Accessory of the Week No question, the Octovo Solis is the snazziest clip-on e-book reader light I’ve seen, and possibly the one that’s the most practical to use too.
Strike a light
All it is is an oblong unit cut from aluminium with a plastic doobry on the bottom so it will sti neatly atop your reader. There’s a rubber pad inside the clip to ensure a snug fit, but it’s not spring loaded. Read the rest of this entry »
Review It was Amazon’s Kindle that really turned the idea of an e-book reader into a true mass-market proposition. Well, in the States, at least, because the first Kindle was only ever available to US-based buyers. Now, however, you can get an “international version” of the Kindle 2 in Blighty. More accurately, you can buy it from Amazon in the US and have it shipped to you in the UK.
Amazon’s Kindle: now over here
Look up the Kindle 2 on Amazon.com and you’ll find a headline price of $259 and since that’s about £155 in real money, you’re probably thinking it’s a bargain compared to the iRiver Story and Sony Reader Touch Edition, both priced on the wrong side of £200. But by the time you add shipping and import duty, the price of the Kindle is actually £207. Still cheaper than the competition, but not by as much.
Something else worth keeping in mind is that the International Kindle is not the latest version. In the US you can order the Kindle DX, which boasts a 9.7in screen in place of the standard edition’s 6in panel.
Before we dive in to the hardware, let’s deal with Amazon’s Big Idea: buying and downloading content over the air. Buy a Kindle and you get 3G or GPRS access to Amazon’s e-book store. There’s no up-front charge – the cost is built into the price of the book – and it means you no longer need to download books to computer then copy them over to the reader. Read the rest of this entry »
