Kindle software update

I got good news the other day - the software for the Kindle has been updated.  They also dropped the price of the Kindle DX to $350, and offer it in black.


Software updates to several things -

you can now create a "collection" of books.  One book can belong to multiple collections.  This is nice, I can now create a collection of books for each class.

PDF reading has been improved, it supports more magnifications, pan and scroll.

Comments can now be shared with facebook and twitter (who cares? I don't).

There are now more font sizes (and a new style) to make reading easier.

There are other little tweaks, but that's the big ones. 

One down-side?  When I highlight something and want to type a note, it's a much slower process before I can begin typing.  I have to hit a key, then wait for the window to pop up and the letter appear before I begin typing the full message.

Questions from a reader

This is a reply I send to someone asking me for my opinion on the 4 main ebook readers - Kindle, iPad, Nook and Sony e-reader.  I thought others might be curious, so here's my reply.

The Nook was not a real product when I bought my Kindle.  Reviews sound like I still made a good choice.  Barnes & Noble is big, but they have too many physical offices to stay competitive.  They're just jumping on a bandwagon, and I don't like to buy a first generation product.

The iPad has promise, but..... it wasn't announced until after I took delivery of my Kindle.  It didn't ship the first unit until a month later.  It requires iTunes to transfer data.  The Kindle I can attach to any computer with no special software (iTunes) or configuration issues.  I would not be able to attach the iPad to the school computers, basically.  Many of the "software" problems I saw on first use of the iPad have been fixed.  I'm expecting major changes to the way the iPad works this fall, and I bet it comes with new hardware.  Maybe I'll buy one then, but even if they get it perfect, I still may not buy one.

The Sony - it sounds good, the reviews were pretty good.  But.... I wanted the large screen of the Kindle DX.

I needed something RIGHT THEN that did ebooks, pdf documents.  The word processing and web surfing of the iPad would be nice, but, oh well.