So what about the Kindle DX? 9.7 inch screen, weighs just over a pound, and . . . gulp $489 dollers.
I don't think it's going to save newspapers. First of all, because I
doubt ads look good on it; second of all, because being proprietary and
all, Kindle lets Amazon capture a lot of the cost savings from not
physically printing a newspaper.
If the Kindle DX has a killer format, it's not newspapers, but
magazines. Newspapers aren't losing out because they're too expensive;
they're losing out because by the time the reader gets to them, the
news inside is dated. Newspaper is a daily news medium in an hourly
world.
But magazine articles aren't meant to be timely. They don't provide
you with insta-analysis; they provide you with a thoughtful take.
Magazine articles are actually improved by being read without the
distractions of email and so forth. For people who travel, or who have
a daily passenger commute, who spend time waiting anywhere, the Kindle
is ideal.
If there's any criticism, it's that the Kindle is paperback sized when
I often want something more like a magazine. Segmenting the two is
genius, and not just because it lets them capture the textbook market.
Maybe more importantly, it lets me have a paperback sized one for
running errands, and a larger version for extended reading.
As you may have gathered, I want one. Rather badly. I can't justify
buying it, unfortunately. But I suspect it will sell very well--and it
will be interesting to see what that means for Hudson News.
Copyright © 2009 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
http://www.leasticoulddo.com/comic/20090507
;-)
As a potential buyer who was previously on the fence, this about seals the deal for me. I like the big text of hardcovers, but they're a pain to page through when I'm smoking a cigar and sipping scotch on my back porch.
In for one.
Five hundred bucks? I can buy a lot of magazines for that kind of dough.
Yeah, but then you have to deal with them piling up in your house. 500 isn't a whole lot for eliminating future clutter from books and magazines.
Hah! So you've seen my place. But I could spend $450 on magazines and $50 to have someone come in and take them away.
Megan,
Having never used or even seen a kindle in person, may I ask what it can do that a tablet pc can't? I mean you can get a HP tablet for $550ish...
Reading text from a laptop is like staring into a lightbulb. You can do it, but only for so long. The Kindle screen is much much much more like reading an actual book, in that its screen isn't lit at all. This may sound like a negative for the Kindle (you can't read it in the dark, for example), but it makes the reading process much much easier on your eyes when you do have light.
I have a convertible HP tablet that I bought last year for $1,000 during a sale. It's an OK laptop, but as far as tablet use goes, I'm pretty disappointed it in it:
* It's heavy (5 pounds or so)
* It gets _really_ hot.
* It's bulky and uncomfortable to hold with one hand.
* The battery life is horrible.
I think the Kindle addresses all of my concerns, although what I _really_ want is a notebook size iPhone with a better ebook selection.
When someone finally hacks Kindle's Linux enough to be able to cross-build for it, I'll definitely buy one. Of course if that ever happens, Amazon certainly won't let everybody enjoy the free 3G connection for whatever they feel like using it :(
After taking a look at Amazon's book selection, I'm starting to have second thoughts. A lot of seems to be, for lack of a better term, "airport literature". I'm not sure what "Mommywood" by Tori Spelling is all about, but I'd venture that it's probably not really in line with my literary tastes.
Megan, what's your take on the selection? If you don't mind me asking, what are the last 3 books you read on your Kindle?
There *is* a lot of fluff and crap in there: duplicates of public domain texts, and lots of apparently vanity-published dreck particularly in the self-help category.
That said, I've bought about 60 books and none were airport books. A couple of Bart Ehrman's books about early Christianity, Marcia Stigum's 'The Money Market' 4th Edition ($50 cheaper than Borders, too), some programming books, some McSweeneys fiction anthologies, Twain's 'The Gilded Age', Master and Margarita, Wealth of Nations, Cryptonomicon, Matter by Iain Banks, some Pratchett novels, two books by Sarah Vowell, Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire, etc.
I loved my Kindle (1) . . . until I left it on a plane and it disappeared (despite my name, number and address plastered all over it). Unlike a cell-phone, which is rendered inert when it's deactivated by the owner, the Kindle lends itself to theft and re-sale because anyone may make it "theirs". It's a deliberate choice by Amazon who makes money to whomever buys books on it.
I consider it a fatal flaw, because I'm sure as heck not going to plunk down $500 (plus an ADDITIONAL $50 for a carry case which isn't included this time around) for the Kindle DX when it can so easily be stolen and re-sold on ebay or Craigslist.
