Important disqualifier for all of you ridiculing it:
You don't read.
Do you? How many eBooks do you own and what do you use to read them?
I have quite a few but use my laptop. That's not optimal but I can't read Kindle books on anything BUT a Kindle. That's seriously uncool. I'd get a Sony before I got a Kindle. For $100 I can get quite a few books. For non-book reading I'd rather use a laptop or PDA or phone that can do color.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gustav
People are complaining about the wrong thing here. Who cares if it is "ugly"? Who cares if it has a black an white screen? The real complaint here is the keyboard - it looks like the device is trying to do too much.
Or doing too little. This is what the Kindle should have been:
The three things that make the iLiad even more niche is the price tag (into laptop range), battery life (a mere 12 hours) and slightly inferior eInk panel (not Vizplex).
iRex is thinking of opening up development of the iLiad further with company support. That should make it interesting but the price tag will keep it niche.
Kindle will die off. There isn't a real market for these devices. Amazon has a ton of work to do to get the masses even interested in Kindle and its all uphill.
Nearly everyone I know (including myself) who read books, read them once. Yes. Sometimes you do read a great book more than once, but in general its only once. There are far too many great books to explore out there. I have no use for a book after I read it. I usually either give it away or keep in on a book shelf to collect dust.
People share books. Fiction titles in my family are sometimes read by as many as 10 people by time it makes the rounds. This isn't possible at all with Kindle and probably won't be.
You turn your mind on to read books. You don't need your brain on to listen to music or watch something. This is a fundamental difference between books and other media. In any given day, I can listen to 25 different artists throughout the day. I can't do the same with writers. This is the beauty of the iPod.
Kindles books are simply too expensive. This is digital media people! They needed a subscription service for this thing out of the gate. They also needed a way for people to buy chapters of books (especially tech books). The iTunes Store is successful because I don't have to buy an entire CD for one song. Why should I have to buy an entire book.
If I'm a tourist traveling through Europe (min of 6 weeks or it's pointless) and Asia (an additional 6 weeks or it's pointless) I am a complete moron if I'm spending my time reading digital books and not soaking up the experience I most likely won't see again in my life. I'd be busy taking photos, filming scenery, working on my laptop to create DVDs of my visits to famous historical locations, museums, soaking up as much local culture as I can knowing I'll only be able to review my memory and what I recorded with my digital camera/camcorder.
As a business traveler on the train/tram or whatever, I'm busy reading for leisure or most likely getting some work done. Meetings and other distractions only make getting my work accomplished throughout the week harder to attain. Having time on the train/tram to get some of it done really tends to be what I have done in my past on such a situation.
It's a niche product and always has been.
DISAGREE. First, try 22 hours getting to Asia with a connection or two in airports and let me know precisely the experience one soaks up on the plane or in the lounge (when incidentally half the time the shops are closed).
Traveling by train, you can only see so many cow fields before you might take up a book.
Also, I personally like the mix of people watching, reading and sipping a glass of wine in a European piazza and relaxing some afternoon.
I apologize for the fact as well that I am a fast reader and knock out a book or two on a long plane flight or in a given week... Clearly I am culturally shallow to think reading is good for you and that having to pack 4 books alone just for the planes and airports is a hastle. What a fool I am for thinking about trading all that weight in books and space for a 10oz device that fits in my nap sack).
This will not be a niche product in 5-10 years. This will be all of our children's textbooks and many of our books.
Is this like high quality consumer porn? For those who get their rocks off to product launches?
Ta, da da da. Da da da da. Ta da da da, da da da da, boom chicka, boom chicka boom chicka boom...
No truly illiterate consumer of cheap pulp fiction would go for this anyway, it would be too much effort to flick the page as your cetacean 400lb form buckles the innersprings of your sofa, the groaning metal obscuring the last expiring meow as the cat fails to move out of your way fast enough.
That's what AudioBooks are for.
