GamePolitics Now Available on Kindle

The good:

Lightweight.  Not bulky like a laptop.  Netbooks might be a challenge to it, but still, it's small in comparison.

Not just the books or newpapers or blogs you download, but the new DX has a complete "Native PDF reader" so you can load up your own documents (and I think not just PDF but other formats too, might be wrong) to read over.  I don't think you can alter the document, but you can at least take personal research on the go.

Text to Speech ( but see "the ugly" ).  Nice for those who want, or more importantly NEED text to speech capabilities.

Looooong battery life.  In a mode that doesn't use lots of battery, such as backlighting, it supposedly can run for days on a single charge.  (But see "the bad".)

While some material is charged for, there are some items that are free.  Also, there are some materials that are Kindle only.  I think, for example, even Stephen King wrote a story that is available only on the Kindle.

Newbie authors have a chance now to try and sell their stuff because Amazon lets you publish your own material to Kindle.

According to the description, and techies will most likely correct me, but from what I read, you can download material from ANYWHERE, even with no wi-fi hotspot?  I don't understand the tech, but it sounds like you can be riding on a bus anywhere and just download. 

The Bad

Newbie authors are a dime a dozen now, most likely.  Be picky about what you choose.

Expensive as all get out.  No, really.  $300-$500 is a LOT of money right now.  Especially for something that has gone through what technically is 3 versions now (kindle 1, Kindle 2, and Kindle DX).

Though the battery is rechargeable, it's EXPENSIVE to replace.  You have to send the entire Kindle in to Amazon to have the battery replaced and reports are that when the warranty is out, it's over $80 to replace. 

The ugly

Text to Speech, thanks to the guttertrash in the Author's Guild, is now a choice of the author.  The Author's Guild claimed copyright violations because the Kindle could automatically read written material, supposedly in violation of a seperate copyright agreement regarding "audiobooks".  The Author's Guild suggested that those who had visual problems or other problems that prevented them from being able to read written material should be forced to sign up to a National Registry so they could receive special permission to have text-to-speech active for all material on Kindle.  I would rather see all the authors on a registry who don't want their material read by text-to-speech so we, the consumer, know who not to purchase from.

There argument claimed that they should be allowed to sel the audio version of their books and that people can buy the audio version, as opposed to having a mechanical device read it to them for free.

The big problems with their arguments is that the audiobooks tend to be massively more expensive than the written material (especailly if the audiobook is unabridged/uncondensed), meaning that those having difficulty reading a particular piece of work are forced to pay a higher rate, rather than the same rate, that someone who CAN read the written material.  And, in a great many cases, existing professional audiobooks and even newer ones tend to be abridged/condensed, so you tend to pay more for less in audiobook form than the written form.

So, basically, their arugment is about greed and bigotry (yes, bigotry) towards those who have difficulty reading written material.  Yes, there are people who would use the text to speech even though they didn't need to.  And it's also true that the text to speech isn't superior.  Anyone hear how President Obama's name was fouled up when the Kindle tried to read his name?

Really, many people don't/wouldn't use the text to speech, but obviously it's a big deal to many, me for one, obviously.  :)    And worse, even Amazon appears to try to sweep the discussion about the issue under the rug, even in the discussion forums.

Again, for most people, "The good" and the "The bad" and similar other issues for both are what matter.

But, tell me GP, is text to speech available for blogs and do YOU have it enabled or disabled?  Don't worry, I won't be mad (not that it would or should matter if I was).  Just disappointed if you have it disabled.

Nightwng2000

NW2K Software

Nightwng2000 has also updated his MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/nightwing2000 Nightwng2000 is now admin to the group "Parents For Education, Not Legislation" on MySpace as http://groups.myspace.com/pfenl