eReader Chat » Kindle Reviews

M-Edge Kindle Cover Review

Chris — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:53:05 +0000

When most people first buy a Kindle, I think the natural inclination is to buy the official Amazon cover. It makes sense. At $30, it’s relatively cheap, it’s simple, it’s durable, and of course features Amazon’s built-in hinge mechanism. With time however, many grow to dislike it. It resembles an address book more than anything, and is really lacking in features and style.

Knowing full well that you and/or the Kindle owner in your life might be facing a similar aesthetic crisis, and will likely soon be looking for Christmas ideas, I’ve run three of M-Edge’s third-party covers through the paces, and here’s what I found:

M-Edge Leisure
Price: $29.99
Rating:

Pros

The perfect weather-proofing option for those who habitually use their Kindle outside or around the pool.
The padding does a capable job of keeping the Kindle safe from minor drops and bumps.
Surprisingly good access to all the necessary buttons and functions, despite the layer of Lycra in the way.

Cons

Nylon material and zipper evokes the imagine of a trapper keeper from days gone by.
The transparent vinyl cover is much more reflective than the Kindle’s screen, and can be irksome in the wrong light.

While I was initially a little put off by the look of my expensive Kindle surrounded only by Nylon and clear vinyl, I can definitely see where the Leisure would be handy. Anybody taking their Kindle to kids’ sporting events, the pool, and especially the beach needs to sport one of these bad boys. It’s a case of function over form.

M-Edge Halsea
Price: $59.99
Rating:

Pros

Front flap uses a magnetic closure device that is both effective and very elegant.
Exterior is made of laminated canvas, which resists rain and random spills much better than leather.
Comes in a variety of prints, and sports an aesthetic not unlike a handbag. Great for the ladies!
Sports a side pocket and a business card holder.
Makes excellent use of M-Edge’s e-Luminator2 book light.

Cons

A little clumsy when you try and fold the front flap back to read
Holds the Kindle by corner straps instead of the the hinge mechanism.
At $59.99, it’s on the expensive side.

For the fashion-conscious Kindle owner in your life, it really doesn’t get any better than the Halsea. It does a great job of protecting the Kindle with its thick material and laminated canvas, while also looking extremely attractive when you carry it around. I wish more covers used its magnetic closure.

M-Edge Platform
Price: $29.99-$44.99
Rating:

Pros

Sports a thicker leather than the Amazon cover, giving added protection and a very satisfying heft to it.
Uses a “closure tab” to secure the cover shut, with the bonus that it makes it resemble a journal or notebook instead of a plain old address book.
The front cover can be flipped back and used as a makeshift book stand, allowing you to read hands-free.
Has pockets for business cards and a notebook pad, and works with M-Edge’s e-Luminator2 booklight.
Comes in a variety of fashionable colors.

Cons

At $45, it’s more expensive than the Amazon cover.
Not as easy to hold in one’s hand when you flip the front part back.
Holds the Kindle by corner straps instead of the the hinge mechanism.

This is the definitive Kindle cover, in my opinion. Everything from the clasp, the aesthetic, to the ability to use it as a book stand is a vast improvement over the vanilla Amazon cover. I honestly can’t imagine going back. Combine the Platform with the e-Luminator2 booklight, and you’ve got yourself the perfect gift for a Kindle-owner this Christmas. You can hold me to that.

Amazon’s Leather Kindle Cover

Jared — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 14:00:15 +0000

I’ve always enjoyed checking out the various accessories that enhance tech gear. Sometimes, though, an accessory becomes a necessity. This is particularly true when it comes to my Kindle. After paying what some consider a premium price (for a premium product, I would add), I want to make sure my investment is protected.

After using my new Kindle 2 for the past week, I can’t imagine not having a cover for it. The cover itself is an inexpensive accessory, but offers nearly complete protection and peace of mind… not to mention it’s nice to hold and easy on the eyes.

There are a variety of Kindle covers on the market. Most covers are offered by third parties and the range in price is considerable. You can spend as little or as much as you’d like on a kindle cover, depending on your tastes. The hand-stained leather covers offered by Haan Cole are beautiful, but will set you back over $100. If you appreciate the finer things and have the money to spend, I think the Haan Cole covers are a great choice. Many of us, however, are more interested in the less expensive Kindle covers after purchasing a new Kindle 2.

In this review, The Kindle cover in question (say that three times fast!) is the popular leather kindle cover made by Amazon.

