Review: Amazon Kindle Paperwhite

Amazon Kindle PaperwhiteI recently purchased a Kindle Paperwhite from Amazon and I couldn’t be happier. As I recently posted, I’ve really jumped onto the eReader bandwagon.

About a year ago, I started seriously considering an eReader. I almost bought one a number of times, but thought my iPad mini would suffice. As the weather started warming up, I started going outside more. I wanted to read outside, but it was less than ideal iPad conditions. The bright sun and desire to read at the beach (somewhere, I was leery of taking a $300 iPad) made me finally pony up for the Kindle Paperwhite.

Why the Paperwhite? Well I did a lot of research on the pros and cons of the major eReader players. The Nook, while a nice device didn’t have the beautiful Paperwhite display. The entry level Kindle lacked the nicer screen, a backlight and a touch screen. I liked the price of those other readers better, but ultimately the Kindle Paperwhite won me over.

A big bonus for me with the Amazon devices over other brands, was the lending library that an Amazon Prime membership includes. I’m already a prime subscriber, plus I’ve previously bought books with the Kindle app, so it made sense for me to stick with Amazon.

The device itself is fantastic. The screen is readable in any situation. In the brightest of sunlight or the dimmest of rooms, you can adjust the backlight to make your reading experience terrific. The size is very nice too. It’s very light, easy to hold and can be hidden away in a bag or cargo pocket very easily.

The built in wi-fi makes synching with or making Amazon purchases a breeze. There is a 3G model, but I opted to stick with the wi-fi (to save some money and I’m usually around wifi for most of the day). The Paperwhite charges on a standard USB cable. They don’t include a wall charger, but these days anyone with a phone has one that can be used.

The battery life seems to be excellent. I’ve charged mine once and I’ve ready five books on it. It didn’t even die, but I was headed out of town and wanted to make sure it was ready. To get a little more battery life out of your device, I recommend turning on “airplane mode” to kill the wifi. I usually leave that on unless I’m synching or browsing the book store.

A nice little touch is Amazon’s Whispersynch, which will keep your last-read page synch across devices. So if you start a book on your Kindle, but then want to continue on a computer or iPad later, you don’t have to remember where you were. It’s a small thing, but very handy.

Overall, it’s hard to find a flaw with the Paperwhite. It’s solved every problem I’ve had with reading in the past, and now I’m flying through books left and right. If you’ve been on the edge, I highly recommend going for it. It’s a beautiful device with a good feature set. I couldn’t be happier with mine.

Logo Hidden Secrets

Logos are everywhere. You see them all the time, so much in fact, you’re probably missing some of their hidden secrets. I love a good Easter egg. Whether it be in a video game, an app or a well designed logo. I’ve tracked down a few of my favorite logo hidden secrets so I can reveal the Easter eggs to you.

FedEx Logo

The first one I always think of is FedEx. The logotype is so clean and simple you might not immediately recognize the arrow that gets created in the negative space between the “E” and “x.” It works very well for conveying the “moving forward” attitude of a shipping company.

Amazon Logo

Amazon has a very recognizable logo, and many people would probably tell you they see a smile. They wouldn’t be entirely wrong, as the orange arrow does convey smiling but it also shows “A to Z.” It’s said Amazon wanted to be the online shop for everything from A to Z. They have pretty much achieved that goal and so has their logo, making it that much cooler now.

The Big Ten college football conference has not one, but two logos with hidden goodies. The previous logo had a hidden 11 in the negative space. At the time the conference had 11 teams but didn’t want to lose the equity of their name (plus, Big Eleven doesn’t have the same ring to it). The most recent logo came out after another team was added (making 12 teams, and the Big Twelve name is already taken) so they dropped the hidden 11 and made the word Big also show a hidden ten. It allows it to stand alone without adding a second word or numbers. Pretty slick, especially for the often over-designed world of sports.

Toblerone logo

Toblerone is a chocolate maker based in Bern, Switzerland. Bern is often called the “city of bears.” Upon close inspection of the mountain, you’ll notice a bear outline. That’s nice little design detail and tribute to their hometown.

Northwest Airlines logoNorthwest Airlines may now be part of Delta, but their old logo had a couple hidden gems. There’s an “N” as well as an implied “W” in the icon. It gets better; the little arrow actually points in the direction of northwest. Those are pretty clever details.

There are many more logos with little secrets, but the above are just a few of my favorites. Maybe I’ll do another one of these posts in the future. Did I miss your favorite? Tell me about it in the comments.