The Kindle does a lot more than just allow a user to read books, but I'm not so sure that's a strong selling point. One of the first things I did after getting my Kindle out of the box and charging it was to download my first book and trial a subscription from the New York Times.

Having the New York Times on my Kindle was nice, but I wasn't willing to pay a monthly subscription for it. Secondly, it was just too much content. One of the things that I like about Google Reader is that I can subscribe to multiple feeds and very quickly discern between what is worth reading and what isn't. With the New York Times on my Kindle, I found that the easiest way to browse was from article to article (slightly different than my reader which is typically from headline to headline). Plus, I had to skip past stuff that I would never subscribe to in a reader (sports, arts, wine, dining, movie/broadway reviews, etc.) After all was said and done for a day, I'd be lucky to have finished the entire paper.

With this bad experience in mind, I eagerly brought up the Kindle's experimental features and hopped on the web browser. From there I navigated to the mobile version of Google reader (after changing from basic web to advanced). After signing on and clicking on one or two stories (each of which brought me to another website from which I had to return to Mobile Google Reader), I was not surprised to learn that almost 30 minutes had passed and I was late for class. While having internet access is nice (especially for quick downloads of purchased books), browsing the internet just isn't one of it's strong features. I don't think there's any promise for this feature either since the time-wasting factor seems to be the screen and web-rendering more so than the speed of the network.

You can also purchase subscriptions to blogs for as little as $0.99 US, but doing so would not result in a far different experience than using Mobile Google Reader. I'm not sure about you, but I tend to peruse blogs and only focus-in and concentrate when I stumble across something interesting. The Kindle, in my opinion, was designed to read rather than peruse and doesn't really facilitate browsing the internet or other content. For now, I'll stick with my laptop and Google Reader for browsing and reading online content.

There are two other features in the experimental section, neither of which I have messed around with: Ask Kindle NowNow and Play Music. The Ask Kindle NowNow is based on Amazon's Mechanical Turk technology and is basically an information service. Ask a question and you receive up to three answers within as little as 10 minutes. Needless to say, I haven't found a use for this feature yet. Regarding music, well I have an iPod that manages all of my music fairly well. I'm not interested in managing more music somewhere else.

I can't emphasize enough, however, how much I love my Kindle. This is the fourth and last part of my Kindle review and I think I've covered everything of interest to me. The Kindle is really geared to the avid book reader more so than today's 21st century media and content glutton. If you're looking of a next-generation book that has a few significant conveniences, than the Kindle is definitely for you. At least we can also be proud of all the paper we're saving. Did I mention that the books you purchase are yours forever? That's right, they are! Even if you delete them from your Kindle (to make room for something else, perhaps), you can always download them again from your Amazon media library. Thanks Amazon.com!

From my previous post: I've separated my critiques into the good and the bad. I also reserved my criticisms for the purpose the Kindle was intended to fulfill: book reading. I'll explore the experimental features (internet, mechanical turk, etc.) last. While I'd love to say there is nothing wrong with the device, its only fair to point out what will hopefully be improved in future models. Keep in mind that the good stuff is really good - so much so that I would definitely purchase one again and certainly recommend it to those with the extra funds to splurge on such a convenience.

Previous page button: this has to be the button that I screw up all the time. At first glance, the previous page button appears to be the same length and size of the opposing next page button. But the lower-third of the button's should-be size is actually another next page button (for the left-handed reader, no doubt). But left-handed individuals aside, this button placement is annoying and I'm always going to the next page when I meant to go back. Arghh!

Back cover: the back cover comes off way too easily. There's a little tab in the device's jacket protector that hooks into the back cover. If you mess around with the Kindle in its case a little too much, it all comes falling apart.

Upgrade: there was an upgrade at the beginning of February that took me forever to get. Then when I did get it, my Kindle freaked out: blinking, flashing, and rebooting until it magically decided to come back to life.

Progress meter: your place within a book is tracked by a collection of dots at the bottom of the screen. Depending on the size of the book you're reading, one dot may be 2 pages or 8 pages. Unlike a real book, I don't have a real sense of where I am. For example, many times I want to know how long I've got until the end of the chapter (so I know whether or not to keep reading or go to bed). This can be done, but involves to much button pushing and isn't worth the effort. To further illustrate this inconvenience, I was reading 1491 when 3/4 of the way through "the dots" the book was over. It seemed like the end came out of nowhere and I found that I had to go back and read the previous 20 pages knowing that this was the end of the book (the remainder of books was notes and references). I would love to see a book page and chapter page counter in future versions that is accessible just like the time - not visible all the time, but close by when you need it.

Size: the device could be a little bigger. It's like it was made for girl hands and not man hands.

Whiteness: while it's been good so far, I would have loved a black or other color model. I'm worried about the white after my experiences with my dirty MacBook. We'll see I guess.

Those are my dislikes (whines). Not so bad in my opinion. The good things about the Kindle definitely outweigh these minor inconveniences. Not to mention this is a 1.0 release. There's plenty of time for this to develop and it certainly has great potential. Speaking of potential, next up: Kindle experimental features.

Here's the latest from ignorant police officer a.k.a. gang investigator, Louis Tomasetti of Asheville Police Department:
Are we no longer holding individuals accountable for their own actions? Is this small city in the South that I call home seriously going to point the finger at an entire music genre and art form? I would hope not, but will someone please take the microphone away from this man? Following his logic and thinking about the music I listen to, I should be having sex with countless women, drinking and consuming street drugs daily, and partying all night followed by sleeping all day.

It would seem that when Tomasetti speaks to our "journalists" here in Asheville with his fellow law enforcement officer, Mike Lamb, he takes a more reasonable and sensible tone. Here's a quote from a February 22nd article about their new "gang maps":

So why the switch from such a reasoned approach to solving and deterring crime to such a backwards way of understanding the different and often interesting sub-cultures that make up our community? Did Tomasetti do some research and purchase a couple of rap albums to better understand his offenders? Did he hop on to YouTube and search for what videos came back when searching on such terms as gangs, rap, and Asheville? But that wouldn't be enough to prompt him to say such a thing at a luncheon held at the same University that I attend every day in pursuit of my own education and enlightenment.

No. Tomasetti must have come to the conclusion that Asheville youth are too stupid to think for themselves and that all his problems would disappear if our young men listened to Britney Spears, Norah Jones, and The Jonas Brothers. YouTube? This just illustrates the offensive lyrics of today's rap music. What more could influence our youth's impressionable minds than such vivid imagery? Not their parents, school teachers, or even a community that offers little alternative for its troubled youth?

Here's a great comment from the Citizen-Times.com article by DaddyO from Hendersonville, North Carolina:

Here, here! So there are some reasonable people here in the community.

Let me wrap this up with a post from Louis Tomasetti himself from DARNonline.org from October of last year:

Folks, we have on our hands a patrol officer turned gang expert who thinks rap is at the root of our city's gang problem. I'd be concerned if I really thought Asheville had a gang problem. But hey, everyone needs a job, right?