WheelMan Press Reviews

The Godzilla of Kindles tries to conquer the Ereader world

Kindle DX: Amazon's 9.7" Wireless Reading Device - $489.00

I've been a very happy 1st-generation Kindle (referred to henceforth in this review as the K1), since last April, and as a disabled person who's always loved to read but for various reasons (including the physical difficulties in handling an actual book), the device reintroduced the reading experienced and substantially changed my world. When the 2nd-generation Kindle (referred to henceforth as the K2) came on the scene, I didn't feel overly compelled to upgrade to the new version because there was not a significant advantage, in my view, to do so. But when the Kindle Dx was announced with it's larger screen and specifically the native PDF support, which as one who had converted many software manual PDFs for reading on the K1 with passable but not great results, I couldn't resist taking the plunge and upgrading. I've now been using the Kindle DX (referred to henceforth as the KDX), since Thursday (this review is being typed on Sunday), so here is my first impressions review.

The first thing I noticed about the KDX is that it could as easily be called the Kindle Jumbo, or The Kindlenormous, because compared to my K1 (as stated above, I never owned a K2) it's huge! I've seen several people comment on the difference in size, and one might get the impression from various comments (including my own above) that the device requires a forklift to pick up and a warehouse to house. The truth is that the KDX is only big in relation to the prior Kindles. In fact, if this had been the size of the first Kindle, I think everyone would have felt it was the perfect size. As for the increased weight over its smaller brethren, if I personally had to manually hold it, for me with my disability, it would be a real problem. It's not really the weight itself, but due to the center of gravity being more spread out as opposed to the more compact K1 and K2. Basically, if you hold the device vertically near the bottom, it becomes top heavy. Because of this, I don't know if I'd consider the KDX the best choice for the casual reader, especially one who hasn't owned a Kindle before. Sort of like buying a full-sized Hummer for the little old lady from Pasadena who just wants to run to the grocery store twice a week. Doesn't mean a Hummer isn't great in itself, but it would be just a bit of overkill for the proverbial old lady's needs.

As for the KDX itself (and keep in mind that I've never owned or touched a K2, so some of the things that impressed me might be applicable to the K2 as well), it is truly amazing. My own feeling is that this design greatly improves upon what was begun with the K1. In fact I'd go so far as to say that the K1 seems more like a production or Beta model...a great Beta model, but a Beta model nonetheless. The KDX feels more sturdy (and I think this due more to the case construction than the overall weight), and as I said, more polished than the K1. I like the 5-way controller (introduced with the K2) much more than the K1's scroll wheel. While I used the scroll wheel without any qualms whatsoever, it always felt a bit kludgy, as if it was a bit "low tech-ish" for such an advanced product.

The K1 display is great, and if images are done well, they can be quite beautiful. However, if images are done right for the KDX, they are mind blowing in comparison. The K1 always has looked great to me considering it's limited abilities, but the KDX shows just what eInk technology is capable of. Seeing this screen now has me excited for the first time about the prospect of a color eInk screen one day, because if they can do this with 16-shade grayscale now, imagine what we're in store for in a few years. I checked how a couple of my own books' covers looked on the KDX, and they looked great even at the larger size. The KDX screen is also more elongated than it's little brothers', so you get more text per screen not just because of the larger size, but because of proportionally having more screen real estate to work with. Text is sharp and the interface differences from the K1 are also pleasurably improved. Again, I would use the expression "more polished" to describe the difference. Some of that is due to the improved screen resolution, I'm sure.

The KDX's responsiveness is better overall, although that's a relative thing since a large PDF or a page laden with images will take longer to display than a plain text page, regardless of which Kindle you own. I do notice that when one scrolls the cursor with the 5-way controller, that it flies down the page. Not sure if the K1 could have done that it if had used the same controller, so I think the screen refresh rate is improved on the KDX (again, this may be true for the K2 as well).

I don't subscribe to any newspapers currently, but blogs look great on the KDX. On my K1, if you viewed the article list in a blog, you'd get a simple list of article titles. On the KDX, you get titles, a summary or first line from the article, and divider lines separating each listed article. Not to sound repetitive (although clearly I am guilty of just that), but "more polished is again the way I'd describe this difference.

