Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Kindle 2

My Reactions: Kindle 2

It has taken me a while to get to this as I have been finishing Kindle for Dummies. The Kindle 2 is definitely an improvement. Things I love:
  • The thin profile
  • The five-way controller
  • The keyboard (mostly)
  • The repositioned buttons
  • Very long battery life
  • Just start typing, and the search box pops up immediately at the bottom of the Kindle window.
I mean, you can leave the Kindle on for three or four days and it still works fine. It's amazing.

Things I don't love:
  • No ability to create folders or organize anything
  • No text editor
  • No protective case; you have to buy one separately
  • No SD card. Yes, I know there is a lot of internal memory. But the only way I have to transfer anything to a computer is through the USB cable. If I don't have the cable with me, I'm stuck.
  • The @ key has been removed from the keyboard--I wish it was still there.
  • When you press the SYM key, the @ key is not automatically highlighted.
  • All the keys are in one single block; I want them spaced out more.
  • The spacebar is oddly positioned.
Most of my objections are with the keyboard, I guess. My cell phone keyboard on my Treo is better organized than this one. But the Kindle 2 is a lot better, no doubt.
Posted by at 6:09 AM

1 comments:

  1. I am a writer, publisher and Kindle fan. Big time. I have two. But I am in Australia where everything is upside down which is fine for sex but not great for business.
    I use my Kindles mostly to read novels.
    So what I want is some organization.
    Let us say Collections in alphabetical order. So that Chaucer comes before Donne or Chandler comes before Spillane.
    I want to automatically put a load of books in -- Robert P Parker - would be a splendid example - and be able to have all 47 (I think) in some sort of order AND for me to be able to load them easily, quickly and without using rude Australia words (of which there are many.)
    I plug in my Kindle by way of the USB and find four collection and one is documents. I can and do assemble authors in folders (alright Collections) and then load them on to my Kindle. Which does not take a blind bit of notice but gives me an unsorted list of books. I can, I have, laboriously set up a system and put the books where they should be.
    But this is my prime use for the Kindle. Reading books. For notes I have a notepad and for phone calls I have a phone and for music I have an MP3 player for I only listen when I run.
    Your book, which is excellent, ducks the issue of cataloging. Why? My guess is because it is a ticklish subject at Amazon. But is there any relief in site. I can get well over 1,000 books on my Kindle (Amazon claims three times that amount) and I need to have have some order, some structure, some easy way of access. Just like a library.
    Do you know of ANY way that this can be accomplished?
    Any help gratefully received. I too and a journalist and a writer and I realize this sort of query can be a pain. But I seriously think it needs to be answered.
    Gareth Powell in Sydney where it was a glorious morning but rained in the late afternoon.

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