Page 1 of Kindle or similar reader

Does anyone have one of these.
I`d be interested in opinions if you have.

My view is that I won`t be buying until they drop to around 60 quid and the books offer a reasonable saving over the paper copies.

EDIT:
Just noticed that if your not bothered about 3G the WiFi version is now £109

Snaps

Every Third Car

This item was edited on Thursday, 26th August 2010, 12:14

I have a sony old model that they no longer sell and I think it is great. Plenty of books around that are free if you like old classics.

Took mine went I went travelling as I read a lot and saved me carrying round loads of books.

Good points battery lasts ages I only read books did not use the mp3 player functionality. Screen is easy to read and does not strain your eyes at all.

Bad points, page turns are a little slow can`t flick through like a book. Like a book can`t read in the dark, but just turn on the light or use a cheap led torch, you can also get fancy light emitting covers and all sorts which seem a waste of money.

All in all was a good buy and I still use it on the commute to work and just reading at home, not as nice as a book.

As for the kindle specifically it has a limited format range compared to some of the other models the i-river one is similar in money and seems a little more compatible might be worth checking out.

I`ve ordered myself a Kindle (the new one) recently.
A couple of guys at work have ebook readers (one has the original Kindle, one has a Sony model).

I was slightly concerned about tie-ing myself into Amazon`s book world, but to be honest there are alternatives (Google for Ebook DRM removal ;))

The past couple of years I`ve wasted a considerable amount of hard-saved money on e-readers.  I`ve tried the Sony 505 (the best of the bunch which enabled Mum to continue reading until her eyesight got too bad), the Iriver and the Elonex 511.

I had an unusual requirement for the devices - I wanted to use them as proofreading devices rather than printing out work (and wasting paper).  Unfortunately, the Sony 505 couldn`t handle .DOC files and required them to be converted to .RTF format, which was messy.  The Iriver promised native .DOC support which turned out to be economical with the truth - .DOC files rendered but looked absolutely awful.  Ditto with the Elonex.  However, the only way I could find this out was by actually buying the buggers, finding out they were unsuitable and then the retailers refusing to replace/refund unless the devices were actually faulty.  I know I could have got all Sales Of Goods Act on them, but I`m enough of a gadget whore to want to keep them to see if there`s an updated firmware that`ll do anything interesting.

My experiences of the devices is that the Sony was the best implementation of the concept, with the Elonex being the poorest.  The Iriver seemed to handle .PDF files the best, but all the devices had some trouble sizing documents, with print frequently being too small to comfortably read.

J Mark Oates

Engadget`s Kindle review is here:
www.engadget.com/2010/08/27/amazon-kindle-review/

I`m pleased I`ve pre-ordered one.

Apparently you can read Kindle books on an iPad.

J Mark Oates