Product review on the Kindle 2

I have never done a product review before, but I was recently given a product, as a gift, which I have grown to really like. But, the Amazon Kindle 2™ has been a fun product to get to use. The official description is:

• Slim: Just over 1/3 of an inch, as thin as most magazines
• Lightweight: At 10.2 ounces, lighter than a typical paperback
• Wireless: 3G wireless lets you download books right from your Kindle, anytime, anywhere; no monthly fees, service plans, or hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots
• Books in Under 60 Seconds: Get books delivered in less than 60 seconds; no PC required
• Improved Display: Reads like real paper; now boasts 16 shades of gray for clear text and even crisper images
• Longer Battery Life: 25% longer battery life; read for days without recharging
• More Storage: Take your library with you; holds over 1,500 books
• Faster Page Turns: 20% faster page turns
• Read-to-Me: With the new text-to-speech feature, Kindle can read every newspaper, magazine, blog, and book out loud to you, unless the book is disabled by the rights holder
• Large Selection: Over 270,000 books plus U.S. and international newspapers, magazines, and blogs available
• Low Book Prices: New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases $9.99, unless marked otherwise

To my surprise, everything they say in that description is true. But that description does not include everything that the Kindleâ„¢ can do. They are actually being humble! In today’s day of the profession pitchman on television who promises you the sun and the moon, it is very pleasant to find a little humility. So, what else can the humble Kindleâ„¢ do? Well, what Amazon does not tell you is that it has a list of 7,000 books which you can download completely for free. All of them are public domain books, but I am now re-reading The Three Musketeers and Aesop’s Fables, etc. As well, they have philosophy books, etc. as part of the list. You can also download thousands of additional free books from two other websites and load them into your unit throught the USB port. And, you have yet to spend a penny.

Having said that, there is an impressive number of books for sale on the Amazon site that can be downloaded to your Kindleâ„¢. And daily newspapers, and blogs, and feeds can all be downloaded for a small fee. But, get this, do you have work memos that you want to take with you, or product manuals on *.pdf or *.doc? You can send those memos to your Kindleâ„¢ account and Amazon will transform them into Kindleâ„¢-compatible files that you can have with you wherever you go.

But, it keeps getting better. They have what they call an “experimental” hookup to the world-wide-web. It has only the quality of a mobile phone but the screen is so much bigger. This means that, with a little creativity, I can have a very mini-office in my hand. I use Outlook 2007. So, I signed up for a Google calendar account. Then Google has a nice sync product that will sync your Outlook calendar to your online Google calendar. Since I can easily see my Google calendar on Kindleâ„¢ using the mobile Google website, this means that I can read my calendar on the go. And, if I record an appointment using the Kindleâ„¢, then–if my computer is on in my home office–it will sync my appointment back to my Outlook 2007. I can also text-read my email.

Mind you, it is not a full home office, but then it was not designed to be. It was designed to be a book-reader, but it does additional tasks well enough that it makes me have a very positive opinion of the Kindle™. The only drawbacks I have seen is that it does have a little bit of a learning curve and it is a little pricey. But, but, I am so glad that I have it. I do recommend picking up a good how-to-use-the-Kindle™ book because the included manual is not as much in depth as I would have liked.