One month with the Amazon Kindle
Scott Hanselman and I met for lunch a few months ago and he showed off his Amazon Kindle to me. This product was nowhere near my radar, but as I approached my trip to NY for 6 weeks I started to worry about packing space for books for the extended trip. I had a number of technical references to bring along plus the usual casual reading material. I did some research on capabilities and the more I learned about the device (persistent network connection, the ability to email and transfer arbitrary documents to the device, and extensive battery life) the more interested I became. So, I succumbed and purchased one on June 6.
I'm a convert and very happy with the purchase. There is a great deal of free content out there (Feedbooks is a great place to start) and of course there's the option to purchase from Amazon. I don't have an viable connection while here at the lake house, but when we take trips into Hammondsport, Bath, or other towns along the interstate corridor I'm able to get online and download content. I've grown used to the interface and find the device very usable, if a bit awkward with the giant "Next Page" button along the right side.
That's the good news - the bad news is that my screen crashed today:
I'm sure I probably dropped or squeezed it to cause this damage, but it concerns me that the device may not be all that robust in the long run. Still, a call to Amazon Kindle support took about 2 minutes and a replacement is on the way. I suspect they are replacing these no-questions-asked to ensure that it doesn't get a bad rep as an unreliable device. As usual I'm absolutely thrilled with Amazon customer service and they will remain my first stop for just about everything I purchase (that's why I'm an Amazon Prime customer).