Amazon Enters Gadget Market with Kindle, an eBook Device

[jbcaro]

I want one of those e-readers like they used on Star Trek-TNG.

 

[Psychic Shopper]

The future doesn't need Amazon

Imagine A day when musicians and writers publish things themselves on their own web sites. They will chose whatever format they think will sell, and charge whatever they think they can get. Middlemen like Amazon will be as useless as the firemen on Diesel locomotives. If Jeff wants to make his tablet a success, he had better make sure it is compatible with the author's electronic formats.

 

[netwalker]

I just found about this ereader http://www.irextechnologies.com/products/iliad but at that price... have to think about it

Was just about to mention the Iliad. The price is more than a bit to high but that's what you get with a niche market. At least the Iliad has WLAN, can display many different formats (PDF,...) and is extensible. Sounds like that Amazon thing is far away from all of this and in that case I see it as yet another doomed ebook reader.

 

[fregedegpo]

This device answers the question, "How do I carry around a bunch of my stuff to read if I don't want to lug my books from class to class, or take a bunch on vacation, or have easy access to all my magazines subscriptions, or quick access to an international newspaper I otherwise have to have the luxury of living in a major city or get, or prevents me from having a giant stack of newsprint newspapers at the end of the week that I have to recycle (or worse, trash)?" I think that's a pretty good question.

Also, I think several people - as has been noted numerous times in this thread - dislike newspapers, their format and reading them. You get ink all over your fingers, you have to fold things over and back again, they're not really conducive to communiting on a bus or train, etc.

And what is Amazon charing people for that Apple didn't? Are you complaining that people can't read their existing books on here? That's a very weak argument. It's good for far more than just existing collections (as I've pointed out with magazines and newspapers), but in any case, I'd be willing to bet a good number of iPod owners have ONLY ever listened to music they purchased digitally on the device or their computers - a lot of older folks don't even know how to import their existing CDs, and even if they do, the vast majority of the iTunes libraries are from the iTMS.





Maybe the answer is you delete it? Because, you know, Amazon keeps a record of what you bought and allows for immediate, easy, no-hassle redownloading, so you can just grab it again if you'd like it back?




Wow, if nearly a quarter of Apple users are interesed in a device from Amazon that overlaps slightly with the iPods they already own, then this thing is destined to be a success!

That's what you're saying, right? That I should look at the poll at the top of this page and draw conclusions? Because if 1 in 4 Mac-biased consumers is interested in this thing, then I can only image what the genral population will thing; it's a runaway hit! And also, as has been said:




That's the right idea...




Oh, thanks for clearing that up.

We can close this thread now because fregedegpo has explained to us how they like to read stuff, and apparently this isn't going to work for them.

I think it's only natural to assume that the rest of the world has the same reading habits, aesthetic ideals and such as them; it's a shame Amazon didn't consult directly with them earier and just scrap the project before wasting all this time making the prototype, announcing the thing, putting it up for sale etc.

Hahha, you are really funny, man. You have to get all sarcastic and put people down.

I was just expressing my opinion, I honestly think you are wrong about how people use books. It's wrong to compare being able to carry around a cd library with a book library, because... well, unless it's filled with mostly poetry or very short stories, chances are one book will do for at least a few days. Do you disagree with this point? Please don't just get all trolly on me now.

 

[nemaslov]

My wife (who reads four a five books a week) just sent me an email about this today. Hint Hint: She wants one for Christmas.

That's the audience for this and there will be an audience.

It seems that many here (at macforums) don't read books for pleasure much but many do!

Those people DON'T want a device that is complicated and has too much crap loaded in. But book nuts are like mac addicts and would love to have one of these things.

Still think it should be about $199.

 

[katnoodle]

I have one word for you 'Sinclair' (as in QL).

Ok, here's another - Amstrad (as in E-mailer).

In other words, this doesn't look good

 

[nemaslov]

Again big readers will love this. Does not need WIFI uses normal cell areas with NO cell charge/fee just paid for the book and downloads in less than a minute

 

[mdriftmeyer]

...isn't it a biche to try to spell niche?

No. I didn't bother taking the time to run my quick response through a spell checker. However, the context was clear. And yes it's been a spell since I've used niche in a statement.

However, it is a niche product.

 

[g.c.]

This would be awesome for me. I'm in University, so not having to carry a bunch of textbooks would be a godsend! I would love it, although this Amazon device is FUGLY. If Apple released one (obviously it would be amazing) and I could get my textbooks on it, I would buy one in a heartbeat!

The only great thing about this device from Amazon is that is uses EVDO and it's FREE! Very very good stuff. The rest is pretty primitive.

 

[citi]

Thats what narrow minded people said about the desktop...
You dont 'need' to see pages of a book, you dont 'need' folders, but without the UI analogy you may as well use DOS or basic UNIX.

I have over emphasized the book visuals, im sure someone, including myself could create a much more pleasant looking 'book' effect give an hour or so.
A real world analogy helps with familiarity, and as many of this devices potential users are non book reading, non geeks, a company would be pretty thick not to use it IMO (technology forbidding, eink would currently have technical difficulties).
Bookmarks would fit into this analogy well. The book 'leaves' could also be used to skip multiple pages in one jump by simply touching the 'sides' of the book.

