Amazon Kindle (wifi) and I know what you're thinking...

[curious aardvark]

'what's that mad limey up to now, how's he going to cook anything with an electronic book ????' Although you might not be thinking quite as polite as that

Now the main reason I initially wanted one is that I read a lot of books (3-4 a week, pretty much every week) I've been using my zaurus organisers for the last 10 years. To the extent that I've now worn out three keys on my current organiser and just can't afford to wear out any more.

I had a very good look at what was around and the new kindle is about as good as it gets and cheaper than everything else to boot !.






BUT (and here's where it starts to get relevant) it's not just fiction, At the moment I have 73 cookery and recipe books loaded on it. Most of them are searchable.



And it will either search through the book you have open, or from the home page through ALL the books you have on the kindle. Got 4 books on bread making and want a recipe for cinnamon rolls ? It'll search all 4 and show you which books have what.

That would be useful by itself but it gets better. You can make notes.

Find a recipe in a book and modify it slightly, just make a note in the book about what you've done.
Say you've used a sauce or rub from the bbq book for dummies (excellent book and not for dummies at all) and modified it, just add a note detailing the modifications.



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The keyboard is very good, the keys require a firm press so you don't often hit the wrong one. There are various shortcuts that help a lot too.




It gets better. The kindle will read: pdf (limited display options), txt & prc (kindle/mobipocket format) out of the box.
Also using the mobipocket publisher software (completely free) you can convert word files, pdfs, rtfs and html files directly to kindle format.

So while there is no actual word processor application - yet (more later) you can import all your recipes from your computer to the kindle and just make notes when you modify them.

Okay so why is this a better option than using your smartphone, netbook, laptop, ipod touch or ipad ?

Well quite simply all those other gadgets are multi purpose and like stuffing sausage with a grinder, sure it will work but it can be a PITA.
What you want is a dedicated stuffer - no question.

The really smart thing about the kindle and what sets it apart from all those other devices is the screen.

It's analog not digital. It is composed of tiny cells which contain an opaque white liquid and charged black particles. The black particles can be positively or negatively charged. In One state they float to the top giving a black dot on the screen and the other they go to the bottom and the liquid shows white.
Now, because this is an analog process the kindle ONLY uses any power when the charge state is changed.

In other words it only uses power when the screen changes.
A single charge will last for a week's heavy usage.
I'll say that again - you can use it for at least 7 days on a single charge.
And that includes playing music, letting it read books or recipes to you, web browsing, wikipedia searches etc

All those other devices require power just to have their screen on - thus even the best natured netbook or pad will only give you 8 hours of minimal use on a single charge.

So the kindle is as portable as a conventional book. Going camping for a week with no power, not a problem.
The screen is as easy to read as a normal book, and you can leave it on ALL the time (very useful if you are following a recipe) without using power :-)

There are a variety of cases available.
Ranging from very expensive ones from amazon to cheapo neoprene cases from other people.



The beauty of the neoprene is that not only does it protect the kindle but you can put the charge/usb cable in it as well :-)

Go to a mates house and you can copy your stuff to his computer and vice versa.

So what else can it do ?
It will play mp3's - the speakers have good volume and excellent sound reproduction, much better than I was expecting. As I mentioned earlier it will also do basic web browsing.



And it is basic - while I can get the home page, the forum won't run :-(

However it is directly linked to wikipedia - which I use a lot and that is seriously useful. It also has a special article mode that lets you read the wiki information in clear book page format.





It will also read a book to you. It's a bit electronicy, but the woman's voice on slow speed is very easy to understand.
Obviously it will also play podcasts, audiobooks and anything else that comes in mp3.

And that's all well and good, but I hear you cry, where do i get these books in the first place ?
Surely using amazons own book service is expensive and when I did look there weren't many cook books.

Weeellll, I'll have to have word with ken first before I can go into details, but PM me and it won't cost you anything :-)
There are ways and means of acquiring pretty much any book in publication as an ebook for literally - no money.
The only thing I've given amazon money for is the kindle itself



So what's the catch ?

The software, and it's not a big issue.
But, it has a sort of built screensaver it kicks in after 10 minutes of no buttons being pressed, you can can't switch it off or change the duration. Very annoying when you're following an involved recipe.
You also can't change the pictures and most of them are crap.

