High-quality unboxing photos of Amazon's Kindle eBook reader

[AppleInsider]

Amazon's new Kindle device, dubbed by some as the 'iPod of reading,' has been shipping in limited quantities since its introduction a few weeks ago. AppleInsider is preparing a full review, and offers these quality unboxing photos in the meantime.

Despite early criticisms of the device and its $400 price tag, the Kindle electronic eBook reader sold out in just over 5 hours following its debut on November 19th, a representative for Amazon told AppleInsider.

Since then, the device has taken a beating from the mainstream media. Early reviews have expressed general appreciation for Amazon's run at a fresh concept but fault the retailer's inexperience in developing consumer electronics for the device's clunky and cumbersome user experience.

Still, Amazon has managed to remain completely backlogged on new orders and is warning customers that they should not expect their Kindle in time for the holidays if they're just now placing orders.

"Due to heavy customer demand, Kindle is temporarily sold out," reads a message on the retailer's website. "Because we ship Kindles on a first-come, first-served basis, please ORDER NOW to reserve your place in line. Your Kindle will not arrive by December 25th."

Since Amazon's strategy with Kindle and its electronic eBook store mirrors that of Apple's iTunes+iPod ecosystem, AppleInsider plans a full review in the near future.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[bdkennedy1]

I'm sorry but that thing is just plain U G L Y. If designs from 1992 are coming back, then great. However it reminds me of my old 1983 Osbourne portable computer - sure, it was portable but had no style.

I'd rather be seen carrying around the actual book than that thing.

Yes it sold out in 5 hours. I'm guessing to technology enthusiasts such as magazines and TV shows.

[samurai1999]

Looks pretty crap - and the b/w screen is soooo retro!


Call me old fashioned, but why not just buy the book instead?


I'm sure a real book is gonna be much more relaxing to read, and the UI is sooo intuitive.

[mbaynham]

sorry, but that thing is UGLY! and yeh, why wouldn't you just buy the book? the only reason i could think of is uni students/researchers and the like that need a lot of books with them all the time, but would rather just carry this ugly thing. id rather carry the books...

[ross.32]

I like it because you can carry more than one book with you for the size of only one book. It isn't THAT ugly. I would still prefer to do it on an iPhone though.

[Buck]

I fail to see how this relates to Apple though.
And bringing up the "iPod of reading" is not enough. It's not the iPod of reading, not yet at least.

[abrooks]

www.amazoninsider.com

[Clive At Five]

Okay, in all honesty, it doesn't look THAT bad. I've seen better looking things... but I've also seen uglier...



Yeah yeah, cheap Zune shot, I know.

I do like that it's not symmetric over its yz-plane... probably to emulate the feel of holding the back half of the book folded backwards. Cool for reading, one-handed, left-handed. Crappy for typing two-handed. Plus if you're a right-hand book-holder, it might get kind of heavy, holding up all that mass placed so far away from the center of gravity.

Re-reading this post, I see that I'm a huge nerd. yz-plane. Center of gravity. Brown zune.

-Clive

[Fishyesque]

Sony reader for the win!!!

[Magic_Al]

There are a lot of intelligent reasons for the black-and-white, unlit screen. Battery life above all. It's an electronic replacement for black-and-white printed pages. The trouble is people expect it to be an iPhone/iPod touch web browser for this price.

It needs to go back to the drawing board until there's a touch-screen keyboard and no bulk besides the screen.

The Star Trek novel is a funny example because Kindle's industrial design looks like a 1980s idea of the future.

[CREB]

"The Kindle will dwindle."

[kaiwen1]

I'll carry 20 books before I carry that nasty looking little piglet.

[filburt]

Anybody know how many Kindles Amazon sold in 5 hours before it sold out? 10?

[jwdawso]

Originally Posted by Buck

I fail to see how this relates to Apple though.
And bringing up the "iPod of reading" is not enough. It's not the iPod of reading, not yet at least.

I agree. I'll go to Gizmodo (or others) for non-Apple reviews. Maybe AppleInsider needs a plain "Insider" section, because it is fun to pick on the Kindle!

[tacojohn]

I can't believe how much crap this thing is getting.

I personally think it's pretty cool. The design is not "awesome" but it's not that bad. The sony eReader is much nicer, but Kindle is where it's at for content.

