Traveling with my Kindle

Note to self: file this under great technology. I have discovered that I love my Kindle. In case you don't know the Kindle is a wireless reading device made by Amazon.com. The reason - when I fly I like to read, and on longer journeys the Kindle is particularly good because of the amount of data - books, magazines, journals it holds.

Recently on a 12 day trip to Eastern Europe which included a river cruise I found out just how useful the Kindle could actually be . Now mind you I was prepared (or so I thought) to communicate with customers, and folks back home while traveling. I visited a local office of my wireless provider to pick up a broadband card with international capabilities and I'd previously set up and used international calling on my phone.

Well long story short the international broadband card did not work. However, I was able to send a message to my wireless phone company via my Kindle to ask for assistance and to let them know the card wasn't working. I accessed their web site on my Kindle and filled out whatever form they provided to report the problem.

Now I don't want you to think that entering the report on my Kindle solved my broadband problem - it didn't, and the main reason is that the wireless company did not answer my request for assistance until 2 weeks after I returned from Europe.

But, back to the Kindle. I was able to send and receive emails in the Kindle browser as well as maneuver to any site that I wanted to visit. During some down time I was really examining the Kindle and checking out what it could do. In the menu I saw search and decided to click on it to see what came up. Several options appeared - go to web, search wikipedia, and search google (SEARCH GOOGLE!!!) were among the choices, and the simple fact is- it works.

There is no charge for wirelessly receiving books, single periodical issues, browsing the Kindle store or using the experimental web browser internationally. The first time I pulled up the web browser a message came up regarding using the device internationally, and everything it said - I liked.

Quite a few of the other travelers on the tour were fascinated with the Kindle. They like me had brought along computers ( I had two) for use along the way, however we were all out of luck on that front. However, there was so much interest amongst the group that I can't help but think that a lot of folks will think that this is a really neat gift.

The Kindle uses the same high speed data network as cell phones and you never have to look for a hotspot. I do turn the wireless off when not using it to preserve the battery. For example; I last charged the Kindle before I returned home on April 12th. Today is May 9th and the battery is a little over half full. Having the wireless on is a pretty large draw for the battery, but if you let it go to sleep I think it'll be there for you when you need it.

Would I recommend this reader? Definitely!