Legal Commentary

Kindle update (minor problems, amazing realization)

By Ernest Svenson

Well, my Kindle had a small problem. The other day it ceased waking up from sleep. The only solution was to flip the little guy over on its back, remove the battery cover, and reset it with a paper clip. I had to do this every time it went into sleep mode.

Not cool, obviously.

I called Amazon support and they walked me through some steps and then concluded the device needed replacing. They sent me another one, which arrived today. After charging it I fired it up, and it took a few minutes to find the wireless connection. Then I registered it to my account. But, it had no books on it, even though I had bought a bunch already.

Turns out it was easy to get the books I had already ordered to 'come back' to my new Kindle: all I had to do was go to the "Content Manager" and select the books I wanted to re-download and, bada bing!, there they were. And the best part? When I opened each book it was exactly where I was when I was reading it before. In other words, the books you download are not only kept on Amazon (in case you need to re-download them) but Amazon also keeps track of where you were in the book the last time you were reading it.

I knew that they kept your bookmarks and highlights backed up, but I didn't realize they kept your place in the book backed up too. That means if your Kindle was ever lost or stolen, you could get a new one and replace all your books (for free) and open each one to the page where you last were. Nice.

I'm really glad my Kindle is back up and running. In the short period I've had it I've come to realize that it's not something I can easily live without. I'm reading a lot more, and more easily. The Kindle is now available for immediate shipment (i.e. no long waits anymore). If you like to read books then you should definitely get a Kindle; you'll be glad you did, especially if you read a lot while traveling.

Full post as published by Ernie the Attorney on April 30, 2008 (boomark / email).