QUEERTY ASKS, YOU ANSWER — On Wednesday, gay-glitching Amazon.com is expected to introduce a new, larger version of its popular Kindle e-reader. This one will sport a larger screen, which aims to snag market share among newspaper and textbook readers. Mild technowhores that we are, Queerty is excited for the release; there are already three Kindles living among Queerty‘s staff households. But what about the rest of you: How are you digesting your offline paragraphs?
John in SF
I LOVE my Kindle with one HUGE EXCEPTION. My first gen kindle never had anywhere near the battery life they claim. A few hours of reading, or a single day with the cell switch on, and the things battery is dead dead dead. Even with the thing in standby mode but with cell switch off, it only goes 2 days…without even using it! I’ve tried over and over to get Amazon to replace it, and they keep saying “wait till the next software release”. Well it’s been almost a year and a half and I’m stuck with a dud. I’ll think twice before buying another from a vendor like Amazon who refuses to stand behind their product as advertised.
ask ena
I love it because it’s like a brand new porno…can’t keeo your eyes and fingers off it,
I hate it because…there ain’t nothin’ like the real thing baby…
Pragmatist
Can’t stand it. I’m no Luddite — I’d love to have a library of books readily accessible wherever I go. But the Kindle (and Kindle clones) have such terrible form factors.
I think what I really want is a souped-up cell phone. An improved and oversized (but thinner) version of the G1, perhaps. Slide-out keyboard, large screen, ample memory, and ample battery life. Then I won’t need to drag multiple devices through airport security.
Jeremy
I love my Kindle 2. I really find that the technology disappears when I’m reading. I love the ability to get instant definitions for words, to search for a particular passage, and to have many books on-hand in one small package.
The only serious problems I have with it are the meta-problems. For instance, when I buy a book for Kindle and finish reading it, I can’t then give it to a friend as I would with a paper book. I understand why Amazon would restrict me from copying a book so that both the friend and I could read it simultaneously, but not why they should prevent me from moving the book from my Kindle to someone else’s.
The small quibbles I have are that I wish the e-paper display had slightly better contrast (it’s quite good, but could be better) and that the plastic protective coating on top of the display were not quite so reflective. When I’m reading at the gym, the reflective coating gives a bad glare if the machine I’m using happens to be under a light fixture.
Mark M
Love my Kindle 2. I read a lot more because of it. I think Amazon should let me transfer my book license to another Kindle person. I feel slightly guilty for not contributing to the free-table of books anymore, but this is SUCH a better format for pleasure reading.
NO desire for a giant kindle. What is a newspaper anyway?
Michael W.
The Kindle is for old people.
BradK
So….the Amazon boycott thing is over?
mb00
@BradK: I know right?!
The kindle is exclusive to Amazon.
Anyway, as prone to new techy gadgets as I may be, reading from an actual book still gives me so much more satisfaction than any electronic device.
Dick Mills
I have not actually used a Kindle, but I do read an inordinately large volume of downloaded electronic documents. I mean, probably on the order of 50,000 to 100,000 words a day! And, I will continue to do that, but when I need to refer back to a document, or want to mark it up so that I can utilize the information, I always print it out. I probably print a couple hundred pages of downloaded text every week (I buy a lot of printer cartridges.) And, most of that reading / printing / marking-up is business related.
But when I want to sit back and relax and read something entertaining, I like that tactile feel of a book. You throw it in your bag, take it to the beach, there isn’t a (serious) problem if you spill Starbucks espresso on it, and if you drop it.. you just have to locate the paragraph you were on before the drop – you don’t have to buy a new one. Even if it falls in the lake, you still might be able to salvage it.
I don’t know if I will ever be able to completely eliminate books from my sensory experience of reading.
alejandro
never tried a kindle..
but i LOVE books, and dont think i’d get one..
jbw
Loved it for books; haven’t found it as an effective sub for the new york times though.
and “home delivery” here in the ole south depends on the one driver delivering the six papers around town. why do i live here? that’s another song, i guess…
Aaron Khan
I think the Kindle 2 is cool and is a great step into our ever evolving digitalized world.
