Gracing the cover of the latest Newsweek issue is Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos, who discusses a new ebook device called the Amazon Kindle and the The Future of Reading.
The revolutionary Kindle is said to have the dimensions of a paperback book and include a 6-inch E-ink screen powered by a battery that lasts up to thirty hours on a two-hour charge. Named after the ability to evoke the ignition of knowledge, the Kindle will also boast wireless connectivity similar to EVDO, so it will connect anywhere and everywhere! Book prices are said to start at $10, with more than 88,000 titles on sale when the Kindle officially hits store shelves. Additionally, users will also be able to subscribe to newspapers and certain blogs for a monthly fee.
I don't know about you, but I still can't seem to warm up to the idea of curling up with a plastic digital book for a bedtime reading session. Although I can see where it would come in handy. . . .What do you think?
John Frieda
Paul Smith
Fabi
I've been looking for a good eBook reader for a long time. E-ink is really the stuff of the future and the battery life is great. This one looks to top previous offerings, but I still have a few reservations.
Amazon claims it "holds over 200 titles." EBooks are rather small files by today's standards. They don't give an actual memory size, but they could make that claim if it held as little as 64MB. It is expandable but since it also holds audiobooks, blogs, and graphics that could fill up pretty fast. Hopefully my fears aren't justified... 1GB should be minimum in a $400 device like this. Flash memory is incredibly cheap these days.
They say it will connect to Wi-Fi hotspots and doesn't require configuration. I'm not sure if that means it will connect to a home network. It would be crazy if it didn't, but they didn't say so I don't know.
Can you transfer files to it over the included USB cable? Who knows? All they say is that you can email your own files to it... for $0.10 each. Wow... so it would cost me $5 just to transfer my class notes to this device? Yikes. Again it'd be crazy if you couldn't, but THEY DIDN'T SAY. Are they selling this device as a loss leader, or what?
I learned long ago never to trust that a device HAS a feature that they don't specifically SAY it has just because it SHOULD.
1There's nothing like a new book, with the new book smell and everything. Digitizing books is a good idea, but it's not the same effect.
2I love reading, but I just can't get into eBooks. I like having the physical, paper book to curl up with. I find that if I stare at a computer screen too long I start to get a headache and it reminds me a little too much of research for papers (not something I want when I'm trying to relax). Give me a good (paper) book, and I'm happy.
3I agree. I love curling up with a good book. Taking a break and staring at its cover, bookmarking my favorite pages. e-Books aren't books. Books are better.
4I love books, but I'm totally excited about the Kindle. The wireless connectivity sounds pretty awesome.
5Books are amazing; the smell, the feel, the excitement when you turn the page cannot be replaced. Besides, how ugly is that device. I think they needed a better industrial designer.
6I agree with #6.
7Me too.
8E-ink doesn't look like much of an improvement over a regular computer screen. Also, the Kindle looks like a calculator with a huge screen. D:
9I'm pretty excited about this. I would like an e-book reader simply for the convenience of being able to access lots of books all at once.
However - I have my MacBook, Papers and Google Books. What more do I need?
10I love this idea.. yes, I love to read an actual book, however, I never read the same book more then once and then think of all the paper being wasted? I'd gladly take one of these!
hehe
11Geek- Do you need someone to test one of these? I have a L-O-N-G road trip coming up!
it sounds like an interesting idea, but I'm waiting for the price to drop a little bit first! (Until then, I'll settle for listening to my books on my Zen.)
12wow, very trippy.
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