I also own several Kindle books that are now listed as "DX optimized" (most of them being software reference books). These books look as if their layouts are very close to, if not identical to, their printed counterparts. One thing I've noticed, and I'll use one of the books I own, [[ASIN:B001VCD7VU How to Do Everything: Adobe Illustrator CS4]], as an example. My guess is that the images contained in the book are in color in the printed book, and were directly scanned into ebook format "as is." This becomes problematic because of the grayscale display, which shows these images as various shades of gray, often with little contrast between the different shades. The biggest problem, however, is that the gray in the images do not contrast well to the gray background of the screen. The gray screen provides plenty of contrast for text on the KDX, but for images with a lot of gray shades in them, the lack of contrast makes the images look washed out. I would therefore strongly urge Amazon to take the "DX optimized" designation even further and make sure that the images in these books are also optimized for the grayscale display, because they do the KDX fabulous display capabilities justice.

The PDFs I have loaded onto my KDX look wonderful as well. Most of my PDFs are Adobe software manual, and therefore they are true PDFs (not all PDFs are the same, or true PDFs) with lots of imagery, and they seem to display almost flawlessly in their native format. So the it appears that the promise and the biggest reason I once again invested a significant amount of money with Amazon has proven to be well worth it.

A personal note about the Kindle DX's size. The KDX is too big for my Kindle stand from Octo, so I have to prop up against other stuff on my bed, Which is fine, and actually works well for this Godzilla of Kindles. However, when I want to charge the KDX while I read (which I generally do nightly), I have to turn it upside down because the charging plug is on the bottom of the device, and so can't be "stood up" on that end while charging. So for me, the screen flipping technology is a godsend, although oddly enough, neither the screen savers nor the Kindle store will flip. Probably because neither could display properly in horizontal mode. Still, it's annoying to be using the Kindle in one orientation but then be forced to reorient the device if I want to dash off to the Kindle Store briefly. While certainly a minor thing, I'd really like to see Amazon enable the screen flipping technology to work with the Kindle Store as well.

Overall, I already love my DX. While I'll always love my K1 as well, I just don't have the need for both, so I'm glad the K1 will have a happy new home with my sister. The KDX is an excellent addition to the Kindle family, while it was promoted as a device targeted to students and others with specific large-format document needs, the KDX could have easily been the first Kindle released, and I believe that it would have been equally successful even at the larger size.

If you're thinking of buying a Kindle DX, or are especially debating between a K2 or KDX, I'd recommend you really assess your needs and uses for your Kindle, and use those to help make your decision. The KDX itself is amazing and expands on the promise and functionality of the original Kindles. But some may buy the KDX and then criticize it, not because of the device's failings (of which I have seen none yet), but because they perhaps would have been better served by a smaller Kindle instead.

So while I say any potential Kindle buyer should choose wisely depending upon their needs, the Kindle DX is in itself an outstanding product that will only help to solidify the Kindle brand as the standard by which all other ereaders will be compared.

Where I gave the 1st-generation Kindle 5 stars, based upon how the Kindle DX has improved upon the design and functionality, I'd give the KDX 10 stars if I could.

Pimping out my Kindle

Genuine Leather Executive Case for Amazon Kindle, Brown from M-Edge - $54.99

The sad but honest truth is that I didn't have to buy this cover. My Amazon Kindle won't be traveling often, is mostly positioned on my bed in its Kindle Reader Stand in Sleep Mode waiting for me to return so that we can spend more quality time together. I had my Kindle in its case, and it was wedged pretty firmly despite the problems some have reported with getting the Kindle to fit into it securely. I could have gone months or years probably without spending $55.00 on the brown Leather case from M-Edge.

But the stock case from Amazon just felt cheap in comparison to the $400 investment I made into a device which has greatly enhanced my life in the almost two weeks I've owned it. The Amazon cover seemed as if it would wear quickly, even with limited use, and I just didn't like the gray interior which seemed like the kind of material that would, in time, dry rot or in some other way deteriorate. So finally I just gave in to temptation and purchased this cover, and I am extremely happy I did.

