I have been using my Kindle for over a week now. I am extremely pleased with it.

Lately though, I have been annoyed by some of the reasons people here give it a negative review.

By both owners and non-owners.

I would like to offer my views on some of the most common negative points

you will see on the reviews.

1.The lack of back lighting:

The Kindle is designed to be a replacement/alternative to paper books.

My paper books don't have back lights. Why should the Kindle?

I read in bed just like I do with normal books....with a book light or a lamp.

Also back lighting would drain the battery faster and most importantly.....Strain My Eyes!

I don't want to read anything that will make me physically uncomfortable after 10-15 minuets.

2.The battery only lasts a day or two.

Turn off the wireless. It's easy. It's next to the On/Off switch.

Use it only when you need to.

You will get about a week on a charge.

3.It's expensive. You may as well just purchase a cheap laptop.

Then you can read ebooks and do thousands of other things:

Even though a laptop is portable and a nice to have machine, it doesn't come close to the portability of the Kindle.

The battery doesn't last half a day. Plus back lighting. (See #1).

I don't want a Kindle to help me with my taxes, edit video, or play games.

I want a Kindle to display books, lots of them.

It accomplishes this VERY well.

4.MP3's only playback in shuffle mode.

Go buy an iPod,Zune,Creative Zen or any of the other hundreds of mobile players.

Once again, I want an eBook device to show me books.

5.Just go buy a PDA. You can read books on those.

Yes one could but you have to put up with tiny screens, eye strain, and poorer battery performance.

6.Sony's Reader is cheaper.

And Sony's online book store is as expensive as the hardcover edition and way less selection than the Kindle bookstore.

20,000 vs. 90,000 hmmmm...

Plus the Sony Reader doesn't have anything like Whispernet.

7.No PDF support is a deal breaker!

The Kindle does have experimental PDF support.

Amazon is working on full support.

Just Relax.

8.Kindle books are locked down with DRM.

No Kidding. Do you honestly think right now It wouldn't be?

With the MPAA and RIAA suing companies and private citizens left and right, causing the defendants costly legal fees, Amazon must take steps to protect themselves.Do you think the publishers and authors would allow Amazon to sell their electronic versions of works without copy restriction? I don't like it either but I understand it.

I'll deal with DRM in some capacity until somebody comes up with a solution that's good for both sides.

In conclusion I love this thing. It does what I expect an ebook reader to do and it does it well.

Kindle books are more affordable than hardcovers and most paperbacks. I can buy books without a computer. It's possible to read a few chapters before buying books is great. The portability of it is fantastic and the store has an amazing selection.

After having read through hundreds of these reviews, I find a common thread regarding some of the shortcomings of the Kindle. It's repeatedly mentioned that it's difficult to hold the Kindle without clicking on the navigation buttons.

Sure. For about 5 minutes. Until you read the manual.

It's mentioned that the cover that comes with the device is flimsy, and that the Kindle falls out all the time.

Sure. Until you read the manual.

It's pretty clear from reading the instructions: The Kindle was designed to be read while in the cover. If you do that, you'll find it much easier to have your hands in natural positions that tend to not result in excessive clicking about. Oh, yeah, after you read a bit, you tend to wind up having the thumb that may periodically rest on the "next page button", find a natural resting place on the groove through with the silver selector travels. But put the Kindle in it's cover. And if you read the manual, you can see there is a small clip that is designed to slip into the groove in the back of the Kindle to hold it in place. Just push the device solidly into the cover until the clip is in that groove. If the Kindle is falling out, you haven't set it into the cover properly.

As many others here have indicated, it's not difficult to put the Kindle into sleep mode prior to closing the cover. Get into the habit.

Really...the angst about a couple of things that are really easy to fix through habit and reading the instructions. It's ironic that so many don't read the instructions about this reading device.

I really appreciate the device and don't have issues around handling it. I read all the small print before ordering. I don't have any problem with the fact that this is not a PDA or PC. I also don't have issue with the possibility of losing the free "right" to surf using the experimental browser if the expense becomes too much for Amazon. It's about obtaining content and reading. And that, folks, is what the Kindle accomplishes most successfully.

