Amazon’s Kindle e-book: hot or not?

This will give amazon, and those with the power to ask them, complete access to what you are reading, and maybe even when you are reading it, and how often, including what newspaper. (maybe even what articles?)
I see that as less than ideal, the NSA might view it differently though.

I'm tired of listening to crusty old literary hacks going on about how they enjoy "good old paper": the feel of it, the practicality; that warm feeling of superiority you get when your friends come round and gaze at your all-four-walls, floor-to-ceiling, collection. The trouble is, that if you *really* read books, then by the time you are fifty you probably have read a few hundred, if not thousand and unless you own Balmoral Castle, there just isn't room for them.

Of course, you can recycle them, but that seems a desperate and slightly comical argument. I mean, first of all, if you ignore the initial outlay of the reader, the cost to the environment of a PDF file is near zero. Secondly, if you recycle your book, then you might notice that you can't really read it any more.

An e-book is the essence of a book. Forget the reader, that's just the shell for it, and you'll probably change it every few years until the technology beds down anyway. The reader is not the book. The PDF (or whatever) is the book in it's purest form, independent of the medium, the font or the print size. It is the words, and as an e-book your can do what you want with them. Read them, mail them, search them, store them and forget about them.

Unless you see books as wall insulation, you should welcome the idea of an e-book, even if the technology is not quite there yet.

Books are not that cheap. I am a voracious reader who cannot afford all the books (even in paperback) I would like to read. Fortunately, I am in a position to have access to two library systems, one good and one great. This is a lifesaver for a poor reader such as myself, but not a perfect solution. One must wait for the books to become available in the system, and even then the books one would most like to read are not guaranteed to be purchased by the libraries. And what of all those (and there are probably many) who enjoy reading and don't have easy access to a decent library? Granted, for those who can afford books, Amazon or other sites like it are wonderful, but that's not me. I say an inexpensive (under $100) reader that works simply and well with plenty of memory and connectivity in conjunction with really cheap ebook downloads ($1, maybe $2) could do the trick. I don't know what portion of an $8 paperback's costs are associated with production, storage, transport and merchandising, not to mention profits made by all the handlers along the way are, but they are no doubt substantial. Cutting out all the fat and selling direct to the customer (or maybe through one intermediary like Amazon) might just do the trick. Heck, they may even be able to advertise some. Anyway, decent, inexpensive equipment that works and dirt cheap downloads is at least one way to wean this reader away from paper. My two cents...

Besides the obvious privacy issues, the titles would be DRM'ed presumably and how would you get access to them if they decided to shut down the service? Will they be in the same situation as all the poor guys who downloaded major league baseball vids?

To date, the Ebook device that has sustained marginal success is amazingly based on 9 year old technology - namely the old Rocket Ebook 1100 and the newer EBookwise1150. These aging devices are still used today, inlcuding myself, having read over 140 books on a refurbished REB1100 device purchased for $95. 
The truth is, if you look back at the very large pile of tried-and-failed platform and device attempts (HiEbook, Franklin's EBookman, various European attempts, and the not-so-hot Sony E-Reader) one may come to the conclusion that the following rules of avoidance really need to be addressed with any future attempts at conquering the EBook realm. These are based upon the opinions of experienced, veteran Ebook users like myself -
(A) Reader incentives - Ebook versions of physical pulp based media MUST be considerably lower in cost (50% less, not, say, 50 cents less).
(B) Simplicity of interface - The Rocket Ebooks did this best - only THREE physical buttons to worry about - page turn forward, back, and on/off. Every ebook device ever made in the last 15 years with more than a few buttons has failed. Needs touchscreen based menu handling (read - open functions when you need them w/o extreneous buttons on the device)
(C) Ability to read non-DRM content and other Ebook formats - Manufacturers are notorious for trying to 'corner' customers into using their propietary formats - and even when they 'open up' a little - the actual execution leaves a lot to be desired. Example - Sony's EReader PRS500 - Reads PDF docs but displays them incorrectly (A4 vs device ratio) = Difficult to read. 
(D) E-Ink devices cannot be backlit due to the substrate's opacity - This is generally considered a big 'must have' for future devices - Even if it is border-lit or illuminated in another fashion. 
(E) E-Ink displays need to be fully reflective WHITE with BLACK text (as real paper) - not black text on gray, not green, not olive - white. 
(F) Finally, and this is just my personal thought, until an Ebook device is engineered to open similar to a real book, with TWO pages displayed side to side just like a real book, with a very easy interface (easy bookmarking, markups, notes) so simple a 4 year old can use it, Ebook devices will not be a contender against traditional books, no matter how many bells and whistles you bolt onto the device.



