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Amazon Enters Gadget Market with Kindle, an eBook Device

Would you consider buying Kindle?

  • Yes

    Votes: 139 27.6%

  • No

    Votes: 365 72.4%
  • Total voters
    504
451

Why the hell did they name it "Kindle"? Seems like a pretty tacky joke when they need to convince hardcore book lovers to try new technology.
 
dvkid said:
That seems odd. As most offset presses and plate-burning mechanisms typically read at roughly 150 dpi. We use 300 dpi here for our prep work mainly so we can scale photos and other graphical elements up and down safely as needed.
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Imaging at 300dpi. Text at 1200dpi. The scalability for that is obvious.

XeTeX/TeX/LaTeX output to DVI at 1200dpi.
 
Ugly - Yes. But for an I/T Professional who has to have resources at my fingertips - and I am not allowed to bring my laptop to work.... This may work out for me (and it is small unlike how bulky widescreen laptops have become. However - what happens when this technology is obsolete. Can you upgrade and move all your books seemlessly? I have 100's of books for my work and Christian Ministry that I cannot lug around. However I worry about things not being compatible with the next generation of the technology. I for one hate having 1000's of badly named PDF's that I can never find. Thus why I switched to MS OneNote. But I am worried if OneNote gets discontinued I will lose my information. I don't see PDF going away anytime soon, but eventually that time will come now that MS has its own document imaging and they want to redesign how we do the web.

Technology - darn if you do, darn if you don't.
 
shervieux said:
Ugly - Yes. But for an I/T Professional who has to have resources at my fingertips - and I am not allowed to bring my laptop to work.... This may work out for me (and it is small unlike how bulky widescreen laptops have become. However - what happens when this technology is obsolete. Can you upgrade and move all your books seemlessly? I have 100's of books for my work and Christian Ministry that I cannot lug around. However I worry about things not being compatible with the next generation of the technology. I for one hate having 1000's of badly named PDF's that I can never find. Thus why I switched to MS OneNote. But I am worried if OneNote gets discontinued I will lose my information. I don't see PDF going away anytime soon, but eventually that time will come now that MS has its own document imaging and they want to redesign how we do the web.

Technology - darn if you do, darn if you don't.
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That's why an iPod Touch, Tablet or otherwise similar or a bit larger form factor Day Planner device with OS X Leopard, WiFi and even a USB port for a keyboard would make your day.
 
ckurowic said:
Do you think the publishing companies would really allow this to happen? Or the college book stores? Would they REALLY carry this product? I think not. Nothing is ever going to compare to physically having a textbook. Even my online courses (of which I have three this semester) have physical text books. I don't have to worry about backing up my math book. Where do we draw the line as far as electronics go? When is it too much? An e-book? Give me a break. I don't need yet another electronic device to worry about batteries, backups, etc.

As far as heavy book loads go, what is this junior high? Suck it up. Try a 70 pound ruck sack.
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You seem like you would be very troubled even reading an article online for class. Do you still use a typewriter for papers because you don't need a backup? Do you only do research in the library and refuse to go to an online source? From reading your comment you seem to be scared to take advantage of new technology. I don't understand how you are so against an electronic book, yet you are taking 3 online classes. I'm pretty sure people once though that typing would always have to be done on paper and that research would always have to take place in the library, obviously things have changed and that is not the case. In the future many text books will be online and downloadable like quite a few novels already are. When that day comes, enjoy lugging around those books while others don't need to.

As far as a publishing company goes, yes they will eventually allow this. Look at all the "go green" ads and constant pressure on companies to stop wasting resources. An online text eliminates large amounts of paper being used. Even if the companies continue to charge outrageous prices, online texts will eventually happen. Look at the amount of crap AT&T got for their paper iPhone bills. If people took notice and decided to target 600+ page texts as wasting paper when there is an alternate way, we would see a very quick change.
 
College

Yea, college textbooks might be kinda handy on this device. I know there were a few times where I've had several books on me where I was afraid of becoming a hunchback. This might lighten the load.

Give it the ability to highlight text or maybe copy and paste into a document and that would be a big plus. Hopefully this would make the books less expensive to purchase or give it the ability to rent the books for a semester where they would expire at the end.

I think I'm on to something here. :)
 
I have been waiting for years to buy a device like this, it would actually encourage me to take a train instead of car for my travels.I would probably read more also.

Cant justify taking my laptop on many journeys, too bulky, too expensive to lose.

I need something the size of a paperback, that i can chuck in my bag, that has battery life of 4-5 hrs (tho 8 would be nice for long haul flights).

A fold/roll up screen would be great (when mature), I'm not bothered about glare too much (but it would be nice when it doesnt have its own downfalls).

I would probably pay up to $600 for it.

give me my iBook!
 
At $400 it's too expensive. They should've just taken a $100 digital photo frame, and hacked it to load eBooks and scroll pages. Toss in a wireless adaptor for $20, and at most, a color eBook reader could be sold for under $150. How do they justify a $400 price tag? R&D? It's all existing technology! :confused:
 
ckurowic said:
Good point. The last time I accidently took my cellphone to the beach (didnt even take it out of my pocket, didn't go in the water) it was ruined with sand dust embedded in the display.
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I take my iPhone to the beach (and took iPods in the past) no problems -- you just need to exercise a modicum of care. Look: I'm predicting the Kindle will flop, but a well executed e-Reader is the wave of the future at some point. The only question is when (and it could be decades) and who will make it.
 
This product has great potential. If they just add music, videos, email, the web and maybe a few widgets, plus Google maps, colour screen, nice form factor and phone functionality. :D
 
Consultant said:
eBook
iPod
Internet communicator
Productivity station
Entertainment system
and more...!