Highly recommended.

I spent about a 5 days with Kindle. Here is the real truth about how it is.

As for the wireless it is very good at least in the New York City area. I have been using the amazon web site to select content and then have it delivered to Kindle.

As for free content, Project Gutenberg has a large number of classic titles, including Dickens a Christmas Carol. I saved the html format and had Amazon send it wirelessly to Kindle for $0.10 (less than a phone call).

Overall, the content is easy to load and from what I have seen at least for newer books they are available on Amazon.

The Wall Street Journal Kindle eddition is very good.

The big point is readability. Page turns are reasonably quick however, the screen does flicker as it turns pages. Not for a long period as some have claimed and certainly not for 2 seconds.

The text is wonderful. For those of us with older eyes (40+ years), being able to make the text larger is wonderful. I have set the screen to level 4 and it is very readable without glasses.

Overall a wonderful product akin to the 1st generation iPod which was revolutionary.

WHO SHOULD BUY:

Should Buy

You should order a Kindle if you (i) read multiple books at the same time, (ii) travel a lot and want to receive WSJ or NYT every day wirelessly, or (iii) enjoy classics available on Gutenberg.

Should Not Buy

You should not buy a Kindle if you (i) enjoy borrowing library books, (ii) read a single book at a given point in time, (iii) find an iPod complicated and unnecessary (Kindle is a life made better through technology type product and those that dislike technology will not like Kindle).

Overall, for most people, once they get through the purchase price, I do not believe most readers will return to print books. The real market which is not available yet, but which Kindle is a natural product for is the text book market where high school and college students carry 10s of pounds of books daily. If a student (I am thinking of my children not me -- see prior comments re: the condition of my eye sight) could carry every text book on a device that weighs less than a pound and each text was searchable, it could revolutionize the manner in which text books are used and purchased.

GREAT EFFORT AMAZON. WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO USING KINDLE AND SEEING WHAT COMES NEXT.

I received my Kindle three days ago. Before I go on, let me say that I love it and already prefer it to a mass market paperback or hardback book. In terms of comfort, I'd give it about the same rating as a trade paperback, but after using the Kindle, I'd choose it over all three.

Other reviewers have given you an accurate account of how it feels to use the Kindle and the reaction of actual users has generally been very favorable. Rather than duplicate what they've said, I'd like to talk about my initial experiences with it.

The first hour or so, the Kindle felt incredibly awkward. I couldn't touch it without pressing a button somewhere. Step one, and the hardest step of all, was learning how to hold it. The next challenge was learning how to navigate the menus. They're straightforward and easy to understand, but even though I'm an experienced computer user, I still got lost at one point. I was in the content manager, which looks a lot like the home page. I could see all my books listed but none of them would open. I had downloaded and read the manual while I was waiting for the reader to arrive. I couldn't figure out how to get back home so I opened the manual on my computer and a quick glance let me figure out where I was and how to get where I wanted to go. For the record, there's a home button on the Kindle keyboard to the left of the SYM key and it takes you right back to the list of books on the reader.

The next challenge was wireless service. We have Sprint in my area, but I quickly found the reception isn't very good. I had pre-ordered several books and some of them were on the Kindle when it arrived. I waited for the rest to download, but couldn't get a wireless signal stronger than 1 or 2 bars and it seems to take about 3 bars to receive downloads or visit the Kindle store in anything approaching a useable manner. I finally decided to leave the Kindle on and see what happened overnight. The signal must have been strong enough at times, because all my books and the welcoming letter from Jeff Bezos were there in the morning. I'm downloading books to my computer now. It only takes an extra minute (literally) to transfer them over the the Kindle, so that's more than acceptable.

I only had a few hours to use the Kindle the next day. I was still searching for a comfortable way to hold it and so conscious of the device that I had trouble getting lost in the story. But there were moments I did and I could see that it was only a matter of time until I adjusted to the newness and forgot about the device. By the third day, I'd done that. Reading on the Kindle is a great experience and I can't wait to get back to it when I have to go away and do other things.