I am just trying to imagine missing the pleasures of browsing bookshops, inhaling the smell and look of print and paper mixed with the aroma of my third cappuccino!
Nahh, it does look sexily like my answering machine! ?and there is the satisfaction of having taken lazy acquiescence to commercial propaganda yet another step forward.
I see the readers being divided about this, even most of the people that like it seem to think it needs significant work.
I agree, which is why I wrote "ridiculing," not "criticizing."
I've simply been baffled by the stupidity of most of the anti-Kindle posts I've read. The explanation, of course, is that there's not as much overlap as some might think between the audience being targetted by the Kindle and the audience being targetted by gadget blogs and gadget discussion boards. Sorry, LOL-ers--you're not really who they're after. Not yet.
People have never noticed that major novels and nonfiction works tend to be... Thick? Heavy? Internet commenters will hem and haw over an HP laptop being half an inch thicker than a Macbook Pro, but they can't understand why I'd rather carry a Kindle in my shoulder bag than a five-hundred page hardback?
I read Anthony Powell's Music of Time novel sequence this year. Eleven thin books, or four incredibly thick ones. I opted to check out the eleven thin ones from a college library individually rather than lugging around each of the larger ones. Either way, I'd rather have bought them via a Kindle. The likely cost would have been more like a surcharge for avoiding a trip to the library/bookstore than a purchase cost.
Problem: I don't know the cost. Because those books aren't available for the Kindle yet. But they likely will be far sooner than they'll be available for the other eReaders. Content is everything with these things. It doesn't look like the latest aluminium whatever from Apple? Pretty irrelevant.
I am confused, does that use a LCD or eink for display? It does not look as white and black as eInk would so I assume it is a LCD. Not very attractive for a ebook reader.
I am confused, does that use a LCD or eink for display? It does not look as white and black as eInk would so I assume it is a LCD. Not very attractive for a ebook reader.
E-ink and it is super easy on the eyes. Easier than an actual book. Its not really that ugly after you own one for a week.
Comments
Important disqualifier for all of you ridiculing it:
You don't read.
Do you? How many eBooks do you own and what do you use to read them?
I have quite a few but use my laptop. That's not optimal but I can't read Kindle books on anything BUT a Kindle. That's seriously uncool. I'd get a Sony before I got a Kindle. For $100 I can get quite a few books. For non-book reading I'd rather use a laptop or PDA or phone that can do color.
People are complaining about the wrong thing here. Who cares if it is "ugly"? Who cares if it has a black an white screen? The real complaint here is the keyboard - it looks like the device is trying to do too much.
Or doing too little. This is what the Kindle should have been:
http://www.irextechnologies.com/products/features
The three things that make the iLiad even more niche is the price tag (into laptop range), battery life (a mere 12 hours) and slightly inferior eInk panel (not Vizplex).
iRex is thinking of opening up development of the iLiad further with company support. That should make it interesting but the price tag will keep it niche.
Oh, and it matters that the Kindle is ugly.
Nearly everyone I know (including myself) who read books, read them once. Yes. Sometimes you do read a great book more than once, but in general its only once. There are far too many great books to explore out there. I have no use for a book after I read it. I usually either give it away or keep in on a book shelf to collect dust.
People share books. Fiction titles in my family are sometimes read by as many as 10 people by time it makes the rounds. This isn't possible at all with Kindle and probably won't be.
You turn your mind on to read books. You don't need your brain on to listen to music or watch something. This is a fundamental difference between books and other media. In any given day, I can listen to 25 different artists throughout the day. I can't do the same with writers. This is the beauty of the iPod.
Kindles books are simply too expensive. This is digital media people! They needed a subscription service for this thing out of the gate. They also needed a way for people to buy chapters of books (especially tech books). The iTunes Store is successful because I don't have to buy an entire CD for one song. Why should I have to buy an entire book.
