**** Introduction ****

Dedicated electronic or e-paper readers have been around for a while. They provide all the convenience of reading electronic content with the ease of reading that is associated with reading printed material. However, the high price of these devices, the low selection of books that are available in electronic format, and the hassle of having to connect your e-reader to the computer in order to get any content onto it were all the factors that mitigated against the wider adoption of e-readers. All of this changed with the introduction of Kindle. Amazon, an online selling website, surprised everyone when it decided to make an e-reader of its own and dramatically change the book publishing industry. The new device, Kindle, was already a huge hit in its first incarnation. The second generation Kindle has improved on the first one in many respects, and the third generation has again managed to take it to a new level.

When I first bought the second generation Kindle I was really excited about its functionality and portability. It quickly became one of my favorite electronic devices, and has completely transformed my reading habits. Unfortunately that device had its screen cracked about a year ago, which has prompted me to get the third generation Kindle. I was already very satisfied with the second-generation device, but the changes that were implemented in the third iteration really impressed me.

Kindle is one of my favorite gadgets of all time, and it has completely changed the way I approach reading. I have become a much more voracious and efficient reader, and it has become relatively easy for me to read two or more books a week without interfering with my professional or personal lives. These days if I have a choice between reading a physical book or a Kindle edition, I choose the latter without hesitation. There are many reasons why this is the case, and I’d like to mention a few here.

**** Accessibility ****

I can access all of the books that are offered for Kindle at Amazon’s store pretty much anywhere in the world. This is particularly the case if you have the 3G version of Kindle. Originally, the wireless book download was only available in the US, but the new international version of Kindle allows one to buy books in over a hundred countries. In the US the book download is free, but I’ve heard that there is a surcharge in some other countries. This still may not be such a bad value for your money, since book prices tend to be much higher in other countries, and the shipping costs for international delivery destination are pretty high. Not to mention the unreliability of international mail. Furthermore, now that there is a version of Kindle reader for pretty much every significant operating system (Windows, Mac OS, iOS, Android), it is easy to access your books on a variety of devices and under all sorts of circumstances. Furthermore, since earlier this year users can access their Kindle books through Amazon’s dedicated online app called Kindle Cloud Reader. I used to travel a lot and it is always good to know that I can access an almost inexhaustible library of books almost anywhere I find myself. I don’t have to guess any more how much reading material to bring on my trips, or which ones of my books to bring along. This brings us to the next point.

**** Portability ****

Thanks to Kindle (and similar devices) you can now take your entire library with you wherever you go. Unfortunately, there is still no easy way of getting my old paper books into a Kindle format, but from now on I will definitely put a high priority on getting as many of the books I buy in an electronic format. Fortunately Kindle now allows for the reading of pdf files, albeit this is not the optimal device for their viewing (it is much too small, even if you rotate the screen). The third generation Kindle also supports several other electronic formats, but I have not tried it with all of them so I don’t know which exactly are supported. Also, these days there are various software programs that can transform documents from one format to another, and in the future it is likely that there will be many more options for doing this. The only obstacle may remain the DRM, which precludes otherwise perfectly readable books from being read on various unsupported devices. Kindle now allows you to lend some of your books to other Kindle users, and a major library initiative is currently under way. This just means an ever-increasing number of options for the content that you can access.

**** Ease on eyes ****

Unlike computer screens, electronic paper does not emit any light. Just like the regular paper, it relies on the ambient light for reading. This makes Kindle and other e-ink devices extremely easy to read, even in broad daylight. I have read many books on my Kindle and have experienced none of the usual eyestrain that I usually get after staring at the computer screen for many hours. However, the e-ink technology is still far from perfect. The contrast between text and paper is not as good as the one for regular paper. The background is not white – it is a very light shade of gray. Likewise, the text is not completely black, but a rather dark shade of gray. This doesn’t bother me all that much, but I do wish for the contrast to be greater. It is my understanding that as technology improves, this will also be one of the features that will continuously get better. This is certainly the case with Kindle 3 as opposed to Kindle 2: the contrast on this newer device is markedly improved, and this is one of the most important changes in my opinion. Kindle still doesn’t handle color, so the books that have many illustrations are probably not the one you would want to read on it. This too will probably change in the future.

**** Ergonomics ****

Kindle is small and light, probably no heavier than a smallish paperback. The third generation device is markedly smaller and lighter than its predecessor, and this too is one major improvement. Kindle 3 is very easy to hold, and since there are no physical page breaks, you don’t have to worry about keeping the book open at the same time as you are holding it. This is particularly convenient if you are trying to multitask. I like to read in the gym while I am on an elliptical. In the past this has forced me to read only large-format magazines and books that stay open without me having to manually keep them in that state. Now I just put my kindle on the bookstand and it stays “open” by default.

**** Design ****

I really like the way that Kindle looks. There is a certain level of elegance to it that most other electronic devices don’t possess. I like to look at it in its own right, and I feel like I’ll enjoy using it for many years to come. After all, its basic function (reading books) will not become obsolete any time soon. The third generation Kindle improved on a few design issues, but it also compromised on a few other ones. The new joystick is square and flat, which makes it much easier to use. The page-turning buttons are not very conspicuous, but are actually more accessible. The keyboard layout has changed: there are no more number keys. This makes going to a particular location in the book a bit tedious. The on/off button and the phone jack have been moved to the bottom of the device. As I mentioned already, I like to put my Kindle on a stand while reading it in the gym, and positioning these buttons/features on the bottom compromises their usability. Overall, however, I am really happy with Kindle 3’s design.

**** Battery life ****

I was already very happy with Kindle 2’s battery life. I was able to go for a full week without recharging it, and even longer if I had turned off the 3G connection. The battery life of Kindle 3 is just astonishing. I’ve spent weeks and weeks reading without needing to recharge, even with Wi-Fi turned on. With Wi-Fi turned off I wouldn’t be surprised if it would take a couple of months of

**** Customer Service ****

I only had one minor issue with my Kindle so far (which turned out to be not much of problem after all). The many ways that you can contact the customer service that are indicated on Amazon’s website are all very convenient. The customer service representative was very easy to speak to and very knowledgeable. It was probably one of the best customer service experiences I’ve had so far.

**** Other Features ****

There are a few features of Kindle that I did not make too much use of. I don’t use the mp3 player all that much. It’s a decent player, but a stand-alone mp3 player gets the job done much more effectively. The web browser that is included is extremely rudimentary, and it’s not very suitable for anything but last-resort web surfing. Even then it is mostly effective for text-intensive websites and not much else. If a website uses a lot of JavaScript or other more recent add-ons, then the browser becomes next to useless.

**** Conclusion ****

To be sure, there are many shortcomings that Kindle has. On top of the few that have already been mentioned, there is also the fact that the 6″ screen is not all that large, the navigation and the physical interface are a bit clunky, and the surface of the screen scratches way too easily (you should really buy a protective sleeve for it). Also, the Kindle charger is proprietary and you can’t use most other small electronics chargers. Backing up files onto your own computer is relatively straightforward, but it would be useful if you could do it over a WiFi connection for instance. However, none of these issues detract from my overall satisfaction with Kindle. I would recommend Kindle to anyone who likes to read, and even to people who may not be all that much into reading. Kindle may in fact be the device that turns them into bibliophiles.