Amazon's $399 Wireless Reading Device, "Kindle"...this year's Pet Rock-slash-Rubik's Cube?

[Amerigo Vespucci]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FI73MA



Discuss.

:toast:

[Book Lover]

1. $400! Ha!

My fellow curmudgeons at The Register, as usual, say it better than I can
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/22/kindle_whispernet/

<snip>
The giveaway is the use of a 3G telephony network, rather than Wi-Fi or similar, providing a network connection which is active whenever the device feels like activating it, without the user being aware. That makes for a very different experience than deliberately connecting when the user wants to, one which Amazon calls Whispernet - as Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO, puts it: "This isn't a device, it's a service."

But it is a device, and one which is intended to act as a depository of books, so why would it need such ubiquitous connectivity? The gushing Newsweek article on the Kindle references a 2004 study which discovered that only 57 per cent of Americans read a book, any book, in the previous year. Previous e-books have attempted to appeal to that 57 per cent, replacing their paper-based equivalents, but Kindle is hoping to create something new, which might appeal to the rest as well as driving the reading majority to buy more books.

One plan is to reduce the cost of books though advertising: while in-book advertising is generally limited to "other books by this author", and the occasional free chapter to bulk out the page count, books in Kindle can contain adverts which are updated daily. Every time you open a book a different advert can appear amongst its pages (just like this article). But it's not just the bits between the text which Amazon can reach out and alter: even the prose itself will no longer be inviolate.

Authors could update their books while you're reading them; responding to reader feedback, litigation, or even whim. A book could be updated daily, or chapters added when the author has time - readers might subscribe to a book rather than buying it outright.
<snip>

[gmoney]

2. welcome to the memory hole

As you may remember, in Orwell's 1984, Winston Smith's job was to rewrite news stories or books or other printed material to reflect the current political orthodoxy. It wasn't quite clear how all the extant print copies of books and newspapers and such could be tracked down, collected, and replaced with the current version. Basically, the above description of this device solves that logistical problem for Big Brother and the Ministry of Truth...

[BlueJazz]

3. I think it's going to be very Popular.....Like These >>

[Poiuyt]

4. Review: Amazon reader needs more juice

Review: Amazon reader needs more juice
By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer
Wed Nov 21, 1:27 PM ET
NEW YORK - Making a successful reader for electronic books is one of the toughest tasks in consumer electronics. Many have tried and all have failed, defeated by something that's thousands of years old — the book.

This week, Amazon.com Inc. released the Kindle, the best attempt yet at toppling the book. It's in some ways an amazing device, but it's severely undercut by its poor battery life, making it hard to see it as a game-changer.

==

The Kindle, by contrast, lasted only 24 hours for me, including about 2 hours of reading, before needing a recharge. Amazon said that result was not typical, and that the device should be able to go two days between charges.

But that's still not good, and I think something's really gone wrong here. Combining a big battery, a display that takes practically no power and a cell phone that doesn't make calls shouldn't result in a device that has less than half the battery life of a cell phone.

==

But I'm willing to overlook some of those weird design choices, because the Kindle has some really cool features. For instance, the full-alphabet keyboard below the screen allows you to (slowly) type in words to search for in your books. You can annotate what you read. You can wirelessly send questions to a team of editors, who will grab answers for you from the Web and send them back to you for free. There's even a rudimentary Web browser that allows you to surf for free.

==

The real reason I can't recommend the Kindle is the battery issue. It's quite possible that Amazon could apply some simple fix, like a software upgrade, because the battery life is much shorter than its components seem to warrant.

more -

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071121/ap_on_hi_te/tech_test_amazon_kindle;_ylt=AjxvP.mjhk2x3vkmLXsBR5ys0NUE