I have the first generation Kindle and just received the Kindle 3 wifi only. For $139 it was time for an upgrade.
Reading on the Kindle 3 is much closer to a book. And, I enjoy a book to focus on learning a new topic. Reading on the computer or iPhone or other multi-purpose devices is convenient, but many times it is too easy to lose focus as you are hold a computer. A Kindle is a reading device.
The first book I am diving into on the Kindle is Time and the Soul with a foreword by John Cleese.
This book is addressed to everyone who is starved for time, i.e. everyone. We are all living in a culture that traps us into doing too many things, taking on too many responsibilities, facing too many choices and saying yes to too many opportunities. Nearing the end of over a century of inventions designed to save time, we find ourselves bereft of time itself.
What used to be considered a sign of success--being busy, having many responsibilities, being involved in many projects or activities--is now being felt as an affliction. It is leading us nowhere. More and more it is being experienced as meaningless.
This is the real significance of our problem with time. It is a crisis of meaning. What has disappeared is meaningful time. It is not technology or the accelerating influence of money; it is not global capitalism that is responsible for the time famine. The root of our modern problem with time is neither technological, sociological, economic nor psychological. It is metaphysical. It is a question of the meaning of human life itself.
I should finish the book in a day which I rarely do anymore, but today is a day of thinking and meditating after 3 days in SJ meeting lots of cool data center people.
One of the first things I noticed is how much easier it is to read on the Kindle 3. Then I noticed the "fi" ligatures. From my early days at Apple, I was obsessed to use the right fonts, and hated font remapping when you print. I used Word 1.0 while everyone else was using MacWrite. And my font obsession led me to The fact that the Kindle 3 has ligature support shows how far they are pushing the typography on the device.
Here are fi and fl ligatures.
If you are a book lover, then the Kindle 3 may be the one to get you switch.