So I bought two products in the last two days, an Apple TV and  a Kindle.

I got the 3G Kindle, and true to Amazon’s claims, it worked out the box,very easy to setup, I was reading a book within a few minutes of opening the box. Even the new WebKit browser isn’t bad, I wouldn’t make a habit of it, but it’d do the job in a tight spot.

The clarity of the screen is fantastic, sometimes seems better than an actual book.

Other than the poor-ish range of books (I knew this of course), I don’t really have a bad word to say about it.

I also bought an Apple TV, which, although working now, was a textbook case of bad user experience.

First, no HDMI cable in the box, not unusual, but still, it’s Apple, they should know better.

Second, Home Sharing, many 5599 errors when trying to set this up, a quick Google shows that I’m not alone.

Once I’m past that, the sound quality from the music is awful, unlistenable, like listening to the radio when going through a tunnel. Turns out a restart fixes this, but jesus Apple, this is basic stuff.

The Apple TV is working now, and it’s OK, but no better than my PS3, it’s just the PS3 can’t play movies downloaded from the iTunes store, which was the point of the Apple TV.

In a way, I find it encouraging for the industry, Apple is fallible, and they show this with gusto in the form of the Apple TV, and Amazon shows how good a user experience can be.