The Independent [Kindle Edition]

As much as I love the Indy, and as much as I will miss having it delivered directly to my Kindle on a daily basis, it is just far too expensive for what you get. What you get is text only articles, dumped directly onto your device - and that's okay, but not at this price.

I tried the free 14 day trial of this was very happy with the service. The digital download was ready to read each morning and it was certainly more convenient than buying a print edition on the way to work. However, due to the sky high cost and the number of articles missing from the digital edition, I will not be continuing with my subscription.

The product page implies this has the same layout and articles as the print version, making it akin to reading the print version on the Kindle.

Far from it. What is actually presented has far less content than even the paper's website.

Maybe an interesting experiment if they weren't asking a subscription of over £10 a month. As this price what is offered is laughable. It seems like a cynical cash in.

Having read so many negative reviews of the Kindle edition of the Independent I didn't expect very much - but since it was free for the first 2 weeks, I thought I'd have a go anyway!

I was very pleasantly surprised. I already knew there wouldn't be any pictures, so that didn't upset me. I found it easy to navigate around the different sections of the newspaper. Clicking on 'View Section List' at the bottom of each page opens a page with a list of sections (News, Business, Sport etc) and alongside each heading, an indication of the number of articles associated with each one. Clicking on the section heading takes you to the first article in that section. From there you can navigate to the next or the previous article using the 5-way controller. Alternatively, clicking on the number next to the section heading takes you to a list of headlines in that section with the first few lines of each article to help you choose what you would like to read.

As mentioned in most of the reviews, there are no pictures. There are also no tables, charts or graphs. This means that the weather map isn't included, neither are the crosswords and other games, and neither are the various sports results (football, racing etc) which are presented in tabular format in the print edition.

However, as far as I can tell, everything else in the print edition is present in the Kindle edition. And, mindful of some of the other reviews which have suggested there is less content in the Kindle edition than in the Print edition, today I bought a print edition too, and have spent the last half-hour or so comparing the print and kindle editions.

My conclusion is that, at least today (1 October, 2010) apart from the weather, the crosswords and puzzles and the sports results, every single article appearing in the print edition, in every section, also appears in the Kindle edition. They're not always in quite the same order, but they're all there!

So, actually, I'm quite impressed. I would have awarded five stars had it been able so reproduce graphs and charts and, more significantly, had it not been so expensive. Nevertheless, it's considerably cheaper than the print edition for pretty much exactly the same written content. Read more ›

I knew that the content of the Indi (electronic) was going to suffer for its transcription to the e format, and it has. On the down side not enough photos, cartoons (actually none) crossword, on the plus side no adverts, no paper to cart around. All i need is there however, and in a format that works, i do like the section scanning part as it enables me to miss out those articles that i have no interest in. I do like that i can scan and pick what i read

I also like a lot that i can get my copy with out going to the shop and given that it is howling a gale at the moment and i am sitting in front of the fire with a large brew of caffeine, this is the best bit of all.

Where my real gripe is with price. Yes i save, but on the other hand they will want one months dosh up front (once you get past the free sub stage). Next its far to expensive for what you get, this is about £5 worth of content given that who ever set up the on-line version of the Indi, simply has to click a button to reproduce the Kindle editions (obviously after the set up template is done]. The £14 or so that i am being asked for is extortionate, but in the nicest possible way. Hint stop trying to replicate the Murdochnews and stick to your own set up and pricing structure. The Murdochnews isn't worth 5p let alone £15. Moreover everything the Kindle gives me is available FOC on the web where i spend my working day anyway.

I also like that i only have time to read the one paper, previously I used to spend £2 a day on 4 newspapers (and more at the weekend, which incidentally wont stop, the weekend bit i mean) scan and then onto the fire for kindling.

Will I continue? maybe, this is my second subscription to a newspaper and i am beginning to see the positive side of Kindles and the future. A few more photos and cartoons and i just might make the effort and continue?

I am not sure what other reviewers expected from a Kindle version of a newspaper.

If you want to see a paper in all its glory, you buy it. If you want it to look like a paper but read it on a portable screen, you use your notebook or iPad for the web version and carry the larger, heavier device around knowing that you won't be able to read it in bright daylight.

The Kindle is a small monochrome device, and what the publishers deliver is perfectly reasonable in that context - key articles from the paper with a minimal but workable index. Kindle users cannot really expect more.

What we can expect, however, is to be charged a reasonable price for the hugely cut down version of the paper which we receive and that, I would suggest, cannot be more than a fiver a month.