Because I've been lax on posting lately, I'm going to re-purpose a comment I left on Charles Petzold's blog.
In reply to Kindle Me Elmo:
I am not impressed. $400 is overpriced, DRM is there just for device lock in (Load a PDF on Kindle!?! I must be mad!), and pay a fee just to read blogs? "Wireless" doesn't mean WiFi either, it means a cell phone tower.
Those that read blogs think this is the future, those that read books know that paper is king. A note to amazon, one of those two groups buy a whole lot more books than the other.
When it comes to reading for pleasure nothing beats a book in your hand. I'm not going to "curl up" with an ebook reader and a Steven King novel (nor will I do so when "Turning" is published). I buy most of my books from used book stores (but not programming books Chuck! well... honestly, only because they are way out of date by the time they hit the used book store) and the cost is at most $5. Less if you count the credit I get back when I return them.
This is not to say I'm anti-ebook - quite the opposite, I can see myself using such a device often for reference. I own a huge number of books on programming and find myself needing to reference a book at home while I'm at work. Here Kindle would shine, I could just call up the book on the reader and jump to the section I needed. I'm sure you don't need to be a code monkey to have the same need.
Here is what I would like to see: First kill that keyboard on Kindle - why is it needed? Books are already well indexed (both by an index and a table of contents) and full text searching a book is often pointless (sorry Google). the navigation should be pretty simple (iPod like if you will) and that saves some space to either make the screen bigger or just have a smaller device. WiFi cards fit on an SD memory card now, so add WiFi and an app to configure advanced things like rss feeds and such. Oh, and not every device needs to have a web browser.
Next, sell paper books with "kindle cards" or some such device so that I get a version I can load on the reader with the paper book. I like the idea of the kindle version being sent to me on physical media, eases the "back it all up!" fear of buying digital content.
Last, provide a desktop app "kindle converter" that lets me convert any document format to kindle - pdf, word, help files, even websites. You allow MSDN or WikiPedia to be loaded on kindle and you have created a huge desire for this reader. Why don't I suggest a non-DRM format? Well, though I would like it I still want to see the DRM option for authors who fear it could be copied without it. I know that is not a solid argument - any DRM is cracked within moments of it's release - but this matters to some authors so I'm willing to accept it if it means I'll have their books available.
Posted By Mike On Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Filed under review petzold kindle |
Comments (8)
Tim Rayburn
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Tuesday, November 20, 2007
6:00:31 PM
Couple of notes, you do have WikiPedia access via the wireless connection included. I disagree, full text search is the bomb, still not buying one (I'm an audiobooks guy) but I think personally you've missed the "big" thing, which is what my post is about:
http://timrayburn.net/2007/11/20/HowTheAmazonKindleWillChangeMusic.aspx
Gabriel.
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Tuesday, November 20, 2007
6:14:24 PM
Used book stores infringe on the intellectual property rights of authors, causing untold losses in sales every year. How do you expect an author to survive in such a hostile climate, in which his precious works are bartered away with no royalties? Clearly, as we've seen with illegal reuse and resale of CDs and music distribution, these stores put a thin veil of legitimacy on THEFT. I'm sure we can all agree that copying MP3s is theft, and likewise giving a CD or book away is likewise illegal reuse disallowed by your EULA, so the obvious next step is these charlatans masquerading as businessmen. Black market book sales kill hundreds of starving artists every year.
Just think on it.
Then, once you, MICHAEL C NEEL, are once again a law abiding citizen you will keenly feel the $14.95 pricetag of your favorite novel and will only then know the value of our $3.95 lawful, secure, American as Apple Pie (not commie like Libraries) Kinder(TM) Patriot-Safety-Baseball-JohnWayne-Ness(SM) downloadable document.
Sincerely, Amazon.
Mike
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Tuesday, November 20, 2007
6:50:44 PM
@Tim I know there is a "test" version of a web browser, but I can't see it remaining free. Amazon can't make money on a user that just surfs the web with the device, and is in fact losing money by paying sprint for the user's net use. It's not going to turn into a $400 internet for life device and amazon holds the keys to turn this "feature" off once it becomes an issue or create a pay service for it.
@anyone reading Gabe's comment, Gabe tries to be sarcastic many time and it comes off poorly in online form. Rest assured First-sale Doctrine does protect your right to resell a book you have purchased.
Gabriel.
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Wednesday, November 21, 2007
6:58:45 PM
We'll have that fixed soon enough.
Nathan Blevins
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Tuesday, November 27, 2007
1:19:41 AM
have you looked into Sony Reader? It has a $300 price tag. Sony Reader has slightly better options, IMHO, but I still think this technology has a ways to go before I am ready to sink $$ into it.
Dylan Wolf
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Tuesday, November 27, 2007
2:55:13 AM
Don't listen to him, he spent a good chunk of time this weekend drooling over the demo unit they had in Borders. :P
Mike
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Tuesday, November 27, 2007
3:53:29 AM
I confess, since the problem here is the software not the hardware, I spend a good deal of time thinking about buying an e-ink prototype kit: http://www.eink.com/kits/index.html
Damn thing is $5K though.