The huge plus is the quality of the display. The text is so close to that of books, I can't tell the difference. What's more, it looks just as good in full sunlight as it does indoors. I think the gray background is just right outside, but a little dark inside. On the other hand, it may be easier on the eyes than a lighter one -- I can't tell that without seeing the difference. I'm willing to bet Amazon spent a lot of time testing this and I trust they chose the gray level they thought gave the best reading experience.

A little about ergonomics. The Kindle is heavier than I expected. It weighs noticeably more than a mass market paperback, but it's also noticeably lighter than a hardback. It comes closest to a trade paperback in terms of weight and size. The keys on the keyboard are tiny, but useable. Some people have written about the delay before letters show up on the screen. I just watch they keys and by the time I look up, the word is there.

A few other notes:

Searching all the books on the Kindlle is fast; it only takes a few seconds to find two words of text in approximately 40 books, some quite long.

The choice of font sizes is great. The default was the third setting and that's the one I ended up using. I compared the Kindle version to a paperback copy of the same book. At the third setting, the Kindle had the same number of words per line, but only 16 lines on the screen versus 32 in the printed book. The words per line went up or down by 1 or 2 for each change in font size, and the number of lines on the screen ranged from 26 at the smallest size to 11 at the smallest. 16 lines per screen is fine and it doesn't feel like I have to page forward too often.

The Kindle is secure in the cover, but it did help to lift the plastic tab on the back cover slightly (and carefully). I think the tab was meant to catch in the recess on the back of the reader and secure it, but am not sure.

For those who think the Kindle is ugly, it's much better in person. I believe the pictures don't do it justice because the right side of the book slopes out and down. If it dropped off sharply like the left side does, it would look more symmetrical. There's a good reason for that design and you'll understand it as soon as you hold the reader. As for style, compare an older Apple product to a newer one. Their looks change radically and what seemed so modern and fashionable a few years looks totally out of date now. Fashion comes and goes; uncluttered, classic design still looks good years later.

Finally, how do you hold your Kindle? If Amazon advertised, that's the commercial I'd tell them to make. There are lots of ways. One of the most comfortable is to place my thumbs on either side of the amazonkindle logo and let the book fall back against my open hands. The other is to hold it between my hands about halfway up. When I do that, my left thumb rests on the book cover and lies along the side of the reader, while my right thumb rests naturally on the page forward button. Now I've learned how much pressure it takes to activate the key, I don't have any trouble pressing it accidentally.

After some of the negative comments, you might wonder why I'm so happy with my Kindle. The reason is simple: it does exactly what I wanted it to do. It lets me comfortably read lots of book at a lower cost. It will pay for itself in 1-2 years. I don't have the space to keep all the books I buy, so it doesn't matter if Amazon stops supporting the product someday. I will still have read the books and that's what counts.

"A mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be lighted."

-- Plutarch

Our deepest and most ingrained habits are the ones we don't realize we have. We put our clothes on a certain way; we brush our teeth a certain way; we walk the same route on our evening strolls; we arrange our water glass and plate and silverware just so. And it's all unconscious, almost at the level of reflex. And if we consciously try to break out of those patterns for whatever reason, the brain responds with alarm: this feels *wrong*.

People who love to read tend to form this attachment early and carry it on through their lives. They also tend to form reading habits which become every bit as deep and ingrained as the ones mentioned previously, and feel the same discomfort -- even alarm -- when something comes along to disrupt those habits. For example: I am a "clean book" sort of person. I treat my books with care, even if they're paperbacks I bought for a dollar at a garage sale. I don't allow my books to be marked up, I never dog-ear pages (that's why bookmarks were invented!), and few things irritate me more than people who mistreat a loaned volume by cracking the spine to get it to lie flat, or bend the cover and pages over so the book can be held with one hand. And yet I know people who are enthusiastic annotators and highlighters of books, cramming the margins with notes and comments; people who consume books as a glutton consumes meals, nearly destroying their book in their pursuit of what lies inside. But what strikes me about both types of readers is that these habits revolve around the book as an object rather than the information the book contains. Many of the habits are built around the advantages and limitations of the book: the form factor, the weight of the thing, the sensory appreciation of the book as a work of art quite apart from the information it contains.

