Amazon Kindle

So I now have an Amazon Kindle, courtesy of my folks who bought me one for my birthday. I already like it, it was very easy to set up, and within minutes I had my first newspaper subscriptions (Seattle Times and Wall Street Journal) and book (10 day MBA) downloaded and opened.

The wireless signal is pretty good, considering I often have trouble on my cell here (to the point where I rely on the Wifi on my TMobile Wing in order to talk from home). The subscriptions already work nicely, being available to me within minutes of powering on my device today.

The web browser doesn't support Javascript, so using my favorite Google tools (GMail, Reader) is out of the question.

It does come with a speaker and the ability to play MP3s... although I haven't figured out how to adjust the volume. And the sound quality certainly isn't going to impress anyone.

I had previously played with my neighbor's Kindle, so getting used to the interface wasn't a problem. The eInk is very easy on the eyes, and its small size makes the Kindle ideal for reading in bed (although I prefer audiobooks to fall asleep to, audiobooks have the problem of having to figure out where I was when I fell asleep and rewind my iPod to guess where I was... quite a pain).

What I like about it is that my entire book library can sit in the area of a pad of paper. I already have bookshelves of out of date books clogging my office, hopefully one day they are all digital and residing on my Kindle. Where they won't get read, but hey at least they aren't serving as kindling in case my house ever catches fire. No pun intended.

This thing will get some use; I will get my money's worth.