Customer Reviews:
 PREDICT IT WILL BE GREAT November 23, 2007
9 out of 57 found this review helpful
I JUST ORDERED MY KINDLE & PREDICT IT WILL BE A WINNER. WHY? 1. AMAZON IS AN OUTSTANDING INTERNET BOOK SITE. 2.ORDERING WIRELESS FOR NO CHARGE IS OUTSTANDING. 3.I HAVE OWNED A ROCKET E-BOOK, WHICH WAS GREAT, EXCEPT IT WAS DIFFICULT TO READ IN THE DAYLIGHT, AND THE SUPPORT KEPT CHANGING COMPANIES. 4.WHEN IT BROKE, THE REPLACEMENT HAS NEVER BEEN ABLE TO BE REGISTERED TO GO INTO ACTION. 5. I LOVE CARRYING AN E-BOOK EVERYWHERE I GO, AND KNOW THIS IS GOING TO BE THE BEST YET.
 Are there plans to increase the service coverage? November 23, 2007
33 out of 67 found this review helpful
I was about ready to order this product, and even had it in my shopping cart. I paused and went back to read most of the fine print, and I learned that my address does not have coverage for the "Whisper Net" download service. The product sounds great, but not if I cannot download where I live and work. Either the coverage area has to improve, or it needs a Wi-Fi option. It is not really clear on the site that many geographical areas cannot use this, even though they do have cell phone coverage from some networks.
Kurt in zip code 53821
ON THE THRILL OF THE KINDLE November 23, 2007
93 out of 110 found this review helpful
After several days with the Amazon Kindle, I'm ready to call it a "Thriller" product.
A lot of nits have been picked by a lot of folks on how this could be so much better.
But for any lover of reading, there are three things that transcend the specific attributes of the device and service:
1. Amazon Whispernet: The embedding of broadband wireless has a backbone of the service makes the Kindle experiment in portable commerce really unique compared to anything we've experienced online before. It's a model that'll likely be emulated by other portable products by a range of third-parties, much in the way the iPhone made multi-touch interfaces a whole new way to do phones and music on the go.
In fact, after browsing, researching and buying dozens of books off the Kindle, and then using the iPhone to buy a music track or two off it's Wifi iTunes store, I couldn't help thinking how a Whispernet type of data network would make a future iPhone/iPod so much more useful.
2. The e-Ink screen: Despite the fact that the screen is not back-lit and doesn't do color, it really nails what it does try to do, which is try and duplicate the experience of reading on paper. The text is crisp and eminently readable for hours. And yes, it'd be nice if it didn't flicker to black at the turn of every page, as the page reset itself to the new page to follow. But it's really amazing how attached one can get to reading off the Kindle.
3. The selection: This is the part of the Kindle experience that makes me the most optimistic that my investment in a couple of Kindles (one for my wife) and dozens of books is going to be worth it in the long=run.
Given that this is an Amazon service, there are over 80,000 titles to choose from vs. 20,000 or so from competing services like the Sony Reader. And one can imagine how the Kindle library can grow pretty quickly from here.
Most of all, one of the coolest parts of the Kindle experience is having a paperback sized gizmo, that lasts for days without a charge, with a growing collection of all the stuff you like to read.
And it's a very different online experience than laptops, PDAs, smartphones, MP3 and video players.
There a lot of ways the Kindle can be improved, and in future posts, I'll add my two-cents on them.
But for now, this is one of the coolest things from Amazon to date.
Another Satisfied Customer :) November 23, 2007
50 out of 55 found this review helpful
I received my Kindle this morning ( a week early). All the glowing reviews you've read up till now are spot on. Very intuitive, very easy on the eyes. Starting it up, and it just worked. Some people have indicated that the page forward and page back keys are often pressed inadvertently. I read in the instruction book, the the leatherette cover was meant to be used even when reading. Using it while reading completely eliminated the problem of pressing fwd/back keys in error.
Very light, excellent readability. The Kindle store is all that it is advertised as. One click, and just like that you have your purchase in your hand. Adjusting the font size is a piece of cake. Some detractors said they didn't like have to press the next page key so often. When using the smallest, or second to the smallest font, I felt like the frequency of turning the pages was similar to a real book. Anything above 2 it did in fact seem too often.
All in all, a wonderful idea, excellent execution, and something that I'm going to be recommending to many of my book reading friends and family.
If you're in doubt about this, I say buy it and you probably won't have any regrets.
 Amazon Must Add Previously Published Titles November 23, 2007
16 out of 47 found this review helpful
There is not a single Graham Greene novel available for Kindle. American Psycho and the rest of Ellis' books are not available. I just searched for about 20 books I plan to buy and the only ones which made the list were popular economic books. Matt Ridely's books on evolution are not available. Hunter Thompson is not available. I could go on and on. Bottom line: If you want to read books beyond the NY Times Best Seller list of Dan Brown and company, you will not be happy with The Kindle.
I hope Amazon is rapidly improving their selection.
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