But these habits extend even to the act of reading itself. I am one of those people who have several books going at one time: fiction, non-fiction, and a bit of poetry for leavening. My tastes are eclectic, ranging both wide and deep, and have grown more esoteric as I get older (sometimes to the point that I have trouble even *finding* the books I wish to read, since they have often been long out of print and may have been very obscure to begin with). But other readers are perhaps more interested in reading only within certain forms or genres; they may prefer to read as one might chop wood -- just keep chopping until the entire cord is split and lies neatly stacked by the shed; then start on the next cord. Some read only bestsellers; some focus on biographies or cookbooks or physics books or humor. In time these preferences can sometimes deepen to a kind of spiritual *need*; a reader without available books is a sorry creature indeed.

The Amazon Kindle promises to disrupt (or abolish) many of these habits, and is likely to produce a rather profound sense of dislocation in many book-lovers of whatever habit-driven bent. For one, it asks a reader to give up the *sine qua non* of reading: the document in the hands. Whether it be a book, a magazine, a pamphlet, or a scroll of parchment; Amazon wishes the Kindle to be the window through which you perceive the world the writer intended you to see. So the Kindle must be judged in the same way a book is judged -- not only by what it *is*, but how well it transmits the information it *contains*.

THE THING ITSELF

The Kindle's core audience is that of (well heeled) avid readers who are heavy users of the Amazon service.

The unit itself is about the size of a trade-paperback book, and uses the E-Ink screen technology which provides excellent text display and battery life at the expense of refresh-speed and (at present) color. That said, the screen is very crisp and clear (much more so than a regular backlit LCD screen). Screen captures and videos don't do it justice; you have to see it in person. It is very easy on the eyes and does compare very well to text on the printed page. It also has a feature that should be a boon to older readers or those with eyesight problems: you can dynamically change the font size from small to quite large. This means that many readers will now have access to many books than they might have previously since many books are never made available in large-print versions. The quality-of-life implications here are huge, and should be emphasized -- this device has the potential to dramatically improve the lives of many people.

The Kindle is very much a version 1.0 device. It suffers from usability flaws in both hardware and software. In particular, the large paging buttons on the unit's sides are badly-placed -- it's almost impossible to handle the device without accidently turning pages in the document you're reading. The keyboard, while adequate, takes up too much real-estate; future versions should feature a slide-out keyboard such as that found on many cellphones. The fit and finish of the unit seems a bit rough as well, although it does not feel flimsy. Only prolonged use will determine if the unit will stand up to my reading habits. The software environment is pretty well-done on the whole, but I would have liked to see better grouping/categorizing of books; if you keep hundreds of books on this device, it's more difficult than it should be to find the one you're looking for (especially if you can't quite remember the title).

I liked the scrollwheel and small LED display. It provided a fairly intuitive and easy-to-use way to navigate the device while at the same time being unobtrusive. In contrast to many other gadgets, this one should be easy to learn even for the most technophobic of people. If you can use a cell phone, you can use the Kindle.

The use of EVDO rather than WiFi was a very intelligent decision. The problem with WiFi is that it doesn't have very wide coverage inside the US as yet, and often can present technical problems due to the competing security standards. EVDO is far more widely available, and is plenty fast for the Kindle's purposes. It's also "free", which means that there is no monthly charge for wireless service. (However, I suspect that the costs for EVDO access are simply built into the cost of each Kindle, which accounts for the somewhat high price.) But Amazon offers more than just access to their own store via the wireless link: you can also access Wikipedia, and there is an experimental web-browser included that does just fine for text-heavy sites. I had had no problems using EVDO, and Amazon is telling the truth when they say that a new book can be bought and downloaded in under a minute. I also found Wikipedia searches to be quite fast.

