Hopefully, you just heard, watched, or read our interview with Lou from the company Strapsicle, but I want to add Steve and my 2¢ to this, so I guess you’re getting 4¢. When we got home from CES, I went straight to Amazon to buy one for Steve and one for me. Spoiler, we love them.
Because Steve is Steve, he chose a black Strapsicle for his Kindle Paperwhite (which is black), and because I’m a grown-up woman who can do whatever she wants, I bought the lilac model for my Kindle nothing. I think I mentioned in the interview that I bought the much smaller Kindle nothing since I couldn’t comfortably hold the Paperwhite because it’s so wide.
Even with the Kindle nothing, I’ve been finding my hand aching after reading for a long time. It was starting to affect my knitting and crocheting and I thought maybe one of those sports was causing it, but I’ve learned it was holding the Kindle. When we talked about Strapsicle after CES, Steve said his hand hurts too from holding his Kindle for long periods.
I have to say, Strapsicle is made of an absolutely velvety silicone. It’s soft to the touch and pliable. On our Kindles, the straps aren’t very tight, so you don’t feel like your fingers are trapped under the strap and going to lose circulation. They’re not loose enough to easily fall off, but occasionally after shoving them into a backpack on our world travels they have come off.
It turns out there are even more advantages to Strapsicle than one-handed reader holding and not droppying the reader on your baby, as happened to Lou.
The two straps go diagonally from one corner to the opposite corner, and each of these corners provides a nice, flat surface with friction vs. the thin plastic case of the Kindle itself. Here are a couple of problems this solves.
You’re on a plane, and you have the tray table down and want to set your Kindle up resting on the back of the seat in front of you. Because the Kindle is thin and plastic, the slightest turbulence or seat back movement causes your Kindle to slide down flat on the table.
Also, the newer Kindle models have their power button on the bottom, so putting them upright like this turns them off which has been driving Steve nuts since he got the new Paperwhite model. With a Strapsicle on your Kindle (or iPad mini, or Kobo), the friction and thicker flat edge of that yummy silicone keeps the device in place and keeps it from turning itself off.
When I read at night, I lie in bed on my right side. With Strapsicle on my Kindle, I often don’t even need to use the strap. The flat, frictionful corners keep the Kindle lying on its side with only my finger to keep it balanced. I sometimes use one finger, but most of the time I don’t. In my injured reserve state, where I have to sleep on my back (which I hate with a fiery passion), I rest my elbow on the bed with my hand straight up and one finger under the strap. It’s pretty easy and light, so it works no matter how much I hate lying on my back!
The fact that Steve and I have both kept our Strapsicles on our Kindles ever since early January tells you that they are a great addition to our reading comfort. I should mention that BOTH of our hands stopped having that achy feeling! That’s worth $20 right there.