Pros: Improved PDF viewing, Outclasses competitors and costs less, Easy to read, even in direct sunlight, Battery lasts for weeks between charges, Slim and light, Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi plus 3G connectivity, Free global wireless downloading (3G)
Cons: Can't read ePub library books, Text-to-speech mispronounces words, No built-in lighting, Limited mostly to Amazon books, Integrated web browser is a bit clunky
The third generation Amazon Kindle has applied many a most combinations to make it a market favorite, such as an improved screen, better battery life, lighter weight, and lower price, vaults it to the top of the e-book reader category. It would be hard to quarrel that the online retailer's Kindle isn't the iPod of the e-book reader market. The Kindle has helped usher the e-book reader from gadget curiosity to an up-and-coming mass market device, all in less than three short years. The first thing you should know about the "Kindle 3" is that it's more evolutionary than revolutionary. In fact, this Kindle comes in a couple of versions, one with both Wi-Fi and 3G wireless, and a Wi-Fi-only version. Each version is accessible in graphite or white and, on top of the more packed in design, some other key trappings include more memory and double the battery life. That e-ink screen is both the Kindle's power and flaw.
On the upside, the latest Amazon Kindle's display looks really high-quality. When compared side by side with the older Kindle and Nook, the letters appear slightly darker and pop a little more. It's not a enormous distinction, but it's obvious. Turning "pages" is also considerably faster. The Amazon Kindle's screen can toggled from portrait to landscape mode, particularly useful for certain PDFs and Web sites. Like the iPhone, the Kindle is prone to serious injury when dropped from moderate heights to a hard surface. There's now Wi-Fi on board, which enables you to get access in locations which aren't serviced by AT&T's cellular network.
The combination of Wi-Fi and the new browser makes for better surfing, but it still remains a somewhat slow, less than fluid affair. Also using to jump from one link to other is quite hectic. But the browser does work well enough for those times you need to log-in to a password-protected Wi-Fi access point, or click on a splash screen in order to jump online. As said, the e-ink screen is both the Kindle's power and a flaw. Even though with improved page-turn speeds has made the device feel slightly zippier, e-ink still exhibits some latency and using a four-way button to navigate menus can seem weird after playing around with your touch-screen smartphone all day. For version 3.0 of its Kindle firmware, the text-to-speech capabilities of the device have been worked on, extending it to the menu system. The device also appears to have a built-in microphone near the USB connecting port at the bottom, where you'll also find volume buttons; yes, the Kindle has two small speakers on the back and you can play MP3 audio as you read. If you're comparing this Kindle with the existing Nook e-readers, you'll find that looking at them straight on, the Kindle is actually only slightly smaller on a two-dimensional plane. However, the Kindle is significantly slimmer depth-wise and about 2.5 ounces lighter overall, which is significant.
Neither device is particularly good for viewing PDF files, but the Nook has the advantage of supporting the industry standard EPUB format. That's useful because some libraries have begun lending e-books in the EPUB format, and there are a wealth of free public domain books available from sources such as Google Books.
One area where the Kindle and the Nook are neck and neck is their ability to access books on other devices. Buy a book on the Kindle, and you can also access it on the Kindle app on iPad, iPhone/iPod Touch, Android phones, BlackBerry phones, Windows PCs, and Macs.
If you're demanding to make up whether you need a 3G connection or not, we can see how it would come in handy for frequent travelers who like the idea of being able to access an e-book store at a moment's notice, or those who subscribe to periodicals through the Nook. Though free Wi-Fi hot spots are becoming more widely available, they surely aren't everywhere yet. But if you're the type of person who would prefer storing whenever you get a connection, then you would like to be with just a Wifi connection.
Summing it up now, the improvements aren't so great that it will make owners of the second-generation Kindle or Nook feel bad about what they've already bought. But if you're already a Kindle fan, you'll most likely be eager to pawn off your older model on a friend or family member and acquire this model. And, if you're new to the whole e-reader game, it may not be that cheap and vise as an investment, but its whole lot more reasonable than that the Kindle cost when it first came out in late 2007.
