Friday, May 1st, 2009
Here’s Why The Kindle Sucks
Most of my day is spent in front of a screen. Even when I take a walk outside, I’ll glance at my iPhone for emails, because I might have been sent an important Facebook message reminder in the 5 minutes since I left my apartment. Reading was one of the few activities I enjoy that doesn’t involve a screen…
Until now?
There’s a lot of “buzz” surrounding Amazon’s Kindle, a portable eBook reader that would like to be the iPod for books. You can download eBooks into your Kindle and read them without having to carry around an rfBook (regular fucking book), plus multiple books can be stored in one device. Theoretically, a whole library of erotica can follow you around wherever you like to read and masturbate.
So, are they any good? Well, I don’t think so, but I only got to try one out for 20 minutes. See, Amazon hasn’t put the device in any “brick and mortar” stores for some reason, so you can’t just go over to a Best Buy and try one out. Nor do they send free Kindles to bloggers, no matter how nice you are on the phone.
Instead, they host a forum where Kindle owners can meet-up with non-Kindlers to give them a demonstration…
15 Comments
May 2nd, 2009 at 6:57 am
Finally got to see the new Kindle while on a train. It’s awkward to hold, and the buttons diminish the joy of reading to applying for a job onsite at Target.
While I agree with a lot said in its defense, I doubt I’d ever buy one.
May 3rd, 2009 at 12:01 pm
I understand wanting to be part of an anti-backlash, but that being said, the Kindle still has a long way to go, in my opinion. Subscriptions to newspapers and RSS feeds on-the-go is nice, but it’s a book machine, and reading books was (for me) an awkward experience.
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:16 am
Be careful if you buy a Kindle and you are living outside the US. After using hours to try to log on to the mobile network, chatting to a customer support agent, mailing back and forth, I get this answer:
“I have been advised by our developers that contrary to the information supplied on the website when you ordered your Kindle that we do not have wireless access in Liechtenstein.”
Btw: The device cannot log on to a network in Austria or Switzerland neither. Believe me, I tried everything imaginable.
And now I have to spend a fortune on returing the fckng device.
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:31 am
That sucks, Ziggy! Amazon needs to get its act together.
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:43 am
Amen, brother!
December 28th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
I received a Kindle for Christmas and I am deeply unimpressed. For something that was supposed to be the most-demanded present this year, it’s pretty bad. I kept it around and tried to work with it for about 7 days. I gave it a chance. But I found the following things grating. This goofy little machine is getting returned and this is why:
1) No touch screen. Even if you haven’t been spoiled by iPhones (especially their lovely zoom function), even ATM’s now have touch screens. Seriously. Your tiny little credit card checkout machine at the mall store has a touch screen. I don’t want fancy tech excuses about why this screen is so lightweight and still awesome. After all, I love books, I don’t love technology, and you’re trying to win *me*. Call me back when this thing has a touch screen.
2) Not in color. Again, with the color ATMs and standard color cell phone screens. Let alone iPods or anything ‘fancy.’ The cell phone that comes with the plan has a color screen. Color small screens in our pockets have been standard since the late 90′s. There is no excuse for this thing not having color.
3) Crappy dictionary. I tried using the dictionary function on “tout court” – a french phrase that I still don’t know – and got separate definitions for the two words, in english. Duh. Am I in a DOS word processor here? What good is a dictionary function that cannot recognize anything more than single words? Now, if I had a touch screen…I could highlight exactly the phrase I needed defined, and the machine could do it’s job. Besides, c’mon, we’re used to wikis and google. I expect to find hyperlinking on a sleek digital device. Don’t give me some limited, fenced in little internal dictionary that is discombobulated by a two-word term.
4) Crummy little nipple button thing to move the cursor around…around a black and white…non-touchable screen. I know Apple has dibs on the groovy touch wheel. But seriously? A crummy plastic nipple that half the time doesn’t respond to pressure, and when it does tends to overshoot? Really? Touching it is not seamless or pleasant.
5) There are two buttons for turning the virtual ‘page’, one on the right of the machine and one mirroring it on the left. Same wide size, same placement. But these two page turning buttons on mirror right and left sides of the device both turn the page forward. The one to the right should turn it forward. The one to the left should turn it back. Simple, clean, sleek, intuitive. Instead, the back-turn button is smaller, and above the duplicated forward-turn one. Meaning I must remove my eyes from the screen and visually find it. Or at minimum, shift my left hand up the device and feel for it. Either of which interrupt the ‘flow’ of reading. And the device is trying to make reading a machine as seamless as reading a book? What daft focus group okayed this idea?
6) And finally, back to the grating lack of touch screen technology. Zooming, or increasing the font size, is a multi-step process involving menus and screens. C’mon. Let me momentarily touch the screen and make it bigger or smaller, so I can enjoy handing off the device and saying “you gotta read this!”. Not to mention, anything that would let me simply and easily place the cursor would make the laborious and ridiculous annotation process soooo much simpler.
This is the iPod for books? With labor-intensive menus, no color, a touch-less screen, poorly-placed buttons, and a nipply-little backhanded substitute for a wheel selector being the only way to cursor around. It sucks. Call me when Steve Jobs sends his design team in to give it an overhaul.
January 21st, 2010 at 5:12 pm
HA — and they spent a billion dollars and 5 years developing this thing. Great review!
February 5th, 2010 at 5:14 am
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April 25th, 2010 at 9:41 am
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June 5th, 2010 at 8:54 am
[...] http://www.geoffreygolden.com/2009/05/heres-why-the-kindle-sucks/comment-page-1/#comment-776 December 28th, 2009 at 7:54 pm [...]
June 30th, 2010 at 12:07 am
The Kindle electronic reader is an amazing device. I got one for my birthday, and I absolutely love it! I didn’t realize how many types of media are available. On top of reading books on it, I get my favorite magazines delivered to it now!
September 2nd, 2010 at 12:45 am
With smaller bezels, the 6-inch screen now dominates, plus there’s still plenty of room to hold it easily. The Kindle 3G is definitely worth it. I don’t see support for library books. Everyone wants that feature. Amazon should stop being shady not allowing EPub.
September 2nd, 2010 at 4:25 pm
I’m still not sold on these e-readers. I adore real books. How good can you really see in the dark? Don’t you get glare with LCD screens? Not sure how many are backlit. Thanks for showing us these issues.
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