Since the Kindle came out and everyone was banging on about it (even some of my lecturers who have been in this biz for however long) I decided I'm not going to get one for 3 reasons: 1) I dislike e-books anyway, 2) I don't fancy sitting on a train flashing a 150 quid piece of slate while I can get the same book in paperback for £2.50 and 3) I'm a person who prefers to not be like everyone else or one of those generics you see in the high street on a daily basis (i.e. I refuse to upgrade to a Blackberry or buy an iPhone and besides, after hours of research I discovered that my Nokia C3 does pretty much the same thing as a BB minus the messenger and I've not had 1 thing to dislike about it (apart from waking me up at 7 in the morning but that's UEL's fault really, not mine or the phone's).
A bit arrogant, yes, but oh well.
However(!), since starting uni I've been forced to buy a number of books which can cost well over a tenner sometimes and then having to remember which book to take to which lecture etc etc. Now, after a small bit of thought until my head started to hurt I thought it might just be easier and a bit cheaper to buy an e-reader from Asda priced at just £54. Okay, not a bit but one hundred big ones.
People go on about the Kindle using this e-ink which prevents the sun from not reflecting on the screen or some bollocks like that. Why not just block the beam with your hand?
So the Kindle has WiFi, a music player, Wikipedia, 3G (I still have no idea what that is yet everyone bangs on about it) and probably some sort of vending machine - pretty much what that thing in your pocket called a smartphone has. With this in mind, can't you help but wonder why someone would buy this piece of junk?
Rant over. Flame away.
I think people buy it for convienience. I have the first Sony eReader (no touchscreen), which someone lent to me. I sat for months in my drawer as I didn't want to part with my lovely paperbacks. But one day I wanted a book which was a free pdf or about £5 for the paperback, and my decision to use the eReader was made for me as I'm broke. Since then, I've loaded it up with 42 free eBooks, and I love that I can choose what I want to read whenever, wherever I am.
ReplyDeleteI think the Kindle is great if you have the money, 3G allows you to download books wherever you are, but I don't know why you couldn't just wait until you get home. I think one plus with the Kindle is that Amazon have brought out apps for an iPhone and Android, so you can really have those books whether you're reading them on your smartphone, your laptop, or your Kindle.
When I first heard about the Asda eReader for such a cheap price (in comparison), I was delighted. But looking at the specification, I'm quite mortified. My battery will last about a month, the Asda one with it's backlight will last 6 hours. If you want a tablet which you can watch video on and listen to music too, then fine, but as an eReader, I think it's a bit of a fail. I hope soon someone will bring out a reasonably priced basic eReader with eInk, maybe wifi, but no 3G.
I think that it's a rather nice present. However much I adore my eReader now, I still don't think I would buy one.