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Friday, August 28, 2009

Books / Tech / Schools Adventures with Kindle

Posted by Rachael the Unpaid News Intern on Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 1:59 PM

As a book-worm college student, I love towering piles of books. I love the smell of old pages and ink. And I hate reading off a computer screen. I spend hundreds of dollars on ink each school year to print my PDF readings just so I can hold the material in my hands.

So when Amazon released the first Kindle in 2007, I didn’t pay much attention. Why would I want to pay several hundred dollars to read my books electronically? Even as the reviews came in — The pages look just like paper! The screen doesn’t strain your eyes! — I still didn’t buy the hype.

But then over the summer, I got an email from one of my professors telling me I had registered for a class in the fall that makes me eligible to receive a free Kindle. As it turns out, Amazon chose Reed College and several other schools to use the new Kindle DX in a pilot program. As long as we fill out several surveys, participate in a couple interviews, and follow their file-sharing rules, the $489 Kindle DX is ours to keep when the semester ends.

The Kindle DX and my reading for the weekend.
  • The Kindle DX and my reading for the weekend.

So two days ago, I went over to Computer User Services, signed my contract, and took home my Kindle. I peeled off the first screen protective layer, but there was one more on which something along the lines of “Congratulations on Your New Kindle” was printed. I spent a minute getting frustrated that I couldn’t get my nail under the plastic to peel it off.

Then I realized that was the actual screen.

More about the Kindle below the cut.

I slid the power switch at the top, and the words disappeared, replaced with a new page, asking me to sign in with my Amazon account. On the home page, I had three reading options: Kindle DX User’s Guide, The New Oxford American Dictionary, and something called “Welcome Rachael.”

The next morning, I awoke to find two books for my class on Nuclear Politics (The Psychology of Nuclear Proliferation by Jaques Hymans and Nuclear Logics: Contrasting Paths in East Asia and the Middle East by Etel Soligen) had automatically downloaded.

I got excited and began to figure out how to highlight and annotate. There’s a little square knob on the right called a “5-way clicker” that lets the reader navigate along the page. Click + scroll + click to highlight. Click + type + click to make a note, which shows up footnote-style. It also has a text-to-speech feature, which is potentially useful should I want to do some reading on my drive to school…although the voice isn’t quite human-like enough to get all the words right. My favorite feature so far is the automatic word definitions — bring the cursor in front of a word, and its definition automatically pops up at the bottom of the page.

The Kindle DX also supports PDFs, which is necessary if you’re a student. You can’t download PDF files from the Kindle store, but you can use a USB port to connect to a computer to upload the files, or you email the files to your automatically created Kindle email address, which will then delivered them to your Kindle for a fee (or, if you’re one of the lucky students in the pilot program, free).

A few concerns: the screen flashes when you turn the page, which is standard, but annoying. Also, is Amazon tracking what students in the pilot program read? And the keyboard is very small — making notes might become somewhat of a pain. Plus, I can’t throw it across the room when I get fed up. Well, I could, but I’d probably regret it.

It also came with a sweet leather case!
  • It also came with a sweet leather case!

Still, it looks like I’m sold. I don’t have to pay for my textbooks for my Nuclear Politics class (they're free as part of the pilot program), nor do I have to buy several ink cartridges to print hundreds and hundreds of PDF readings. Even if I did have to pay, it's still much cheaper — $30 instead of $80; $15 instead of $25! I won’t have to carry my textbooks everywhere, and I’ll always have all my readings with me. But ask me again on Monday how I like it after I’ve finished my 170 pages for my first Nuclear Politics class.

-Rachael Marcus

 

Comments (2) RSS

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1
I do have a question about the books. I've heard rumours that some of them have time limits on them. At least the ones from Barnes and Nobles will.
Posted by ryaltheyre on August 29, 2009 at 2:47 PM · Report
2
http://www.geardiary.com/2009/06/19/kindle…
Posted by NIG GER on August 31, 2009 at 3:22 PM · Report

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