Please excuse my French but that is the winkiest "review" I have ever read. It is pages and pages of "what if's" and "imagine the possibilities" and "in the futures". Barely a word what it's like to actually read a book on the damn thing.

My take is simple - it's stupidly expensive and utterly pointless because it's not an ebook reader, it's some form of bastardized multi-function device that can't do anything properly. Lets remember what it's for - reading. Yet it's got a keyboard. It has wi-fi. It can surf the internet. Sorry but it's a crappy, ugly PDA-clone with a big screen that costs $400. Oh and it only reads certain formats.

Strip it down completely, remove the keyboard and as many buttons as possible. Make it the size of the screen with maybe a half inch bezel. Now make it rugged - as drop-proof and water-resistant as possible. Now make it read as many formats as possible. Now sell it for $150 max. Why is that so damn hard to understand?

Quite how Amazon can claim this device looks like a sheet of white paper is very strange.

I'm not in the habit of reading grey paper with grey text.

Surely it can't be just me who thinks its low contrast screen will make it hard to read?


it seems to me that no person that ever wrote about e-ink readers ever got the concept or the idea behind those things. even those that pretend to be actual book readers.

first of: to release a reader only in the united states of illiteracy is a futile attempt in itself. im pretty much sure that the only persons that actually buy readers are the persons writing ill-mindet reviews about them (as far i know only 4% of all americans read one book. per year. the rest doesnt at all). except maybe for one or the other odd trekkie that just cant resist to have a pad just like on good ol' enterprise.

secondly: e-ink readers do NOT have pages. get over it.
if you want to satisfy youre fetish and have paper under youre fingertips while reading build the damn thing into a book you never will read again. but thats not the idea of an e-ink reader. the idea is to get rid of paper and heavy, large volumes to carry around with you.
instead you get to carry youre entire library around with you in a very slim and light device.

thirdly: books are not cheap, readers are not expensive.
i bought a sony 505 reader which is roughly 200 euro in price (had to order the damn thing in the US which is a total hassle btw). thats 20 books at ten euro each or 10 books at twenty euro each. 20 books. i read those in two months, after that time every single book i read is free.

fourth: if your reader has a discreet-to-the eyes case design the reading experience will be that of a real book. i have my reader long enough by now but i still find myself trying to turn pages by turning the reader instead of pushing a button.
yes, it's that real an experience.

fifth: the function of a reader is to emulate the function of a book.
books do not have backlit displays, no touchscreens, no keyboards, no ability to run mail clients or games not even a search function.
if you do want any of those you have to stay away as far as possible from books or e-ink reader and get a notebook, a PDA or a desktop computer.

i could go on but those seem to be the five most mentioned points in any review to any reader out there.

as for the Kindle: wtf?
lets look aside the "design" of the case which is just so ugly its hard to believe someone actually must have gotten payed to comitt such an atrocity.
even if the design where pure eye candy and the Kindle would sport two full blown A4/full color pages seemlessly joined together it still would be a total mess. so you can only fill it "wirelessly" over the Kindle store and have to e-mail (!) your own stuff onto the Kindle. hello?
what in areas with no "wireless"? what if i want books from some other place then amazon? who pays the fees for such a "service"? what .... i realy have no words to express the idiocity of such a business model. and ppl thought iPods and the iStore allready where evil.

which brings me to my final words: e-ink reader are today where mp3 player where a couple of years ago.
back in the day we all heard the same thing: who would want to pay lots and lots of money for a 64 MB player that only can play compressed music when you dont even have a cover or a booklet to touch with youre fingers?
yeah who indeed would be that insane?

I've got a veritable library at home. Books I've purchased new and second hand. Borrowed and lent. Traded and received as gifts.

Apart from purchasing new (and often paying the price of a hardback for something with no physical costs associated) I give up all those rights in the interests of DRM ... when in fact it could be used to allow more flexibility (time limited loans to friends, rentals of school textbooks etc).

Not that I do it to my fiction books but annotation is harder and if the platform goes out of vogue and the DRM server is no longer there... where is my investment? What if I want to change platform from a Kindle to a Sony eReader, a UMPC running Vista or Moblin or the rumoured Apple products...

So I get to carry 1,000s of books around with me, purchase more over the air and don't need the shelf space any more....

But I don't "own" what I've paid a premium for, and I need a dedicated hardware device - yet one more thing to pack, remember the power-brick for, insure, take out for airport security inspections....

The dream remains one...

Excellent point, Ben. After years of listening to Xerox tout e-paper at $1 a sheet, I'm expected to pony up $400 for essentially the same thing?

- epaper: $1
- plastic bezel and keyboard: $4
- wireless radio: $8
- pcb circuit board: $386

Right.