Welcome to my Electronic Museum! I have always been on the cutting edge of new electronic devices since I bought my first Macintosh computer, a Quadra 605 back in late 1993. I have bought Newton Messagepads - four of them - and several Palm Pilots when the Newtons were no longer supported, and then a Compaq iPac. When the Amazon Kindle was announced I was really excited about it. You could carry around with you everywhere, if you wished, maybe 100 books on this device, the Amazon Kindle, first generation. It was released in November 19, 2007 and sold for $399 and sold out in 5 1/2 hours! It was out of stock for 5 months, until late April, 2008. I think that's when I bought this one. I was thrilled with it and loved that I didn't have to look at a bright screen. I saw black letters on a light gray screen and there was no eyestrain. I would bring it with me on trips and if I tired of the book I was reading I would select another one stored in it. This device was lighter than any single book and I hardly knew I had it with me.
I will tell you this, though. In terms of industrial design, this thing would win no prizes. It was just plain weird in it's "form." This is a photograph of the end of it, and you can see it is severely tapered on both sides. And trying to hold on to it without changing pages accidentally was nearly impossible. Look at this:
On the left hand side from top to bottom are long flat "lever buttons," the top one says "Prev Page" and the one below it says "Next Page." You cannot hold the Kindle anywhere on the left hand side. On the right side, there is another long "lever button" which says "Next Page" and below that, another one that says "Back." So you can't hold it on the right side! The only place you can hold it is if you put your thumb to the left of the word "amazonkindle" and your fingers on the rear of it and squeeze. Who designed this thing? In spite of those shortcomings, I carried it with me everywhere to read and I loved it. Well, it started getting wonkey and the little round scroll wheel near the bottom stopped working and then the battery died and there were no replacements. So I bought a Kindle, 4th generation for $79 which was ergonomically so much better! I have continued to keep this one for old times sake, but it doesn't work and is time to let it go, sad to say. But it was a part of my history which I hate to lose.
2 comments:
Yes, Ken, it is time to say goodbye to your first Kindle. Betsey
I’m glad you are choosing to leave the honoring of old electronic devices to the archivists!! I’m sure one of these is being kept warm and dry for us to admire at some future Museum of Human Experiments. At first I was sure that the bevels were to make it a well-balanced “hold,” but the page buttons would make that tricky. It seems more like an ergonomic student model - grade F!
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