To buy or not to buy the Kindle 2
Posted by Jacque on February 25th, 2009
Earlier this month, Amazon introduced the Kindle 2 ebook reader (check out the link in the right sidebar), which produced a flurry of reviews.
John Biggs at CrunchGear says the Kindle is the future, but lists 10 reasons to buy and 10 reasons not to buy. Your own circumstances will dictate which way to go, assuming you have the bucks to make the purchase if that is your choice.
Biggs reasons not to buy focus mainly on his perception that Kindle is not a good research or reference tool, including for students. But its great for travelers, he notes, especially those who like to take a lot of books along with them. The new Kindle 2 can hold 1,500 books, but there is no SD slot for added memory.
There is no mention in the post of the new text-to-speech function, which is being loudly complained about by Roy Blount, president of the Authors Guild. He feels authors are being cheated by Amazon which is not paying for audio rights, unlike the publishing of traditional audio books.
I confess I haven’t heard the Kindle 2 read a book aloud. I am a big fan of audio books because I like the acting ability of the narrators, not just the capability of having a voice read to me. I always assumed that the relatively expensive cost (which I lament) of audio books paid for talented professionals who create a different experience for the listener from that of a reader of the printed work.
I haven’t seen my reason listed anywhere for not buying a Kindle ebook reader, tempted as I am because I love tech gadgets. It has to do with my reluctance to purchase books, including audio books, that I can get at the library. The kind of book I like to own these days is unlikely to be satisfactory as an ebook because it would have copious illustrations. I also read, or start to read, hundreds of books a year. A fair number of them turn out to be books I do not want or need to own.
January 28th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
i am typing this comment using my kindle 2 which i got for free so i may be biased but i love my kindle. i wish it showed images for websites, true and the text to speech is robotic but it is fantastic. i dont like buying books either but with most classics etc you can get them free. the fact is i have 44 kindle books and only paid for 4 of them, with out illegal downloading.
February 27th, 2010 at 11:59 pm
I travel 3 hours a day and have decided I just need to get an E-Book reader, especially when I saw the price on the Kindle 2 was a lot more reasonable. Having looked into this long and hard I can tell you some more reasons not to buy a Kindle: No ePub, LBR, or MOBI formats in any shape or form, no memory expansion, and rather limited functionality about how I can get my Gb’s of E-Books onto a Kindle. Conversion programmes? It’s illegal to convert E-Book files with DRM to any other format, so good luck finding some decent software that does that… and I’m finding even good conversion software for non-DRM E-Books doesn’t always do such a great job.
The problem is, good E-Book readers that don’t try to limit you to Amazon’s propriatary AZW format aren’t cheap. ASUS have been promising “the cheapest E-Book reader on the market” for nearly a year now. They’d better hurry up because if they don’t beat the Apple iPad to market I may just have to buy one of those: After all the expected price of the iPad is only a little more than the BeBook but with tons more functionality.
ASUS are also promising a book like version with dual colour touch screens as well.
I wish they’d hurry up, I’m getting sick of lugging these dead tree books around with me… One thing seems likely though, if Asus and Apple both manage to get their products on the market in the next two months and at the prices promised then the price of good E-Book readers like the BeBook should plummet.
Chris.
February 28th, 2010 at 12:44 am
Chris, I own a Sony Reader Touch Edition which allows me to read DRM-protected ePUB and Adobe PDF format books from my library. I read nearly a book a day so you can understand why I don’t buy them. There are definitely issues with the Sony Reader, but I have learned to make it work for me and I love being able to set the type to a size that does not strain my eyes. I’m reading fiction so I don’t worry about not having color or good graphics which might be an issue for some books. I think the choice of ereader really depends on what is important to the individual. I know Kindle users want that instant wireless access, something that is not really important to me since I don’t travel a lot these days.
Good luck finding a reader that works for you.
Jacque