Monday, January 25, 2010

My Kindle!

Update: I just realized I didn't add any pictures of how it looked like from the side and the back so I've added it in the entry now. Sorry.. me blur.

For the past few weeks, Ming has been telling me that he bought me the best Christmas present ever. He didn't want to tell me what it was until I saw it from myself but even Pierre who knew what it was said that it was freaking awesome!

So last week I finally made my way down to Singapore for some work and the very second I got into the car he threw a box at me and said "Merry Christmas! Open it!".

The box looked something like this.

It said Amazon.com on it so I thought that maybe he bought something off Amazon for me. A book ? DVD ? XBOX game? Something like that.

When I opened it though, I saw this.

At first I went
"What is this?"
And then it dawned on me... that it was an Amazon Kindle! HOLY SHIT!

The Amazon Kindle is an e-book reader from Amazon. It's basically a device where you can download all sorts of e-books from Amazon and store it inside. Then you can virtually carry hundreds of books in it wherever you want and take your time to read it.

It's unbelievably awesome!

Let me tell you why.

1) "Electronic-ink".

I read a lot of content now from the computer. Everything from news, blogs and all that. The thing about reading stuff off the computer though is that once you've been doing it for a long time it my eyes kinda get a little tired from the glare.

The Kindle though isn't one of those computer screens. The words on it appear really almost like it's on paper so there's no backlight and no glare.

So it's as easy to read as a book. Not sure about most of you but I can read articles on the computer but I can never read novels off it. I just can't seem to 'get lost' in the stories whenever I read them off a computer.

When reading off a Kindle though, my imagination takes me away just like reading off an actual book.

2) The largest book store in the world!

While I still love going to book stores just to browse, it's lots of fun browsing books on Amazon.com as well. Not to mention there are times when you want to go to a book store just to find one particular book and have to ask around or browse around in order to find it. On Amazon all you have to do is type it in the search bar and it'll find you the book.

I can't think of any book that Amazon doesn't already have! Only limitation is that while the Kindle books database is huge and growing, there are many titles not available on Kindle (but I'm sure they're working on that). Also you can't really buy Kindle books from Malaysia because the Kindle is not available here yet but there's a work around for that. All you have to do is buy a gift voucher from Amazon then redeem it for credit and use that credit to buy the e-book.
If you're in the USA it's even better. You can just buy the e-book from Amazon and it wirelessly gets sent to your Kindle.

3) No more carrying books around!

I read a lot especially when I travel. With the Kindle though you don't have to bring heavy books along with you. The Kindle is all you need. Plus it automatically book marks any page you stopped at so you don't have to be worried about losing your book mark or things like that. Plus there are some other bonus features the Kindle has. Like it has its own Oxford Dictionary so you can find the meaning of any word you're not sure of just by hovering a cursor over it on the Kindle and you can even make notes on each page.

Imagine if all our school students had this. No more lugging heavy school bags to school. Just this one device with all the text books you need.

I think the Kindle is truly revolutionary because if you think about it, that's how we may all be reading stuff off in the future. We will all each have a device like this next to our bedside tables. When we wake up in the morning, the daily newspaper and magazines are all wirelessly sent and updated to your Kindle so you can read it from there.

Think of all the paper we'll save (not to mention printing costs that newspaper and magazines can save).

I think the Kindle is great.

It's not yet available here in Malaysia or even Singapore yet though. So the only way to get it is to order it to a US address and then have it shipped over here. Ming went through all that trouble for me. Thanks Ming :)

31 comments:

Jun King (JK) said...

wow, it has a keyboard.

skyywalker said...

Great device with the vast offerings from Amazon!
Those interested though I would say wait for this 27th Jan and witness what Apple has to offer.
Reliable rumour has it that Apple is going to unveil a 7” to 10” tablet. We will see :)

Lisa! said...

Do you have to pay for the books you download on it though? Would it take a lot of time?

ApPle5 said...

Ahhhhhhh!!! So envious!!! I want one too! Ming is so nice to you. :D

sarah said...

wow that's actually very nice..But you still have to pay for the books rite? Is it cheaper than buying the normal paperback?

Gypsy On The Move said...

