I can live without a back light and would worry about eye fatigue as well if it had one. I will probably stick with a book light type apparatus.

Screen refresh time is something that will improve on v2 I hope as well. I would take 20% less battery life for snappier changes (along with a battery changing experience more like a laptop and less like a cordless phone, and I still want to pay $20 for it. Ok, $22.)

Your idea for creating a peer-to-peer market for second hand e-books is brilliant. That alone might make me overlook most other things.

Also, I would like something different on the Amazon homepage now…

@Wanderer - I would recommend this as a Kindle download: http://www.amazon.com/Anger-Wisdom-Cooling-Flames/dp/B000QUCO6C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1216578839&sr=1-1

@Wanderer - Wow, where to start. Telling me I “don’t get the concept” because I reference LCD? Please. Consumers DO NOT CARE about technology, they care about how products WORK FOR THEM. So comparing the speed of a screen refresh is 100% relevant, because a potential customer would WANT to know that it takes a bit longer than they are otherwise used to when they click a button. It’s called “helpful information” to the mega-millions of people who have never heard about e-ink technology and, more importantly, don’t care about WHY it’s different.

Regarding paying for blogs - again, consumers are used to free blog posts elsewhere. I don’t think it’s important to them that Amazon has a fee. Sure I understand full well the hows and whys, but that’s irrelevant to the average customer.

I am not comparing the Kindle relative to other products (which was, I thought, fairly obvious), I am comparing it to not buying one at all. So $359 to a guy who reads a lot but only buys used books is “costly”.

Lastly, I never claimed to be a “diligent researcher”. I used the product for two weeks, trying all the features I could find. There are plenty of other deep dives into the product you are welcome to read.

I don’t know who you are, but to take such clear offense with my review, which was not really all that negative (compared with my original post!), puts you into the category that I’ll label “fanboy” - someone willing to defend every single aspect of a product rather than acknowledge there are some flaws.

And it is sad that you feel the need to make such comments with such a tone. Totally unnecessary.

How could you miss the feature for changing the font size? Especially since you complained about it.

Did you ever read the manual?

And you obviously don’t get the concept if you compare the Kindle’s display with LCD and demand a backlight feature. If you have a backlight, you are forced to look into the light and the glare will cause eye fatigue very quickly. Most of the current Kindle users would have never bought it, if it had the feature in the first place.

Regarding being charged for free blogs - Amazon never imposes the user to subscribe them. I read blogs on my Kindle, but I transfer them manually, free of cost. (You can connect the Kindle to your PC and transfer blogs through some free softwares). But if you want blogs to be delivered to you Kindle, it is only fair that you should pay for the wireless connectivity. Amazon gives free wireless connectivity when you browse the web or check wikipedia or send mails from Kindle. They have to cover their costs from somewhere.

You never told why the Kindle feels overpriced? How many other eBook readers do you think are there in the market with book reading capability and instant download feature? Do you know that many authors/publishers promote books for free on Kindle - it has no cost attached and they reach a new audience without spending money. Some give the first of a series of books to entice readers.

There are more than 100,000 public domain books available for free.

You can convert most of your your personal documents (PDF, Word, HTML) and put in on Kindle.
How does the whole deal sounds costly?

It is sad that your article does not show any diligent research done for the piece and should not be filed under Gadgets or Product Reviews.