The folks at Fisher-Price really outdid themselves. Along with See 'n Say, toddlers around the world can have their very own e-book reader. What? Fisher-Price didn't make the Amazon Kindle?
Okay, with that comment out of the way, I'll give you my trip through Kindle land with a few start-up pointers along the way.
As many of you know, I am an American living in Canada, my host country. I keep an American address and a few American credit cards active for the odd time you can't get something in Canada or they won't sell/ship into Canada. Visa and Mailboxes, etc (now the UPS Store) equals no problem.
When the device went on sale, I placed an order. I ordered it last Monday (Nov 19th) and it was waiting for me at the UPS Store in Niagara Falls by Thursday. Saturday morning, I drove down to Niagara Falls to pick the device up.
Packaging. The box was really nicely done. It did actually look like a bunch of Ipod package designers spent some time on this. The box itself opened up like a book, left side was the guide, power/USB cables, and the right side was the See 'n Say, sorry, the Kindle itself. It had almost a full charge out of the box and the wireless button was switched to the on position while, obviously, the power was off.
Start-Up Note for You: Think through the issues from the perspective of the tech support calls. Having the button in the on position saves the calls from the person who doesn't read the manual. Yes, it is clearly labeled and yes, it is right next to the power switch but it doesn't matter. You can be sure this saved a few calls.
Prior to the device showing up, I got a welcome piece of email from Amazon telling me it was configured against my Amazon account, if I wanted to give it as gift I'd have to unregister it, etc, etc. After using my Blackberry GPS to chase down the nearest Starbucks (over by the Casino), I settled in to play with this puppy.
There have been a zillion people out there giving feedback on the device's overall feel and I'm in the camp of surprise as well. I own a Sony E-Reader and if it wasn't for the limited selection, I'd have completely ignored the Kindle. The Sony device is solid, lightweight, lots of battery power, great screen, a memory slot and just works great. The kindle has weird ergonomics that I just don't understand. It is almost impossible to hold the device without hitting a page up or back. You can't put it down and pick it up without being extremely careful. Because the buttons on the left/right side amount to space bar like interactions, they just feel flimsy.
This isn't fatal, just surprising.
The wireless, as you know, rides on top of Verizon's Sprint's system. It worked perfectly and flawlessly. I was up and on the Amazon side in seconds.
First Gotcha: All of the purchases are one click and you own it. When buying over the air, you get a confirmation screen and an option to undo the purchase. I don't think you can kill a one-click kindle order on the website when coming in via your PC. I was all set to purchase my first book, The Book of General Ignorance, otherwise known as the VC 2.0 Manual. I pressed on the buy it and I got the sorry, you can't do this, call support. I had a suspicion this was going to happen and knew the work around but, what the heck, let's see how the phone support is working.
I called the toll-free number and within 3 rings was talking to a human. He asked for my order number, confirmed it was me by asking about that wild night in Muncie, Indiana and asked what the problem was. I told him I was in the store wirelessly, all looked good except Amazon didn't want my money. He asked if the credit card on the 1-click was Canadian, I said, yep but I have a U.S. tied to U.S. Address as an alternate. Try it. It worked. I figured as much but that was the simple work around.
The download was done in seconds and I was ready to go. I also downloaded a few other books including the ever popular "The Men's Guide to the Women's Bathroom" (what?), the New York Times subscription, and the Fortune Magazine subscription. With profuse apologies to Michael Arrington, I did not fork over the $1.99 per month for TechCrunch.
Like the Sony device, the screen is crisp and works in direct sunlight. The next/previous page buttons work, and when you are sitting in a comfy chair, you can just flip away, reading, without really thinking about the device. In an odd sort of way, the kindle does stay out of your way or 'melts away' as Jeff likes to say. So the design and Fisher-Price feel really doesn't bother me.
The wireless doesn't work in Canada or anywhere outside the U.S. yet. If you live in Windsor, Ontario, go down by the river, you get coverage. If you live on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, works fine. In fact, you can stand and watch the falls in Canada while downloading said book about the Women's bathroom. About 3 miles into Canada, you're done.
The alternative is go onto Amazon and just buy the stuff for direct download into your device via a USB connection to a PC. For the newspapers, this isn't automatic which detracts from the device and if you really want nothing to do with a PC, this isn't an option for you. As I travel a ton into the US, I'm fine either way.
