Just call me Kindle

One week has passed since my Kindle arrived, so I think it's time I say something about it.

First of all, I love it. It's very light, and easy to read with - basically, it lives up to the hype! I've bought only one(1) book so far - The Evolutionary Void. And to limit it to one book really took a lot of self-control. I also loaded it up with my Apple tutorials and other PDFs, and I should say it provides a better reading experience than the iPod (although I had to rotate it to read PDFs with a proper font size).

However, this post is not meant to highlight how good an e-reader the Kindle is. Instead, I want to say something about what name to call it. I've been using the pronoun "it" to refer to my Kindle. In the tradition of ship-naming (and yeah, yeah, male ego), I would normally give my devices female names. In my case, female anime names. After all, my iPod is lovingly named Chibi Mina Tepes - small but tenacious and mature. (Now that I think about it, I probably should have named her Loli Mina Tepes :P) It's a sign of affection, mind you. It's kind of hard to show my affection if I named my iPod Sgt. Slaughter, right? Besides, I would rather people hear me say "it's so much fun to read with chibi Mina," instead of "it's so much fun to read with Sgt. Slaughter." Perish the thought. And, no, I am not inspired to name it after an author.

I've been mulling what name to give to my Kindle, but so far no good name comes to mind. I'd call it Nagato Yuki (who is after all a book lover herself), but it just feels too long and... ill-fitting. In any case, the search for a good name is still ongoing! ^_^

Aside from a name, it's been difficult to find a dress for her. Unlike the iPod, the Kindle is not yet mainstream, and practically nobody (aside from Amazon.com) sells decent accessories that will protect her. I really wished I ordered the Kindle leather cover along with her. Sigh. (-.-') So far, I'm making do with plastic book covers and a pouch.

What? You want to know what features the Kindle has? As I said, this is not what the post is meant to do! :P But, okay, just to satisfy that curiousity, here is a list of features I really liked about her:

• e-Ink display (crisp and paper-like with no backlights - exactly how books should be!)
• 0, 90, 180, and 270-degree orientation;
• Free 3G access (via Amazon WhisperNet) - sooo convenient for buying books;
• Well-positioned page keys at the side (just right where my thumb would be);
• Tactile-feedback keys; meaning: I can feel myself pressing her buttons (no pun intended) - after all, they are physical keys, not plain-vanilla touch interface - and yes, call me old-school, but I prefer them over touch (although swipe would be nice);
• Multiple bookmarks;
• PDF support;
• Loooooong battery life (beat that iPod!);
• Real-time dictionary (very, very handy);
• Screensaver of classical authors and images (see the pic? That is Mark Twain);

She also has an "experimental" web browser and MP3 player, but I haven't used them. ^_^