Clearly it's not a technical issue: Amazon could easily disable Kindles reported as stolen by their legitimate owners to prevent thieves from profiting from their deeds. They chose not to, however, and have failed to respond to my repeated requests for an explanation as to why they won't do this.
So "nuts" to you, Amazon. You have a great product that I love, and would even spend $550 on, but not until you do something about this glaring security flaw. Cell phone companies have done this for years . . why won't you?
I don't think the cell phone security is all that effective either, given that models from major manufacturers can be reflashed quite easily (and I'm sure there's plenty of "fences" doing it wholesale). Of course, it might just work for Kindle as long as Amazon keeps protecting the software images successfully.
And yet, I'd gladly assume the responsibility for keeping my hardware out of thieving hands in exchange for being able to control the software...
I'm not a technical expert. Nevertheless, I know firsthand of 1 friend who retrieved his stolen cell phone that was bought 3rd hand on Ebay and was contacted by the new buyer when he tried (and failed) to activate it with the phone company. End result: phone recovered.
I don't think they'll be much of a market for stolen Kindles if minimal precautions are taken to discourage theft. They'll never be a market for Kindles like there is for cell phones. Hence, widespread theft then "reflashing" of Kindles is unlikely.
Heck, even a unique serial number stamped on the Kindle (like a VIN number on a car) linked to the owners account would make selling of stolen Kindles pointless.
This device is simply too expensive to replace and too easy to leave behind in public spaces NOT to have some effective theft deterrents. Amazon doesn't care, because they'd rather just sell books to Kindle owners, legally acquired or not.
Amazon can suck it. If I wait 6 months after publications I can just buy actual books for the same price, and a $300 netbook will give me access to all the free magazines and newspapers that I'd have to pay for on a more expensive and less capable Kindle anyway.
If I wait 6 months after publications I can just buy actual books for the same price, and a $300 netbook will give me access to all the free magazines and newspapers that I'd have to pay for on a more expensive and less capable Kindle anyway.
I wholeheartedly agree. Great device, uninspiring market niche.
I'd think lawyers would love the big-screen Kindle, and be able to justify the price.
I thought newspapers are hurting because they're losing ad revenue.
I've read quite a few books on LCD screens, from the original Rocket eBook to a Dell Axim x51v. The secret is to turn the brightness down. Just like on a TV it doesn't affect the intelligence.
I actually miss having a backlight with my Kindle 2.
I'll have to wait to upgrade it until there's a color version.
The DX will display text upside down if you want to hold it and turn pages with the left hand. You can set the text display width. Does anyone know if it will display multiple columns in landscape?
"I actually miss having a backlight with my Kindle 2. "
I'm not sure if a backlight will work with the Kindle screen. An LCD creates black pixels by polarizing the backlight and changing the polarity of black pixels so that they block the backlight. Bright pixels are unpolarized so the backlight comes through.
e-ink screens contain light pigments and dark pigments. 'White' areas in the screen have the dark pigments 'facing backwards', so I'm not sure shining a light through the screen would be very effective. It'd be blocked by the dark pigment particles.
For e-ink it'd have to be a front light, which is a little bit trickier to do well. Something like those plastic light wedge devices, with the clear plastic that covers the whole page of a book, might work okay as long as it was modified to accomodate the kindle's controls.
You're right. I mis-wrote. I miss being able to read in low light.
I may end up kicking myself if Apple comes out with an iPod Touch the size of the Kindle 2.
The new sony reader has exactly that set-up, leds on either side of the screen that shines across through the plexiglass(?) of the screen.
XKCD
Why not sign and auction off your current Kindle 2? I'm sure that'd more than pay for the big screen.
Uhh... that thing's been in the bathtub with her. I think I'll pass.
Funny idea though.
I've got both a Kindle 1 and a 2 and did go ahead and order the DX.
The main reasons being that, like Meghan says, I think this size will be killer for magazines (and I read a lot of magazines)- I just hope more mag publishers decide to offer a Kindle version. Second, I read a lot of pdf's (many scanned from paper)and at this screen size I can read pdf's sans conversion. You can currently convert pdf's into a Kindle format but that conversion sucks for any pdf's with even moderately complex formatting or for scanned documents.
Also, at this screen size I think I'll be able to view more web sites in a more usable fashion. The current Kindles handle many web sites (such as the Atlantic blogs) just fine in basic mode but it would be nice to occasionally hit a site like the NY Times in advanced mode just to make navigating a little easier. I don't do a lot of web browsing on the Kindle but it is a nice feature to have (as is being able to do email via the Kindle).
