Amazon Enters Gadget Market with Kindle, an eBook Device

[Digital Skunk]

You just made a perfect representation of what I think Apple should do for a combination e-book reader/iPhone.

Of course, I'd make it just a tad thicker to accommodate a bigger battery and a 120 or 160 GB hard drive, and the device will include built-in Bluetooth for a wireless headset, Wi-Fi (and maybe WiMax), and HSDPA support.

Remember those old Windows CE ultraportable machines? That is what this combo e-book reader/iPhone will be sized.

Why not just make it a tab bigger and call it a Mac Tablet. Once we get a 9" to 11" screen on the thing it's basically an Ultra Portable Mac.

 

[gifford]

Yes you are wrong.

as i have already said once, I thought it was obvious that pen input is not part of eink technology. But the technology often comes hand in hand on many of the products i have seen.hence why i mentioned it, as manufacturers seem to be caught up in trying to recreate paper. which IMO is stupid.
So it is "BW hi res screen with lower power consumption" im pretty aware of the technology thanks, have been reading about its development for many many years.

 

[Parky]

Umm... How do you archive the books you've purchased to free up space to download new books?


If the answer is: memory cards then that's an expensive way to store books.

If the answer is: dump to a memory card and sneaker net the memory card to a computer where you burn a DVD, then that's a lot of trouble just to avoid a connection to a PC.

You can connect it to your PC and copy the files if you must, but there is no need to archive the content at all as Amazon holds all your purchases for you and lets you reload them anytime you like. They actually tell you to delete the content to make space and reload it again from them (for FREE) if you want to get it back.

 

[Parky]

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."

Just wait til Johnny gets his iPod touch and spends a few hours reading a book on it, the eye strain alone will be enough to stop him doing it again.

I read a book for 2-3 hours at a time, I DO NOT want to do that on my little iPod touch screen. It is not designed for that purpose. The Kindle screen on the other hand looks like paper and does not cause eyestrain.

 

[Digital Skunk]

Just wait til Johnny gets his iPod touch and spends a few hours reading a book on it, the eye strain alone will be enough to stop him doing it again.

I read a book for 2-3 hours at a time, I DO NOT want to do that on my little iPod touch screen. It is not designed for that purpose. The Kindle screen on the other hand looks like paper and does not cause eyestrain.

I say give Johnny the iPod touch for $400, then get him actual books. So that he doesn't have to carry around another piece of $400 tech that will break, or that he has to learn to use, or add more problems than an actual book. Besides... reading a book is actually better than staring at some expensive toy for 2-3 hours.

You can connect it to your PC and copy the files if you must, but there is no need to archive the content at all as Amazon holds all your purchases for you and lets you reload them anytime you like. They actually tell you to delete the content to make space and reload it again from them (for FREE) if you want to get it back.

Yeah, but what if I all of a sudden want to read a book that's not on my Kindle? Why not just put a decent amount of storage on the device, and/or allow me to sync it with my computer? Why does Amazon have to hold all my purchased books? What if something goes wrong?

 

[goosnarrggh]

So it is "BW hi res screen with lower power consumption"...

... with nearly 180° viewing angle, and which looks almost indistinguishable from conventional printed text when both it and a sheet of printed paper are observed side-by-side under various ambient lighting conditions ranging from fluorescent lights, to hand held flashlights, to the full noonday sun.

 

[SPUY767]

this is so ugly -.-. oh my god..

how can this relate to iPod??

the Design...the UI.....

the keyboard??? LOL....gosh.....

I never thought I'd say this, but that thing makes sony's e-book reader look beautiful.

one last post on the subject before i go make myself dinner...

I dont want E-ink, i have no reason to write on my iBook. The only market i can see Eink to be essential in is the education market.

But for the average user, writing with a pen is something that people just think they want, but when they get it, its awkward, and slower than typing... so whats the point.

Say no to E-ink. just a hi res lcd screen please Apple, and a on screen qwerty keyboard.

I had a competition with friends the other day, writing with various input devices. the pen driven miniature qwerty of my SE p9901 was extremely fast. and definately faster than my handwriting.

E-Ink has jack all to do with handwriting, but I remember when I still had my Newton a few years ago, some guy with a smartphone was making fun of me, I used to take notes on it. He talked up how fast he could type on his phone and etc. Foolishly, he challenged me to an input race on each device. I'd say I could input data into my Newton about twice as fast as his phone and even my current iPhone.

 

[gifford]

... with nearly 180° viewing angle, and which looks almost indistinguishable from conventional printed text when both it and a sheet of printed paper are observed side-by-side under various ambient lighting conditions ranging from fluorescent lights, to hand held flashlights, to the full noonday sun.

Give me any one of the many competing technologies any day. i dont care for reading on the beach. trains/planes n automobiles yes.

give me a 150 dpi LCD/OLED colour screen, with wifi n browser ANYDAY! Much more versatility.

 

[Unspeaked]

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.

Sorry, I honestly wasn't trying to put you down. It just seemed you were trying to pass off an opinion as a fact.

