Amazon Kindle impressions:

My sister is home from Dartmouth for a little over a week and she brought her Kindle with her (duh - what use would it be sitting back there?). I’ve had a chance to check it out and I think it’s pretty cool - I want one.

The first thing you notice is definitely the screen. It doesn’t really look like a digital display - you have to keep reminding yourself that no, this is not etch-a-sketch technology.

Just to try it out, I spent a good half an hour reading the beginning of Stranger in a Strange Land on the thing, and I can definitely say it feels easier on the eyes that the standard computer screen that I normally stare at all day.

That, in and of itself, is a good reason to pick a Kindle up over other digital book readers.

Digital books are cheaper than real books ($3-ish for the ones I looked at), the store is convenient, Wi-Fi worked fine for me.

I was really interested in the way magazines and newspapers are being distributed on the Kindle, though. Especially since it boasts rudimentary web access.

I’m going to try to talk my sister into signing up for a trial of the New York Times so I can see how they’re doing delivery and layout. It’s very close to my concept of the “digital paper”---where I see the newspaper industry going.

Scoble was right about the design and the interface though: it’s weird, confusing, and the page-forward page-back flaps are way too easy to hit accidentally. Which, judging by the design of Amazon.com, probably is to be expected ;)

I definitely want one, but I’m going to try to make myself wait until version 2 comes out. Hopefully they’ll fix some design issues for that one, or maybe include a slightly bigger screen.