It even has a 17" screen!

index_ataglance17_20071026.png


Anyway, I understand the e-ink is nice to read and I can't wait for all monitors to have color e-ink with quick refresh rate (maybe 10 years if the technology takes off?), but at this time how many devices do we want to carry around? I am happy to have MBP and iPhone...
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** loud whistling **

Here here! Amen my friend! Like it's too hard to carry around a 15" MBP and an iPhone. That's pretty much standard these days.

What they should be working on is creating an Ultra Mobile PC/MAC at 11.1" no optical drive, SSD or cheap Flash Drive storage 1GB of RAM for around $1000 so that I can use that as my eReader or whatever. This Foleo and Kindle crap is retarded, and shows that these million dollar CEOs really don't know what to invest their money in. They should do their research and read MacRumors to figure out what the market wants and needs, and stop pretending to know what they are doing.
 
Desperate Amazon

People always talk about these types of gadgets as 'replacing' something - well this wont replace the book anytime soon. Just like the iPod didnt replace the home stereo system.

If its cheap enough, it will be a gadget that some will go for - but the price point would have to be about $29.99.

This wont increase book sales - in fact, you would have to be a real 'reader' to use this, because its a LOT more hassle to use than the thing it replicates, the far cheaper (think used book stores, think LIBRARY), no batteries required, can be thrown at the cat without damage, loaned to friends and never seen again without damaging friendship, can be used for propping up wobbly tables, the amazing BOOK.

The iPhone isnt bad for reading, if I could find some books to read on it, but its not a replacement, just an add-on.

Its going to disappear rapidly - like that thing that Palm brought out recently, the Integro, the Alero, the Alonzo, the ReBozo, well whatever it was, its gone. Looked a bit like this El Kindero thing, actually....

Has anyone else noticed that the real problem in the computer/gadget world is the absence of any new and exciting software?
What the world needs is a new Killer app - where the hell is it?

The bloody Newton could read books, and thats 3 million years ago.
 
OK device, but oh what a miss on the concept. It's simply not comfortable to sit down and read text off a computer screen for hours on end, the way it is with a book. Keyboard is totally superfluous and not well designed. However, if you had just the screen, made it a multi-touch wi-fi internet device, now you've got my attention. Having the zooming capabilities of an iPod touch at this screen size would be the bee's knees for mobile internet browsing.

My prediction: <Clunk>
 
Ted13 said:
I take my iPhone to the beach (and took iPods in the past) no problems -- you just need to exercise a modicum of care. Look: I'm predicting the Kindle will flop, but a well executed e-Reader is the wave of the future at some point. The only question is when (and it could be decades) and who will make it.
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For the price they're asking, I agree that it will flop. If Apple does make an ultra-thin touch tablet (with the gestures technology and functionality of the touch and iPhone) then we're looking at a winning combination even with the higher price tag because it will be multi-functional. The Kindle is a one-trick pony that would be hugely popular at the $99 price point, but DOA at $399. Like I said before, it's digital ink and paper, is that worth $399? The idea is great, but the execution is flawed. Heck, the design of it isn't half-bad, black would be nicer but its not entirely fugly.

I thought I saw it said for a "small fee" that word, pdf and such would be converted via email by Amazon. Anyone see how much? Plus, blogs appear to be $.99 p/month. I read a ton of blogs and that will add up to way too much, considering I read them for free now.
 
Not worth it

I just don't think this is going to fly. First, the price is too steep for a device with limited capabilities. It can't read any file, except its own proprietary files - not pdfs. That's bad. This is likely due to publishers demands - preventing us from stealing ebooks over the internet to read them on this device. I like what Apple did with their iPods - you can play any mp3 on them, no matter how you obtained it. There is no way I would spend $400 on a device that forces me to further give them money. I think that is kind of arrogant. Imagine buying a car where you could only get gas at one place, buying a computer that only allows you to download their own software, or a music device that only plays music files you buy from them.:eek:

They should be selling this device (which probably costs less than $5 to produce in China) for less than $50. I am sure everyone who bought one would at least buy one book. At the current price, it is cheaper to buy the real thing.

And besides, I'll wait probably (less than) a year to pick up the Apple Touch.
 
Haven't read through the thread, but honestly, this is amazing. Sure it's expensive, but it's a step in the right direction. Less trees being cut down for newspapers, cheaper books, easy to follow blogs anywhere. I would rather have one of these than an iphone, to be honest. For people who's career/education (journalism major) require you to read dozens of newspapers and blogs a day, this thing is great.
 
pogwilson@ntlwo said:
This has to be a joke. Not even a GB of internal storage. A black and white low-resolution screen. A piece of plastic that's not remotely sexy. A keyboard! What are they thinking? Haven't they been paying attention? Where's the touch interface, the paper thin HD display, the creative design? Give us a break.
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No wireless, less space than a Nomad. Lame.
 
arkitect said:
Sad that most comments are only concerned with how it "looks".
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In a world where some celebrities get a c-section/liposuction combo at 7 or 8 months of pregnancy, I'm not even surprised.

But give it time. If this is a success, it will evolve quite fast. Just compare a 1st gen iPod to the iPod touch.
 
What I'm thinking about as a college student is course books on a touch screen eBook. My technique to study is to underscore all the necessary information on a given page, so while revising I can quickly check the most necessary information on a given page. This is hampered down by course books borrowed from a library, to which I can't make my own notes. On the other hand, I wouldn't want to carry a MacBook, because it's too big and heavy. I know that'd be a niche market, but I'd be a happy camper - if only the course books themselves could come as eBooks.

Or maybe I'll wait for the ultrathin laptop.
 
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