There have been many, many posts in this thread about why an eBook reader is a viable device. To be perfectly honest, I have no use for one myself, but it seems like a lot of folks do, so just because the product wouldn't be valuable to you or I doesn't mean that it doesn't serve a purpose and isn't a great leap forward for the people for whom it does...

 

[arn]

Yeah, but what if I all of a sudden want to read a book that's not on my Kindle? Why not just put a decent amount of storage on the device, and/or allow me to sync it with my computer? Why does Amazon have to hold all my purchased books? What if something goes wrong?

If you want to read a book that you've purchased and deleted, you just redownload it over EVDO (<1 minute). This is far better a solution that backing it up locally and having to resync it.

arn

 

[Spades]

And Amazon will hold these files for you for the rest of time, of course. Unless they go under. Or decide to stop the service for any other reason. A book will last until it disintegrates, but a DRM-ed eBook depends on the service's survival. Google Video won't be the last service to go away and take people's purchases with it.

 

[citi]

Of course. Jeff Bezos could easily collaborate with Apple on this added functionality through the iTunes Store and more.

Having billions of stock value to his name he somehow actually feels he's on Steve's level of being able to help drive the computing industry and it's many markets.

It reminds me of the Segway where Bezos and Jobs first saw it and Steve was his usually critical self [if you can't find fault in a product you have a definite winner and the closer to this should be your goal] where Bezos was definitely in the shadows.

Don't get me wrong. The guy has done wonders for the Wherehouse on-line and got people to be interested in book sales once again.

He's made an absolute fortune in this market.

Instead of collaborating with Steve on how to translate this market into a digital device and create a joint partnership he wants to be in the limelight and have his face on TIME.

Like many academics with dual degrees in electrical engineering and computer science, they should have gotten minors in Industrial design and Art.

A person either has that ability to see a problem in need of a solution or they don't but are good at being given concise task to solve.

Many developers are great and software development but fail at being software architects. They are different talents.

This is not an area he ever excelled in.

He's a billionaire who doesn't want to be known as the Man who brought us wherehouse books on-line.

Yeah...that's why I go to amazon...just to buy books. Amazon does a lot more than just books, they sell everything, including a very good itunes likes music store, which I love. I think he has already established himself as more than just the whorehouse books guy. And unless you are his son or accountant, don't speak for him. You don't know what he wants to be.

I don't understand why every guy with an idea is automatically compared to Steve. Is he the only one capable of outside the box thinking? Yes, his products are excellent or we wouldn't be here, but he DOES NOT WALK ON WATER.

 

[Digital Skunk]

If you want to read a book that you've purchased and deleted, you just redownload it over EVDO (<1 minute). This is far better a solution that backing it up locally and having to resync it.

arn

Not if you don't have EVDO anywhere near you, or a service provider when you are away from a hotspot.

 

[jokarak]

I for one do like the idea of an e-book reader. The way Amazon decided to implement it has many important ideas: annotations, look up for words/phrases, dictionary, wikipedia browsing is genius, and their implementation of a secondary LED display for the control is really thinking outside the box (refresh rates being pretty lousy with current e-ink displays).

I do agree that the design is on the ugly side. They could have had the keyboard be "slide out" like many a cellphone - it would be less intrusive and keep the overall form factor a bit more proportional with the screen. Don't mind the angular shapes - these things come and go pretty fast (remember the candy colored iMacs?).

Anyway, a lot of the people posting on this thread show remarkably knowledge of the way these devices are supposed to work. Simply watching the amazon video would have answered 80% of questions/doubts people posting here have expressed.

 

[amakh007]

$400 for this!! That was a poor business idea. Should have sold the hardware at a loss or break even price point in the $150 range. Then make money on the sales. No one will buy this for $400!!!!!!!!!!

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

Wonder if they'll issue an Amazon Gift Card for early adopters when they cut the price in 3 months?

 

[tkidBOSTON]

Not if you don't have EVDO anywhere near you, or a service provider when you are away from a hotspot.

Its not WiFi, its EVDO via the Sprint network. Check out Sprint's data coverage in your area for how you will be affected by it specifically.
Again, as Arn said, you will most likely have easier access to EVDO then your computer. (If your cell phone works, you'll be able to access the network with the Kindle)

 

[LethalWolfe]

Might've known the eBooks would be expensive....

Just like online music, it won't be as popular as it *should* be (though with iTunes et al, online music is getting better) for one simple reason: greed.

No materials required, yet greater cost, how does that work!

Did you read the article? New books and best sellers can be as high as 9.99 (which is a lot cheaper than the $24.99 most new hard backs cost) and older titles can be as low as $1.99. For example, "1984" paper back is $9.99 and "1984" for Kindle is $3.75.

And Amazon is eating much of this costs as not all the publishers are on board yet w/selling eBooks at such lower prices compared to print books.


Lethal

 

[Unspeaked]

Did you read the article? New books and best sellers can be as high as 9.99 (which is a lot cheaper than the $24.99 most new hard backs cost) and older titles can be as low as $1.99. For example, "1984" paper back is $9.99 and "1984" for Kindle is $3.75.