The cover is indeed a nice soft leather with a deep, warm brown which I thought would be more interesting than just the plain black. The suede interior is a soft, grayish chocolate I'd say, although there is probably another color that is a better description than that. But it's nice and soft and has interior pockets on the left hand side, great for the executive needing to carry business cards or other small papers or notes with him. There's also a loop to hold a pen in the "spine" area of the cover, although personally, I'd be a bit fearful of putting a pen in the same case with the Kindle unless you were sure the pen won't ever leak or be left with the point exposed.

The corner holders are great. In my case, I had trouble getting the upper left corner hooked after inserting the two bottom corners (and the same for the bottom right corner when I first inserted the two left hand side corners). I'm sure I could have gotten assistance (being disabled) and someone else could have done it more easily, but I also decided that rather than trying to take the elastic band in the upper right corner off any time I needed to access the power and wireless buttons on the back, that leaving the two bottom and one upper right corners hooked holds the Kindle securely while allowing me to slip my finger behind it to reach the switches. These things may not matter to you, but for those who such conveniences might be useful, this approach does seem to work.

While this cover is in general an improvement functionally over the stock Kindle cover, because of the price of this cover, I think you should also take into consideration whether you also have a desire to purchase this simply because of the fashion improvement as well. While I could have made out fine with the original cover, the compulsion to "pimp out" my Kindle was the deciding factor in my purchasing decision, and I'm happy with that choice.

If the stock cover just isn't working for you, either functionally or stylistically, then the M-Edge Leather Cover is my personal recommendation. If not, then you might want to save the $55.00 until a cheaper option comes along, or use it to buy more Kindle books instead.

The perfect accessory for Amazon Kindle owners

Mighty Bright XtraFlex2 Light by Mighty Bright - $17.99.

One of the downsides, such as it is, about the Amazon Kindle and any other device using the revolutionary eInk display is that, just like a paper page, you need external light to read it. By far I think that a non-lighted display is a great thing as it seems far less tiring to my eyes, but it also means that one must have decent lighting in order to read the screen comfortably. This is even more important since, for some, the contrast of black text on a gray background is hard to get used to.

That's where having an accessory like the Mighty Bright XtraFlex2 Light becomes really important. The light is by far the best reading light I personally have seen, with it's long flexible neck which makes finding just the right position a breeze. The wide mouth clip is strong but not overly tight, making it easy enough for me with my limited strength and manual dexterity able to open it, but also leaving more than strong enough to attach firmly to any surface. In my case, I place my Kindle in the Kindle Reader Stand by OCTOVO, so I attach the Mighty Bright to the back of the stand.

I love that the lights are LED. A previous reading light I've owned had a small traditional light, and it got hot very quickly. Being disabled and therefore normally using the light on a bed, trying to stand it next to my book (as it had no clip on mechanism) always left me worried about it falling over and burning me, or my inadvertently touching the exposed bulb. Not a problem with the Mighty Bright LEDs, which always stay cool to the touch. Also the ability to use either one or both of the twin LEDs is very useful, as one can (presumably) cut down on battery drainage when the brighter setting is unnecessary.

As for glare on the Kindle screen, a problem other reviewers have mentioned, it is a minor annoyance, but I found the simplest solution is to position the light so that it extends around or just below the Kindle's upper corners to rest off to the side of the screen, with the light itself angled more directly toward the Kindle itself, or perhaps aimed toward a point just to the side of the screen. That seems to keep enough light on the screen to read while keeping the reflection of the bulb off the screen itself. But I am lying down on my bed with the Kindle in its stand beside me more on eye level. Your experiences may vary as you will likely be viewing from a different position.

I can't speak to battery life as of yet as this is an early, first impressions review, after having owned and used the light for a few hours as I write this. But the Mighty Bright looks and feels solid and well made, and with that and its usefulness to me in helping me to further enjoy my Kindle experience, I'd say it's well worth the somewhat high price of $17.99.

Even if this isn't a product you will use every day, for anyone who wants to have the full range of "must have" accessories, you should put the Mighty Bright at the top of your list.

Simple but effective design

Kindle Reader Stand by OCTOVO - $24.95

In one sense, I can't argue with the reviewer who said that the Kindle Reader Stand from OCTOVO is overpriced. I think $14.95, or even $9.95 would be a far more reasonable price point for what the product actually does. After all, one could prop a Kindle up against a pillow, a box, a stack of books, or just about anything that you have handy, or for most, just hold it in your hands.

