Un-boxing Pictures of My Kindle 3

Apologies for the Delay, My Kindle 3 Arrived on the 30th of August, and had not got a chance to upload the un-boxing Pictures.

Following are the Pictures, of the Box, and it's accessories, as well as Side By Side Pictures with my Ipad to show you what the new kindle size is. Nimish Dubey also got his Kindle 3 yesterday and has uploaded a Video of the un-boxing, as well as a Side by Side picture of how the Kindle 3 Looks against Kindle 2.

The box with it's tear to open packaging. Amazon has made the packing much better over the years


Yes I tore of the Address Label, I don't want you to know my Address :)



And the Kindle 3. Remember the Display that you see on the Kindle is in the power off state, much like a screen saver, and not a sticker. Though there is a Shiny Plastic on top of it, that I just could not wait to get rid of.


The Kindle Manual, it is a small recycled paper printed manual on how to go ahead and start using the Kindle. The Great part is that the Kindle is already programmed for your account, so if you have books in your account you can download them the minute you get online using Wifi or 3G


Amazon also includes a small USB Charger (No you can't charge any other device with it, as it supplies very minimal current), and a long USB Cable


The Kindle3 with the iPad


The Kindle 3 with the iPad with Screen on


The Kindle3 is much faster than the Kindle2. Though I chose the wifi only model (so as to avoid buying books on the fly all the time) and I think that makes a much nicer deal. The Unit landed me at about Rs. 10,200 in India after paying all the Duties and Taxes and took about 3 Days after Amazon informed me that it is shipped from their Side.

The support for PDF's is much better and you can now easily look at the PDF's. The Browser is a bit faster and nicer, but I will really never want to use the browser on the Kindle to look at the Internet.

I setup my account@kindle.com and also setup a Feedreader / Read it Later Account, that sends the web pages to my Kindle. Though I am primarily using it to read PDF manuals for our devices and other stuff that I need, I have also downloaded and bought a couple of books.

Though by sending a PDF with the Word Convert in the Subject line to your Kindle address converts the text in the PDF for you to be able to read on the Kindle, it does destroy most of the nuances of Text Layouts, hence I will not prefer to use it for PDF's also.

I will still prefer the Kindle more of a Book and Text file reader where there is piles of documents to be read. Since I have the iPad and the Kindle on the same account, I can read part of the documents on the iPad and some of them on the kindle.

I must say the new refresh rate of the e-ink screen is much better, and the screen is more and more like paper now, though you can still tell this is e-ink, but my 4 year old nephew, handed My kindle back to me (a person who does not stay away from gadgets), saying I had given him a Dummy, and not the original device.

Why I still love the kindle

ELECTRONIC notepads and tablet PCs have been here for ages now. But then Kindle came along and changed everything. It let you carry your books wherever you went, without adding to your luggage. It also let you order new books online, without having to go to a store. But then Kindle was not perfect. Many people hated its black and white screen though it was the gadget's best feature, making it easy on the eyes and using up very little of the battery.

Then came the Apple iPad which has a colour screen and lets you do a lot more with the books, especially with those for kids. But, in India, you still have to depend on a friend abroad to get you one, and then the battery does not go on and on like the Kindle.

The market became interesting when Kindle took the fight to Apple by releasing an app for the iPad, which meant you could buy books from the Kindle store and read them on the iPad. And the books were trademark Kindle, all in black and white. There are other apps that let you read magazines and books in colour.

But I still love the Kindle as it seldom runs out of juice and you can read books even under the sun, thanks to the high-contrast screen. The enormous collection of books, newspapers and magazines and the fact that they can be download just about anywhere still make it the best e-reader.

No doubt the iPad can do more thanks to its high-resolution, 9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS display which also lets you play games and read books. The other great thing about iPad is that it also lets me create documents, which you cannot do on Kindle. However, it is not good for reading lengthy books due to the strain the screen can put on your eyes. You can get over this problem by buying a matt-finish screenguard, but reading is still not as fun as the Kindle. Yeah, iPad is cool, but I think I will still stick to the Kindle for now.

--
The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday August 29, 2010

Open Magazine Volume 1 Issue 52

The Open Magazine is 1 Year Old, Yippee. This week in my Open Magazine Gadgets Page:

* Spring Desig's Alex E Book Reader
* Map My India Road Pilot
* The G-Fone (No, Nothing to do with Google)
* And Philipe' Starcks, Lacie Alumnium Hard Disk

To view this article, click here for the PDF or visit Open Magazine Website to view the high resolution e-mag page.

--
The Above article appeared in the Open Magazine , Volume 01, Issue 52, Dated 2 April 2010

The ebook challenger - Preview of the Nook (B&N Ebook Reader)

Both Nook and Kindle have 2GB built-in memories, but in the former you can plug in an SD Card with ebooks in it
Kindle changed the way the world looks at books some years back. Since the launch of its international edition earlier this year, I have noticed a lot of Kindle in India, especially at our airports. Though the Sony Reader and iLiad have been around longer, getting ebooks that work on them have been a bit of a pain. Amazon answered the problem by integrating Kindle with their Whispernet network, which is now available in India. But since the charges are yet unclear and 3G still looks like a distant dream, the Barnes & Nobles Nook makes more sense for us.

So, what sets it apart from the Kindle?
Personally, I love anything with a QWERTY keyboard, so the first downer on the Nook was the absence of one. But that was till I looked closely and saw that the Nook actually has two LCDs — a touch sensitive colour LCD at the bottom and a monochrome e-ink display on top. The e-ink makes it easier to read the ebook and reduces strain on the eyes, while the 3.5” touchscreen display at the bottom adds some serious style. You can flip through the book covers in colour and go to the keyboard mode to search for a book or text.

But the second LCD also adds weight to the Nook, making it about 28 gm heavier, at 317 gm, than the same-sized Kindle. It is also a bit thicker due to the SD Card and built-in wireless adapter. Though the Kindle has a 9.7” variant for the American market, the Nook is available only with the 6” display. The built-in Wi-Fi makes it easier for you to download books on the Nook and this makes more sense till we get 3G in India.

Nook has some other unique features. It has Android as its Operating System, which means users will be able to add more applications down the road. Both Nook and Kindle have 2GB built-in memories, but in the former you can plug in an SD Card with ebooks in it.

The Nook is available in four replaceable back colours, unlike the all-white Kindle. My personal experience with white coloured gadgets is that they get dirty very fast, especially in India with our oily hands, the dust and grime. The replaceable covers let you add an identity of your own to the Nook. It also comes with a free software for your iPhone, Blackberry, PC and the Mac OS, thus letting you read the same book from the same page you left it at on any of these devices.

The problem with ebook readers was that you could buy books but could not lend them to a friend. The Nook lets you e-lend the book to a friend who can read it on any device.

Kindle supports Word documents, though not many people used it due to the costs involved, but it is surprising that even with the SD Card Nook has disabled this function. The lack of a text-to-speech (TTS) engine is also surprising, after all, the Android adds great processing capabilities and the TTS would taken the Nook to a larger audience. The company claims the Nook has about 10 days of battery time on it, but that will have to be verified.

The Nook ships with a number of accessories, including a reading light, covers that help you personalise your Nook, a travel adapter kit, device backs and protective frames and a matt film for the screen.
So, if you like reading, it’s time you went and checked out an ebook reader, and trust me it will change the way you looked at books. The Nook costs $299.

--
The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 6th December 2009