My gosh!! This will be an awesome stuff for people like me who likes to read while going to places but can't afford to carry too many books! And like you said, eco-friendly too! I wish I have one...sigh...

swit@kon said...

i wanna get one for my bf. how?????

Unknown said...

ooohhh... i saw one lady carrying this e-book thingy in the train the other day. And I was like.. "this is so cool, imma find out what it is!" Now you blog about it, thx yea!

迪迪 said...

OMG! This is so awesome! I wish I have one! :D

迪迪 said...

OMG! This is so awesome! I wish I have one! :D

messi said...

woww, i would like to have 1 too! how much does it cost?

yea, i still prefer reading 'feelable' books. its different frm reading frm screen.

d way u described d Kindle makes me want 2 have 1 too. haha..
Ming, lets be fren now..hahaha

KY said...

waaaa so jealous!

uLi.佑莉 said...

Wow...wat a cool gadget :)

Jessying said...

that is so awesome!

Ruby said...

WAA... u are so lucky.. :D

Star Sky said...

Jealous-nya.....

Boss Stewie said...

jun: yeah it does. for taking notes :)

skywalker: yeah. wonder what Apple has in mind. They're going to have to find a way to come up with a collection of books as vast as Amazon too though

lisa: yeah you have to pay. the download is pretty quick. The price varies between books but more or less are at USD 7 each. So that's less than RM30 and cheaper than most physical books still

apple: yeah he is... hehehe gotta like that bout MIng :)

sara: yes you still have to pay for the books and yeah it's cheaper than the paperback. at least for the ones i've bought so far.


gypsy: yeah.. well you could just order one form amazon. :)

swit: order from Amazon. Costs like USD300 i think

stephanie: hehehe glad you like it

wendy: yeah it is... well you could just go buy one from Amazon :)

messi: hehe that's what my gf said. that she prefer reading physical books but well.. i guess it's a matter of preference

ky: aiyo pls lar u can afford 10,000 of these

uli: thank you :)

jess: it is indeed.. thank u

rabiatul: i am really lucky :) thank u

star: don't be lar.. you can go buy one

electronicfly said...

yerrrrrrrrrrrrrrr I JELESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS T.T

I still have to carry my books with me old school style when I'm commuting, and when my bag gets so heavy I sometimes, well, always, rather leave my textbook at home. :P

But I find reading from a book book more satisfying though. There's something about turning the page and all that. :)

How Jun said...

haha. I read through I Ipod Touch now. The words are abit small though.

D - Bliss said...

How much in RM? This is the biggest size, right?

Boss Stewie said...

electronic: my gf says she rather have a book too. but hmph :) i like my kindle

how jun: hehe well apple is coming out with their own tablet :)

bliss: no this is the smaller one. I think about RM1000

kenwooi: hehe thanks

ivy said...

this is wad i read from the sunday starmag.. mph is currently selling an eBook reader in malaysia! price at rm1299 (rm1249 from mphonline.com.my) hehe =)

however the device(Hanlin) is produced by China-based Tianjin Jinke Electronics

full article here,
http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2010/1/24/lifefocus/5530711&sec=lifefocus

didi as in Dee - Dee said...

cool..i would love to have one!

JD said...

I was just reading about it the other day on the Star article when they are reviewing of the various ebook readers around. I think MPH will be launching one soon too retailing at RM1.2k. But I still think the Kindle is way cooler. Time to save up.

Matjoe said...

how long is the battery life? we'll see what the future hold for this device

Huai Bin said...

Hey I didn't realize it was that slim! I used to read ebooks on my (ancient) Palm m505 and later the HP iPaq Pocket PC 4700. Nice Christmas present. :)

Vy said...

I saw this on Oprah some time ago. Yeah, it's troublesome to get it in malaysia. Lucky you got Boss Ming...

Michelle said...

OMG I think I saw this on Oprah, but IDK what was it called. This is like the most awesome thing ever invented :O

nlyn said...

Certainly cool gadgets!

And I (on behalf of my group) had left you a message on facebook regarding doing an assignment about Nuffnang and Mr.Tim. Hope to hear from you soon.

Regards.

eL said...

Oprah had a review on it some time ago. I want one also :(

Orange Armada Inc. said...

looks like ze apple iTablet =)