Kindle

 When Amazon (one of the companies that I love for their customer service.. more on that in a separate post after sometime) introduced Kindle a couple of years ago ,I was like another gadget that’s going to go away in a couple of months.

 But they introduced versions after versions of Kindle.

 Still I was not convinced that I needed a kindle. I was commuting by car and in the office and at home I spend time in front of the computer. So there was no need for me to use another reading device. Even the flights that I took are short trips. So there was absolutely no need for me to have another reading device.

 Things changed in April when I took a job where I need to commute to work in a train at least an hour. And in the train every one has at least one reading device to look at.

 At that time Amazon also came up with a new version of kindle called “Special Offers” Kindle. It is $25 less than the regular one. I finally decided to give it a try.

 I ordered the kindle and got it on hand within 2 days. It was all charged and was ready to read. I switched it on. Instead of getting the covers like the original kindle, this one has the advertisements on the cover. And it looks nice too. When you slide the power key the advertisement goes off and shrinks to a smaller size at the bottom of the book list.

 The contrast is very good without any back light which is easier on the eyes. It has a built in reader which reads out loud. But the reading is funny. So better switch it off. And there is a browser which I would say is not of that much use. There is an mp3 player built in where you can’t choose the songs.

 Kindle is a device that is in particular made for reading books. Period. It is not meant as a browsing device or a mp3 player or anything. Its main purpose is to be a book reader and it does it best. No other eBook reader can come near it. Not even the ipad.

 The Kindle is very easy on the eyes. Not much strain like the back lit devices. This actually prints each page with eink when you move forward or backward. You can increase the size of the fonts or decrease it.

 Since I got the special offers kindle I get a lot of offers in my kindle. $20 Amazon gift card for $10 for example.

So in short I like the kindle.

But does it compare with a real book? J

I would have to say no. Even though I like the book marking and writing comments feature in kindle it doesn’t match with the comments that you write in a real paper book.

Kindle may be very good to read magazines and novels but I feel that it is not adequate for subject books where you take notes and read some pages repeatedly etc.

So the verdict??

 Kindle is the best ebook reader that is available in the market, bar none.

But it can’t compete with the real paper book.