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What do you think of Amazon's Kindle?
Butler
89 episodes or bustRegistered User regular
89 episodes or bustRegistered User regular
So everyone's probably seen this by now, basically an iPod for books that Amazon's been spruiking on their front page for ages. I had a proper look at the description and demo videos last night and I have to say I'm intrigued.
There's a lot of good ideas in there, especially the fact that they seem to have broken the "eye strain" barrier for electronic screens. But, the design is boxy and ugly, there's no colour screen (as far as I can tell) and that keyboard just seems like it would get in the way. I could see myself maybe investing in a future generation that addressed these problems though.
There's a lot of good ideas in there, especially the fact that they seem to have broken the "eye strain" barrier for electronic screens. But, the design is boxy and ugly, there's no colour screen (as far as I can tell) and that keyboard just seems like it would get in the way. I could see myself maybe investing in a future generation that addressed these problems though.
We may have already had a thread about this; if so, man up bitch, we're having another one.
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And it's expensive.
Maybe in a few years/generations.
Does someone you know have a Kindle?
Like I said, I think it's a cool idea, but in the end, I have no problems with paper books. In fact, I'd much rather have a nice, full bookshelf, than some digital files on a Kindle.
edit:
I have never seen my roommate use it in the dark if he is able to.
That said, I do enjoy the feel of a good paper book.
I much prefer paper books but I can definitely see the use of something like this for college or school. I was lugging a heavy rucksack laden with textbooks all through highschool - can't have been good for my back, especially not when you're still growing. Plus it could be considerably cheaper for students/teachers because of the lack of need to print, and you'd probably have fewer people forgetting their books.
But it still looks like a personal organiser from the mid-nineties. Amazon has made some awesome innovations with this thing, but then they go and fuck up the easy stuff like making it look good and having a colour screen.
The Kindle book range is massive as well.
Are color e-ink displays even commercially available yet?
If it wasn't for my 15-30lb backpack all through middle and high school I would never have gotten any kind of practical exercise other than the occasional bike ride. I could certainly see how having a digital book with all of my textbooks in it would be convenient, however.
How much longer until we're all just carrying around the 'desks' from Ender's game? We clearly have the technology to build a rough equivalent of that. They were just tablet PCs with wifi and a decent graphics card from what I took from it.
I'm not sure a backpack is exactly a great form of exercise, though, considering how all of the weight is born by the back. Exercise should never be a justification for a heavy bag of books; most people will manage to get plenty of exercise from walking/biking and sports.
But if you devour books like crazy and love to read every newspaper ever. Then it would be a great buy
I'll second this on both parts. Paper books aren't annoying at all. Truth be told I'd be much more inclined to get it if it could read comic books because sometimes (particularly in hardback graphic novels), I miss out on dialog in the center fold. (That and I'm paranoid about harming the comics themselves, despite their non-existent collectability.)
It's too expensive, too blocky, and I just don't have a need to read books electronically on it. Cute idea but I'll wait for a few generations of it until those issues are resolved.
I just had another thought - this kind of technology could boost the popularity of shorter works like novellas and short stories. Instead of having to sell them in bundles to cut down on printing costs, you could just buy them one at a time for a couple of bucks each.
How are they defining classics?
Well they're probably referring to generally agreed upon books, like Tom Sawyer or 1984.
I'm not a huge fan of this particular model, but this is a concept I hope catches on. Books consume a shit ton of lumber resources, and digital distribution could be as beneficial to literature as it is becoming to music. However, unlike music, in which grabbing an mp3 is clearly more convenient than any size of spinning disc, books have had a much longer time to be refined into a convenient and comfortable format. E-readers are going to have to become at least as good as books before it will ever catch on.
Copyright law is a shifting, changing mess.
This is a pretty comprehensive but still easy to follow chart:
http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/public_domain/
Also, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain#Public_domain_and_the_Internet
I think you can email a pdf to it for 10 or 15 cents.
[edit] Evidently not, that sucks.
Damn they have 10 versions of Gulliver's Travels. The prices range from .99 to 3.96. That is strange. I wonder if there is any actual difference.
Alice in Wonderland is worse. They have 20 version ranging from .99 to $35.
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