Spy vs. Spy - Our New Feature

We’re introducing a new feature here at TheBlog called “Spy vs. Spy.”  You may recall the comic feature from Mad Magazine.  I was shocked, and pleased, to learn that Mad Magazine is still being produced and that Spy vs. Spy lives on in its pages.

Our new feature is really nothing more than “Point-Counterpoint,” but we here at TheBlog thought that “Spy vs. Spy” was a cooler name for the feature.

Now that I’ve been test-driving my Kindle for over a month, I think I have a bead on its best and worst features.  I have also used an Ipad for reading, but while the graphics on the Ipad are, of course, phenomenal, the Ipad is comparatively clunky to tote around while my Kindle is the size of a slim paperback book.

Spy:  Love, love, love the integrated dictionary.  I was reading the newish Mantle biography, “The Last Boy,” and the author was relating how Mantle (and really all men) liked childish humor.  Mantle would make “dingleberry” jokes.  Now, “dingleberry” shows up as a misspelling in my Word documents, but the integrated Kindle dictionary nailed the definition.

Spy:  The integrated dictionary is not that easy to use.  You have to, using the arrows, move the cursor to immediately precede the word you want defined.

Spy:  The battery life is phenomenal.  I am a little maniacal about making sure that the wireless is off when I am merely reading, but even with intermittent wireless use, the battery will last for weeks.

Spy:  You don’t buy the Kindle for the graphics.  The e-ink is readable  but decidedly low tech.  While you quickly get used to it, the brief pause from screen to screen is a little annoying.

Spy:  The option to download a book sample is awesome.  With print books, sometimes I pick one up and decide that “I’m not in the mood.”  But I’ve paid for the book.  It sits on the nightstand, starting to smell like fish that, well, sat on the nightstand.  The book ultimately makes it to the Island of Unread Books.  With the Kindle sample, if “I’m not in the mood,” I just hold on to the sample until I might later get in the mood.

Spy:  The lack of a touch screen is a significant drawback.  Navigating with arrows and a cursor is clunky and low-tech.  A touch screen is the only feature that I can think of that would necessitate an upgrade to a new model.

Spy:  I went on vacation a few weeks ago, and I didn’t decide what I was going to read before I left.  I decided at the airport.  Then, when I finished that book, I surfed the Amazon store and bought another.  No lugging heavy books.

Spy:  The experimental browser is fairly pitiful.  I understand that it’s just experimental, but surfing on 3G is, of course, slow.  WiFi is a little faster, but even then you are limited by the aforementioned arrow/cursor navigation system.

Spy:  It’s nice to be able to read two books at one time.  Sometimes I get a little bored and put a book down.  I read another for a little while, then pick the first one back up.  With the Kindle, I can bring multiple books with me at one time and flip between them.

Spy:  It’s too easy to buy books.  I know that sounds like a Spy but it’s not.  You can rack up large charges pretty quickly.  $9.99, $11.99 and especially $14.99 can add up.

Spy:  I also like the multi-device functionality.  If I buy a book for Kindle, I can read it on my Kindle, my wife’s Ipad, my computer or my blackberry.  Not that I’d ever read a book on my blackberry, but it’s still cool.

Spy:  There’s something about a physical book.  Something about its feel, its smell, etc.  Plus, it’s nice to be able to flip pages and see how many pages you have until the end of a chapter or a page break.  The Kindle is not conducive to this, and if you don’t think ahead to bookmark a page, you can very easily lose your place if you scroll ahead several screens.

What about you?  And if you have a Nook or a Sony, what do you think?

Live long, read and prosper.  We’ll leave the lights on for you.