Amazon Unveils Kindle 2, eBooks for the iPhone?

[Syrus28]

As I said above, the main reasons for Kindle's failure are as follows:

Failure? What failure?

- price, ridiculously high for a monochromatic display that serves only as a (bad) reader;

Have you ever held an eBook reader and tried to read on it? My spidey-senses tell me you haven't.

- people don't "shuffle" books as they do with music or movies; at most, they try to read 2 books at the same time. Whoever does differently is an exception - in fact, Jobs is absolutely right when he says that people read few books nowadays, mainly due to the information overload they face everyday;

Jobs of all people is quite ignorant for that quote of his. Does he not know that Mac's control a 4% marketshare yet is immensely profitable and that the Kindle sold comparable to what the iPod did in it's first year? 40% of people may read less than 1 book a month, but that means the majority i.e. 60%, reads at least 1 book a month.

- again: $350 for a grey-shade reader? No go.

The original iPod, which had a black & white screen, cost $399. I don't see your point. It's not exactly fair to write off an entire industry just because your to close-minded to see the potential in such a device.

- sorry, a grey-shade display doesn't do it for me and many more; books are published in a plethora of different paper types and colors, a versatility that does not exist with the bag of hurt called Kindle.

What? When's the last time you opened a book not intended for a 6 year old? Most books are in simple black & white.

I like Amazon and order a lot of PAPER books from them...they should just stick to their core business.

People said the EXACT same thing when Apple introduced the iPod, and we know how that ended...

Again, I'm definitely part of that 40% Jobs was talking about, but that doesn't mean I don't see the potential in such device. Steve, supposedly a "visionary" obviously didn't.

 

[Derwillie]

surprising quote

I was surprised by what Jobs had to say about reading.

One of the first applications I put on my iTouch was Stanza & about 15 ebooks have been waiting to be read for over a month now. I've read a couple of chapters of Sleepy Hollow, & I have found myself showing off the use of my iTouch as a 'book'. Yet, I'm in that 40%.

People want to read books/ebooks. If Jobs had thought it through, he would have realized that he could market iPhone/iTouch/iBook to the masses (i.e. the 40%) who wish they would read more...if only they had that sexy Apple gadget...

I think I'll go get a Kindle 2 to add to my collection of superficial gadgets that make me feel good about myself.

 

[SactoGuy18]

The only way that it would appear to me that the Kindle is a good financial value is for the reader who routinely buys all New York Times bestsellers as soon as they become available ... but who actually follows-through and reads all of their purchases promptly, before the first run hardbacks go on discount. Afterwords, they have to then place that volume in their library or otherwise give away / lose the book without recovering any of its residual value.

That's why I'd like to see Amazon offer the Kindle equivalent of iTunes where you can buy and download a bunch of ebooks to your computer and then have them sync automatically or manually to your reader through the USB 2.0 cable. You can have this program set up to automatically download new copies of a newpaper like the New York Times once a day so you can get an updated copy of the paper in ebook form daily.

 

[jmpage2]

That's why I'd like to see Amazon offer the Kindle equivalent of iTunes where you can buy and download a bunch of ebooks to your computer and then have them sync automatically or manually to your reader through the USB 2.0 cable. You can have this program set up to automatically download new copies of a newpaper like the New York Times once a day so you can get an updated copy of the paper in ebook form daily.

Well, they do the same thing over whisper net currently, so I'm not sure what the advantage would be of having it done over a wire.

The nice thing is you could leave the Kindle in your car after work, and not have to bring it in and plug it in and the next morning you'd still have the next edition of the NYT.

 

[ChrisMcD]

The BeBook would be extremely limited in that regard. It just doesn't have books to choose from that it can read.

Bebook
Pros: None
Cons: You can't read books unless they were published in pdf, which is not nearly as good formatting wise as Mobipocket/Kindle/Sony formats.

Hi Badandy

You really should do your homework before you pontificate.

The whole point about the BeBook is that it supports more formats than any other book ( I think and please prove me wrong!).

Straight off the BeBook website they list - pdf, mobi, prc, epub, lit, txt, fb2, doc, html, rtf, djvu, wol, ppt, mbp, chm, bmp, jpg, png, gif, tif, rar, zip, mp3.

http://mybebook.com/p5/ereader-bebook/product_info.html

Mobi is new in December I think and January's update had pdb - very useful for me since I used to read a lot of books on my Palm.