But…
(1) I love to smell the pages of a book. Each has its own distinct smell.
(2) It is a lot easier and faster to skip pages in a book then it is on the Kindle 2.
(3) I like to have my books on display because I feel it adds to my intellectual confidence. lol.
(4) Books don’t need to be charged or filled with batteries.
(5) I enjoy a paper-cut now and then.
adam hartung
Will Kindle be a savior for newspapers? Maybe so. Kindle might be the product to finally get newspapers to realize they have to go digital. Read more at http://www.ThePhoenixPrinciple.com
Jackson
This website is such a joke! One week they are on a witch-hunt against Amazon; now, they are promoting a their products?
Alex
For some reason I love my Kindle for non-fiction, but need a real book for fiction. Before #amazonfail I bought Frank’s Unfriendly Fire and read most of it in a couple of days. On the other hand, I really had to push through Greg McGuire’s Lion Among Men, despite actually enjoying it (Son of a Witch is still my favorite, though). Unfriendly Fire was fantastic, and is a must read for anyone who cares about Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, or about the safety of our country.
Also, yeah, where are we with a boycott? Is that just not happening?
Brandon
Wow guys
shortcovers is way better then Kindle and I don’t have to carry around a expensive device.
shortcovers.com
geshhh…
(PS and Indigo isn’t a bunch of homophobes they feature LGBT books on their homepage) Indigo.ca
Love Canada,
Brandon
Buddy
It’s the Sony Reader for me, I’m on my second one, the 505, now. Love ebooks, love having a full library with me when I travel, love being able to check-out ebooks from my local library.
Then again, I started with the Rocket eBook in 1999!
Buddy
@Brandon: Yeah Brandon, but just try finding an LGBT magazine at Indigo out here in BC.
Mika
There isn’t an option for people that will never buy a kindle. Ever. Books are off the hook the whole sensual experience of it the sound of a page turning, the sight of the text, the smell of the paper, the weight of a book in your hands there is nothing that can match it.
John in SF
There is no getting around the sensory experience of a book. I can only say that the sensory experience of a nearly weightless eInk book as you fall asleep or hang by the pool is a differnt – and wholly equally appealing — sensation. One day the delivery method (kindle etc) will be as cheap as the newsprint our older books were printed on…and in that case, the ability to store a liftime’s books (and notes, highlights, excerpts, etc) on a single 1 ounce blu ray disc will be incredibly appealing. As it is now, the ability to read my kindle books on my iPhone, and sync the position between the two is SO appealing that I cannot seriously imagine going back, except for certain graphics oriented text books. And that is only a limitation for the next 5 or 6 years at most…
When I was a biohem student, I was carrying easily 60 pounds of textbooks on my back, valued at about $500 (in 1983 prices!!). Now I Imagine the possiblity my nephew carrying 5 or 6 large format Kindle’s carrying every book he’d ever read, half dozen of them splayed on a table in front of you, but all of them weighing half what a single of the “old” texts did. All his class notes. All his friend’s class notes. All his professor’s slides. All their audio. Any scribbles they made during their classes or discussions. The ability to cut and paste any of that to their professor or their fellow students….I’d LOVE to go back to college in this new environement!!!
HYHYBT
With a physical book, if it’s at all interesting I tend to curl up and do nothing *but* read until it’s finished. I love the feel of them, etc., but only get one if I’m going to be on vacation. Otherwise most of the time I *could* be reading a book I’m online instead, and for the last five years or so I’ve had an Audible subscription which, besides having what to me would be the two main advantages of a Kindle (downloadable books and carrying your whole library with you, though on an iPod and with larger file sizes) makes a commute more enjoyable. I *like* getting stuck in traffic! It’s slower than actually reading, but then again I’m listening during time that otherwise would be “wasted” anyway, and some books (Douglas Adams reading the Hitchhiker series, for example) are better in audio form.
sioraiocht
No, they don’t have them in the UK, and the draconian DRM makesit hugely unnattractive.