Kindle: Amazon's Original Wireless Reading Device (1st generation)

by Amazon.com

Product Details

Kindle User's Guide (preinstalled on device) [PDF]

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About Your Kindle Manual (included in box) [PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches ; 10.4 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000FI73MA
• Item model number: D00111
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7,932 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,338 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47,501 of 48,320 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Why and how the Kindle changes everything November 25, 2007

By Steve Gibson

Amazon Verified Purchase

This is less a "pros and cons" review than a hopefully useful commentary about the Kindle compared with other eReaders and what it means for the eBook industry. (I believe that everything has changed with the Kindle's creation.)

For many years I have been an avid reader of eBooks using almost every eReading device on the market. So as an early-adopter of techie gadgets I had been anxiously awaiting Amazon's Kindle since its first rumors. So I immediately purchased it both out of curiosity and hoping for a better "next generation" eBook solution. In case you're wondering whether I'm "that" Steve Gibson, I probably am -- I'm the guy who gets Google's first three or four links when Googling my name.

I was driven to write this review because it is somewhat distressing and, it seems to me, a bit unfair for the Kindle's average review rating to be dragged so far down by Kindle NON-OWNERS who, judging from their comments, seem to be quite annoyed by all of the positive comments about a device that's expensive, monochrome, not a general purpose media player, unable to leap tall buildings, or in some way less than they were expecting, wanting, or hoping. In contrast to non-owners, the people who actually HAVE Kindle's appear to universally love it, though with very valid caveats. I think of this as "The TiVo Effect" since, for the right sort of user, the Kindle will be life-changing ... but it certainly won't be that for everyone. Although it took me a few days to get completely comfortable with it, I am now hooked.

So, for what it's worth, if this posting is discovered by any truly interested pre-purchasers, I hope that the following commentary might place the Kindle in "perspective" and be of some value to you. (And if it is, I hope you'll click the button at the bottom to indicate that, so that this review might be found by more potential buyers ... Thank you!)

I have read many novel-length books on my various Palm's, I owned the original Rocket eBook, and I own both generations of Sony's eInk readers, the PRS-500 and PRS-505. So my clear bias is of someone who enjoys technology for its own sake and who loves the idea of reading books on a "device."

Amazon's first-generation Kindle arguably has a few warts (see below). So depending upon your needs, budget, willingness to purchase a "first-generation" gizmo that you might regret purchasing and want to replace a year from now, and so forth, you might well decide to wait for the next generation Kindle that will doubtless be even better. But whether you choose to jump aboard now or later, Amazon's entry into the eBook market is a BIG deal -- it forever changes the game. I think there is no doubt that for the first time ever, a substantial number of people who were never captivated by ANY previous eBook system will find themselves reading and enjoying textual content on Kindle's eInk screen.

The weird initial love/hate reaction to the Kindle is being compared with Apple's iPod, which was also initially met with striking polarization. We all know how that turned out. :) Although the iPod was far from being the first portable MP3 player, and critics called it a copycat, it was the first portable music player to go mainstream, and it changed the world. I believe that, similarly, the large and tightly interacting collection of Kindle features, that go far beyond those of any other previous eBook attempt, will cause the Kindle to be the first eBook to succeed. By connecting their massive book library, as well as newspapers, magazines, blogs and the Web -- wirelessly -- to a long-battery-life chunk of consumer plastic, Amazon has kicked eBooks into the mainstream.

Is the Kindle perfect? Not yet. Is it expensive? Yep. Does it feel like a first-generation product? Absolutely. Will I purchase the next Kindle too? Please let me be first in line!

Investing in Kindle's future...

From a DRM (digital rights management, aka eBook copy-protection) perspective, my eBook content ownership is already spread around all over the place; from Mobipocket, to Palm eReader, to Sony Connect, and now to Amazon Kindle. Sure, that annoys me a bit, but it's the price one pays for being an early adopter of technology that isn't yet ready for prime time ... as, until now, no eBook system has been. Sony's efforts came the closest, but that all ended for Sony (and everyone else) with the introduction of the Kindle. Existing owners of other eBook formats will certainly continue purchasing content for their devices, but who in the U.S. would purchase a new $300 Sony eReader when for an additional $100 they could have the Kindle ... which is so much more than any of the other "disconnected" read-only devices?

In other words, given that Amazon is Amazon, and the fact that they already, right out of the gate, offer so much more than any other previous solution, I feel comfortable now building up my eBook content ownership with Amazon. Sure, I've been wrong before, but this is where I'm placing my bet. I won't be purchasing any more content for Palm's eReader or Sony's. And I like the fact that the content I am purchasing now for this first-generation Kindle will certainly always be readable on whatever future generation devices Amazon's efforts will evolve into.

Look Ma, no wires!

The huge deal with TiVo was time-shifting and commercial skipping. The huge deal with the Kindle is its wireless connectivity. Being a "traditional" eBook user -- i.e. download into PC and "dock" the eReader to upload -- I didn't 'get' that at first. Now I'm as hooked by that on the Kindle as I am by my Tivo's ability to whiz through endless commercials. The Kindle brings the same sort of freedom and power to textual content that the cell phone brought to voice communications.