Second Gotcha: Fortune Magazine has a story about the PayPal Mafia. Peter Theil and crew, etc, etc. There is a complex chart showing all the relationships and investments, etc, on page 102. I know it is complex because inside my kindle version, I don't get the chart. Instead, I'm told to either look at the PDF version, which I don't get, or go buy the printed copy. Fatal? Maybe. At $1.50 a month, you get "most" articles. The problem is you don't know what "most" actually is. In the case of the New York Times, you get all the articles but not images and tables nor some of the features like the classifieds, crossword puzzle, etc. This is going to be interesting to watch develop. As I've mentioned, I have the Sony device, the kindle and Zinio on my laptop. For me, Zinio reigns supreme when it comes to reading magazines. They are exact and laid out perfectly.
I can tell you that being able to read the NYT on this device while taking the train into work is pretty cool. I can live without the pictures, I guess. We will see over the next two weeks.
One Ding: If you go on this page, you will see (at the time of this writing) the most helpful review as having been written by "Eclectic Homeschool Mom." She had it for six weeks and, obviously, a careful reader with some grasp of math would know that she was a beta user. What bugs me is that she didn't disclose it and the Amazon review squad didn't catch it. She did say she was a tester but only after another person directly asked if she paid for the device. As the reviews pour in and random people take a quick look, they won't know. In my opinion, all the beta users should, up front, disclose the beta status. Amazon should have required it or tagged the reviews as comments from our beta users.
Start-Up Note for You: Transparency is the watch word these days. Don't let something silly like this happen when you are doing your beta testing, etc.
Overall: If you are an avid reader, the device is pretty neat. A really, really avid reader. Think of it this way. Figure a hard back book is around 20 bucks. The kindle versions are, for the most part, 10. You are in for 400 dollars already with the purchase of the device. If you by 40 kindle books at ten bucks each, it will be the same as 40 hard back books at 20 bucks each, without accounting for shipping, taxes, etc.
I know. It's this kind of weird voodoo economics that gets both Governments and Venture Capitalists in trouble.
Bonus details for Canadians Only
I left Toronto Saturday morning down the QEW. The bridge lines around 7a were 2 hours backed up. Enter the NEXUS card and the Whirlpool Bridge which is for, ta da, NEXUS card holders only. No waiting, zero, none, easy. Get a NEXUS card. On the return, since the device is going to end up at a US portfolio company, I declared it as an business/sample tool which was going to back to the US. The customs lady was way more interested in what I paid for the 12 pack of Scott Toilet Tissue and why I was buying it in the US vs. Canada. That's a story for another day.
Special thanks to my daughter, Rachel, for the "Baby's first e-book" line. It was hilarious when she examined the device and made the comment.
Nice review Rick. One nit - it's Sprint, not Verizon who supplies the EVDO connectivity to Amazon.
Your voodoo math notwithstanding, I think Kindle delivers a lot of value. As I do buy a lot of books, the cost justification was pretty easy for me aided and abetted by the fact that I travel a lot and the portability of an eBook reader has always been a big plus for me. I've tried most of the predecessors to Kindle and have found them lacking in one way or another. This device, while hardly perfect, is the best attempt yet.
Posted by: Marc Orchant | November 26, 2007 at 06:35
Hi Marc,
Oops. Sorry Sprint. Why did I think it was the mighty V? I agree with you on value for me as well. And, I like these devices, they keep getting better.
Thanks for stopping by.
Posted by: Rick Segal | November 26, 2007 at 06:45
I wanted to make a comment about the fact that you keep an American address. Don't know if you ever looked into a mail forwarding company or not, but it could save you a lot of money when sending things to Canada. If you have an address that is just over the border, then it will certainly be cheaper than shipping. However, I use a company called Bongo International http://www.bongous.com to handle all the international shipments for my company. They consolidate any purchases you make in the US and put them into one box. Then, upon your request, they will forward all of your stuff to you. Their rates are very good too. Check out this article that does a good job of explaining the difference between Bongo and their competitors...http://shipping-guru.tumblr.com/
Posted by: Cindy Terwill | November 27, 2007 at 04:04