Cons: Can't read ePub library books, Text-to-speech mispronounces words, No built-in lighting, Limited mostly to Amazon books, Integrated web browser is a bit clunky
The third generation Amazon Kindle has applied many a most combinations to make it a market favorite, such as an improved screen, better battery life, lighter weight, and lower price, vaults it to the top of the e-book reader category. It would be hard to quarrel that the online retailer's Kindle isn't the iPod of the e-book reader market. The Kindle has helped usher the e-book reader from gadget curiosity to an up-and-coming mass market device, all in less than three short years. The first thing you should know about the "Kindle 3" is that it's more evolutionary than revolutionary. In fact, this Kindle comes in a couple of versions, one with both Wi-Fi and 3G wireless, and a Wi-Fi-only version. Each version is accessible in graphite or white and, on top of the more packed in design, some other key trappings include more memory and double the battery life. That e-ink screen is both the Kindle's power and flaw.
On the upside, the latest Amazon Kindle's display looks really high-quality. When compared side by side with the older Kindle and Nook, the letters appear slightly darker and pop a little more. It's not a enormous distinction, but it's obvious. Turning "pages" is also considerably faster. The Amazon Kindle's screen can toggled from portrait to landscape mode, particularly useful for certain PDFs and Web sites. Like the iPhone, the Kindle is prone to serious injury when dropped from moderate heights to a hard surface. There's now Wi-Fi on board, which enables you to get access in locations which aren't serviced by AT&T's cellular network.
The combination of Wi-Fi and the new browser makes for better surfing, but it still remains a somewhat slow, less than fluid affair. Also using to jump from one link to other is quite hectic. But the browser does work well enough for those times you need to log-in to a password-protected Wi-Fi access point, or click on a splash screen in order to jump online. As said, the e-ink screen is both the Kindle's power and a flaw. Even though with improved page-turn speeds has made the device feel slightly zippier, e-ink still exhibits some latency and using a four-way button to navigate menus can seem weird after playing around with your touch-screen smartphone all day. For version 3.0 of its Kindle firmware, the text-to-speech capabilities of the device have been worked on, extending it to the menu system. The device also appears to have a built-in microphone near the USB connecting port at the bottom, where you'll also find volume buttons; yes, the Kindle has two small speakers on the back and you can play MP3 audio as you read. If you're comparing this Kindle with the existing Nook e-readers, you'll find that looking at them straight on, the Kindle is actually only slightly smaller on a two-dimensional plane. However, the Kindle is significantly slimmer depth-wise and about 2.5 ounces lighter overall, which is significant.
Neither device is particularly good for viewing PDF files, but the Nook has the advantage of supporting the industry standard EPUB format. That's useful because some libraries have begun lending e-books in the EPUB format, and there are a wealth of free public domain books available from sources such as Google Books.
One area where the Kindle and the Nook are neck and neck is their ability to access books on other devices. Buy a book on the Kindle, and you can also access it on the Kindle app on iPad, iPhone/iPod Touch, Android phones, BlackBerry phones, Windows PCs, and Macs.
If you're demanding to make up whether you need a 3G connection or not, we can see how it would come in handy for frequent travelers who like the idea of being able to access an e-book store at a moment's notice, or those who subscribe to periodicals through the Nook. Though free Wi-Fi hot spots are becoming more widely available, they surely aren't everywhere yet. But if you're the type of person who would prefer storing whenever you get a connection, then you would like to be with just a Wifi connection.
Summing it up now, the improvements aren't so great that it will make owners of the second-generation Kindle or Nook feel bad about what they've already bought. But if you're already a Kindle fan, you'll most likely be eager to pawn off your older model on a friend or family member and acquire this model. And, if you're new to the whole e-reader game, it may not be that cheap and vise as an investment, but its whole lot more reasonable than that the Kindle cost when it first came out in late 2007.
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