Sure, I'll purchase eBooks for the Kindle. But I have subscribed to a newspaper and two magazines ... and it is truly a paradigm shift to have their content "just be there" in the morning all by itself. And the periodical content is clean, blessedly free of ads, unnecessary pictures and distractions.

An ugly duckling in need of forgiveness?

Like many people who worship the infinitely-understated elegance of Apple's iPhone (and many other Apple creations), the Kindle's appearance put me off at first. I was as vocally critical of the darned thing as any of those "one star" reviewers. When the first early photos of it leaked a few months before its release, I thought "No way, what a joke! That must be an early balsa-wood mock-up." Now that weird angular wedggie is sitting here next to me as I type this. And I have forgiven it because something odd happens after using it for a few days: You begin to realize that it really works ... and it works well. (And have you ever tried actually typing on the iPhone's all-screen keyboard?)

Did someone say "warts"?

The Kindle's screen appears to have slightly lower contrast than Sony's second generation reader, but much more than Sony's first generation offering. Also, the Kindle's fonts are *far* superior to Sony's, extremely legible, in six sizes and with real italics, not just algorithmic slanting. I'm a bit annoyed that the line-spacing is so large on the larger fonts since page changing is an "event", but, again, this is just the first shot.

And speaking of page changing, I am not a big fan of the page navigation on this first Kindle. So much of the device is devoted to making page changing easy that it's difficult to pick up and handle the device without inadvertently changing pages. But once you're settled down and reading, the fact that only a thumb-twitch is required is nice. One way or another I'm sure that Amazon will get plenty of feedback about everything ... and the next one will be even better.

You want to charge me what??!!

There's also been a great deal of confusion about Amazon charging for the conversion and delivery of our own content into our own Kindles. Amazon *only* charges for wireless delivery, the conversion is 100% free. If you eMail your content to [e-mail] it's converted and downloaded into your Kindle for 10 cents. But if, instead, you eMail your content to [e-mail] it's converted and a link to the converted file is eMailed to your registered eMail address at NO charge. You can then download it and use your PC's USB connection to transfer the content to the Kindle.

Moreover, the FREE MobiPocket v4.2 Creator will convert many formats -- HTML, MS Word Docs, Text, and Adobe PDF into .PRC files -- nicely compressed and encrypted if you wish -- which, when transferred into the Kindle are directly readable. I have converted two large eBooks which I already had in PDF format into native Kindle format and they work perfectly -- no cost and no Amazon involvement at all. And I'm sure that quite soon there will be all sorts of free Kindle content converters popping up all over the place.

So I'm glad that I purchased this first-generation device, and that I'm participating in the first real wave of eBook industry creation. None of my other eBook readers offer nearly what the Kindle does. Thanks to Amazon and their Kindle, eBooks have finally happened.

1,518 of 1,548 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Excellent V 1.0 effort, needs a few tweaks November 25, 2007

By Krishnan Srinivasan VINE™ VOICE

Amazon Verified Purchase

I read my first novel on the Kindle over the weekend, and having owned it now for a week, thought I would write my review.

The Good:
- The format is immersive. I really did forget I was reading from an electronic device, and even pawed at imaginary pages to turn every now and then. Super easy on the eyes, and I really like the fact that it mirrors a paper reading experience - if the light is bad, the device does not compensate by way of a backlit screen.
- The Kindle store's shopping experience is very smooth, very transparent. I have bought a few books, a magazine, and currently on a couple of free trial magazine and blog subscriptions. The latest editions of the New York Times and The Onion are waiting for me first thing in the morning, once you get the hang of how the "Back" button works (versus "Previous Page"), navigating is a snap.
- The size of the device is just right - it is very easy to hold and read in bed, at a table, on the couch etc. More on this in the "Needs Work" section. But to be clear, my Kindle goes everywhere with me - the doctor's office, the park, the bus etc.
- Pricing on Books is good - I would easily pay $9.99 on a title, especially as we run out of library space at home. I read my first novel in a long time thanks to the Kindle (the book - "A Thousand Splendid Suns", Khaled Hosseini is a trifle predictable and irritating after The Kite Runner ')
- Text is very crisp and easy to read - as I said above, very immersive.
- Love the quick charging and overall battery life.
- Love the integrated web and Wikipedia search. I also checked my gmail account from time to time - horrible user experience, but had to be a true geek and say that I did it '

