I Don’t Need a Kindle!

Remember this post? Almost two weeks ago, I posted a blog about whether or not I should buy a Kindle to read e-books. Well, guess what?! I found I don’t! With the help of my netbook & Kindle for PC, I can do pretty much the same thing without having to buy another device to haul around in my bag.

In July I bought this little baby:

It’s the Asus Eee PC T101-MT, in white rather than in black though. A very nifty little notebook. Perhaps a little bit on the slow side, hardware wise, but it’s a netbook + a tablet PC in one. It has a touch screen, is fully convertible as you can put the screen over the keys so you only have the screen on your lap PLUS it’s light weight and easy to carry around. I bought it because I went back to school in September and needed something that would make life a little easier on me and have my work & school files in one place and preferably NOT on my bulky 17″laptop at home. A nice and easy way to keep work/ school apart from my private life.

My netbook isn’t all that when it comes to the hardware inside it. It is rather slow and sometimes dislikes playing youtube videos as flash takes a toll on its CPU. But that’s not the reason why I got it. I need it to type up Word files and Excel sheets, the occasional tweet, blog and e-mail and as long as the hard drive was big enough to hold most of my music I was a happy bunny. The fact that it came in white and had a touch screen to add was nothing but a bonus to me. It cranked up the price, naturally, but it’s so much more convenient in the train when I’m watching TV series or a movie! Plus it has a regular keyboard so it’s not so much of a hassle to write something with it.

And now… I have also converted it to an e-reader. YAY!!! Thanks to the Kindle for PC function which I just downloaded, I can now use it to read e-books which I can download directly from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk as long as I have a functioning Internet connection. How great is that? And since my netbook has a touchscreen, flipping a page is simply a tap on the screen. No scrolling or buttons required! On top of that the screen has anti-glare (it’s not shiny because it’s a touch screen), I can convert the netbook into a tablet PC and just have the screen on top, which means I can just hold it in my lap, just like reading a real book.

For those of you already possessing a netbook: hold your horses on buying a Kindle or another type of e-reader. If you’re carrying your netbook with you on a daily basis anywayz you may as well save some money and download the software (also available for Mac + it’s free). You do need an Amazon account to log on and you have to be connected to the Internet to buy & download books, but it seems to work like a charm. Now I can safely test drive to see how many times I’ll read a book from a screen vs one on paper without having to spend another dime on it! Me = happy!