Shortly before I left for Seattle I finished Flickering Pixels by Shane Hipps through the Kindle Service on my iTouch.  The experience was pretty good.  I do have to say that the idea of purchasing a book on the Internet and being able to read it in just under a minute is a pretty impressive feature.  While it might be a killer feature for iBook readers, however, I’m hesitant to call it a killer feature for reading in general for several reasons.  Let me just say in advance that I’m fully aware that my age does cause some of these preferences.

• Getting eBooks from anywhere can’t be a killer feature because the Kindle suffers from one huge problem that kills it’s portability feature.  It suffers from the “please shut down all electronic devices” syndrome that affects all electronics on airplanes.  As an experiment I didn’t bring any books with my on my trip to Seattle, but I had some free eBooks (and my kindle book) with me in my iTouch.  Unfortunately, for significant portions of my time on plane, I couldn’t read them because reading them would have gotten me yelled at (or arrested).  Now, you might say, “Big deal, just talk to people.”  I’d agree, but on 3 out of my 4 flights people refused to talk to anyone on the plane, it was weird.  They also had books, which made me jealous.
• I finished Flickering Pixels without any problems.  The screen on my iTouch is beautiful and I found myself reading whole chapters without much difficulty.  Yet, mentally I’m hesitant to say that I’ve read the book.  I understand that’s completely a mental category, but it’s there.  There is just something about getting to the end of a book, flipping through the footnotes for interesting ideas, and then hearing the cover close knowing that I’ve finished something.  There’s just no sense of that tactile satisfaction with the kindle.  Yes, it’s mental – and yes, it’s a completely learned behavior that I can re-lean (and most likely will re-learn) – but it’s a hurdle for me nevertheless.
• I continue to get stymied by the fact that I can’t share this book.  I have this great book that I’ve read (sort of – again, my psyche is in the way here) – and the only way I can letnd them my copy to read it is to either give them access to my kindle account or lend them my iTouch (both of which are not happening).  Until this is addressed I don’t care how convenient the purchasing it – I’m not going the kindle route.

So, kindle on my iTouch has got some impressive features (the bookmarking is actually very good) and works great with the iTouch’s screen – but it’s not a “killer” app…yet.  When I can lend books and turn it on when I’m on a plane that is landing/taking-off then I might think differently (or be willing to train myself to think differently).  Until then, it’s an experiment I ran which let me read the text of a pretty good book – but it’s not going any further than that.