Needs Work (in no particular order of priority)
- The case is a disaster. The device does not sit in it firmly, and while it looks nice when closed with the elastic band etc, what is really more practical is a sack of some sort, because you really need to take the device out of the case to read effectively and ergonomically. This has to fixed, hopefully through a rich third party accessory community.
- As I read my novel, I often hit the side buttons accidentally and lost my place in the book (either fell asleep with my hand on the buttons, or was walking somewhere with the device without putting it to sleep, or kids got a hold of it etc etc). Bottom line, getting back to the right spot was very hard. I had to remember to bookmark every time I anticipated a disruption. Remembering location numbers is not too practical, since they can run into 4 digits in a long book. Accidentally pressing the wrong buttons is a also a problem when holding the book out of the case (which is more intuitive for reading)
- One thing that is physically intuitive while reading a paper book is knowing exactly where you are, as measured by the pages completed/remaining. Making that same leap using location numbers and the indicator at the bottom is not (yet) that intuitive, so I was bit disoriented when people asked me questions like "how far are you into the book?"
- The silvery indicator to the right (above the wheel) is not very visible in low light conditions or when there is some reflective directly in front of the device.
- It would be nice to have an option (on the Home screen) to group all your content into Books, Magazines, Newspapers etc.
- Charging for papers and blogs does not make too much sense - this content is available for free, with rich graphics and color, on the web. Over time, I see myself reading books and documents on the Kindle, not newspapers and blogs unless the format is made more rich on the device.
- Graphics is very rudimentary. It's nice to see the device render pictures with stories in the Times etc, but the quality of the images harkens back to 1991 x486 computing.
- Keyboard latency is a bit painful, but am sure this will get fixed soon.
- Perhaps I have not had the device long enough, but it was not clear what the archival process is going to be for newspapers etc.
- In mirroring actual paper/ink, I think the screen background needs to be a bit brighter, without being backlit. Right now it is gray-ish.
- I am sure a million others have already said so, so let me be #1,000,001 - $399 for the reader does not make sense for broad penetration. And this SHOULD be broadly adopted - it is a no-brainer device in the classroom, for textbooks, course handouts, teacher communications etc. It's a brilliant device, and it needs to be $199 or less. People will pay for the books, and other content. It's all about the blades...

3,553 of 3,642 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars An actual owner! November 23, 2007

By azog

Amazon Verified Purchase

Well, since many of these reviews are from people who don't even appear to own a Kindle, I'll preface this by saying I have one in my hands, and have been using for a day or so now. I also have a Bookeen Cybook Gen3, so it should be fairly easy to make a nice comparison between the two.

Setup was almost non-existent. The device was set up at the factory with all my details, and was even pre-charged. When you open the package, the Kindle is wrapped in a plastic wrapper which explains that you just plug it in and turn it on. I did plug it in, to charge, but in a very short while, the charging light went out, indicating full charge. When I powered it up, after an initial boot sequence, the Kindle owners manual opened. I read thru it, casually skimming the more obvious entries, and paid attention to some of the Kindle unique features.

The most striking feature is the scroll bar and cursor wheel. The scroll bar lets you quickly scroll up and down, selecting menus or choosing a position within the book. When you have the menu item selected, you press the cursor wheel, just like a mouse. Navigation was a breeze and took only about 10 minutes to really become proficient.

The screen is as expected. E-ink devices are superior displays for these kind of applications. For the nay-sayers who mock lack of backlight or color, I suspect they haven't even tried any e-ink device. Very readable. I haven't tried fonts or anything, because I'm happy with the default fonts for now. There's no eye-strain to speak of. After reading for about an hour, my eyes were no less or more tired than if I were reading a print book. For me, that's not possible on any computer (or PDA) device. The refresh is just too stressful for long periods of reading.

The page buttons, on the side of the unit, are interestingly placed. It is easy to mistakenly press a button. While lying in bed (where I do most of my leisure reading), it can be a little awkward to hold the unit without pressing buttons. Coupled with the keyboard and all the buttons, the interface looks more busy than it really is. I hope that this is just part of the learning curve.

Ordering a book was fairly easy. If anything, this is where Amazon will win the war. Over-the-air delivery in fast time. I searched for Steven Lawhead's "Merlin" (book 2 of the Pendragon cycle), ordered it, and within a very short time (less than a minute), I was reading my new book. When I was tired of reading, I set it in sleep mode. Sleep mode puts a nice image on the screen, but I wish it would just turn the whole screen off. It never seems to go from sleep to just plain shutdown.

I won't go into the DRM issue much. But I do wonder if Amazon will reconsider their relationship with Mobi, or reconsider their decision to support their own DRM'ed format. It's been determined that the AZW format is basically DRM'ed Mobi, but at the moment, there's no way to get one to read the other.

There is a USB port, so I tried to download a free (non-DRM) Mobi books. That went fine: download Treasure Island, and just copied to the Kindle. Disconnect the USB port (you can't use the Kindle while the USB is connected), and the book showed up in my content, and I was able to start reading it.

The cover is almost useless. It seems to be made for storage, not for usage. The power switch of the Kindle is on the back, so you'd need to remove it from the cover to turn it off and on. There's also a strange plastic shim that appears to attempt to hold the Kindle in the cover. I figure that there will be after-market covers soon.

Overall I think I am happy and won't have any bouts of buyers regret. I'll just have to keep careful on which and how many books I buy! This could easily be very costly.