E-Readers In Town Yet?

[Drew Aitch]

Hi Everybody

For receiving material here in Thailand, I've had no difficulty with my Kindle wi-fi. Get books in a trice, same in U.S. In fact, I'm not sure that I understand the love of 3G (which service I have here in Thailand), as I get a book quickly with wi-fi in the U.S. or Thailand.

Well said CMX. I have wi-fi at home, so no problem with getting books as and when I need them. Look, anyone going on holiday or away on a business trip will most likely pack a choice of 'real' books in their luggage prior to departure, so just do the same with your Kindle! Get all the books you want before you leave and you're sorted. I mean, there's only so much one can read when away from home right? All this 3G Vs Wireless option is not really worth a conversation with today's global internet access anyway.

But if you do decide you'd like to purchase a book while out and about, it's no problem at all connecting to Amazon's Whispernet and downloading a new title in less than 60 seconds using just a single click. You can also subscribe to your favourite daily newspapers and have it/them delivered to your Kindle each morning too, which is a nice touch for some.

As an e-reader, a kindle will let you create collections to store your books into categories; search for content in book; add and save bookmarks; add and save notes or highlights within a book; give instant dictionary definitions of words you're unsure of simply by placing the cursor next to that word; and what's more, Amazon will remotely save copies of all your purchases, be they fee or free, in the event that you lose or break your Kindle.

I've actually downloaded a couple of books for nothing $0.00. I've also recently purchased the entire works of Charles Dickens (over 40 titles), for about £2.50, so 'e-reading' can save a lot on paper copies too. I've got enough material on my Kindle to keep me going for months, yet I still have space for another 3,450+ titles if I live long enough to read that many

More than just an e-reader

A kindle is an e-reader first and foremost, but it does have a few extra little functions for those interested. There is an experimental web bower, a few games you can play, it will read to you out loud (although personally I don’t like the robotic voice (male or female)), and you can listen to any audio files, i.e. talking books, or music in mp3 format.

My Summary

I'm so impressed by this e-reader, that if someone told me I had to chose between my 13,000 THB Smartphone (which by the way has more bells and whistles than you can shake a shitty stick at), or my 5,000 THB (give or take), Kindle II, I'd sling the Smartphone down the trash shoot without a second thought.

Mobile phones often = irritation and interruption, whereas an e-reader = peace and tranquillity.

Aitch

Edited July 16, 2011 by Drew Aitch