When the original kindle was released, it came with a cover. Kindle owners had mixed opnions about that cover; some people liked it, others desired a lower price on the Kindle so that they may spend the difference on a cover of their choice. Since I never owned the original, I can’t add much to that discussion. However, this point was echoed in the release of the Kindle 2. The price point of the Kindle 2 remained rather high and this time did not come with a cover. I suppose some may see this as a “lose-lose” situation, but I would rather point out the alternative of an even more expensive reading device that was paired with a sub-standard cover. It’s my opinion that Amazon made the right decision by not including a cover with the Kindle 2. However, it’s a bit ironic how the cover they probably would have included is the popular choice.

The Amazon Kindle 2 Leather Cover

As for the cover itself, the Amazon Kindle 2 Leather Cover certainly does what you’d expect a cover should do. As you can see, the cover itself is made of black leather on the outside. The inside of the cover is made of a soft felt-like material. Beneath the felt, there seems to be a layer of some kind of gel padding. This is likely to provide extra cushion for the Kindle 2 during its trips in your backpack or suitcase. Along the spine of the cover are two clips that are used to secure the Kindle in place. The clips are cleverly designed to allow easy insertion and removal. I’ve noticed no signs of my Kindle ever coming lose from the clips, which is to be expected.

One other thing I like about this cover is that I can fold the left flap completely back. This allows me to hold the kindle as it was designed to be held. It also adds a bit of comfort since there’s a bit of bulk added to my grip. When I have finished reading, the cover always closes completely like a hardback book. No paperback symptoms to be found.

A few of the negative comments I’ve read about this cover is it’s inability to latch closed. Before I had received my Kindle, I thought this might be an issue, but now I honestly don’t see what the fuss is all about. Maybe you should be concerned if you’re a clumsy person and prone to dropping things. As for myself, I tend to keep my Kindle setting on my desk or tucked safely inside the bag I carry to work. If this is a really big deal to you, there are Kindle covers that latch closed available.

All said, I can definitely recommend this cover to anyone who owns or will soon own a Kindle 2. If you’re reading this and have some comments or questions about this cover, please leave a comment below. I’m always happy to read and reply!

Kindle 2 Out of the Box

Jared — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:40:36 +0000

In my previous post you (hopefully) read that I recently received my Kindle 2 from Amazon this past week. To celebrate the moment, I decided to take a few pictures of the unboxing event.

For those of you who are puzzled by the “unboxing phenomenon,” worry not. I was much the same only a few years ago, but I’ve come to appreciate technology to such a degree that I am impelled to document these type of events. Is it a bit geek-ish? Absolutely. But I’m willing to bet that a few of you are glad I have these geek-like tendencies!

The first image is of a most familiar-looking (and among my favorite) box with the Amazon “sweeping arrow” along the sides. Though it looks like the many other boxes I’ve received from Amazon, its contents are much more special this time. As you can see, I’ve spared you of a boring shot of an ordinary box. I went ahead and slipped my knife through the tape and propped up the treasures inside.

This next shot is of the first box that holds the Kindle packaging. I thought the words, “Once upon a time…” written along the pull tab was clever. The opening words of countless stories over the centuries still leave a mark even in the age of digital reading devices. How wonderfully appropriate!

There is yet one more box of sorts inside. For a moment I thought my Kindle 2 was hidden in the last of a set of Russian nesting dolls. Thankfully, this is the last! You’ll see that the same timeless phrase is printed along the pull tab.

So now at last we’re getting to the good stuff! This is a picture of the little black case that the Kindle was laying in. I thought the design with all the swirling letters looked really neat. The black background was flat, so the shiny letters really stood out.

Finally, we can see the Kindle 2 snuggled in nicely. The shimmery appearance is due to a protective film applied to the front. The film also has some simple instructions describing what an eager Kindle owner should do first. I’ll admit, I wasn’t excited that I had to tether myself to an electrical outlet, but the charging process only lasted a few hours (and I haven’t needed to charge it again, nearly a week later).

Not shown is the instruction sheet and USB cable / power adapter. Though, I should note that it wasn’t immediately obvious to me that the power adapter comes off, exposing the other end of the USB cable. I know, I know… and I call myself a geek. Just be aware of this when you get your own Kindle 2.

Last, but certainly not least, is a picture of my beautiful three-month-old daughter. As you can see, she was terrifically excited by Daddy’s new Kindle. I can’t wait to begin reading stories to her!