The page curl is to depict a multitouch gesture to turn a page. I'm not suggesting a gigantic page curl should reside on every page blocking your view!

The book pages of the first graphic, can be used to graphically view how many pages are left. In this view you would thumb(browse) through multiple pages with gestures, then tap a page to view(second image).

Preceding this step would be similar to the iphone album browser, but with books.

lol, I guess without the ereader, it is more difficult to see the sarcasm in my words. I was kidding...I knew your intentions, just having a little fun.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

Actually I think the Kindle is a great idea, despite it's steep price. They have to charge people monthly fees (.99 cents/month) on blogs because they have to pay Sprint for the EVDO service. Also, it's not for everyone, the man (Jeff Bezos) did said it's aiming for heavy readers, specifically "book worm" type users.

An interview with Techcrunch:
"Q: Who do you see buying this device?
Bezos: Heavy readers. Anyone who keeps three or four books open at the same time. It is heavy to carry all of those books around. People who are really busy. The traveler is another constituency. it id designed to be usable by someone who does not even want the complexity of using a computer. It is closer to being an appliance."

This e-ink thing is new, but I really like the idea that makes reading much more comfortable on this anti-glare and non-flickering screen. Staring on a LCD monitor for few hours and you'll get eye strains and headaches, at least for me.

Also, if you have actually used a Sony ebook (2nd version), you'll notice that the screen is very disturbing when you flip through pages. When you click the Next button, you'll see the texts on the e-ink screen flip and twirl while it processes the next screen, which makes me dizzy after a while. I'm hoping that the Kindle uses better e-ink technology which refreshes the screen in a better way, at least the demo videos did look promising.

It depends on how you like to read and how crazy are you into books. It'll appeal to some boom mongers but maybe others still like to smells the paper while flipping through novels, I don't know. But, ya, depends on how crazy you are into books...

PS: I think if you want to save some bucks, pull out your old TI calculator from college and throw some plain text files in there and it might look the same, just an idea...

I have a dozen books I'm reading in parallel. They range from Fracture Mechanics, to Cocoa Programming (Hillegass) to A Rage to Live (Sir Richard Francis Burton & Isabel Burton Biography), to Benjamin Franklin, to The Egyptian, to Machine Design, to Diff Eq, to PDE/ODE, etc.

I don't travel with my technical or personal books. It's called a chair/couch/toilet and a beverage.

To each their own.

Enjoy this niche POS that will be DOA.

 

[aliquis-]

Pay more for an ebook than a pocket? Yeeeah right, that will work!

Amazon, major CD-label but for books!

I can see how this will really... fail.

Also it looks like ****.



I would be intrested if it was:

1) Cheap
2) Had higher resolution
3) I could load all pirated books into it (which I can.)

Because reading on screen or 500 pages of printouts suck. But books still rule this except they cost money.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

I don't know if it's the difference in our age (I'm 25 and I assume you're older), but at least for me, reading a book or a newspaper is a tremendous burden. A newspaper more so annoying than books, having to flip through pages and hold them down is a hassle for me. Don't get me started on newspapers, huge pieces of paper with jumps from above and below the fold making readers fold and bend pages to read the stories is a HUGE annoyance.

I prefer reading my news online. It's very simple to jump to exactly where you want to go without any hindrance.

Although this Kindel may not be a good-looking thing, I think it's something worth checking out, at least for the younger generation and probably myself.

I imagine having sex must seem tiresome then? How about we just jack in and let our bodies neurologically ejaculate with us only needing to discharge because we can't correct that annoyance. /endOfSarcasm

 

[dicklacara]

Pardon me if this has been said already but i wasnt going to read 11 pages on an eBook reader, but cant we somehow get eBooks on the Touch or iPhone?

There is 3rd-party eBook reader and downloader on a JailBroken iPhone or Touch.

... you can read in bed with the lights off!

 

[japanime]

I can see it now:

Kids sitting around the Christmas tree, grandmother beaming with pride as Johnny unwraps his Kindle.

Johnny: "Um, but Grandma, I told you I wanted an iPod touch!"

Grandma: "But Johnny, Kindle lets you view eBooks."

Johnny: "Sure. And so does a jailbroken iPod touch!"

A disgusted Johnny throws his Kindle into the fireplace and his horrified grandmother begins to sob.

And thus the latest iPod killer -- Amazon's "Kindle" -- is renamed "Kindling."

 

[tronic72]

Two Words....

OVER PRICED.

Nice idea though and a step in the right direction to saving a couple of billion trees a year so that's gotta be a plus.

 

[tronic72]

Bloody Johnny

I can see it now:

Kids sitting around the Christmas tree, grandmother beaming with pride as Johnny unwraps his Kindle.

Johnny: "Um, but Grandma, I told you I wanted an iPod touch!"

Grandma: "But Johnny, Kindle lets you view eBooks."

Johnny: "Sure. And so does a jailbroken iPod touch!"

A disgusted Johnny throws his Kindle into the fireplace and his horrified grandmother begins to sob.

