The biggest surprise about the Kindle is it has free Internet access; I don't know if they'll continue doing this, but I sure hope they do. Basically, it uses the Sprint network to surf the net--so anywhere Sprint is, you have the Internet. The downside of this is it drains the battery, but, when your not using the Web, you can simply turn it off.
It's not exactly 3G Internet, but for the price I'm paying I didn't think it would be. It's a bit like surfing the Net using a dial-up modem; so it's not ideal for seeing graphics, but it's great for blogs and checking and sending email!
If you are familiar at all with using the Web on your cell phone, then you should not be surprised by how it looks--like a mobile version of the Internet. You don't get YouTube, but you get the news...so I guess you just have to read about the funny video.
I'm all about free; I hate the idea of buying a data plan for my phone, and now I don't have to. I have my Gmail account set to forward all my incoming email to text message...if the email is urgent, now I have a way of replying while I'm on the road. If I bought a data plan, I'd be spending $360 dollars a year...that basically pays the cost of the Kindle!
Hitting the ALT key and the number 1 will launch Google Maps; supposedly you are supposed to see your position, so it's kind of like GPS (except it has no GPS inside...I think it's using the cellular signal?); unfortunately, I only saw this work once. I'd like to see this feature work better, because hitting the ALT 2 and ALT 3 keys will show you gas stations and eateries nearby you.
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1 comment:
The GPS feature does work but isn't very accurate because it uses cell phone towers to triangulate your position. For me here at work, it showed me over a mile away at the closest cell tower.
But it is pretty cool nonetheless and probably works better in a denser population area with more cell phone towers.
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