Amazon Kindle

[X.]

They just unveiled it today.

Read not only books, but newspapers, magazines, blogs, wikipedia...all wirelessly, without having to connect to a hotspot. (Of course, it would help to be in the US, since they use Sprint.)

Weighs only 10.3 ounces, and uses a proprietary 'E-Ink' technology so it looks like you're actually reading a book.

It's very pricey ($400), but the potential is great.

Everything you need to know is right here.

[sulphurhead]

The concept's not new. Sony tried it a while ago and weren't too successful. They didn't have a link to amazon though..

sony reader

[madali]

This one wont work until someonehip like Apple or Google gets behind it.

[X.]

Yes, the concept is not new -- we've actually discussed the Sony Reader indepth on our very own board, right here if you remember. According to Sony, their Reader has been more successful than online music downloads (what they won't tell you is that their statistic is based on sales from the Sony website, and hardly anyone buys online music from Sony).

Amazon's Kindle is their attempt to do what Apple did with the iPod: change the way people do things.

Even if Apple wanted to get behind something like the Kindle, selling books is NOT their core competency, unlike Amazon which has the experience and the vast resources via their website to deliver content to customers. And that is why the Kindle WILL work.

I hope you've seen all the demos on that Amazon link posted above. I truly believe -- with the next one or two hardware upgrades (remember the original, bulky iPod?) -- Amazon Kindle will revolutionize the way we read books, magazines and newspapers. Just as soon as they get rid of their DRM and that hefty $400 price tag. I can't wait.

[madali]

To convert your own file (Word, etc), it can be emailed to you. But the conversion is not free...!

[X.]

Yes, being able to read Word docs and PDFs on the Kindle would have been great. It is really unnecessary for Amazon to restrict access, but I understand why they did: at this first stage, they want to be able to control WHAT people do with their Kindle. Essentially, they want them to buy/read books and other stuff from Amazon.

But this will change with future upgrades, just like -- I'm assuming -- the DRM and that huge price tag will be dumped. Apple did exactly the same thing with their iPods (Steve Jobs was initially a proponent of DRM, and after music sales started going through the roof, and people became 'addicted' to their iPods, he assailed DRM technology...become HIP among the yuppies. Smart guy.)

Despite the DRM issue and $400 price, I must confess I'm still terribly tempted to buy the Kindle.

Must. Be. Strong.

P.S. The coolness factor and practicality of having 200 books on a Kindle notwithstanding, if you really look at it, you would buy a new release book/bestseller from anywhere between $15-$21. Kindle guarantees a price of $9.99 for such releases. So this saving goes towards the initial purchase of your Kindle hardware! However, for non-US customers, since you cannot use the Sprint EVDO wireless technology, Kindle means nothing to you. Yet.

P.S.1 Sorry, if I'm beginning to sound like an Amazon salesperson.

[X.]

Stock is still low -- apparently Amazon dropped the ball with production, as the demand far exceeds supply.

Meanwhile, here's Stephen King endorsing the Kindle, with some fair criticisms:

Stephen King: Books With Batteries -- Why Not?
The new Kindle from Amazon.com won't replace books, says Uncle Stevie. But a good story's bound to be compelling no matter how it's ingested

What did I do during the holidays? Read a good book, of course. It was called In Pale Battalions, by Robert Goddard. Goddard's British, and his tales of suspense and mystery have recently been reissued in America. I'd never read him. Now I'm glad I did. Set mostly during World War I (but with a leisurely framework that allows the story to stretch comfortably all the way to 1968), In Pale Battalions is a story of sex, secrets, and murder — all the good stuff, in other words. What makes it especially riveting is the malevolent demon-woman at the novel's center: Olivia Powerstock's greatest talent is making those around her suffer. And Goddard is clever, giving the reader not just one solution to what happened at drafty ole Meongate Manor, but three — each fuller and more satisfying than the last.

A book to remember, in other words, but one I'll remember another way: as the first book I read on my new Kindle.

Most of you will already know what that is, but for those of you who have been living in a barn, your Uncle Stevie will now elucidate. It's a gadget available from Amazon.com. The advance publicity says it looks like a paperback book, but it really doesn't. It's a panel of white plastic with a screen in the middle and one of those annoying teeny-tiny keyboards most suited to the fingers of Keebler elves. Full disclosure: I have not yet used the teeny-tiny keyboard, and really see no need for it. Keyboards are for writing. The Kindle is for reading.

There are two controls on the back. One is the on/off switch (duh). The other turns on a wireless connection called Whispernet. With this you can download books directly from the electronic ether, where even now a million books are flying overhead, like paper angels without the paper, if you know what I mean. The catch: For now, you can only order the ones at the Amazon-run Kindle Store. The advantage: It's cheaper than your local big-box store, with $9.99 as the price for many new releases. But a book is a book, right?

