northofdivision
Status: Madeleine L'Engle
 Offline
Gender: 
Chicago
Posts: 81
|
 |
« on: October 04, 2010, 10:19:17 AM » |
|
I thought it might help to talk about some of my experiences with the K3 this month as my primary mobile device and someone who needs constant online wifi and 3g for information and content (i've always wanted to find ways in which to leave my laptop and ipad at home while i'm out and about) and someone who will ALWAYS prefer to read fiction and novels via paperback. As a graduate student and messenger, I'm basically never home (cafes, biking, school, work). I've always considered myself an avid reader, content hoarder and reknown cheapskate not wanting to feed major corporations with my money. I had carried my laptop around for the past two years and found myself using it for two things primarily (web surfing to read articles magazines and up to the minute news from wires and reading friends blogs on the go). I figured I would review the kindle based on its functionality with 3g and wifi instead of giving you all the specs and the ways the hardware works (which the other reviews do an amazing job with)...With the kindle, these are the 3 best/main things i've been able to accomplish and utilize using the k3 3g and wifi experiental browser,etc *thanks to kindleboards for giving me a resource to learn all about these things*...(i have not put my laptop or ipad in my messenger bag all of september):
-I use instapaper.com which delivers any and all articles i see on my laptop and desktop for free to my k3 with the touch of a button (you put a little icon up top that says "read later" and click it everytime you see an interesting article. i have gotten into the habit of doing that instead of reading anything at my laptop/desktop and at 20 articles, i one click it to send to my kindle each morning). Having 3g ensures that by the time i get from point a to point b, regardless of a wifi connection, it will be in my kindle. also, if you like wikipedia and have specific things you know you'll want to have instant accessibility to, this works great because you can create 20 article wikipedia file "magazines" and they are accessible formatted for the kindle reader (ie: the first wikipedia magazine i created had things like "object relations," "james baldwin," "existentialism," etc.
-I use calibre to pull all of my favourite magazines/newspapers (psychology today, comics, newsweek, new york magazine, etc for free *though i donated to calibre and you should too if you use it* (have gotten in the habit of doing this every sunday) and occasionally on days when i know i'll have a lot of free time to read i'll load up la times, chicago tribune, slate, etc. ). Once again, having 3g allows me to always have content no matter if i'm outside or inside.
-I use googlereader to access all of my blogs and websites which load full content on rss feeds (comic relief throughout the when i need it from sites like textsfromlastnight, peoplefromwalmart and boingboing). this allows me to do a few things. one, it saves me time from going bookmark to bookmark for things i want to read, allows all my information to come to one site, and gives me the speed/functionality of shortcuts to navigate all of my blogs and websites (this is ESSENTIAL and something google reader does phenomenally on a k3). And this, unlike the previous two i mentioned, needs no laptop as a facilitator to my info/content. the inbox function, refresh, move to other subscriptions, instant blog entry to blog entry with 'J' makes reading info a breeze (i use enlarge to 150percent and it creates the perfect size inbox for my urls. a man on the blogs even created an app on his own for googlereader you might like as well). One great function not many people know about with googlereader for k3 is if you see something you like you press "e" and it creates an email prompt for you to email a message to anyone (includes your address book so you don't have to type the full email out) which is incredible on the fly. Can text message this way as well.
These three things alone allow me to get all the content I can ever possibly need to read for free. At every break i need to take be it at a park, library, street corner, or coffeehouse, there is always fresh content with my k3. (From this review, i hope you can see the benefits for spending the extra 50 for the 3g. completely worth it!) Because of the k3, i never take my ipad off my bed and laptop off the kitchen table....For my tech needs: for all the everyday writing needs, i've picked up a blackberry bluetooth keyboard and use that to write emails and facebook. I use a roku player to stream my netflix to my television, a wifi printer to print anything from my kindle, ipad or laptop, a nintendo dslite modded for all my gaming needs and a sansa clip plus (16gb total) for my music needs. and that's pretty much all the tech i need. I spent 5 bucks for the kindle scrabble just for the fun of it and that's a good time.
sidenote: as for more cheapskatedness, kindleboards book bazaar often lists great free books to download via 3g or wifi instantly using the amazon store (great perk once again for having the kindle). downloaded great calculus and biology books i can have whenever i have that inner desire to learn some things i didn't learn at all in high school because i was playing with my gameboy.
I don't use the k3 at all for reading books but the fact that I can is good enough for me. Its refreshing that i have a device whose primary use (book reading) is my fourth of fifth option for it. also, the k3 allows me to leave all my tech at home. two signs of a good tech toy to me. Hope this helps.
|
Dilber MC Theme by HarzeM