THE LIBRARY

Whatever technical merits the Kindle device has would be negated entirely if the catalog of available books is weak. In fact, it is the availability of books and not technical constraints that has held back the adoption of e-books until now, and Amazon is uniquely placed to overcome that hurdle. The Amazon Kindle store already has over 90,000 titles at launch, with more sure to follow. This catalog includes not only best-sellers and other popular titles, but a good selection of older works. For example, I found a Kindle version of Edgar Lee Masters' "Spoon River Anthology" for less than three dollars!

Amazon can bring their bookselling prowess to bear in a way that their competitors (like Sony) cannot. They have good contacts with the major and minor publishing houses; they have a good reputation with both their vendors and their customers; and they have the technical infrastructure to manage a virtual bookstore on this scale.

If the Kindle proves successful, I expect the back-catalog to grow by leaps and bounds...and this is where the true potential of the Kindle will emerge. Imagine being able to immediately find and download rare, out-of-print, and hard-to-find works! (As a lover of classic Sci-Fi, I've long been frustrated at how hard it can be to find clean copies of works by Andre Norton, Roger Zelazny, Harry Harrison, or John Brunner. Just try to find a decent paperback copy of "Shockwave Rider"!)

THE VERDICT

For a first effort, I find the Kindle to be a flawed but worthy experiment. Its high price is somewhat justified by the addition of free wireless communication and the reasonable price of most of the books in the Kindle catalog.

One of the toughest hills the Kindle will have to climb is in breaking the reading habits of a lifetime, and the design defects of the unit itself make that climb a more arduous one. However, I'm finding that the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. And there is the kind of miser-like pleasure that only other bookworms will understand: the pleasure inherent in knowing you have hundreds (or even *thousands*) of books lurking in your pocket, waiting to be pillaged.

And why am I so surprised? This is an excellent e-reader and I'm amazed I hadn't purchased it earlier. Shame on me for allowing myself to be dissuaded by so many negative reviews - at least until I realized that most were being written by people who have never tried the device and many who have never even used an electronic reader. I admit that past experience with Amazon's customer service and returns policy took some of the fear out of actually taking the plunge on the Kindle. I have been an ardent (rabid?) customer for at least a decade now and have never found fault with their customer service even when I tried.

So, first, a little background from an avowed abibliophobe: I have been an ebook reader for close to a decade now and have used most, if not all of the ereaders out there: PC-based, Apple-based, and Palm-based as well as a number of now-extinct little dinosaurs few would remember at this point. So yes, I've tried (and still use) other devices and formats, and yes, I've blown a king's ransom to support my reading habit. That's me, your mileage may vary, but that's the background I'm reviewing from.

First out of the box: Everything needed for an enjoyable read is right there. I emptied the box (and very nice packaging it is too - now proudly displayed on my bookshelf, holding pamplets and manuels that would otherwise be an eye-sore) and turned the machine on. Within minutes the device had located my account ID and downloaded the assortment of samples, blogs, magazines, newspapers and pre-purchased books I had collected at Amazon for my trial run. No glitches, no hic-ups, no problems. Worth the price of admission, at least. If only life in general were so smooth.

The device is easy to navigate and surprisingly intuitive. Perhaps someone with less experience with other devices might be a bit lost, but I doubt it. And even for those who haven't looked over the user manual before ordering, the first thing that opens is - wait for it - the user manual! All questions anticipated and answered quite clearly and, again, easily navigated.

Now, to brass tacks. The Kindle's "electronic paper" is a revelation. I'm a devout Palm-device user with literally a couple thousand books on my Treo 700p (and on the 8th day God created SD cards) and have played with settings for text-size, screen-colors, etc, trying to find comfortable settings for my tired late-forty-ish eyes (which have been myopic since fifth grade). My job is 45+ hours a week in front of a computer screen which, naturally, doesn't help my vision problems. The Kindle, however, is extremely easy on the eyes and I find I can read much longer with no eye-strain than I have in quite some time. There is, as many have pointed out, no backlight. I am used to reading in bed, lights out, using the backlight on my Treo and, honestly, I anticipated that this lack of backlighting would be a deal-breaker for me. Again, the lack of eye-strain I've experienced with the Kindle's electronic paper concept has made me re-think my attitude. A decent booklight, and I'm set. So far the only real conveniences I miss are the Palm's automatic scroll setting and the auto-off function (in case I happen to actually fall asleep while reading). Perhaps Amazon can work up some type of automatic page turning function (wow, how lazy is that!) and an auto-off or auto-sleep setting that can be user-defined.