And thus the latest iPod killer -- Amazon's "Kindle" -- is renamed "Kindling."

All I can say it Johnny is spoilt little brat and won't be getting jack from Santa next year.

 

[gifford]

lol, I guess without the ereader, it is more difficult to see the sarcasm in my words. I was kidding...I knew your intentions, just having a little fun.

My apologies.

Hmm I think it should have auto scroll feature also, and come with a stand and bluetooth controller so i can lie in bed reading books all day and not have to move a muscle.

 

[peletrane]

I have a iRex illiad e-reader; it is definitely pricey, but in terms of reading PDF's, it's much better than the Sony e-reader. I don't regret buying it, the e-ink is pretty cool.

I view it as having all the important work documents in one place, easily accessible, very readible. It's a limited, black and white item--good really for one thing and one thing only: reading. The only drawback is poor battery life.

 

[queshy]

I can see it now:

Kids sitting around the Christmas tree, grandmother beaming with pride as Johnny unwraps his Kindle.

Johnny: "Um, but Grandma, I told you I wanted an iPod touch!"

Grandma: "But Johnny, Kindle lets you view eBooks."

Johnny: "Sure. And so does a jailbroken iPod touch!"

A disgusted Johnny throws his Kindle into the fireplace and his horrified grandmother begins to sob.

And thus the latest iPod killer -- Amazon's "Kindle" -- is renamed "Kindling."

Lmao!!

 

[dicklacara]

Are you ready for the question....

Will you buy, not "would you consider buying" a Kindle?

 

[nemaslov]

IMHO, the only reason why this is getting a lot of attention is that it is MondaY, no good news to discuss, we are bored, and the good folks at MacRumors decided to post it to us. Otherwise this would not have raised a single blip in the radar.

Newsweek is a WEEKLY. It will be out there all week. Not just a Monday Story!

No paper, no shipping. On demand downloading in one minute almost anywhere, don't need WIFI, not trees cut and so on. Most READERS will love this. Most of you here are NOT the audience.

 

[theb3freak]

I was enamored with the Sony reader when I first read about it, with the eInk or whatever it is called that makes it read like paper from an angle. However, once I saw one at a store, it seemed dull. Maybe this is a bit brighter. I love the concept of having a few books, magazines, and especially the WSJ in one little device the size of a thin paperback. The devil is always in the detail.

 

[Digital Skunk]

This device answers the question, "How do I carry around a bunch of my stuff to read if I don't want to lug my books from class to class, or take a bunch on vacation, or have easy access to all my magazines subscriptions, or quick access to an international newspaper I otherwise have to have the luxury of living in a major city or get, or prevents me from having a giant stack of newsprint newspapers at the end of the week that I have to recycle (or worse, trash)?" I think that's a pretty good question.

Also, I think several people - as has been noted numerous times in this thread - dislike newspapers, their format and reading them. You get ink all over your fingers, you have to fold things over and back again, they're not really conducive to communiting on a bus or train, etc.

And what is Amazon charing people for that Apple didn't? Are you complaining that people can't read their existing books on here? That's a very weak argument. It's good for far more than just existing collections (as I've pointed out with magazines and newspapers), but in any case, I'd be willing to bet a good number of iPod owners have ONLY ever listened to music they purchased digitally on the device or their computers - a lot of older folks don't even know how to import their existing CDs, and even if they do, the vast majority of the iTunes libraries are from the iTMS.

Maybe the answer is you delete it? Because, you know, Amazon keeps a record of what you bought and allows for immediate, easy, no-hassle redownloading, so you can just grab it again if you'd like it back?

Wow, if nearly a quarter of Apple users are interesed in a device from Amazon that overlaps slightly with the iPods they already own, then this thing is destined to be a success!

That's what you're saying, right? That I should look at the poll at the top of this page and draw conclusions? Because if 1 in 4 Mac-biased consumers is interested in this thing, then I can only image what the genral population will thing; it's a runaway hit! And also, as has been said:

That's the right idea...

Oh, thanks for clearing that up.

We can close this thread now because fregedegpo has explained to us how they like to read stuff, and apparently this isn't going to work for them.

I think it's only natural to assume that the rest of the world has the same reading habits, aesthetic ideals and such as them; it's a shame Amazon didn't consult directly with them earier and just scrap the project before wasting all this time making the prototype, announcing the thing, putting it up for sale etc.

Dude... you're loud for no reason and you're typing too fast to catch your own horrible typos. I can't even respond to this because it's just all over the place. Calm down, you don't know everything... just like me and everyone else, and everything is just an opinion backed up with minor facts... except yours which is backed up with sarcasm, rhetorical questions, and borderline insults.

Your first point isn't very sound. I know where you are going and agree, but that doesn't support the fact that current devices take care of that issue and the Kindle is behind the times and irrelevant. We have gone way beyond newspapers about three times already. The web is here, and that's where the news is at. I work for a newspaper and I don't even read the print, just the web, but once you look at it, cells, laptops, desktops, etc handle the web better than the device... and then there's the $0.50 paper.

It's not that serious.

 

[~David]

Oops, replied to the wrong thread.

This post can be deleted.