Kindle 2 is Popular at the Office

Jared — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 20:31:07 +0000

I just recently got my Kindle 2 from Amazon this week (I’ve got a full review coming!). A few people from my office expressed interest in seeing it, so I took it to work to give a few demonstrations.

After bouncing from office to office, showing off my Kindle 2 like a proud parent, I went back to my own office to get some work done. An hour later, I was inundated by the rest of my coworkers. They all wanted to check out the new Kindle!

Of course, I was happy to oblige, but I never expected so many people would be this interested. Person after person would stop by, gently knock on my door and say, “I heard you have one of the new kindles! Can I see it?”

I must have given a demonstration more than a dozen times, but not once did I mind. For every person who showed interest in seeing the new Kindle, the more I felt like I had made a solid purchase. No buyer’s remorse here!

Among the most popular comments I heard that day were, “my goodness, look at how small and light it is,” and “I didn’t know you can browse the web with this!”. Another feature that seemed to really impress everyone was how you can quickly find the definition of any word while you read. The text-to-speech (called, “Read to Me” by Amazon) seemed to make a good impression as well. I saw more than one jaw drop when the Kindle began to read a book to us.

So if any of you are still on the fence about getting the new Kindle 2 and you have a friend, relative, or coworker who owns one, ask to check it out. Or, just save yourself some time and buy a Kindle 2 today. I sincerely doubt you will regret it.

The Kindle 60 days of use.

admin — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 21:29:06 +0000

So far I have now had my Kindle almost 60 days, that should constitute an acceptable period of time to reflect on the devices shortcomings and advantages. First let me say this piece may not be as positive as I had hoped when I planed on writing this a month ago, the new has worn off and my Kindle is now yet another tool I use.

I just returned from a vacation, thus the extended absence here, and I have to say I unfortunately only used my Kindle once during my trip. Now I did not use any other book at all, other that an atlas in conjunction with my GPS, but my iPod still got the lion share of use in the goings and comings of the trip in the plane.

In general my Kindle has been a huge disappointment in the area of replacing my standard Bible as there just is no real use of the book 2.0 hypertext technology by any of the major translations. In general reading it for the sake of reading is quite good, but using it in a class where you are hopping around a great deal you quickly get frustrated as I am quite comfortable moving between books in the Bible and the Kindle just has no translations that allow for that method o use well as of yet. I have hopes there will be sooner than later.

Another difficulty on this front is the very real, it has happened to me twice, gasp, failure of power. If your going to use it, just get used to plugging it in nightly before you go to bed and then this will never happen to you. But try and push it 3 days and you may be in for trouble if you use the wireless at all. For all the fear that this causes when your not with your charger I suspect it won’t happen to me again for quite some time as I have adapted to charging it just like my phone.

The actual experience of reading is still my biggest reason for using the kindle, I can sit and breeze through a book in record time with little awareness of the device at all. I have moved to a font setting of 3 and find it very readable and not to large as to make page turning to frequent, but not as small as 2 where I need my glasses for sure. Setting 1, forget about it.

How are you after a couple of months of use? I am disappointed in the lack of real news from Amazon, I have seen a comment saying as a publicly trading company they can’t really say how shipping is going due to the impact it might have on their stock. But surely others could comment, I had hoped my hometown newspaper would hop on board, but as o now the Dallas Morning news or the Fort Worth Star Telegram are both no shows.

So for now my Kindle has replaced my need for any Paper back or hard back I have thus far looked for. I am about to test that on a Harry Turtledove book called the “Guns of the South” – NO GO… Although there are 34 books from the author available, for some reason that one is not. I got it from a fellow in passing and frankly I had hoped to get it on the Kindle to avoid reading the grimy stained book that I was so generously offered from the fellow. Oh well, I still have 3 books not started that are awaiting my attention, but I wish there were some way to inquire as to if there were any conversion in the works. Despite a smaller library size, the Kindle is still by far the easiest on my eyes reading experience I have, so I am still pleased to have one while others are still waiting.

Favorable reviews by those I’ve shown it to

admin — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 00:05:55 +0000

Well I have had it almost a month, the reading slowed over the past week, though I attribute that to the holidays. I went back to work yesterday, I threw my back out over the holidays and noticed I had not brought it with me today at lunch when I went to read. So far the looks are dying down as people have now seen me with it for a while but the first time someone sees it is always a conversation.