On to other features: the Basic Web is very nice, allowing the user to enter their own URLs as well as providing a decent assortment of sites already quickly accessible. The addition of the Wikapedia link is much appreciated. It's been a part of my Opera Speed Dial for a while. The on-board dictionary is fantastic. I paid wa-a-ay to much for similar access on my Palm Add in the out-of-the-box links for Amazon (natch), Google, weather, various news sources (BBC, MSNBC, Tech, Y! Financial and Y! Entertainment), movie times and the yellow pages, and you're pretty well covered.

Oh, and did I mention that this web access it FREE? I didn't, did I? Well, let me say it again. It's FREE. Yes, the device is $400 bucks, but it includes FREE web access. In a heartbeat. With no monthly access fees. And it works three times FASTER than my overpriced cell phone service. For FREE. No if, and's, or but's, no $15 bucks worth of additional "taxes" and "access fees." FREE.

You did get that part was FREE, right? O.K. then, on to other good stuff:

Audible works just as easily on this device as everything else does. The Audible download manager recognized the Kindle and transferred without a hitch. Volume is good both with and without headphones and the words are clear even to these aging ears. The same is true of the music function. True, the Kindle only plays on random which could be a pain with mp3 audio books but don't we all have mp3 players by this point? Really.

I wound up answering one of my own early questions about the Kindle and will share with those still awaiting an answer. The Kindle DOES read non-Amazon books, as long as they are mobi format. Of course, via their email transfer service, Amazon will reformat a number of other formats and send them to the Kindle at a very nominal charge - this is explained in the manual. But the multi-format books I have purchased, say from Fictionwise, work perfectly on the Kindle. I use the same credit card for Amazon that I use for Fictionwise, which probably helps (you can, of course, change your credit card settings even on previously purchased books in your account functions at Fictionwise). Just be sure to download, or re-download the books in mobi format. Neither Secure Mobi nor Palm E-Reader formats will work on the Kindle and I assume the same is true of Microsoft Reader and Adobe e-Reader, but you can't have everything and I don't intend on tossing out my Treo any time soon, anyway. I put my mobi format (.prc) books on an SD card and poked that into the slot on my Kindle and the Kindle immediately added them to my book list. Surprisingly, they look better on the Kindle that they ever did in Palm Reader Pro. Perhaps the luxury of actual screen space helps in that area.

The leather cover is nice and seems to do a good job protecting the screen while still managing to fold back comfortably and stay out of the way while reading. The "sleep" function is nice and once activated the user is rewarded with various images of authors and interesting inanimate objects and even the occasional reminder of other functions and features. A number of images have actually brought a smile to my face which in my world is always a pleasant and welcome surprise.

I've found the email reformat service handy for carrying numerous documents ready for easy access: not-so-frequently called phone numbers and addresses, various reference items I normally relied on my Treo for. Also, as a rabid under-liner and note-taker, the note function and "save page as clipping" function are quite satisfying, especially when both will save to a PC or Mac and be available for editing and reworking. The Kindle's battery-life is excellent and the fact that the battery is actually replaceable is very nice considering the number of Palms and ereaders I've collected which are now little more than expensive bricks since the batteries fried out. The keyboard is easy to use (far easier than my Treo which even with small hands I have to type carefully on) as is the navigation wheel/button.

I've shown the Kindle around work to folks who use all manner of technical gadgets and some who just don't see the point of gadgets beyond a cell phone, especially just to read a book or newspaper. All have found something to be impressed with in the Kindle even if just on an aesthetic level.

All in all, I must say I'm most pleased with my Christmas gift to myself. Amazon obviously put a great deal of thought into this thing and it is much appreciated. At least by this customer.

I've spent a week with my new Kindle and I want to focus on the things other reviewers (the ones who've actually used this) haven't mentioned.

