[dennishenley]

6555 said:

I can't imagine the reading experience that much different than reading ebooks on the iPhone.

The reading experience is utterly different on the Kindle than it is on the iPhone. The Kindle was built to be an ebook reader. The iPhone is built to be a Swiss Army Knife. But seriously, would anyone use the pair of scissors that comes with a Swiss Army Knife when you could use an actual pair of scissors?

The Swiss Army Knife philosophy is that we'll give you all the tools you might conceivably need, but they won't be full size and you'll really only want to use them in an emergency.

Sure you can read an ebook on an iPhone. But when the Kindle does the same job so much better, why settle?

[dbutenhof]

[quote name='dennishenley']
>

6555 said:

> I can't imagine the reading experience that much different than reading ebooks on the iPhone.

The reading experience is utterly different on the Kindle than it is on the iPhone. The Kindle was built to be an ebook reader. The iPhone is built to be a Swiss Army Knife. But seriously, would anyone use the pair of scissors that comes with a Swiss Army Knife when you could use an actual pair of scissors?

The Swiss Army Knife philosophy is that we'll give you all the tools you might conceivably need, but they won't be full size and you'll really only want to use them in an emergency.

Sure you can read an ebook on an iPhone. But when the Kindle does the same job so much better, why settle?

While there are a lot of places that argument might apply, in general iPhone tools are not "poor replacements" for something else; it's a real iPod with a nicer and more flexible interface, it's a excellent phone, and it's something of a general purpose Mac for games and utilities. (And there are plenty of people who disagree, or don't "get" it, but that's completely irrelevant here. ;-) )

Where Kindle excels is an entirely different cut at feature. It's not that the Kindle's interface presents a better looking book, or that the controls make book navigation easier, than iPhone. It's that the stable, low power, sharp, and, well, paper-like e-ink display presents something that is as much like a real book as you can reasonably expect in an electronic device, and the experience is completely unlike reading the same book on a backlit LCD display. Unless you've held a Kindle (or Sony e-ink reader) in your hands and watched the printed pages, you can't imagine that distinction. Many of us may be willing to compromise because we don't like the expense, or bulk, of a Kindle; but those people should be sure they really understand what a Kindle is before dismissing it.

Clearly you and other Kindle fans (including my father) understand, and feel the expense and bulk are justifiable. I do understand... but I'm not ready to justify that leap. Clearly there are also a lot of people here who just don't understand; but telling them won't make any difference. They'll either experience it, or they won't.

[MrMarbles]

You're right about the price being high. But you're not locked into eBooks from Amazon. There are many free eBooks from other sources that you can put on the Kindle via the USB port. If they aren't in "mobi" or "Kindle" (.azw) format just use Stanza or Calibre to convert them. I've found that this web site http://feedbooks.com/ has the most complete formatting for the Kindle, and you can even download the books using the EVDO (wireless) method. Information on how to do that is on this page http://feedbooks.com.../kindle#mobile.

I've added 100's of books to my Kindle but so far I've only spent $5.79. Some of the books were free downloads from Amazon, too, including a few recently published SciFi novels from noted authors (Charles Stross, Peter Watts).

So, the Kindle is expensive but the books don't have to be.

[Link33]

>Clearly there are also a lot of people here who just don't understand; but telling them won't make any difference. They'll either experience it, or they won't.

The truth in that statement is sad for me. I'm sure I would scrape and save a lot of pennies to get a Kindle 2 if I laid my hands on one. But what local store can I try one out at?

As an aside= it would be groovy if Amazon offered free or discounted digital versions of real books you bought from them. Or on future orders of printed books, a $0.99 fee to get the digital version as well.

Link33

[varase]

dbutenhof said:

Where Kindle excels is an entirely different cut at feature. It's not that the Kindle's interface presents a better looking book, or that the controls make book navigation easier, than iPhone. It's that the stable, low power, sharp, and, well, paper-like e-ink display presents something that is as much like a real book as you can reasonably expect in an electronic device, and the experience is completely unlike reading the same book on a backlit LCD display. Unless you've held a Kindle (or Sony e-ink reader) in your hands and watched the printed pages, you can't imagine that distinction. Many of us may be willing to compromise because we don't like the expense, or bulk, of a Kindle; but those people should be sure they really understand what a Kindle is before dismissing it.

Okay, so the ebook has a different texture - that's not to say one's better than the other.

Kindle has a non-backlit display so it more readily simulates paper - but I can read my iphone held landscape in bed over my head in the darkness without having to worry about waking/disturbing my sleeping spouse (or decapitating myself when sleep sneaks up on me).

I've been reading ebooks on my PDA ever since my lowly Palm III ... way before Amazon thought it'd be a good idea to publish ebooks.

I've gotten quite used to the small form factor and am delighted by the general utility of the iPhone and the eReader app. This is the first time I can recall that I've bought a device which actually reduced my gadget count!

[nschively]

I think your missing a couple of things, here.
1. It's really disingenuous to say "my mission is to evaluate Kindle on its merits as a stand-alone iPhone app. And I cannot help but compare the Kindle app to Stanza" - and then knock it because it doesn't have note-taking ability - which the Kindle does and Stanza does not. You admit that, but then you aren't really evaluating it as a standalone and against Stanza.
2. I also think it's a huge shortcoming of your review to NOT judge this in terms of its intersection with the Kindle. Yes, as a standalone, the Kindle App comes up short to Stanza in a number of ways.
What you miss is the way the Kindle App works with a) Kindle and, ultimately, b) your Amazon account. Therein lies its real power, which obviates some of the Kindle services "shortcomings." This power also gives real flexibility to Kindle users and non-users.
On one hand, the Kindle App works as a great "second device" for Kindle content. My wife is a devoted Kindle fan, and loves the app because it allows her what tokerud above refers to. When she's carved out time to read - just before bed, at the beach, on a long trip - she uses the Kindle for its eInk readability (and frankly, if you can't imagine that the difference between reading eInk and an iPhone screen - you haven't read eInk) and notation and bookmarking abilities. And then - to crush the complaints of anti-Kindleites - she now has an iPhone App to access the very same content, and the real catch - it'll sync back "across all devices" - when she's at work, in line, and in general didn't want to lug the Kindle around.
I like it because - now I have a device with which I can access her content - thus essentially "sharing" her books, another frequent complaint. I'll prolly be keeping Stanza, because it works well with some of the older stuff I want to read that's available on Gutenberg (and frankly, that Gutenberg retrieval is slick), but now I don't have to rip the Kindle from her hands to read some of the new stuff she's recommended I read.
My friend - who has coveted a Kindle for awhile - LOVES it because he doesn't have to drop $359 to get a device to get Kindle material.
For that functionality, I'm not sure I give two figs about the ability to read in landscape and change typeface and margins; search is a little more of a problem, but still not enough of a detraction - and one that will likely be ironed out - for the abilities. While Stanza can bookmark, you yourself noted that it's search abilities are "quirky" - so....