Another ebook - but will it last?
Amazon is set to give us Kindle, just in time for the holidays it would seem.
It certainly looks impressive:
Revolutionary electronic-paper display provides a sharp, high-resolution screen that looks and reads like real paper.
Simple to use: no computer, no cables, no syncing.
Wireless connectivity enables you to shop the Kindle Store directly from your Kindle—whether you’re in the back of a taxi, at the airport, or in bed.
Buy a book and it is auto-delivered wirelessly in less than one minute.
More than 88,000 books available, including 100 of 112 current New York Times® Best Sellers.
New York Times® Best Sellers and all New Releases $9.99, unless marked otherwise.
Free book samples. Download and read first chapters for free before you decide to buy.
Top U.S. newspapers including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post; top magazines including TIME, Atlantic Monthly, and Forbes—all auto-delivered wirelessly.
Top international newspapers from France, Germany, and Ireland; Le Monde, Frankfurter Allgemeine, and The Irish Times.
More than 250 top blogs from the worlds of business, technology, sports, entertainment, and politics, including BoingBoing, Slashdot, TechCrunch, ESPN's Bill Simmons, The Onion, Michelle Malkin, and The Huffington Post.
Lighter and thinner than a typical paperback; weighs only 10.3 ounces.
Holds over 200 titles.
Long battery life. Leave wireless on and recharge approximately every other day. Turn wireless off and read for a week or more before recharging. Fully recharges in 2 hours.
Unlike WiFi, Kindle utilizes the same high-speed data network (EVDO) as advanced cell phones—so you never have to locate a hotspot.
No monthly wireless bills, service plans, or commitments—we take care of the wireless delivery so you can simply click, buy, and read.
Includes free wireless access to the planet's most exhaustive and up-to-date encyclopedia—Wikipedia.org.
Email your Word documents and pictures (.JPG, .GIF, .BMP, .PNG) to Kindle for easy on-the-go viewing.
There is no monthly fee, you don't pay for the cellular connection, and you get content straight to the device. What's the catch? Well, the only one that I can see is that it uses the older EDGE cellular technology for downloads. But they claim that you can get an entire novel in about a minute, so I don't see how that's too big of a problem - especially since, again, they're paying for it.
Time will tell, but I think that it's an interesting platform that bears watching. The ability to download the first chapter (or a few chapters) from a book to preview it before you decide to buy it is a good hook - as are the free two-week previews available for the newspapers and magazines that are offered.
The ability to email a file - Microsoft Word, HTML, TXT, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, PRC and MOBI files - for 0.10¢ is interesting, but could prove costly. As would the monthly 0.99¢ subscription to your favorite blog (if supported). Of course, if you spend a lot of time on a train or travelling, then this might be worth the monthly cost, especially given the projected lifespan and recharge time of the device.
It's a closed device, so that limits the ability to put your own content on it - but given enough time, the hackers of the world will start to have their way with it. If Amazon is smart, they'll let the hackers play with it and not try to break whatever they do - selling more devices after someone opens it up might let them sell more books/subscriptions (where they really make their money on the devices). I can't say that I'll be the first to get one, but if they come down in price a bit, and perhaps add some interesting features - either from Amazon or via hacking - the I can say that I'd be interested enough to consider getting one of my own (unless someone wants to lend me one to try out......)
Posted by adam at November 20, 2007 09:06 AM
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