I absolutely love the idea of just being able to download a book from anywhere. Can you imagine being able to get your newspapers and blogs on this thing? FROM ANYWHERE!

The entry price is steep- but once it gets down to $99 I'm sure it'll be huge.

If anyone hasn't seen eInk in person I suggest you take a look. The first time I saw the sony, I thought it was a fake demo model until I pressed a button and the screen changed. It looks like real print!

Anywho- I don't think the Kindle is as bad as everyone is making it out to be.

[Bageljoey]

Originally Posted by abrooks

www.amazoninsider.com

OK, I'll admit it. I clicked the link out of curiosity!

heh, kinda funny.

[STecchino]

It's really not that ugly.

The price includes unlimited wireless internet access for the Kindle Store (books, magazines, newpapers), Wikipedia, and I think an "experimental" general web browser. No monthly fees or contracts.

E ink is exceptionally suited for lots and lots of reading as well as extending the battery life significantly.

[ThinkExpensive]

Fugly.

[Ireland]

The guy who designed the "Powebook 100" designed this thing. I can see his designs haven't moved on

In all seriousness though, it's not that nice looking, but it's not "that ugly" either. It's a bit retro, and sort of Ok looking. The main minus though is not its looks, bur rather the fact that it doesn't have a touchscreen. Amazon should have went back to the drawing board to give it a touch-screen.

[atomizer]

Captain Rappaport's eyes widened as the ship drew nearer to the Borg cube, hanging in space like a floating cancer. He gulped deeply.

My god that's bad writing. Like remedial eighth grade bad. Just sayin'.

[mbaynham]

Originally Posted by CREB

"The Kindle will dwindle."

brilliant lol

[ALPICH]

Originally Posted by atomizer

My god that's bad writing. Like remedial eighth grade bad. Just sayin'.

I think you are forgetting that StarTrek is bad writing all together. Fun to watch but you wouldn't sit down to a book on it and expect anything decent or even remotely close to fitting the StarTrek timeline.

[ALPICH]

Why would you spend $400 on a fire that only lasts for a min and smells really bad.

Seriously. I have an iPod Touch. Its great. I haven't even unlocked it yet but what I can say is that some books that I have wanted to read have been available in HTML format for some time. I have set up a locked page on my website and hey presto I can read them when ever I want. Even in the toilet. No one looks funny at me taking an iPod Touch into the toilet when its in my pocket but imagine trying to put that thing in your pocket. Or even worse Just having it in your hand when you get out of the toilet as someone else is walking in. "Its for reading books. Really!"

[Clive At Five]

Originally Posted by atomizer

My god that's bad writing. Like remedial eighth grade bad. Just sayin'.

You saved your first post for a rip on our contributor's taste in nerdy, poor-written literature?

You'll fit in well here.

Just wait until you find all the over-dramatization and typos... we now know where the crappy writing comes from.

We love ya, Kapser. Oh, and I'm serious about the editorial offer. I'll be an extra pair of eyes so your site has the professionalism that more suits its reader-base... Really.

-Clive

[macFanDave]

when they start printing books on gray paper!!

After all these years, that's the best they can do with electronic ink? Books are safe with me until the get eInk that goes from black to white.

I guess that I find speech synthesis, speech recognition and handwriting recognition similarly disappointing technologies.

[zanshin]

People write StarTrek books?

And people buy and read StarTrek books?

Geez, I gotta get out more. Or maybe they do.

I'm still trying to understand the point of StarTrek Christmas tree ornaments.

[Fishyesque]

[Fishyesque]

^^ Much prettier.

[Clive At Five]

Originally Posted by macFanDave

After all these years, that's the best they can do with electronic ink? Books are safe with me until the get eInk that goes from black to white.

I guess that I find speech synthesis, speech recognition and handwriting recognition similarly disappointing technologies.

I hear you regarding speech recognition for sure. Like, I understand the difficulties with accents and whatnot - no one has perfect dialect - but today's speech recognition is embarrassingly bad. It's barely better than it was 10 years ago.

Handwriting, I can understand. Half the crap my co-workers give me, I can't even decypher myself. How is a computer supposed to figure out a word unless it can judge it based on context? Context is one thing that computers have never been good at.

At the pace we're going, I doubt I'll have a humanoid android caretaker by the time I'm retired...

