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Tuesday, November 20, 2007

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My Family's Impressions of the Kindle

- Rob Bushway

Here are some initial impressions from my family after using the Kindle tonight:

Without showing any of them how to use it, they instinctively wanted to touch menu options rather than use the scroller to navigate and select.
My 13 year-old son, Dax, and 11 year-old daughter, Maggie, immediately commented how useful it would be in school if they could get all of their text books on it.
My wife didn't think she would use it - she is an avid reader. She prefers real books
Everyone remarked how small and light it was, and how crisp the screen was.
My step-father told me that it wouldn't be a good solution for doing a research, since he prefers to lay a lot of books out on the table at once. For me, though, it would be a good solution for that.
I told my wife it was a great device for taking somewhere like church, since it was quiet and I had the Bible on it. She asked me why I would want to do that.

For what it is worth - impressions from non-techie folks - folks I think Amazon is trying to reach with the Kindle.

Watch Part 1 and Part 2 of the Amazon Kindle videos.

Hardware | Kindle | Ebooks

11/20/2007 6:15 PM MST

My Family's Impressions of the Kindle Comments [5] | Digg This | del.icio.us | Citations

Tuesday, November 20, 2007 9:26:43 PM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)

I can see having more than one (when the price falls) for that kind of research -- just as i use multiple monitors now.

Cuhulin

Wednesday, November 21, 2007 2:10:13 AM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)

I'm glad you took the time to solicit these views from "ordinary" folk - it is always salutary to learn that other people have valid concerns and misgivings about stuff that "techie" folk like us instantly swoon over. Perhaps some of the other notable mobile technology blogs can take this thought on board as they begin to swoon and rave....or maybe not!

Bill

Wednesday, November 21, 2007 3:46:57 AM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)

If you want to talk to someone with a lot of experience using electronic libraries, try surveying local pastors. They've been using sofware like Libronix (Logos), Bibleworks, Accordance, etc. for years and years, often with rather extensive libraries: not just a few Bible translations, but commentaries, grammars, lexicons, theological reference works, journals, etc. I'm not a pastor myself, but I'm what I guess you could call an enthusiastic layman, having a fairly extensive Libronix library (see www.logos.com}. While you do lose the ability to spread out a lot of resources in front of you at once, what you gains 'in the ability to search, annotate, and perhaps more importantly, pick up a couple thousand books and take with you to the coffee shop more than makes up for the disadvantages.

Jeff Jackson

Wednesday, November 21, 2007 5:30:02 AM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)

Your son and daughter are definitely smart kids!

LOL @ your wife though. I know lots of people who feel like that towards technology and books. It's always an emotional attachment to them with arguments like "the tactile sensation is just better" and "books suck you in, and technology just gets in the way." Bibleworks is a fantastic program, and having similar functionality on the Kindle makes it very appealing since you can not only annotate but do further analysis and study of content.

All in all, I think this proves two things:

1) Kids are much more in-tune with technology than most adults and are therefore more willing to embrace it and recognize potential uses.
2) The education sector is where this device has the most potential to shine. They need to get textbook makers on-board ASAP.

GoodThings2Life

Friday, November 23, 2007 6:37:40 AM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)

"I told my wife it was a great device for taking somewhere like church, since it was quiet and I had the Bible on it. She asked me why I would want to do that."

LOL @ you! I think a Bible is quiet enough too... and cheaper. But it won't make you the centre of attention I guess...

Anon

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