Monday, November 22, 2010

Kruising with Kindle Part 1

Bay of Islands NZ
I have now had my Amazon Kindle for 18 months and have grown to like it more each day. The latest great feature I have discovered is that when traveling it makes a very workable email and internet device. In an odd twist of pricing foolishness you can browse the internet for free on the experimental browser. Now in an area where I had other options I would never bother with the klunky interface and laggy screen, but here in NZ where wifi and cell data are crazy expensive it is a godsend. I am in fact writing this entire post on my Kindle and uploading for free.

That isnt to say it doesnt have its issues.

I have actually had 4 kindle e-readers. The first one met its demise last August while reading by my fathers pool during a visit home. It just stopped working after sitting out in the sun. I called amazon, explained what happened, said yes of course it was out in the sun, it is summer and I was reading outside. They were fine with that and had a new one to me in 48 hours.. Number 2 was left in a bus in Ecuador, a much more painful mistake then with a paper book. Number 3 got a broken screen while in the protective pocket in my backpack during a bike trip.

Clearly the screens are pretty fragile and I now have a rigid waterproof case for protection when off the boat. Again Amazon was very responsive and provided a free replacement and luckily we had family coming to visit who could bring the new one and return the broken one without paying for international shipping.

Tomorrow in Part 2 I will discuss actually reading on the device.

Sent from my Kindle -- Update: Sorry, too busy so part 2 will have to wait till after thanksgiving.

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