My Experience with Amazon Kindle

Amazon Kindle: What I like, and What I Don't !

About 2 months back, I bought Amazon Kindle Keyboard (Wi-Fi Only) from ShopYourWorld's eBay shop. Now that I have spent considerable amount of time with it, I would like to share my experience with you.


What I like about the Amazon Kindle:

• The Form Factor : It's light-weight, slim and very easy to carry around. Inspite of it's B/W Display,  It manages to catch everyone's attention. 

Amazingly Slim!

• The Display : The E-ink Display soothes the eyes. No Glare. No Parallax. Pictures are displayed perfectly. Believe me, reading experience on Kindle is as good (IMO, better) as reading from a printed book. 

Reads in Bright Sunlight too...

Sharp, Crisp Images

• Battery Life : Thanks to the E-ink Display, on a Complete charge (that takes about 4 hours), the Kindle survives 20 days of regular use. I rarely turn on the Wi-Fi, though. With constant use of Wi-Fi, the kindle shall only last 5-6 days. 

• In-Built Browser : Even though this feature is experimental, it does the job very well. You can check your emails, Facebook, etc. You can always perform a Google Search or access Wikipedia. And yeah, it also features a text-only Article Mode. It could have been better, though.

Article Mode

Kindle's Web Browser

• In-Built Dictionary : I often come across words that I haven't ever heard. The in-built dictionary (Oxford Dictionary of English) really proves to be helpful. I can instantly look up the definition without leaving the book.

Instant Lookup

• User - Interface : The UI is very basic & simple. Navigating around is no trouble at all. You can organize your books into various collections to easily access them.

My Kindle's Homescreen

• Apps : Handful of useful Applications like Calendar, Notepad, Sticky Notes, Calculator, Stopwatch, etc. are available for Kindle. Popular games like Chess, Scrabble, Hangman, etc. are also available. Since I don't have a phone (Yeah, not yet!), these apps & games really prove to be handy. Even though these apps are only available for US Customers, anyone can get 'em easily by switching his/her location to US.

Other Features I Appreciate:

• Kindle has got decent speakers & you can also play MP3 files or Audio-books. It also features a 3.5mm Audio Jack. But the MP3 player has got many limitations. The order of Songs cannot be changed & you can't pickup a song you feel like listening.
• The Font size, Typeface, Line Spacing &Words-per-line can be adjusted according to our need.
• You can password-protect your Kindle if required.
• You can buy books from the Kindle Store on Kindle itself. 
• By using the QWERTY keyboard, you can add annotations to text, just like you might write in the margins of a book. You can also post meaningful passages to your social networks from Kindle itself.

What I Don't like about the Amazon Kindle:

• Reading in Dim-Light : Reading in Dim-light with the Kindle is pain. It is easier to read from a printed page in dim-light. Optional backlight would have proved to be a boon.

• Connecting via Wi-Fi : The Wi-fi does not connects easily. Often, I need to tweak some settings or connect manually. Also, Wireless-N routers don't work for Kindle.

• Debit Cards do not Work : Debit Cards do not seem to work on Amazon.com for purchasing Books, Apps, etc. However, Credit Cards work.

• Reading PDFs : Reading PDFs on Kindle is pain. Sometimes, the Kindle freezes when I try to skip some pages quickly while reading PDFs. It would have been great if custom zoom was possible. There are only 3 zoom-level choices available while reading PDFs. However, switching it to landscape mode solves the problem. Still, the PDF reader needs to improve a lot.

Reading PDFs is a Pain!

• Page-turning Buttons : In my opinion, there was no need to place page-turning buttons on both side of the Kindle. If they had just placed the Next-page button on the right side & Previous-page button on the left side, it would have been perfect.

• No Custom Screensavers : The Kindle does not allows us to personalize the Screensavers. Various hacks allow you to add custom Screensavers. But,  As of now, the hacks don't seem to work on the latest firmware. I just can't understand why don't they implement such a simple feature. So, I'm stuck with the boring stock Screensavers.

One of the boring stock Screensavers!

• Text-To-Speech Sucks : The TTS feature simply sucks. I hate the lifeless voice.

What I would like to see in Future Updates:

• Now that Amazon owns Shelfari, I would love to see Shelfari integrated with the Kindle.
• An Improved PDF reader with Custom Zoom.
• An improved Web Browser & MP3 Player.
• Official PC Suite
• Faster Page-Turns

___________________________________________

Calibre, a Boon!  

Calibre, an E-book Management software available for Windows, Linux & Mac fulfills the need of PC suite for Kindle. Calibre is Free & Open-Source. With Calibre, you can manage your collection, convert E-books to Kindle's native format, download news & Convert it to e-book form and lots more...

