Kindle Update

It’s been a month or so since my first Kindle post, so I thought I’d give an update on how it’s getting along. The big news is that a couple of days ago I charged it up for the first time since I got it ! I’ve been using it for an hour or two a day, occasionally browsing the store over WiFi, so it’s had some good use and it’s really impressed me how long the battery has lasted.

A couple of weeks ago, there was a software update pushed to the device by Amazon. Unlike an iPod, the unit doesn’t need to be attached to a PC, I just turned it on one morning and a notice appeared that a software update was about to happen. A few minutes later it was all done but I did have to re-enter the router password, which wasn’t a big deal but it was an inconvenience.

The unit has only crashed on one occasion. I had downloaded a sample of a book, then deleted it, however whenever I went to one of my purchased books or tried to go to the store, the text from the sample appeared, not the item I was looking for. The old cliché of turning the unit on and off again worked, but it took two or three times to do it.

One word of warning. The Kindle uses the Amazon ’1-click’ payment system instead of the ‘basket’. It’s possible that if you buy 2 or 3 books in quick succession, each individual purchase will go to your bank and may set off their anti-theft system, so that the payments may be blocked. It seems that online thieves often take small amounts as they aren’t usually noticed by the customer. I bought 3 books and payment for the 2nd one failed because it was too soon after the first. News of this was conveyed to me via an email sent to the Kindle itself. I called Amazon to sort it out and the customer service man said “yes, that happens a fair bit”. Happily though it was sorted out quickly.

I think my biggest problem with Kindle is no fault of the unit or Amazon, it’s the price of eBooks. As mentioned in my previous post, in the UK, ebooks are subject to VAT at the current rate of 20%, unlike their physical counterparts. However that doesn’t account for the sometimes 50% extra cost. Next to the price, Amazon write “Prices set by the publisher”, so you’re in no doubt who is to blame. I’ve been a bit cheeky and tweeted a couple of authors asking them to have a word with their publishers – naturally I’ve received no reply ! The good thing is though is that this discrepancy between the formats hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Both the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the European Commission are investigating the publishers and how the price of ebooks are set. (source: PCPro , Money Saving Expert , Daily Telegraph) Hopefully this means that something will be done about it.

Amazon have a different business model to Apple and their iBooks store. Amazon tries to behave as a normal bookshop does and set the lowest prices they can for the titles. Apple on the other hand, allows the publisher to set whatever price they want, so long as the publisher gives them 30% of the purchase price. It seems to me that the Apple approach can only lead to prices being driven upward. There needs to be competition between the various stores.

One of the attractions for me buying a kindle was the inter-connectedness of my devices. I have Kindle on my PC, my iPhone and of course my Kindle device. In time, I expect I’ll buy an iPad or other tablet and then I can sync up to that device too. However Apple has recently changed it’s terms and conditions for publishers of apps. Previously you would get an app from Apple’s app store (free or paid) and then then the app would either allow you to buy further items from the app store or link to an outside website to allow purchases there. Kindle used the latter. Now Apple has said all content must be purchased through the app store and they want 30% of the purchase price for doing so. Also any content offered must be the same price or lower than elsewhere.

Unsurprisingly, this has upset not just Amazon, but many publishers because it affects magazine and newspaper apps too. The effect is to drive up the price to the publisher and in turn, the consumer. In some cases this means the digital version of the product is now more expensive than than printing it, trucking it to a shop and letting it sit on a shelf until sale. Some publishers have welcomed the move though but these seem to be the ones who can only benefit from being “in the gang” because their sales are so low or they have wider deals going on with Apple.

Anyhoo, after a month and a bit, can I still recommend a Kindle? Yes I can. It’s doing it’s job as described and aside from pricing issues of individual titles, I feel it’s more beneficial to me than buying physical books because it suits the way I am. I like gadgety things and I find it inconvenient to wrestle with physical book or sit in a certain way, so that I can turn the pages. In that way the Kindle is perfect for me. It’s lighter than an iPad and the way it’s used allows you to not be distracted by the chore of having to keep the pages open.  I can’t say I’ve read masses of titles, but the point of buying it was that at least I’d read more and that goal is being achieved. Marvellous.

