – sound off in the comments!

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