That's pretty much my only gripe. There is a patch available that lets you at least use your own pictures, but I've yet to see anyone apply it to the new kindles and I'm not frying mine on the offchance :-)

The Future.

Amazon have finally released a kit for producing applications that will run on the kindle.
Given the userbase and the great keyboard I'm pretty sure that someone will bring out a basic wordprocessing app fairly soon. As well as a screensaver control app ('cos I have yet to read a post or review by anyone that doesn't mention how crap the existing situation is) .

So if you've been looking for something to keep track of your recipes, or maybe you hadn't thought about it all but now thnk it could be a good idea.

The kindle is currently the best that's available.

And you can read fiction on it too (again pm - it's all free ;-)

[lynsey123]

I think that's very cool CA, very cool indeed.

[Scarbelly]

Very cool CA -but you sound like you spend way too much time in the uh reading room 2-3 books a week man you must be sportin some roids for sure

[Pandemonium]

Great review of what it does!!

[ALX]

I have to give ..1 cup ketchup etc...

You are a gem Alexander........

Nice review too........

[Mark R]

Absolutely awesome review! My laptop just crapped out and I've been looking for an alternative for recipes, sounds perfect...except the screen saver function.

[MossyMO]

Wow, great review! When I got to Amazon I see them new for $139 to $389 and I'm not a techy type person, why the big price gap?

[Mark R]

Wow, great review! When I got to Amazon I see them new for $139 to $389 and I'm not a techy type person, why the big price gap?

Go to Office Depot, ad in this mornings paper $139 & $149.

[curious aardvark]

lol no I don't read in the 'roid room'.

I fix, build, network and disenfect pc's for a living (at the moment lol).
And there is nothing more tedious than sitting watching virus scans crawl across the screen for hours on end - so I read books.

Plus I'd always much rather read a good book than watch some bad television :-)

Right, price difference.

The Older model kindles were very expensive.
The two new models are sensibly priced. This probably accounts for the differences.

The cheaper model (what I have) is wifi only - which is all I need.
The slightly more expensive model has built in cell phone technology. So you get internet access and (more important from amazon's point of view) access to the amazon shop anywhere you can pick up cell phone reception.
You don't pay for it so it might be worth considering, for the extra $30 or so.

I thought about it, but in the end the wifi version has better battery life and I'm not going to be buying books from amazon anyway.

Yeah the screensaver thing is annoying and let's face it - pointless.
You can't get screen burn with e-ink. IT just seems to be a way of amazon asserting there presence on a piece of kit you own.
It also cuts down your battery life.

And it is annoying to have to flick the switch to get back to your recipe after only 10 minutes.
But that said it's still the best bit of kit around. And given the massive amount of kindles that are being sold worldwide and the universal annoyance being shown about the 'screensaver' and the crappy pictures, changes are pretty much a dead cert.

[Richtee]

Very cool CA -but you sound like you spend way too much time in the uh reading room 2-3 books a week man you must be sportin some roids for sure

Some of us folks actually read in other places than the john, yanno

Nice... I got a good look at the iPad yesterday- and yer right- it probably does more than I really want it to, and BIG bux.

[DDave]

Excellent review, Alex.

And there is nothing more tedious than sitting watching virus scans crawl across the screen for hours on end

Man, you got that right.

Dave

[curious aardvark]

one thing I did forget to mention and that i find particularly cool.
It remembers where you are in all the books you've opened.

It's not unknown for me to read 2 books at the same time, the kindle keeps track of all the books i've looked at and takes me back to the same page each time.

You can also easily navigate around the books by page number, bookmarks and just searching them.

With a basic notepad or wordprocessor and control of the screensaver I'd say it's close to being the first true universal book :-)

You can sort of get round the lack of a word processor.
Just create a blank txt document and add lots of notes to it. You can then extract those notes to their own document. a little involved, but for jotting down recipes and mathods as you go - perfectly useable.

Oh and the screen seesm to be pretty tough, feels solid and doesn't have that dodgy flexibility of a lcd.

[Fishawn]

Very Cool...... Technology is amazing.

[flyin' illini]

CA - my bro loves his. If I were still traveling heavy I would have one for sure.

[Bbqgoddess]

Alex.. incredible review~ thank you so much!