Or is it? One of my writer friends expressed strong reservations. Although raised on TV and weaned on the Internet, this talented young man made a strong argument for books as books: beautiful objects that take up real space in our lives. ''Books do furnish a room,'' people used to say when I was a kid, and I know what my talented young writer friend means. Covers, for instance. The Robert Goddard reissues have beauties. In Pale Battalions features vivid red poppies, those emblematic flowers of World War I, against a field of green. The ''cover'' of the Kindle version is a flat statement of title and author. Borr-ing. On many Kindle books the cover art is reproduced...but in tepid black and white.

I've argued all my life that the story means more than the delivery systems involved (and that includes the writer). I have never been able to understand the prejudice some people seem to feel about recorded books, for instance. Not only are good stories better when they are told out loud; bad stories declare themselves almost at once, because the spoken word is merciless. You cannot, for instance, listen to one of the later Patricia Cornwell novels without realizing how little feel she has for language, or to a Sue Grafton without appreciating her divine eye for the minutiae of ordinary life.

The Kindle isn't as gratifying as a good book narrated by a great reader...but for what it is, it's just fine. It's light, holds its charge, is simple to operate. And for a fellow of my years (a less-than-generous reader recently referred to me in his blog as ''that elderly douchenozzle''), the Kindle has one great feature: You can adjust the typeface. In the printed version of In Pale Battalions, the type is readable but small; after an hour or so, I'd be maxed out. At its highest Kindle magnification, though, the narrative looks twice as big as this, and I can breeze along for twice that length of time, my finger stuttering on the NEXT PAGE button. It's a boon that makes up for having to charge the gadget at night...which I never had to do with a novel until this one.

Will Kindles replace books? No. And not just because books furnish a room, either. There's a permanence to books that underlines the importance of the ideas and the stories we find inside them; books solidify an otherwise fragile medium.

But can a Kindle enrich any reader's life? My own experience — so far limited to 1.5 books, I'll admit — suggests that it can. For a while I was very aware that I was looking at a screen and bopping a button instead of turning pages. Then the story simply swallowed me, as the good ones always do. I wasn't thinking about my Kindle anymore; I was rooting for someone to stop the evil Lady Powerstock. It became about the message instead of the medium, and that's the way it's supposed to be.

And did I mention that you can also look up definitions of words that puzzle you as you read? My definition of Kindle: a gadget with stories hiding inside it. What's wrong with that?

[madali]

I've basically read e-books for the last couple of months now, havent really touched a paperback. The issue with the e-books is reflected above, in that you cant put them in a shelf. But even more than that, and the biggest flaw, is that you cant lend it to people.

[X.]

This is a bigger debate.

Everything is becoming digital. It is changing the way we live.

Bill Gates hinted (I know, that sounds so lame), after Warner dumped HD-DVD, that movies will in a couple of years not be bought on a physical format like a DVD. Everything will be stored digitally.

I liked the word King used: ether. That's essentially how future generations will retain information. This opens up a lot new arena of interesting complexities. For example: if a dictator/'evil' person in the future wants to really fuck with the world, all he needs to be is hire a bunch of computer nerds and get them to destroy Google/Wikipedia servers. There! The world no longer knows shit! Consider it: our whole collected knowledge, thousands of years of advancement can be erased in a single moment.

Digital is the next step, though we don't have to like it.

[sulphurhead]

AK, interesting ideas and concepts, but you're not the first to come up with them

Ether - is already part of "Ethernet" - the cable used for every single network (and heavily on the internet)
Gigabit Ethernet is already a standard ( I'm personally now waiting for Terabit Ethernet)

The idea that since we're moving to a digital age, our knowledge is stored on digital media is what gave rise to the term - Information Technology... Data center design and security is a science and almost an art form now. For example, did you know that just like hotels, Data centers are also given a tier rating out of 5? One of the 5 tier data center (version of a 5 star hotel) I know of is the Pentagon - where to qualify they had to have the centers located 37 km below the earth's surface to survive a nuclear explosion, to begin with. Every system has 4 redundant backup systems... and military security levels are cutting edge.

The idea that a terrorist attack will most likely be digital is almost always considered nowadays, and this article was in fact the basis for the last Die hard movie.
It's true hackers like Kevin Mitnick have allegedly managed to penetrate even the toughest barriers and do damage, but I'm trying to point out that the data industry is an evolving, huge and complex entity that is doing it's best to make sure that we don't get our collective knowledge blown back to the stone age.

[X.]

I had quoted Stephen King who used the term 'electronic ether' in his article.

e·ther (ē'thər) n.
The element believed in ancient and medieval civilizations to fill all space above the sphere of the moon and to compose the stars and planets.

[madali]

I dont think its a cause for concern. Digital is much safer than non-digital. All it used to take before was a country to get attacked/invaded, and all of their information pretty much destroyed forever.

[X.]

According to CEO Bezos, the Kindle is back in stock. Also, he posted his letter to the shareowners on the homepage; it is all about the Kindle!