Days are long, but years are short.

The Kindle is a no-nonsense product. it’s sole purpose is providing me with readable eBooks.. and it does this near perfect: I’ve just entered my Amazon account, books got automatically synchronised and the Big Reading was started. Connectivity is provided through Amazon Whispernet so no further configuration is needed: no activation, no SIM card, no mandatory initialisation with a computer. Just start reading.

The product feels very much as an anti iPad: it has one use-case and solves this perfectly. It does not try to stun by beauty but inspires it through its pure usability. Except it’s linkage to the Amazon account it is more open than expected, e.g. how to get files onto it? Connect a micro-USB cable and copy mp3s or pdfs on the USB device. done.

The hardware itself fades into the background. The screen is gorgeous, the plastic on it’s back less so. But after you’ve read one page you stop to notice. The keyboard, which at first looked de-placed for this kind of device, is well placed: it allows to hold the Kindle in an easy and natural manner. Without it the Kindle would “feel” to top-heavy or my hand would get in the way of the display. To be completely honest, I actually prefer reading the Kindle to traditional books.

The kindle was designed for reading, every other use cases seem to have been neglected: the obvious example is the mp3 playback support.  understand that some engineer thought that background audio might be a sweet feature but the current implementation? Mediocre at best, farcical at worst. Very weak, at least they have hidden it away under the ‘experimental’ section.

Is it stylish? It depends. It’s not a dark library with heavy tome after tome, lightened by reading lights. It won’t impress visitors. But it provides zen-like access to books. From everywhere. The three words that describe the experience best are: Purposeful, pure Simplicity and Independence.

Count me in.