Thanks, I was thinking about getting my daughter a Kindle or something!
There's a lot of competing devices around and few people get a chance to give them all a good test.
I was sceptical of them then I had a few minutes try of a friend�s (previous version) Kindle over lunch in a restaurant. It seemed intuitive to use and the screen was excellent, much better than a computer screen when reading.
Later I tried several times a Sony reader in a shop. That didn�t seem intuitive and it seemed slow.
Plus, the way they explained it, if I wanted to buy an eBook I�d get it on a CD, have to load the CD onto a computer and then copy it over to the reader, or take the reader to the book shop and they�d copy the book onto it. Hmm.
I buy most of my books from Amazon. I see one I like, click on it and a few days later the postman brings the package to my door.
With the Kindle now when I see a book I like on Amazon, I click on it and it is instantly downloaded to my Kindle and I can be reading it in minutes.
And, with a free software program I downloaded to my PC, I can convert any MS-Word or PDF document to eBook format and copy to the Kindle using the supplied USB cable.
To download books from Amazon to a Kindle you need to have connection. Amazon call it Whisper-net but actually that is using normal internet Wi-FI, so anywhere there is Wi-Fi you have access to you can use that. If you have the 3G you also have ability to use cell-phone network. Amazon has agreements to use cell-phone networks around the world.
I am going off for 5 weeks to a place where the only internet access I can get is by travelling to the nearest town and finding an internet cafe with Wi-Fi. So I have the 3G version and I�ll be able to download newspapers and books to my Kindle without moving from my accommodation. And there is no charge for using 3G!!
The screen is easy to read, imagine a book with clear white paper and sharp black print. There�s no glare, there�s no light shining in your face, anywhere you can read a book you can read your Kindle. It uses no power when you�re reading, just as you change pages.