Put a Kindle in the Window: Day 1

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Put a Kindle in the Window: Day 1

POSTED: Thursday, June 11, 2009, 2:00 PM

They sent me a Kindle 2 to try out. It's due back in 10 days. This is gonna be just like Before Sunrise.

When Amazon finally mailed me a loaner Kindle 2, I couldn't help but walk it around the office holding it up like the staff of Ra. Why was I so excited? I dunno. I like reading. I like technology. I like to see them get along, I guess. And it's kind of pretty.

My co-workers were non-plussed. Drew Lazor was particularly blas'. "So. What does it do? It just holds a lot of books? How much are the books?"

The Kindle ' a white rectangle basically the size and shape of a DVD box, but heavier ' is Amazon's portable reading device. They want you to do all your non-Internet reading on it. Magazines, newspapers, books, whatever. They want it to do for their online virtual book sales what the iPod did for iTunes. Of course, on iTunes songs all cost either $.99 or $1.29, at least for the time being (plus you can get a lot of free content, like podcasts). So once you buy the device you know the music is cheap, plus you can load it up with the music you already own.

The Kindle's a different animal. You will never convert your paperback copy of Infinite Jest into a format this thing can handle. You have to buy the Kindle for $359, then download the book for $9.99 which is not bad, if you don't already own it: A 1,000 page book for the price of one album. Plus, and you can't say this about all books, the Kindle is way lighter. (Which could come in handy if you're planning to take part in the Infinite Summer challenge.) Other books will cost other prices, and there's nobody looking to make that uniform.

But how's the reading experience? Let's talk about that tomorrow when I figure out how to put some actual content on the damn thing. So far everything I've tried hasn't worked.

Will I learn to love this Kindle? We just met but I feel maybe a little smitten. Even though it's a little smudged from whichever reporter had it before me. You animal.

Posted by Patrick Rapa @ 2:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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