Kindle – First Impressions

After a spontaneous News Years Resolution to read more books and some consideration, I ordered an Amazon Kindle at the weekend. I’ll no doubt end up buying an iPad2 later this year, but I wanted to start now and I figured if I start commuting to London again, I’d far rather take a Kindle on the train than an iPad. Also the Kindle books can syncronise across devices, so whether on my laptop, iPhone, Kindle or eventual iPad, the Whispersync feature means they will remember the book I’m reading and the page number I’ve got up to.

Mr Postie knocked at 7:30am and delivered the item. Upon opening the box I was surprised at how small the device is. I’ve seen the pictures of course and read the description, but for some reason a graphite grey slice of plastic seems too small to hold 3500 books. The 6″ screen seems a good size for reading and on a gloomy, rainy day like today, I was impressed that the non-back-lit, black and white screen was so readable without having a light on. That’s not to say it could stand up to competition from an iPad’s screen on a dull day or that’s it’s in any way readable in the dark, but it’s certainly better than I thought it would be.

A Kindle, this morning.

The first issue I’ve had with it is that after 18 months of iPhone ownership, I have an urge to touch the screen to navigate the pages. But one of the reasons it’s comparatively cheap is that it relies on a Qwerty keyboard, shift keys for symbols and a basic D-pad for navigation. I daresay I’ll get used to that sort of thing again though !

Setting up is a doddle. Plug the unit in to charge it, slide the power button across and away you go. Charging took two hours and apparently with the WiFi turned off, will last a month. I was quite impressed that it knew my name right out of the box and there was a personalised letter to me from the founder of Amazon, thanking me for my purchase. I know that can be a bit cheesy but it’s attention to detail like that that wins customers and keeps the ones you’ve got. Naturally, it’s already linked to my Amazon account too.

Kindle comes pre-loaded with English and American dictionaries but no doubt, like me, the first thing you’ll want to do is go to the store. After all, reading a dictionary can be dull ! Apparently if you buy the 3G model you can connect straight away, but I saved some money and got the WiFi only version. The prompt to set this up appears right away and it’s easy to select a router and enter the password.

Thanks to copyright laws running out after 50 years or so there are many free books.  Although from the device there’s no category for free books and instead you have to trawl through the categories, looking at individual titles to find them. It would be handy if the lists of books had the price next to the title rather than making you click on the item to find out. I guess this helps them with their info about what you looked at and from Amazon’s point of view encourages you to actually buy books but it is a pain. On the website the free books get their own category and there’s links to other services that provide out of print  or rare books to download.

The main store has over 500,000 books in it though, so there should be something for everyone. On the PC it’s easy enough to select the item and tell it to send to the Kindle. It’s worth mentioning though that eBooks have VAT applied, whilst real books don’t. This means some titles cost more than the physical item, but that’s by no means the norm. Given the growth of the eBook market though, it’s no surprise to learn there’s a pressure group dedicated to persuading the government to make eBooks VAT-free.

In the store, there seems to be collections of free books for 75p. That seems odd doesn’t it? Free books for 75p… what it’s doing is saving you the bother of searching for the free books. From the reviews though, navigation between the books is at best awkward. So I think I’ll do my own hunting. Also the book charts seem to suffer from the same issue as iBooks on the iPhone/iPad. Someone writes a trashy story involving tales from a Doctors surgery or a detailed tale of incest, adulterous wives or somesuch, sells it for 80p and it gets into the top 10. Amazon has already removed books regarding grooming of children, so with content like that appearing, it’s clear that new technology doesn’t always bring benefits…

There are magazines and newspapers to subscribe to as well. Most are cheaper than their printed equivalent but of course a monochrome screen is not going to compare to a full colour display.

Downloading a title takes no time at all and then you’re off and reading. The font is clear and easily readable, but can be adjusted if the letters are too small or big and turning the page is a simple matter of a button click on the side of the unit. There’s a forward and back on each side, so it doesn’t matter what hand you hold it in and it’s weight is comparable to a paperback book. Unlike a book however, you can lie on the sofa and rest it on your legs without needing to break the spine of the book.  The only criticism I have here is that when turning the page, instead of an animation of the page turning, the screen briefly inverts the greyscale, so the blacks become white and vice versa. Surely there’s a nicer way to do this.

Anyhoo, that’s the first impressions, there’s other features to try over the next few days. Apparently it can read the text aloud to you; memorable passages or details of the titles can be sent to Facebook or Twitter, I now have a Kindle e-mail address, so I can send PDF documents from my PC direct to the device and there’s a basic web browser too. Oh and apparently you can read books on it…. I guess I’d better look into that feature a bit more !