Kindle for PC

Amazon has just released a beta of software they call Kindle for PC. I’m not going to review the software itself. There are other sites that have done that (like ARS Technica, and CNet among others) but I’m going to describe my experience using it on an ASUS EEE PC 1005-HA, 10.1 inch screen, 1.66 mHz Atom rated at 10.5 hours battery life.

Last night, I downloaded this software onto my ASUS netbook and voila, I have a decent Kindle-Like-Device. I’ve read over one hundred pages of a novel on it so far. I found the experience to be quite acceptable.

The Kindle 2 weighs 10.2 ounces and the Kindle DX weighs 18.9 ounces. My ASUS 1005HA comes in at  2.8 pounds (40 ounces).  So, we’re four times as heavy as the small Kindle, and twice the weight of the DX. I don’t think I’d be holding the DX or the ASUS up in the air very long, but when I’m reading in bed, whether it’s a book or a netbook, I’m resting it on my legs anyway. So, the weight was not a major issue.

I find the screen to be easy to look at. Unlike the old days of the CRT, LCD screens are much easier on the eyes.  While I can’t compare it to e-ink, since I’ve never seen a Kindle in person, the important thing to me is whether I can stare at it for hours at a time, and the answer is yes. I’m sure the e-ink is better, but the netbook does the job, at least for me. (I have seen a Sony reader in person and the screen was nice, but I haven’t given it an extended test, like reading a hundred pages on it, so I can’t compare that experience.)

The screen on the netbook shows to be what I would guess is about half a page. For text, this is no problem. If I had a book with full page illustrations, I’m not sure how that would work.  As I read, I have my thumb over the right arrow key, and a quick press jumps me to the next page in less than the blink of an eye. That’s something the e-ink can’t quite do, so the netbook wins when it comes to page turning speed.

I did experiment with a rotated screen. The NVidia driver has the option to rotate, so I flipped it 90 degrees and tried that out. The reading was nice, but I found that the touch pad was not really usable as it did not rotate its orientation to match the screen. There’s a third party program called EEERotate that promises to rotate both the screen and touch pad, but I have not tried it yet. So, I rotated the screen back to normal and read in that orientation.

Battery life with the netbook is about 10.5 hours. I’ve not tested it completely, but I can tell you that I am getting good run times. The Kindle for PC software is not really very taxing, and the battery gauge was measuring accurately. On about a 50% charge, I was able to read for about four hours with some battery charge left over. So, I may get 8+ hours total.  That’s with bluetooth and wifi turned on. So, it’s not anywhere near the Kindle or the DX battery life, but it does the job. I can read for an evening on one charge and plug it in overnight so it’s ready for the next day.

There are quite a few free books on the Kindle store. Many authors will release the first book of a series as a free book, to try to hook the readers into buying the rest of the series. There are also a lot of public domain books. I’ve downloaded a few free books for now as I give the Kindle for PC software a try. Based on my experience so far, I would have to say that I will probably purchase some books from the Kindle store in the future.

If would love to get my hands on an actual Kindle 2 and a DX to test drive them. It would be nice to do a side by side comparison so I could decide if I want to bite the bullet and get a hardware Kindle. For now, I’ll stick with the software. Barnes & Noble also has eReader software. I’ve used it on a desktop PC, but haven’t tested it with my netbook yet. I’ll be doing that very soon. Stay tuned for my review of that.

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