Having said that, the device is a lot more than "just two pieces of metal stuck together." First, the design is very much tailored to the needs of the Kindle, with a cutout in the back piece to make access to the power buttons easy, and the slot running along the baseplate to make it easy to use the stand while the Kindle is on charge. The metal is solid, with a rubberized painted surface so you don't have to worry about the lightweight Kindle sliding around, and the stand is just heavy enough to feel stable wherever you place it on a table, desk, etc. It won't easily slide around on you while you press buttons on the Kindle. The back piece slides perfectly into a slot on the base, and I found that in my case, I needed the stand to tilt forward more, so I inserted the back piece backwards, which leans the Kindle forward more. When I do this, the strip along the bottom of the back piece blocks most of the slot for the power cord, but I worked around that problem by not inserting the back piece all the way, leaving it offset some to the right while positioning the Kindle so that it hangs off to the left. A bit kludgey, but it works well overall.

I think this product is one of those things where you must decide how useful the product will be to you. If you can make do without it, and purchasing it is merely a luxury or bonus for you, you might do well to save your money for an extra Kindle book or two instead. But as a disabled man, the stand has already proved to be an important aid in my use of the Kindle, and I've only had it one day. Besides, this product, while simple in design, is a lot more functional and well thought out than something whipped up in middle school shop class. For the convenience it provides me, it's worth every penny.

If this cost less, I would give it five stars and highly recommend every Kindle owner buy it. As is, I suggest you determine just how useful the product will be to you, and then make the choice whether it's worth the current $24.95 price tag for your personal needs.

If you do need a stand for your Kindle, however, I don't think you'll find one better than this.

A first impressions review

Kindle: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device - $359.00

I just got my Kindle yesterday, and spent all last evening reading and playing with. Here are my initial thoughts and experiences, which might be helpful for those still considering whether or not to buy this hot new toy.

First and foremost, the Kindle comes in a simple but elegant white box designed to look like a nice, thick book, with an elastic latch to keep it closed. The box has random black letters sprinkled all over it, sort of like a cute alphabet rain. In fact one has to look carefully just to see what it is, since the word "Kindle" is modestly placed. Upon opening the box in a book-like manner, you find the Kindle nicely displayed in a window on the right hand side. The two sides of the box open from the top, and each holds some sort of paper/foam like tray. The right hand tray has the Kindle on top and the cover underneath, while the right hand side holds all the cables and such.

Upon taking out the Kindle you immediately notice just how light it is. For the size, about that of a trade paperback in width and height, it really seems almost of little substance comparatively speaking, and it's probably not much thicker than an iPod. The plastic housing is very nice, perhaps a slightly off-white coloring. Although the Kindle is seems to be sturdy, when you look at it and feel it in your hands, it really feels fragile. I have noticed that the alignment of the buttons along the left and right edges, where the Previous, Next, and Back buttons resides, is very slightly off, rather than being flush even with one another, and that also adds slightly to the impression that the device might not be sturdy. Upon further inspection and use, you realize that it is indeed sturdy, but for those who might open their Kindle for the first time, I thought it worthwhile to point out this so you won't grow afraid that you might break your Kindle if you sneeze on it or anything.

After plugging in the Kindle to charge it, and turning it on for the first time, the Kindle User's Guide opened automatically, and against my general policy to "play first, read the manual later after I've screwed something up," I found myself somehow enthralled by the reading experience, and I probably read the first two to three chapters at least straight through as if I was reading the latest Stephen King thriller. Having spent the last few weeks addicted to the Kindle forums on Amazon, I was anxious to partake in the reading experience on the Kindle, and I have to admit it didn't disappoint. At one point I clicked to go to "Home" to see if my Kindle books had been downloaded from Amazon, and nothing but the User Guide was listed. I went back to the User Manual for a couple of minutes and then checked again, and then the entire library was listed. Not sure if that was a brief glitch or it just took that long to download my books (there were about 9 of them), but I suspect it was the latter.