Dave
If I'm a tourist traveling through Europe (min of 6 weeks or it's pointless) and Asia (an additional 6 weeks or it's pointless) I am a complete moron if I'm spending my time reading digital books and not soaking up the experience I most likely won't see again in my life. I'd be busy taking photos, filming scenery, working on my laptop to create DVDs of my visits to famous historical locations, museums, soaking up as much local culture as I can knowing I'll only be able to review my memory and what I recorded with my digital camera/camcorder.
As a business traveler on the train/tram or whatever, I'm busy reading for leisure or most likely getting some work done. Meetings and other distractions only make getting my work accomplished throughout the week harder to attain. Having time on the train/tram to get some of it done really tends to be what I have done in my past on such a situation.
It's a niche product and always has been.
DISAGREE. First, try 22 hours getting to Asia with a connection or two in airports and let me know precisely the experience one soaks up on the plane or in the lounge (when incidentally half the time the shops are closed).
Traveling by train, you can only see so many cow fields before you might take up a book.
Also, I personally like the mix of people watching, reading and sipping a glass of wine in a European piazza and relaxing some afternoon.
I apologize for the fact as well that I am a fast reader and knock out a book or two on a long plane flight or in a given week... Clearly I am culturally shallow to think reading is good for you and that having to pack 4 books alone just for the planes and airports is a hastle. What a fool I am for thinking about trading all that weight in books and space for a 10oz device that fits in my nap sack).
This will not be a niche product in 5-10 years. This will be all of our children's textbooks and many of our books.
High-quality unboxing photos
Is this like high quality consumer porn? For those who get their rocks off to product launches?
Ta, da da da. Da da da da. Ta da da da, da da da da, boom chicka, boom chicka boom chicka boom...
No truly illiterate consumer of cheap pulp fiction would go for this anyway, it would be too much effort to flick the page as your cetacean 400lb form buckles the innersprings of your sofa, the groaning metal obscuring the last expiring meow as the cat fails to move out of your way fast enough.
That's what AudioBooks are for.
I am just trying to imagine missing the pleasures of browsing bookshops, inhaling the smell and look of print and paper mixed with the aroma of my third cappuccino!
Nahh, it does look sexily like my answering machine! ?and there is the satisfaction of having taken lazy acquiescence to commercial propaganda yet another step forward.
I see the readers being divided about this, even most of the people that like it seem to think it needs significant work.
I agree, which is why I wrote "ridiculing," not "criticizing."
I've simply been baffled by the stupidity of most of the anti-Kindle posts I've read. The explanation, of course, is that there's not as much overlap as some might think between the audience being targetted by the Kindle and the audience being targetted by gadget blogs and gadget discussion boards. Sorry, LOL-ers--you're not really who they're after. Not yet.
People have never noticed that major novels and nonfiction works tend to be... Thick? Heavy? Internet commenters will hem and haw over an HP laptop being half an inch thicker than a Macbook Pro, but they can't understand why I'd rather carry a Kindle in my shoulder bag than a five-hundred page hardback?
I read Anthony Powell's Music of Time novel sequence this year. Eleven thin books, or four incredibly thick ones. I opted to check out the eleven thin ones from a college library individually rather than lugging around each of the larger ones. Either way, I'd rather have bought them via a Kindle. The likely cost would have been more like a surcharge for avoiding a trip to the library/bookstore than a purchase cost.
Problem: I don't know the cost. Because those books aren't available for the Kindle yet. But they likely will be far sooner than they'll be available for the other eReaders. Content is everything with these things. It doesn't look like the latest aluminium whatever from Apple? Pretty irrelevant.
I am confused, does that use a LCD or eink for display? It does not look as white and black as eInk would so I assume it is a LCD. Not very attractive for a ebook reader.
E-ink and it is super easy on the eyes. Easier than an actual book. Its not really that ugly after you own one for a week.
Sachin Dhall
Oh and its ugly and I don't want one, the Sony one looks nicer and seems to be a nicer size (the Kindle looks big to me)