My Kindle DX and I

I've fielded more questions about my Kindle, and how I use it in Australia, than just about anything else I've mentioned on Twitter so I thought I'd put the information in a blog post.

After October 7 this information is really only useful if you want a Kindle DX - if you're happy with the smaller Kindle then you should buy an internationalised version and avoid all the issues I'll describe.

Why a Kindle?

Books are heavy, and I often want to carry around more than one for reference, especially if I'm doing some writing. At lot of the things I want to read these days are also in PDF and I haven't found a good way to read those - I end up reading a lot either on public transport or just before bed and my laptop isn't convenient in those environments. I tried using my iPhone to read PDFs but that doesn't work for me (other people seem very happy).

The Kindle is great for reading material that's been formatted for the device - I haven't found it to be that good for PDFs (more on that later). It's much better for me than either my laptop or my iPhone. The screen has great contrast, a huge viewing angle, and when I first opened the box I couldn't believe the starting image was being displayed on something electronic.

First Problem

The first problem is that Amazon won't sell you a Kindle DX if your shipping address is outside this USA. My first solution was to have one shipped to a friend in the USA and then shipped on to me, but it turns out that there are people on eBay who can help. My KIndle DX arrived in the original Amazon packaging, with the original seals intact, with a new shipping wrapper pasted over the original.

Charging

The Kindle arrives with a USA style power adapter, but the approach is the same as the iPhone - it's a USB connecter that plugs into the adapter. Since I already have an iPhone charger I can plug into that, or I can charge from my computer.

The Kindle is fairly frugal with power. Since you won't be using WhisperNet you can turn off the wireless connection to reduce battery use. The screen is bi-stable, so it only uses power when you move from one page to another. I charged my Kindle last Friday night - it's currently Thursday morning and I'm still using it happily.

Content

Amazon (who I'll get to later) isn't the only source of content for your Kindle. You can use .mobi files from other sources, or PDFs. For example, I buy combo packs from the Pragmatic Programmers, so I have .mobi versions of all of their books, and their magazine comes out in the same format.

If you want to buy content from Amazon you won't be able to do it with an Australian credit card/address. I've set up a separate Amazon account for my Kindle purchases and given it my old Brooklyn address (you can use that too if you ask me nicely). I buy an Amazon gift voucher on my Australian account and then use the gift card to buy the content on my Amazon Kindle account. It's an extra step, but it's not really that much of a problem. I download the content to my laptop and transfer it to my Kindle via USB (the Kindle looks like any other disk drive).

Carrying an extra device

Yes, it's one more device, but I've put my Kindle in the back pocket of my backpack and I really don't notice the extra weight at all. It's always there if I want to read, and I use it with one hand even if I'm standing on public transport.

Summary

There's no economic reason for me to have a Kindle, but I'm really enjoying the experience. The proof of the Kindle pudding will be how it scales to having the majority of my library on a device I carry around with me. I suspect that this will change the way I treat information.