Yes, that is my Kindle. No, those are not my Birkenstocks.

A little over a year ago I posted (and apparently inspired a web comic) about why I had purchased an Amazon Kindle and how in spite of design glitches and only around half of my fiction wish list being available I loved it. I told you I would let you know if I ever let it out of my sight, so as promised, I’m telling you that I gave my Kindle away.

And purchased a Kindle 2.

195 digital books after that original Kindle post, the Kindle has succeeded where other electronic reading devices failed miserably. (I’m looking at you, Rocket eBook, and you Microsoft Reader on my laptop, and you too Fictionwise on my iPhone…and whatever those other two devices in a box in my studio are – I lost your cables years ago.) Over a year later I’m still on the Kindle platform though I’ve upgraded to the sleek sexiness of the Kindle 2. How sexy is it? Pretty damn sexy. I’ve had more people ask to hold my Kindle 2 than ever asked about my first generation iPhone, and carrying that iPhone used to be like dragging meat around at the zoo.

Kindle vs. Kindle 2

My biggest complaint with the original Kindle was the physical design. The pointy corners dug into my hands during long reading sessions and due to the position of the buttons it was too easy to turn pages accidentally. It was also butt ugly. These problems are gone with the 2nd generation Kindle. Corners are rounded and the outer edges of the buttons no longer activate a page turn so you can safely sneeze (gads, not on the screen!) while reading without winding up 5 pages deeper in the book than you were a second ago. It’s got a new brushed aluminum back and it no longer feels like a cheap plastic toy. (My husband says it’s “heavy”. I’ve got to get that boy into the gym.) The number of Kindle titles has increased too, now most of my fiction wishlist is available instead of the “about half” I could find a year ago.

Killer App

The real “killer app” though? Kindle for the iPhone. Sure, the Kindle is small enough to toss in your backpack, messenger bag or pretty much any handbag capable of holding a paperback, but after over a decade of lugging a backpack with a laptop and multiple fat technology related books around I go out without a bag a lot these days. (Note: Retirement + freelancing == kick ass.) Kindle books on the iPhone are very (surprisingly) readable and the app is a breeze to use. Few things frustrate me more than sitting and waiting wherever with nothing to do but now I’ve got a book wherever I go even if I forget to grab my Kindle.

So What’s Not to Love?

I had nothing but love for my Kindle 2 until @wrox came along and asked those of us who were programmers and also Kindle owners to give some feedback on code samples in Kindle books. I love a nicely formatted code sample and own a motherload of physical coding books, so I jumped at the chance.

Ouch.

There are at least a couple of ways to format a code sample for Kindle. One is to insert the code as an image, the sample I expected to like the best. This maintains line breaks but on the Kindle 2 the image is very small. A zoom feature is offered, but when zoomed the image is pale and fuzzy. The other way we looked at was a mono code font, this was easier to read but unlike a physical Wrox book where the code space is apparently 82 characters wide the Kindle only offers ~47 characters (and that is dependent upon the font size you select when reading) which causes line breaks and can make the code harder to read. This type of code sample is searchable though. Either way, I wasn’t exactly happy with the usability of a programming book on the Kindle. When it comes to programming and design books, I’m pinning my hopes on the “Optimized For Kindle DX” treatment, a Kindle format meant for “complex layouts” and graphics-heavy books aimed at the new larger screened Kindle DX with the auto-rotate feature.

The Kindle DX

Yup, I’m going to buy another Kindle, a DX. Annotating, bookmarking and searching my programming references? Irresistible. It’s a little big for carrying around on errand day but hey, I’ve got my iPhone for that. I’ll hand my Kindle 2 down to my husband, he could use the upper body workout.