But first off, just to get it out of the way, I LOVE reading on this thing. I like the design, the simplicity of it, the way the words look on the page. I like the availability of books, the price of the books, how fast they download onto the Kindle itself. I like the interaction with the Amazon site because it's my preferred place to buy books anyway. I don't think it's any more overpriced than, say, the iPod Touch which retails for the same for the 16G (and is absolutely worthless in my opinion). And though the Kindle is an impressive piece of equipment in itself, the unlimited wireless capability ultimately justifies the price. Some specifics:

The cover: Reviewers have made many comments about how it falls out of the cover. I'm wondering if some haven't figured out that you have to remove the cardboard bracket that comes inside the cover before you put the Kindle into it. Because when the Kindle is placed into the cover correctly, it actually locks into place and definitely doesn't fall out (at least not for me). But I'll also say that I wanted to upgrade the cover to something a bit higher-end so I purchased a Coach Agenda Book which is exactly the same size and am using it as the Kindle cover. It fits perfectly and suits the class of the Kindle better.

Sleep Mode vs. Power Button: Some reviewers have noted that the Power and Wireless connect buttons on the back are hard to use with the cover. But if you've paid attention to the Kindle user guide, it says that the preferred way to power off the unit is to place it in sleep mode, which uses no power. So I use sleep instead of the power button when I'm done with it. I've read on the Kindle for a week now and, using this method, I still haven't had to recharge it. Recommendation: The next generation of this thing should be able to be placed in sleep mode with one button rather than using two together. I find that awkward.

Next Page Button: Yes, it is easy to hit accidentally, sending you pages ahead in your reading. Using the cover while reading almost completely negates this issue. I frankly don't like using this thing without a cover anyway. Feels more like a book in your hand when it's in the cover.

Recommendation: Next generation needs to have some sort of feature where you have a clearer sense of where you are in the book, how many chapters, how many pages. I don't need to see a picture of the cover, but I do want to know where I am in relation to the rest of the book. The progression dots on the bottom of the screen are interesting, but not satisfying.

Other thoughts: Love the built-in Dictionary and Wikipedia. The sleep-mode screens are fun. Wish it had some kind of built-in light for night reading. Do NOT enjoy reading newspapers, blogs or magazines on this thing. Just doesn't work.

Finally, I must say that I have a laptop, a PC, a couple of iPods, a Trio, and on down the line. I never expected the Kindle to replace any of them. I never expected the screen to be in color because the grown-up books I read are all black and white print. The fact that it has its own email address, that it can access the internet and has wireless capabilities are great features, but not why I bought it.

The Kindle is for reading. It's for people who read. And in that regard, it's great! I recommend it highly.

I've never felt strongly enough about a book or product to post a review. Guess there's a first time for everything!

Personally, I believe that a good yardstick of whether a technology will qualifiy as 'disruptive' is by measuring how polarizing the initial commentary on a product or service is. True to form, commentators (professional or otherwise) either seem to love the Kindle or hate it... I was an early adopter for the iPod as well and it is interesting to realize that I can replace the word 'Kindle' with 'iPod' and reconstruct almost exactly the reasons why critics insisted that the iPod was doomed to failure. Way to call it, boys!

I'm admittedly biased, but I do think my review deserves a little bit of cache (+1 mod point, if you're a Slashdotter!) for one simple reason: unlike many 'reviewers' who have taken the time to rate the Kindle sight unseen, I have *actually and personally* shelled-out $400 of my hard-earned dollars to purchase a Kindle. I am a 'Joe Consumer Book Lover,' and according to Jeff Bezos, I am the target market for this product: tech savvy, male who makes between 1 and 3 Amazon orders every month, I love to read, I have more books than I know what to do with, and I love the idea of carrying a bunch of books around on a device like the Kindle because I am usually reading several books at any one time and books are... wait for it... HEAVY! :-)

My Kindle wasn't given to me because I'm a technology commentator, I wasn't privy to the beta program (where's the love, Amazon!), and I haven't had one for the last 10 weeks prior to the public launch. I simply logged on to Amazon last Tuesday, saw the announcement, watched the video, read the words, saw the genius of the product, and bought one on the spot.