Personally I was surprised by how low Amazon decided to hold the price. Compared to the the other eink reader currently available at this screen size (and which does not include the Whispernet ability) the DX is a few hundred bucks cheaper.
"The other" eInk device (Sony, I assume) is not a closed system the way Kindle is. Amazon obviously subsidizes the hardware and service costs and expects to make money on the content. Whether this works in the long run remains to be seen...
No, not Sony. THe Sony device is the same size as the K1 and K2. I was referring to the iRex Digital Reader 1000S.
My original thoughts on the kindle here:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2009/02/kvetching_about_amazons_kindle.html#comments
As I said then, the WaPo version needs to carry the comics.
All the people kvetching about the Kindle being closed aren't bothering to look at gthe specs. It reads several formats, including unencrypted mobi, prc, PDF on the DX, html, and text. Everything at Gutenberg.org is thus available.
Um... when I say "closed", I mean you can't load software on it. The fact that DX will be able to display PDF speaks in its favor, just not from this particular angle of view.
You think of it as an e-book. I think of it as a programmable mobile device with very interesting capabilities... which I am largely prevented from exploiting, or even exploring.
Despite running Linux for 10 years, I'm not an Open Source Zealot. I think Oppen SOurce is, generally, a good idea. But a closed device like the Kindle is acceptable. I'm more worried about the closed .AZW format. Will it, eventually, go non-DRM like iTunes? Hope so, but not counting on it.
Which is why I mention Gutenberg.
Oh, I'm not a zealot either, simply an opportunist :-) $500 for a 3G wireless terminal (with free service, natch!) and a very high resolution display (even with glacial refresh rates) is a steal. I can think of a few very interesting uses for it, some of which with money-making potential. $500 for a book/magazine replacement? Yawn...
As wiredog says - the whole argument of the Kindle being a closed device is silly.
The Kindle source code is covered by the GPL and is available for download on the Amazon website.
Of course rewriting it may brick much of its original functionality but if you want to make the device something else you may well be able to do so.
I stand corrected -- to a degree. The patch packages are indeed there (even if the site refuses to part with the latest version). This must be a relatively recent development. Quick internet search did not yet uncover a reflashing procedure so talking about "rewriting it" is definitely premature. But if this is indeed a complete patch set for the distro, I am sure the reflash procedure will be tackled soon. Perhaps by the time DX is out? :-)
BTW, DX firmware sources do not seem to be available yet. Which is unsurprising since neither is the DX.
Max @ 9:25
My K2 is running version 2.0.3_327610024 which is available on amazon's site.
I haven't kept up with all the latest Kindle hacking goings on of late but this page used to be a good source of info - http://igorsk.blogspot.com/ . Not much info for the K2 but lots of interesting stuff for the K1
In my brief look, the Kindles are expensive and the Kindle books are relatively expensive... If I could expense the thing and get technical manuals and specifications on it, I'd get one in a heartbeat... from a documentation standpoint, it would be great. But I can't justify the cost from a personal entertainment standpoint.
I've copied a bunch of Apple OS X Server manuals, backup software manuals, and programming documentation to my Kindle 2. They were all pdfs. It'd work even better on the larger DX which will handle PDF without conversion and reformatting.
My one major gripe with the Kindle - one motivation for buying one was that a Kindle edition was available of a huge 1000 page doorstop technical book about OS X's low-level internals. I have the hardcover, but rarely take it off the shelf due to its size.
The day I placed the order for the Kindle, the book was listed in the Amazon store. The next day, when my Kindle came, the book was gone. Apparently some customers weren't happy with the conversion to ebook layout, so the publisher pulled it.
Oh sweet Jesus, it reads PDFs!
No need to convert them anymore, with equations getting jumbled and figures disappearing. I can finally read papers on an e-book for hours! I feel my childhood acquired religious sentiments surface at times like these... Oh thank you non-existing God. We are truly not worthy of your imagined infinite mercy.
Now what the hell do I do with my kindle 1?
dollers?
I want color, and video capabilities. I want an open system and a 3G connection I can use for the net generally. I want to be able to read without a reading light. I spend many hours a day reading text off an LCD (computer) screen and that doesn't strain my eyes, so I see no reason why that would change for reading ebooks. What I'm looking for is something like this rather than a Kindle:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10185351-1.html