The interface takes a bit of getting used, especially in the world of mice and touchpads (which I use in place of a mouse). The Select wheel works well once you have grown accustomed to it, but at first I found a bit hard to control. With my disability, it's not as easy to properly grip the Kindle to click the selected items, but like most things, once I worked out the best way to do it, it got easier. And turning the wheel was a bit of an adjustment too because I found it hard to apply enough force to move the wheel without over-scrolling, which again, is a problem specific to me because of my own limitations on manual dexterity. But after using it for a while, these problems became less and less of an issue. Once you get used to the Kindle interface, just like any other operating system or interface you've ever used, it becomes easy to get around. The cursor is always set to the home position, which means that simply clicking it will bring up the menu to navigate around the Kindle and access its other features. Another great thing about the Kindle's interface is that it always remembers where you left off in reading a book. It has bookmarking features as well, but I found being able to stop, go off and play elsewhere, then returning to the exactly where I left off, to be extremely convenient. After finishing the User's Manual, I switched to the book "Physics of the Impossible..." by Dr.Michio Kaku, a book I had already started reading in print form, but decided to complete on the Kindle. My reading experience was not dimminished, and in fact, was enhanced because the Kindle is easier for me to manipulate than the bulky printed book.

As many have commented, the screen is an ash gray, darker than it looks in many of the photos. But if you read for a few minutes in good like (the same level of light one would need for a printed book), you soon realize that the letters are crisp and dark and are well contrasted to the screen, making the book easy to read. I don't know if its precisely comparable to reading a printed book, but it's far superior to reading long passages of text on an LCD or CRT screen. Your eyes do not grow tired, depending upon what size lettering you choose, the words are easier to see than on a standard paperback book, especially a mass market paperback, of which my poor, aging eyes now find a much less pleasant experience than it used to be.

When I made the choice to purchase the Kindle, I readily accepted the fact that it had a low resolution display, and being a graphic designer (as well as a writer), I was prepared to accept the limitations that would mean. But frankly, the display is far crisper and detailed than I expected, and it seems to me that the lack of color and the screen's overall size is more limiting to the graphic capabilities than its resolution. It really is an impressive thing to behold.

As I've said, this is a first impressions review, so I have not tried everything yet. I have not shopped for books through the Kindle yet (I've spent enough in purchases prior to receiving my Kindle as is), but I am looking forward to the convenience. I've only tried a couple of the links under Experimental web browser so far, but the web page display is the same as that one might see on a cellphone, more text based. I'm sure it will be hard to browse more complex web pages on it, and while I can think of some instances where it would be convenient for me to use the Kindle as a web device, I much prefer it to be an e-reader first and foremost, because it does that particular function oh so well. There have been several e-readers over the last few years, but the Kindle is the first one that even remotely piqued my interest, let alone inspired me to buy one. As an independent author and publisher, the Kindle excites me as a great new platform through which to share my works. But as a reader, I'm already anxious to complete this review so I can go and read some more. In fact, for the first time in a long, long time, I'm thinking more about having to take time out from reading to watch certain television shows tonight, rather than the other way around.

So, having owned my Kindle for all of one day, my first impressions of it is that it has in no way disappointed me so far. I once posed the question if the Kindle had "re-Kindled" people's love for reading. I think I now understand why the Kindle is exciting so many people. It's not that it's rekindled the love for reading, but it's the first device to come along that enhances the reading experience, something that no other device has successfully done before. With all of the available features along with an extensive bookstore right at your fingertips, nothing before has come along to make reading such an easy and interactive experience. As author Neil Gaiman says in his video on the Kindle page, this isn't a just a reader, it's a library. And one other thing that strikes me about the Kindle is that it's not only a device which I think will be a major boon in time for disabled people, but it also provides a much improved reading experience for the average "able-bodied" reader. Some things I'd like to see are sticky keys to make key combinations easier, if it had a touch screen or stylus device to perform tasks like highlighting text, navigating the menus, etc., that would greatly enhance the experience. And when the color Kindle eventually comes along, assuming the price point is conducive to enticing users to upgrade, the already hot Kindle could be near incendiary.

I see a lot of growth potential for the Kindle over time, as it's certainly not perfect. What I do think it is a well-engineered, well designed product that was built with the needs and wants of the reader in mind. And quite frankly, I think overall Amazon got it just right. This isn't the ultimately e-reading device, but it is the first generation of what I suspect will be one day.

Until the perfect e-reader comes along, I look forward to having much fun with what seems to me the next best thing. And anyone who decides to take the leap to Kindle probably will be as happy they did as I am.