So back to the crux of my question I posted over at the forum, what are your reviews like when you show it off? Are they favorable? I had one neutral review that I did not count in my review as it was by a person whom I know to be contrary to all of my technical positions. I am a Mac fan, and he is a mac hater, he immediately went into a that’s an ugly ipod, when I showed it to him he changed tact when he discovered it was not an apple product. All he had seen was that it was supposedly the ipod of books and assumed it was from Apple, that is hilarious to me. It shows that Apple advertising works too well as apparently people now just assume interesting products come from apple, great if your Steve Jobs or an apple shareholder I suppose.

But for all my positive comments I have received why did the Kindle info die so much from amazon? Why not tell us they sold 500 or 50,000? Wish the silence would be broken. Have you heard anything?

Kindle Battery Life

admin — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 21:58:53 +0000

So it has been 10 days and i have recharged my Kindle several times. I had the unthinkable happen last night, while in a bible study my Kindle power ran completely out and I was … ARRRRGGGGHHHH … unable to follow along. So it was Wednesday and I had charged it Monday morning and I had left the wireless on… so… it was probably about the amount of time Amazon has insinuated I would need to recharge the device.

As Amazon put’s it “Long battery life. Leave wireless on and recharge approximately every other day. Turn wireless off and read for a week or more before recharging. Fully recharges in 2 hours.” It does recharge pronto, but I had hoped to last longer. Yeah that sounds reasonable doesn’t it… longer… but in any event how long are you seeing it last?

I let it charge completely and turned it on this morning at 9am, wireless is on so I’ll update with how long mine lasts this time until it gives me the “Yeah, I’m shutting down again message.”

Update: Read about my experiences with the battery life of my Kindle 2.

Initial kindle unboxing images & thoughts

admin — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 21:00:48 +0000

It came yesterday and I am still pretty excited. I know, why only still pretty excited rather that elated or overjoyed, I guess because I always over-expect and almost always manufacturers under deliver. But after 22 hours I am still very happy I bought a Kindle. I read last night on it until 2am, overslept and missed a breakfast meeting I regularly attend but it was great to get into reading again. What did I read last night… Well I bought oswald chambers “My utmost for his highest” and “streams in the Desert” two extremely good daily devotionals that I have never been able to read regularly because they were never with me when I had the time.

Additionally I purchased the NIV bible and as far as reading it it is Awesome. Yes that was a capital letter inappropriately placed there to draw attention to it. Was it awesome because of what I was reading it on, partly. I have always wanted a single column everything out of the way just let me read the word of God version and they are extremely elusive. To make it easier I was able to jack up the font and take off my glasses and burn through some pages getting lost in the story of Joshua taking the Israelites into Jericho and crossing the Jordan with dry feet. For that it was great. Now the part that dragged down the experience, I am pretty quick at being able to flip over to another area and refer to something. That’s where the problem lies currently. The Kindle is really not just a book, it is in fact an electronic book with indexing capabilities and hyperlink capabilities that as of yet have not been taken advantage by the publishers. I am thankful that the International Bible Society and Zondervan have released a valuable text for christians to be able to read and enjoy. But I can’t wait for a second generation version to come out where the possibilities of annotation, bookmarks, notes and hyperlinks are fully utilized.

That comes to my own experimentation, for several hours last night I tinkered around with the NET or New English Translation that was available in a doc format online from bible.org and was pleasantly surprised how readable it was with just a straight translation. Having spoken to a fellow there they are currently working on a new version for the Kindle that will take advantage of some of the features of the Kindle initially, followed by a release of their full blown annotated with over 60,000 translation notes and helps. When that becomes available I will definitely be moving to it as my daily reading translation. If your unfamiliar with the NET translation you owe it to yourself to take a look at the video explanation of what all is going on there. (Link to page with video and info) I included a shot above with my own efforts at allowing myself to switch sooner than latter.

I am extremely excited to have several book with me to read when I can. I am a little disappointed in the Time subscription I am trying an suspect I will cancel it before I have to pay for it. Ironically I have too much else to read. The Wall street journal will probably also go as soon as a local paper is available, but for now I have read yesterdays news and the days before and enjoyed the experience. If your waiting for your Kindle I suspect it will be smaller than you imagined unless you thought it was the size of a standard paperback. It is not is is the size of the larger paperbacks but was smaller than I feared when I saw the box it comes in. If you want to see my unboxing it is available here.

What has your initial experience been? Pop over to the Discussion forums and share your thoughts and experiences if you have the time.