Kindling

Amazon has just released a Kindle application for Apple's mobile platform (iPhones and iPod Touch devices).  I've been working with the original Kindle for quite a while now, and I really like it.  Battery life is fantastic, the display is wonderful, and the Amazon Kindle Store has gotten me to read books that I never would have otherwise.  Overall, it's been a great experience.  Once you've forked out the initial capital to buy the Kindle device, the books are generally much cheaper than dead-tree books (like, $9.99 instead of $25.95).

The biggest drawback to the Kindle device (other than the up-front cost) is the fact that it's definitely a version 1.0 device (even the new Kindle seems to be about a version 1.5, and not really a major update).  It's rarely crashed, but the device is slow, the network connection is slow... it's even slow to mount as a USB volume when you connect it to your computer.  The speed is mostly forgivable because, 90% of the time, all you're doing is turning pages - it doesn't need to be speedy, but it takes some of the shine off.

Another problem is that the Kindle is really set up for reading things sequentially and it doesn't really perform well if you want to use it to read reference material.  This is especially compounded if you take a Word document or a .PDF and convert it (using Amazon's service... they may be better tools I haven't discovered yet) to Kindle format.  While regular books purchased from the Kindle store have adequate chaptering and navigation, the conversion process for documents strips out any chaptering or navigation in the file, and you're left with a 7,000 page novel on administering a server.  Not helpful in any way.

The Kindle application for the iPhone is good so far, but I doubt I'll use it much.  Apple's mobile devices are just too small to read lots of content comfortably and the backlit LCD display is nowhere near as comfortable to read as the digital ink display on the Kindle.  I also know that I'm eating up precious battery life eating away at me while I read on the iPhone. The interface is decent; you swipe your finger across the screen to turn the page and there is no scrolling up and down, but they've taken out the annotation functionality (which I used very rarely) - and even though I am able to adjust the type size, I can't find a size that doesn't feel awkward. I do like having access to the same books that I've already purchased on the Kindle now on my iPhone, too.  I always have my iPhone with me, and I don't usually carry the Kindle around with me, so that's very cool - I can see myself whipping out some Christopher Moore to pass the time.  If I get my choice though, I strongly prefer to read on the Kindle device.