Kindle envy

So my trainer last week showed off his Kindle to me. I must say I was more impressed than I expected to be. The demonstration turned into a discussion of the pro's and con's of owning one and why someone like me would be offended by the DRM included in the device. But, after thinking on his comments and looking at the features more myself, I am now wondering when I can afford one.

I read a lot of blogs on the subway. Soccer, programming, etc. I have even synced down technical documentation and manuals. My current process is to use Plucker ala the Sunrise application to sync those down to my old Treo. Code is not a very realistic option on my current device as it doesn't wrap well at all.

I'm cheap so I had concerns that owning a Kindle means I couldn't get all that nice free content down to the device. No problem. The Kindle has an email account you can send content to. If you have something in Word or text you can email it to the Kindle account and it will show up on the device. The device comes with wi-fi.

My current method works great but a nicer screen is so tantalizing. I want to read more. Unfortunately, I don't have the money to be buying books as often I would prefer. And, NYC doesn't have a nice chain of half-price books with good books on the shelves ala the likes of a Half-Price books in Austin. Alas, my choices are thin on the ground.

The Kindle screen is excellent for reading. It's hard to see the difference on a PC screen. If you know someone with one, just take a look at theirs.

I was surprised to see that they sold out on the Kindle in five and a half hours. Jeff Bezos apologized that there was still a six week delay. Interesting. As of today, the price is still sitting at $399. Ouch. Maybe at 300-350 this would be more attractive for my pocket book. However, demand will not allow for such a price reduction anytime soon. It will take competition to force a price reduction.

Maybe in 2009 things will look better.