Aaron Armstrong's thoughts on the Kindle

I have a Kobo ereader. I very impressed with it. In this post, Aaron Armstrong shares some positives about the Kindle:

Paper vs Pixels 2: 3 Things I Like About My Kindle

Some time ago, I wrote about my experiences reading using the Kindle app on my iPhone and my Macbook Pro in an effort to sort out whether or not to go electronic with a lot of my reading. At the end of November, I finally purchased a Kindle and have been using it steadily since then for the majority of my reading (although certainly not all). Here are a few things that I’ve really enjoyed about my experience so far:

1. The Kindle is a dedicated product. It does one thing—displays books—and does it really well. Yeah, it’s got the web browser as well, but really, unless I’m connecting to wifi at Starbucks, I don’t use the thing for any web surfing (that’s what my laptop is for). The biggest advantage to this is that it prevents distraction. I can focus on reading my book without being tempted to go and fart around on Facebook or Twitter. This is very nice.

2. The e-Ink display is really easy on the eyes. My longest sitting with the Kindle has been about an hour and I’ve been really pleased that I haven’t had any issues with headaches or eye strain. I rarely go more than 30 minutes on my laptop before I have to take a break (which I hear is good for you to do anyway, but…). The text is nice and crisp and the occasional screen flashes when “turning” pages is barely noticeable. I was also surprised to find that the default font is surprisingly attractive (I kind of expected it to be really lame. Not comic sans lame, but lame nonetheless).

3. Everything is so convenient. Whether it’s accessing and sharing notes and highlights, purchasing books or digging through my existing library, this part of the Kindle experience has been excellent. The most important of these—my one “must”—has been accessing my highlights. Given that a huge amount of my reading is for review purposes, book research and professional development, I need to be able to access them easily. The Kindle allows me to do exactly that and so far no other device that I’ve seen (outside of the iBooks app, of course) makes it easy for me.

Those are the three big positive things that come to mind as I’ve been looking back on my Kindle experience over the few weeks—although the switch hasn’t been all smiles and sunshine. While none are enough the make me hesitate in recommending you purchase one if you’re considering it, there are a couple of things I struggle with when it comes to the Kindle. I’ll share those tomorrow.