I would like to thank Kovid Goyal & his team for such a beautiful piece of Software.

Calibre

Calibre can automatically fetch news from websites or RSS feeds, format the news into a ebook and upload to a connected device.

Yet Another Blog Post...

Phew! Somehow, I finally managed myself to blog.

Let's start off with Google+ ! Google+ is great. But, let's face it! If the same SNS would have been created by someone else. It wouldn't have received the amount of hype it's currently receiving. Even I was over-excited with it. I was kind of bored with Facebook. However, it was just a matter of few days. My excitement went down.

Google+ lacks a private messaging system. Moreover, no wall posts! Nothing! So, if your friend isn't online, you can't contact him through Google+. Try something else! Facebook, may be! But, you got to agree that Google+'s chat is several times better than that of Facebook's. I just hate Facebook chat! The concept of Circles & Hangouts is very nice. I like it.

In few months, people would be competing over how many people have them in circles. Just like Twitter! The photo viewer is 2x better than that of Facebook's. You can even do some basic editing stuff. Sparks is kind of good too! I think that Facebook's currently better than Google+ ! It was just over-excitement that made me post R.I.P. Facebook,etc.

By the way, if you want an invite, just mail me at kunaldharamsi@gmail.com.

...and get yourself a Google Plus Nick, if you haven't!

I am getting myself Amazon Kindle this birthday. So, be ready for a full-fledged review of the Amazon Kindle. I chose Kindle over Nook. With Kindle, I would be able to do a bit of web surfing and install some handy apps on it. I will talk more about it once I get it in my hand... Leave it for now!

We've an highly-anticipated coming up today... India vs England @ The Lords. We have managed to win only a single test match at Lords. While, we have lost ten. What's more anticipated than this match is Sachin's 100th Century. Even I am waiting for that very moment! :)

I'll have to end this here as I don't have anything more to talk about. Looking forward to my next blog post...

Good Bye!

Let's get a bit Informal

Well, I read some awesome blogs today. They made me realise how formal I've kept my blog. Why the hell do I need to always write about tech-stuff and all...! I even discarded couple of similar post in drafts. Let's get a bit informal.

Honestly, I don't think I've ever wrote a post that may raise the reader's interest to scroll the post till the end. I would try to do so now...

My life's been awesome. I've got amazing friends. I love them all. I finished up with my 10th class examinations about 15 days back. I even ended my 11 year old journey with Advanced Academy. I was quite attached to the school & leaving it was a tough decision. I'm gonna miss all of my friends a lot. :(

April 2, 2011 is one of the few dates I would never forget in my life. India did it! We won the World Cup!!! I was the happiest person alive on earth. The nation was electrified! We were one! We went crazy, wild! Dancing, screaming, roaring and what not! Cricket unites India like hell. I can still recall each & everything. I had put on India's jersey from the morning itself. There was an enormous flow of energy in my body. I still can't express my feelings. I just loved Mahi's winning six. We owe a lot to the Indian Cricket Team. They brought smiles to more than 120 crore faces.

Currently, there's revolution in the air. The whole India is fighting against corruption and the credit goes to one man, Anna Hazare. He had also played an important role in bringing out the Right to Information Act. And now, he is fighting for the Jan Lokpal Bill to eradicate the widespread corruption in our country. The whole nation's with him. These politicians are not going to pass a law that checks their own power. We will have to fight to get it. Chetan Bhagat's simple yet unique solution inspired me a lot. Check it out! A Corruption-free India is what we all dream of. We can do it! We will do it!

Well, time for some more cricket. IPL's here. So, I would stop writing now & enjoy an awesome opening-game between Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders.

Good Bye.
Jai Hind!

The New Messages : Facebook

Some time back, Mark Zuckerberg announced the "Modern Messaging System" which will allow users to have a unified “Social Inbox” for your email, chat, Facebook messages, IM and SMS, along with consolidated history for each contact. Well, this has been named "The New Messages". 'The New Messages' seems interesting and will prove to be Facebook's key feature in future.


Facebook's rolling out the new Messages to everyone gradually, so you should see steps to upgrade soon. 


In some time... we all would be having an "@facebook.com" email ID.


If you want to access the new Messages sooner (Who Doesn't?), visit the Learn more page to request an invitation (invitations will be sent pending availability).

This image might give you some idea about The New Messages.

By the way, if you have got access to the new messages, pass it on to your friends... 

Click "Invite Friends" at the bottom of your Messages view. The number of remaining invitations you can send will appear in parenthesis next to this link. Note that upgrades may not take effect immediately.

I Just Got in!

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