Travel News

Can Amazon’s Kindle Change the Way We Read on the Road?

Locations in this article:  San Diego, CA

Kindle AmazonAmazon’s new Kindle book reader is tailor-made for business travelers. I’ve been using one actively for a week and it’s life changing.

Amazon has re-thought the entire process and has come up with a well thought out solution, something that’s eluded dozens of companies that have tried and failed. They not only developed an excellent device, but created a seamless and simple process for selecting, retrieving and reading books.

You can carry dozens of best-selling books in a diary-sized device that you can read just like a book wherever you go. Its battery life will last for the longest airline trip and it’s small enough to pull out while sitting at your airline gate.

The Kindle store is accessed from the device where you can choose from more than 90,000 books including best-sellers, newspapers, magazines and blogs. While the newspaper and blog experience left something to be desired due to their subscription fees and limited graphics, the Kindle’s books are its forte. Books are heavily discounted: Current best-seller hardcover books, which usually cost $25-$35 in stores or online, cost just $9.99 as a Kindle book.

Once you choose a book, it’s delivered to you seamlessly over Sprint’s high-speed wireless network, and you can start reading the book in seconds. It’s the closest thing to magically transporting the book from Amazon’s warehouse to you.

The Kindle store is simple to use, much like Amazon’s online store. You can read a chapter of a book before buying, check book reviews, and search for titles in a number of ways. It reminds me of Apple’s iTunes store, but you can access it from almost anywhere without needing a computer. And unlike iTunes, all your purchases are remembered and can be downloaded to your Kindle again and again at no cost in case you lose or delete them. According to Amazon, a Kindle holds about 200 books.

The Kindle device is easy to hold and to use, and it weighs just 10 ounces. It’s easy to cradle in your hand and doesn’t get in the way of the reading process. In my experience, it seems to almost disappear when I was immersed in a book. It’s wedge-shaped and much thinner than you’d expect from the photos. Large bars turn the pages without needing to reposition your hands, no matter how you hold it.

The matte-finished screen uses reflective light and has no backlighting. Text is displayed as black on a light gray background, making it easy to read as long as there is sufficient ambient light, just like a book. In my use, the overhead light on a 747 worked well. I was able to read for hours without the strain I normally get from using a backlit display. And it was a pleasure never having to worry about battery life.

The six-inch screen displays graphics in four shades of gray, but it’s best for displaying text. You can enlarge the text, which works great when on a treadmill with the book a foot or two in front of you. The battery lasts for several days and is recharged in about two hours using its small adapter.

The Kindle costs $399. While not inexpensive, that includes unlimited access to the high-speed network and free Internet access. If you read a book or two a month, the cost savings pays for the device in a year or two.

If my experience is typical, you’ll be doing a lot more reading with the Kindle, making those long flight delays a little more bearable and not needing to constantly search for an electric outlet. You can even go on-line and browse in a pinch, although the experience is not as good as with a computer, and it’s not intended to replace a computer.

Amazon’s Kindle should find a welcome audience among frequent travelers like ourselves. Anything that takes our minds away from the increasing pain of flying is welcome, indeed.

By Phil Baker for PeterGreenberg.com

Phil writes a weekly technology column for the San Diego Transcript at www.sddt.com/phil. Read Phil’s blog at https://blog.philipgbaker.com.

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