Also, as a Mac user I can now read .lit for the first time.

The Dutch developers have just published their open source

http://mybebook.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=376

and use a standard mobile phone battery that is easy to replace

Also it works with a Mac - not so easy with a Sony device?

I am not sure about the form factor, but it is a dead ringer in size for the Sony, and a number of the controls are very similarly spaced. My suspicion is that it is based on the same chassis as well as epaper size. I believe that most of these devices are broadly similar, so I assume the Cybook is the same - once again the buttons are all in the same places!

http://www.bookeen.com/overview/ebook-overview.aspx

So, if the hardware is identical you are left with the software. Do you want to be tied to a DRM fanatic or a company that is committed to covering as many formats as possible and brings out a new one every month or so. Also they do not have a vested interest in tying you to their own "bookshop"

So, I chose Mac compatibility, cost and multiple formats!

Seemed like a no-brainer

PS use Hiddencleaner to get rid of those pesky ._ files!

 

[ChrisMcD]

Do you have a Bebook? Can you say a little more about the advantages?

Hi macpluslaptop,

See above! Having thought about it a bit more, I should perhaps explain that I have a number of books of different formats that I read on my MBP and Palm Tungsten. I use an SD card and reader with my Mac to organise books I want to read on my BeBook. After having to transfer everything to pdb format for the Palm, being able to almost forget about formats is a delight.

I got a BeBook because I want to take a library on holiday and I found that the Palm battery ran out after about four hours reading whereas the BeBook on goes on for weeks. Heavens knows how many books a 1GB card will take - lots!

I tend to read free downloads from Baen, but the fact that Mobipocket is now supported by BeBook means that you can download from what people claim is one of the biggest online libraries going - and of course there is also Project Gutenberg for free.

Where you get your books from is one of the most critical factors in your purchasing decision. That and whether you can sort and store backups of your books on your Mac

 

[GfPQqmcRKUvP]

Hi Badandy

You really should do your homework before you pontificate.

The whole point about the BeBook is that it supports more formats than any other book ( I think and please prove me wrong!).

Straight off the BeBook website they list - pdf, mobi, prc, epub, lit, txt, fb2, doc, html, rtf, djvu, wol, ppt, mbp, chm, bmp, jpg, png, gif, tif, rar, zip, mp3.

http://mybebook.com/p5/ereader-bebook/product_info.html

Mobi is new in December I think and January's update had pdb - very useful for me since I used to read a lot of books on my Palm.

Also, as a Mac user I can now read .lit for the first time.

The Dutch developers have just published their open source

http://mybebook.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=376

and use a standard mobile phone battery that is easy to replace

Also it works with a Mac - not so easy with a Sony device?

I am not sure about the form factor, but it is a dead ringer in size for the Sony, and a number of the controls are very similarly spaced. My suspicion is that it is based on the same chassis as well as epaper size. I believe that most of these devices are broadly similar, so I assume the Cybook is the same - once again the buttons are all in the same places!

http://www.bookeen.com/overview/ebook-overview.aspx

So, if the hardware is identical you are left with the software. Do you want to be tied to a DRM fanatic or a company that is committed to covering as many formats as possible and brings out a new one every month or so. Also they do not have a vested interest in tying you to their own "bookshop"

So, I chose Mac compatibility, cost and multiple formats!

Seemed like a no-brainer

PS use Hiddencleaner to get rid of those pesky ._ files!

All of the readers, except the Sony will work on the mac, including the Kindle (you don't even need a computer).

Sorry about having some wrong information, I never remember the Bebook having mobi. Can you buy DRM'd mobi from mobipocket.com and use that? If so, that's really all you need.

I do stand by my recommendation on the cybook. I think it's the best looking device and think that the BeBook is ugly as sin.

 

[ChrisMcD]

All of the readers, except the Sony will work on the mac, including the Kindle (you don't even need a computer).

Sorry about having some wrong information, I never remember the Bebook having mobi. Can you buy DRM'd mobi from mobipocket.com and use that? If so, that's really all you need.

I do stand by my recommendation on the cybook. I think it's the best looking device and think that the BeBook is ugly as sin.

Hi again Badandy,

Yes, my beef was with the Sony.

BeBook have only recently linked up with Mobi. You need to register your BeBooks code to be able to buy and read books from Mobi.

The BeBook is no looker - but I needed all the formats.

All the best

ChrisMcD