-Clive

[GQB]

Originally Posted by Buck

I fail to see how this relates to Apple though.
And bringing up the "iPod of reading" is not enough. It's not the iPod of reading, not yet at least.

Because one way or another, this is a space that some version of the phone/touch/tablet will be playing in at some point. Know thine enemy.

I'm surprised to see that its as, shall we say 'plain', as advance pictures indicated. I heard interviews with Bezos where he said the pictures were of an early protype.
What's with the slanted buttons?

Really looking forward to seeing the actual review.

[Lonon]

Originally Posted by Bageljoey

OK, I'll admit it. I clicked the link out of curiosity!

heh, kinda funny.

++

I was going to say the same thing. Why is this on AppleInsider? If you don't have crappy rumors to post, ok, but please, stay with Apple.

[machei]

Wow. That thing's as fugly as a boot. And, being white, it'll get grubby real fast. Gotta admit, I'm intregued by the concept though, and the screen would be great if they'd just remove all the stuff surrounding it. Reminds me a little of those hand held video games of the early 80's. The novel should have been TOS-related... would have fit better. Sorta looks like a prop from that show anyway.

[monkeyastronaut]

needs. e-ink. input.

kindle + electronic ink input (handwriting) = easy-on-the-eyes endless notepad.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by zanshin

People write StarTrek books?

And people buy and read StarTrek books?

Geez, I gotta get out more. Or maybe they do.

I think I'd compare it to people reading rumor sites about a computer maker's products.

I'm still trying to understand the point of StarTrek Christmas tree ornaments.

Some of them are pretty nice.

[caliminius]

Originally Posted by ThinkExpensive

Fugly.

Sort of like the 1st-4th gen iPods...

Really, I don't see what's so unattractive about the design. I suppose ditching the buttons and going with a touch screen might be nice, but I'm not sure how grubby fingerprints would go with trying to read.

Nor does the suggested alternative of staring at the back-lit glare of an iPhone sound very appealing either. Especially scrolling about just trying to read one page.

No, I won't be running out to buy one either though. For $400, I'd rather just spend that on a pile of books. Maybe if they could get the price down, maybe offer it free with some sort of commitment I'd bite.

[pmjoe]

Thanks for the good pictures of it. Now that I've seen it ...

Wow! A keyboard really looks stupid on an eBook reader.

Just another example of how Amazon's need to pay Sprint for service on this device makes it far more cumbersome than if they'd designed it properly.

Let me know when the WiFi version comes out.

[aplnub]

Originally Posted by Buck

I fail to see how this relates to Apple though.
And bringing up the "iPod of reading" is not enough. It's not the iPod of reading, not yet at least.

It has MP3 player technology and a DRM free store to back it. So it does relate to Apple much like the Zune relates to Apple. Competition.

While it is a bit on the edge of being related, it definitely fits within the halo of being reported on this site. There are a lot of people who read books and listen to music. Why have both if you read more than listen?

I have a Kindle and at first it looks ugly, and it is not very attractive, but for a heavy reader, it beats a book any day of the week. Don't dismiss it so soon. I think it is going to change the book world like the iPod changed the music world. I was hesitant to buy one, but I read so many books I decided to make the plunge to save myself the S&H and drive to the local stores. Plus, my wife was not happy about my growing number of Star Trek books on the shelf. ;-) I just wish there were more Battle Star Galactica books!!

[aplnub]

Originally Posted by zanshin

People write StarTrek books?

And people buy and read StarTrek books?

Geez, I gotta get out more. Or maybe they do.

I'm still trying to understand the point of StarTrek Christmas tree ornaments.

You can talk to most of the authors on at www.trekbbs.com too. Crazy I know. If Apple would get some of their designers here at AI, you would be just as bad.

ST probably has more market share in books than Apple does in the computer industry.

I just made that last bit up for effect.

[city]

Will ultra thin tablet that Apple will announce at Macworld download books and be the size of a paperback?

[JakeTheRock]

I like this device, but I really like the direction it is going in. The big thing I think is the wireless feature. Even if none of these sell, it will still cause a revolution for the industry. Think about this: free fetching of content (as in no contract), anywhere. like buying songs with a touch anywhere, only paying for the song. I also really like the screen. Keep in mind that these screens are still first gen, so they can only get better from here.