And Amazon is eating much of this costs as not all the publishers are on board yet w/selling eBooks at such lower prices compared to print books.

Yeah, I'd mentioned this very fact earlier in the thread - the discount is so much greater than anything on the iTMS, I can't believe so many people have brought up pricing in a negative manner!

 

[JGowan]

Reminds me of the movie "Big" where Josh Baskins comes up with an electronic comic book. Of course, this is way more expensive and seemingly doesn't show graphics. Or color.

I recenly bought a couple of Digital comic collections... Mad Magazine and The Amazing Spider Man: each with every single issue every published. Mad looks pretty good on a 23" Cinema Display which will shows 2 pages at a time just like you would read a magazine. Spider Man is even higher quality -- all of the color an beautiful PDF scans of every page -- it's truly mind-boggling to have a collection like this for $35 each (Amazon.com).

The problem with this reader is that it's too small. The screen is too small and the built-in storage is teeny-tiny.

I can see Apple coming out with something that will biznitchslap this thing to the stone-ages. Bigger, backlit, lots of Flash drive space and will read PDFs full screen -- and with their patend touchscreen iPhone-like goodness.

It'll also be able to do the web and show video and photos and probably have a DVD slot for loading software and playing media. Music, yep of course, that's standard. Along with being an eReader with probably a lot more flexibility. Widgets for doing all kinds of stuff would also be included.

The Mad Magazine collection I have is a mere 7GB and can be backed up on any computer I like. Plus, Leopard's new PDF viewer allows me to delete pages from any issue and create a completely new PDF with a single satire if I like. I recently did this with the GREASE satire and sent it to my friend who recently directed the musical (I was in it too as the Teen Angel [!])

I don't think too many people will pony up $400 for a simple black & white e-book reader. But they would spend twice that for something a whole lot slicker that does a whole lot more.

Publisher's page of Marvel Comics and the Mad ***** You cannot buy from this site, but Amazon has all this stuff for about $35 a collection (free shipping)

 

[redrabbit]

The problem with this reader is that it's too small. The screen is too small and the built-in storage is teeny-tiny.

Anything you buy is stored in your account and can be re-downloaded in less than a minute. You can also connect to your computer and backup via USB.

I can see Apple coming out with something that will biznitchslap this thing to the stone-ages. Bigger, backlit, lots of Flash drive space and will read PDFs full screen -- and with their patend touchscreen iPhone-like goodness.

It not being backlit is a feature. Saves battery, and *gasp*, you can read it in the sunlight!

It'll also be able to do the web and show video and photos and probably have a DVD slot for loading software and playing media. Music, yep of course, that's standard. Along with being an eReader with probably a lot more flexibility. Widgets for doing all kinds of stuff would also be included.

How much will this "ereader" cost? some people don't want a laptop. For people like me, who commute to work, I want something I can use to read all my papers. I don't need to look over my iphoto library or watch a dvd on the train to work. This isn't geared toward people who want a laptop replacement. Also, all of your description of a super-mac tablet is merely pure speculation and wishful thinking. It's easy to speculate, like all of Leoperd's great features that were sure to come. (not that I was disappointed, but a lot of the speculation missed on what it really was)

The Mad Magazine collection I have is a mere 7GB and can be backed up on any computer I like.

How does that have to do with anything? Again, you can backup files on your kindle, and you can simply delete your purchased files and redownload them.

I don't think too many people will pony up $400 for a simple black & white e-book reader. But they would spend twice that for something a whole lot slicker that does a whole lot more.

This is not a simple black and white e-book reader.

 

[Manatee]

So you can access Wikipedia on it... nice. But if someone else came up with a device of the same form factor and capabilities, but for an additional fee let me access all websites, I'd much prefer that.

And it might as well have an e-mail application too.

Reading newspapers on it seems like a good idea. Saves a lot of paper. One of the main reasons I read the paper is to do the crossword puzzle. I wonder if this device supports that?

But if I can read the paper on it, why not get any available feeds too? More capability and flexibility is better. I already have all those capabilities in my smartphone, so why not have them in this nice, readable device? (Again, with an additional paid subscription.)

I can't see myself dragging around one more rechargeable device with such a narrow use. One of these days, somebody will hit the sweet spot with one of these devices.

 

[redrabbit]

So you can access Wikipedia on it... nice. But if someone else came up with a device of the same form factor and capabilities, but for an additional fee let me access all websites, I'd much prefer that.

It DOES have basic webbrowsing, buddy. It's also free, since there are no subscription costs, over a cell phone network. so next time you're at an airport with these things and you don't want to pay the laptop wireless fee, you can browse for free on this.

 

[amakh007]

It DOES have basic webbrowsing, buddy. It's also free, since there are no subscription costs, over a cell phone network. so next time you're at an airport with these things and you don't want to pay the laptop wireless fee, you can browse for free on this.

CNET's review said the "webbrowsing" was HORRIBLE. Took like 15 pages to render front page. I love Amazon, but wish they would put this device in a sweeter price spot.....

 

[nimbuscloud]

DEAD IN THE WATER.

THATS WHAT THE KINDLE IS.

Can we move on?