It has been a little more than 3 weeks now that I have been using my Kindle 3 and I have loved every day of it! It is an absolute joy to read a book and seamlessly got to another one once I done with it or if I just need a change from a certain book. The best part is, it fits right into my trouser pocket. This helps a lot while travelling in the Mumbai trains and buses as I don’t need to put it back in my bag everytime.
I have been able to use most of the feature till now except the music player. But this only shows that the quality of the reader is so good that I don’t really care about the music that much. I have my cell phone for that. I have been using Calibre as my ebook management software. It has worked like a charm all this while. It has helped me tag and sort all my ebooks. It also converts all my ebooks (except PDF) into the format which Kindle would understand. PDFs have to be copied as is and are also read as is. The best feature however by a country mile for me is its ability to download feeds from news sites and compile them into an ebook format with a table of contents! This I have configured to be mailed directly from Calibre to my kindle email id, which automatically converts them into the .AZW format. These books are then put into my archives and downloaded the next time I connect via WiFi. This email conversion feature is however chargeable if you have bought a 3G Kindle.
The browser is something that I have been asked about by a few people. The Webkit browser is pretty cool in its basic abilities. It is however a little cumbersome to do anything more than read on it. So you can read your mails and login to your facebook/twitter accounts to read updates and maybe tweet a little. Reading blogs is easy with the ‘Article Mode’ feature enabled. It clips the blogs by removing side images and making it easy to read. But anything other than black text again becomes a little difficult to read. Apart from this, the best idea is to browse mobile avatars of traditional sites (like m.gmail.com) and they would be a breeze to read. But I would discourage anyone who wants to buy this based on the ability to browse. It is a workable feature but not robust enough to be a selling point yet. Buy it for its ability to be the best at being an ebook reader.
I have not heard from Amazon yet about my customs refund and hence have no update on that.
To sum it up, I am more than happy about my Kindle. What I do not like that much is the stares I get when I am reading in public. What I hate more is the number of people who stop me from reading by asking me questions about the thing I am holding in my hand. I would really recommend everyone to buy a cover if you can afford it. I did not and am going to buy one soon. I doubt I would get one locally for the Kindle 3. This surely makes people believe that you are reading a regular book and not staring at what appears to be a slate!
Please do leave comments if you are planning to buy a Kindle here in India and I will try and answer as best as possible.
P.S. I will try and post a few screenshots of the Kindle in my next post.
If you think my review helped and would want to buy the Kindle, please use the below links:
Kindle, Wi-Fi, Graphite, 6″ Display with New E Ink Pearl Technology
Kindle 3G, Free 3G + Wi-Fi, 3G Works Globally, Graphite, 6″ Display with New E Ink Pearl Technology
Ideal Musings 
does kindle help inculcate the habit of reading??
Depends. If you are thinking of giving it as a gift to someone, I am not really sure. But if you are going to buy it with your own hard earned money, then I am sure an investment of this size has to force you to read. There are enough free books available online to get you started.
Why cant you convert pdf files to mobi and read it on kindle??
You can. I have not tried it yet as most of my books are already in mobi or lit formats. But there are plenty pdf to mobi converters.
I have a very large number of books on my computer which i have arranged according to different genres (fiction, history, biographies,humor, authors etc). Can i arrange all my books in the same way on the kindle?
Yes you can. Only they are called ‘collections’ in the Kindle. I will post a screenshot of this soon. I understand the need for this segregation.
about mobi files, did u tried to use this kind of file ? and about the speed to flip pages ? thx
Hi Leo,Mobi files work perfectly well with the Kindle. Also, with the newly launched firmware, the time in which pages change has come down to fractions of a second. It is pretty close to the blink of an eye.
Thx for all the information, and thx for ur review i already bought a kindle 3, i will wait anxius for him arrive.
Hi, How would you compare Kindle 3 (with Wifi) and Wink?I am looking to buy Kindle 3 but I would like to know which one is better though.
Hi Poornima,I have seen the Wink but have not used it. So I can’t draw a direct comparison. Kindle 3 has the Pearl e-ink screen which is better than others, it supports more formats than Wink and I am not sure how committed EC Media (makers of Wink) will be to updating it regularly. I am sure Wink will be of good quality, but it does not have the learning curve that Amazon has had. Apart from this, Wink is just another reader made in China and skinned by EC Media like the Infibeam Pi or the BeBook. Also, it is not really cheaper.Wink is Indian and this might help with support issues. However, Kindle is a proven platform the world over and support issues might creep up only if you are unlucky.
Dear Aditya thanks for this useful info.i have certain queries1)Any idea whether the 3G version can browse all the sites or not here in India.2)I bought the wifi only version and i am not able to transfer documents wirelessly. It always shows pending on the manage my kindle page. I have not put credit card info on my kindle page, could that be causing this issue? i suppose not since transferring over wifi is free and they shouldn’t need that info for this. Tried contacting the CS via email no response as yet.and btw if u want a cover buy the unlighted one worth 35$ and tell them its faulty they wouldn’t even ask you to return the case and give you 60$ in addition to ahipping charges.that case freezed kindle so they are offering this as a compensation.It worked for me. see this http://www.amazon.com/gp/forum/cd/discussion.html/ref=cm_cd_notf_message?ie=UTF8&cdForum=Fx12U61UWYSO3UY&cdPage=24&asin=B003DZ163E&cdThread=Tx17O3815XVEMVM#Mx1481JWUGVFW86
Hey i ordered the Kindle 2 today on 31’st 2010, it game me estimated shipping date as 21’st and devilery date on 28 september… will it take 28 days to deliver kindle to my door step i ordered it from the very Amazon site? my friend got his kindle in 5 days will i have to wait?
hey i meant they gave me delivery date on 28 january 2011 sry for the typothey will ship my kindle on 21’st january 2011
@Manjot: 3G version can be used to browse any and every site, for free. Tell me if you have heard from the CS. I dont see a reason why it should not transfer.@hitendra: I am sure they will ship it before 21st. Not much you can do about it if they have actually ran out of stock. If they havent then I am guessing you would already have it in your hands :)Happy Reading! 🙂
Hey i got my kindle on 17th Jan and its rockingbut im planning to go for the kindle 3G will 3G/EDGE/GPRS will work for kindle in indiacoz one guy came here from UK with his kindle and his 3G for kindle is not working in indianot also in mumbai,pune,maharashtra…
Thanks for your info.It was faulty they are finally replacing it.
DO u have any idea about kindle 3g works in India or not ? coz in many blogs peoples says its not work in india +
hi.. i just wanted to ask whether the calibre software affects the kindle in any way..