Is the Kindle perfect? Nope. There's lots of room for improvement... But then they DID manage to get a whole lot right, especially considering that this is a version 1.0 product.

If you fit the following criteria, I think you'll love the Kindle:

- You don't mind that Amazon didn't choose form over function

- You don't mind that it doesn't try to roll every mobile electronic device ever invented into a single package. (It is a book/paper/magazine/blog/document reader... Not a calendar/contact list/phone/note-taking/PDA/Gaming device).

- You couldn't care less about DRM issues

- You read. A lot.

- You currently buy books at full-price (whether locally, or online)

- You like instant gratification when buying books and are often frustrated when a book you were looking for at a local B&N isn't in stock

- You have enough disposable income that $400 + $10 per book won't break the bank

If the above doesn't describe you, that's OK (nobody's perfect! ;-) ), you just may want to hold off for a couple versions... Or be willing to live with a product that isn't going to 100% meet your expectations. The truth is that if you hate the Kindle, and can't see it's potential, you probably weren't in the target market to begin with... Again, that's OK. As the old saying goes: "You can please some of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time." In the end the Kindle is a 'niche product' for (apparently) quite a large niche- those who think that books really are the 'killer app' of the 21st century.

For the rest of us, please try to remember that even the Apple took 6 generations of iPods and 7 years of development/refinement/advancement to be in a posisiton to launch the iPhone/iTouch. You may not think it's so 'killer' today, but I think the Kindle is here to stay and will only get better. "Rumors of <the Kindle's> death have been greatly exagerrated."

Happy Reading, All!

I have had my Kindle for one day, have read the morning paper

over breakfast, and browsed the store for a couple of new books

which I downloaded. I also emailed myself some articles from magazines available on the web to have more selections available.

The PDF came through acceptably and the imperfections didn't

bother me. I emailed a book from Gutenberg and that worked

less well, hope this improves over time.

A few things less frequently mentioned:

1. The ability to enlarge font size is a godsend for folks with poor

vision. I used to be an avid reader, and hope now I can start enjoying it more again.

2. The ability to have a huge variety of reading material available

for commuting and travelling is a major benefit. It takes very little

effort to get the equivalent of a giant stack of interesting articles

from the web and this can be done for no money at all.

3. Some of the books in the Amazon list cost much less than

the $9.99 usually mentioned.

5. The Kindle is much less effort to carry around than the smallest lightest laptop. So I'm an early adopter, but I'm going to get a lot

of benefit from this incarnation while Amazon spiffs up the next model!

I have been a big proponent of ebooks for years. I used to read them on my palm pilot (very annoying), and I moved up to the PRS-500 (Sony) when it became first available. Sony's product was great, not just portable, but it also has a nice screen, and is able to hold tons of content. When the Kindle first became available, I was not impressed with the form-factor, but I decided to order it as an upgrade anyway based upon what I had read about it. I have used the device for over a week now, and I have to admit that it is a nice step up from my Sony.

I gave the device 4 stars. Even though it is a strong device, it definitely has some growing pains that it has to get through. The device has the most annoying cover attachment that I have ever encountered (take a lesson from the Sony PRS-505, or even the 500). To turn the device on/off you basically disconnect it from the cover (most of the time not realizing that you have done so). Also the page turn buttons are way too large, it is very difficult to pick up the book casually without turning a page accidentally. The keyboard, while making the device larger is a necessary evil that lends itself to the appeal of the Kindle.

Now, for the positive points. The device's wireless connectivity is a great advent, you do not have to use Sony's annoying Connect service, but can order tons of content easily on the fly. The right side roller/selector is a great way to select options on the screen. I love the fact that you can look up definitions immediately as well. Also the prices for Amazon's ebooks are very reasonable.

Even though I have mentioned only a few of the positives, I have to say that as an initial ebook device, this is a winner and should be given strong consideration. The wireless component, I feel, is what is going to give this device the strongest chance of survival in the world of electronic-books.