why do we keep hearing about the ridiculous kindle? has anyone ever bought one?.
I've seen one, but I can't buy one because I'm in the UK.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cwfrederick
Tthat stupid thing is never going to be a success.
A very confident conclusion to reach so early in this product's life. I remember reading that MP3 players wouldn't catch on. Didn't IBM reckon the global market for PCs was three ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by cwfrederick
and on top of that, it's hideous.
No it isn't. It's actually quite elegant. Our opinions are subjective, but I don't think it deserves the epithet "hideous".
How about you take your quixotic character crusade somewhere else instead.
Already have, one other forum before this one, but I'll keep it here whenever I finish my custom DVORAK-based keyboard layout in Ukelele. TypeIt4Me just doesn't cut it, sadly.
Þe þorn shall rise þenceforþ!
(Admittedly it truly is beautiful typographically, odd that it fell out of usage being replaced by "y" and eventually "th".)
Quote:
Originally Posted by MacOldTimer
What? Text is there as filler?
Maybe you should go back to the 14th century as your signature says. In 2009 text is on the net to inform.
CNN's text can't be called filler.
Your text (or nonsensical gibberish) on the most part fit your description.
Perhaps I should have added sarcasm tags for your benefit. But it probably would've been pointless since "nobody" reads anymore.
I'm pretty sure CNN text is just filler though, hell even their news channel is just filled with filler, the number of times they repeat themselves in a night is astounding.
No it isn't. It's actually quite elegant. Our opinions are subjective, but I don't think it deserves the epithet "hideous".
The Kindle makes the Zune look good in comparison.
Maybe eBooks will be mainstream in the future, but I think they're garbage right now. The readers are incredible expensive. ($250-300 - no thanks!). If anything the Kindle should be a loss leader similar to consoles that make their money selling games. I haven't seen one in person, but the pictures of light black text on grey page don't make me want to see one. And eBook don't seem to be much cheaper than real books. And you can resell or give away a real book but not an ebook.
I get a psychic pleasure from...being able to sort through my shelf and pick a book out for a friend... I mean, what, am I supposed to say "oh, you'll really enjoy this thumb drive! I've got 10 books on it!
I know. Imagine if that had happened to records and CDs and prints from the photo lab: what would we be supposed to do, share our music and pictures electronically?
...This Google mobile books site is pretty nice but seems like quite a few typos in the text....
i found the pages below (be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom of the image) minutes after i began searching for a book i'd read as a kid. I'd hoped it might be out of copyright and thus available. Instead, i found an early 20th-century review with these amusing images.
I didn't notice the "typo" ("thumbo?") in the lower right corner of the first page until i scrolled down to the second page. I guess if you're manually scanning a bazillion pages you get careless once in a while. At least, I hope this isn't characteristic of the product.
why do we keep hearing about the ridiculous kindle? has anyone ever bought one? that stupid thing is never going to be a success, and on top of that, it's hideous.
it's risky to assume your usage practices apply to the larger universe. As Marshall McLuhan observed, "whoever it was discovered water, you can bet it wasn't a fish." It's easy to judge the ocean by what's in our little fish tank. But it can lead to misjudgements. The fact that you (or those you know) haven't bought one isn't sufficient data.
According to Time Magazine (summer '08): “On a title-by-title basis, of the 130,000 titles available on Kindle and in physical form, Kindle sales now make up over 12% of sales for those titles."
And from Forbes, 12/08: "Forrester Research... roughly estimates that around 400,000 Kindles have been sold in all--a small number in the world of consumer electronics, but around 30% more than Sony's... competing Reader device."
It's true that number can't compare to iPhone numbers--not by a long stretch. But the cellphone market had been around for a long time and developed its following slowly too. So it's not quite fair to compare the numbers.
I agree. I often wonder, though, if this is because we were raised on physical books. I do enjoy reading dailies online. It's just something about a book you look forward to dealing with for more than a day or so that wants to be in a non digital form. We'll see, I suppose, as younger people start using these devices more and more.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JeffDM
If you're comparing it to the iPod model, Apple has released actual sales figures of the iPod all along.
Sorry, I had iPod in mind when I was thinking of it. Those and Macs are presented in clear numbers, though they don't break down how many of each model are made other than notebook vs. desktop.
The fact that you had to buy an expensive proprietary device doesn't help. I can easily buy 40 books for the cost of one reader, and those books don't need a reader to work. The fact that the books are largely the same price as the paper version isn't helping either. And I can resell or give away a paper book, I haven't seen anything that suggests this is true of any eBook platform. The publishing and distribution costs should be lower for ebooks too. It's a total cost shift to the consumer.
The iTunes music model was different, where computers could play the music, and you can burn CDs to play in anything with a CD player, you didn't have to buy a specific brand device to use the music. My sisters had even bought iTunes tracks for a couple years without having had to buy an iPod to enjoy the music.
Except I've never bought a device specifically to read books. I had a Palm Pilot. Now I have an iPhone. I bought these devices for other reasons. The fact that I could read on them was a huge bonus. If you read the article I linked to on Ars Technica, you'd see that this is the premise. People already own devices that are great for reading. Why not give it a try?
Except I've never bought a device specifically to read books. I had a Palm Pilot. Now I have an iPhone. I bought these devices for other reasons. The fact that I could read on them was a huge bonus. If you read the article I linked to on Ars Technica, you'd see that this is the premise. People already own devices that are great for reading. Why not give it a try?
I'm sorry, but I'm not going to try. This brings up a different issue. The screen on the devices you mention too small for me, I can't stand to read lilliputian text for long periods of time. The reading that I do on a pocket device is for only short intervals. I do have one program on there, but it's only for times I'm really desperate to pass the time, and that has not happened yet.
Already have, one other forum before this one, but I'll keep it here whenever I finish my custom DVORAK-based keyboard layout in Ukelele. TypeIt4Me just doesn't cut it, sadly.
Þe þorn shall rise þenceforþ!
(Admittedly it truly is beautiful typographically, odd that it fell out of usage being replaced by "y" and eventually "th".)
Perhaps I should have added sarcasm tags for your benefit. But it probably would've been pointless since "nobody" reads anymore.
I'm pretty sure CNN text is just filler though, hell even their news channel is just filled with filler, the number of times they repeat themselves in a night is astounding.
Sebastian
Let's try something new on this forum. How about you do us a favor and put your filler on another forum or type something that we can #@*! READ. Do you understand my new language.
Except I've never bought a device specifically to read books. I had a Palm Pilot. Now I have an iPhone. I bought these devices for other reasons. The fact that I could read on them was a huge bonus. If you read the article I linked to on Ars Technica, you'd see that this is the premise. People already own devices that are great for reading. Why not give it a try?
Sorry but the iPhone is not "Great for Reading". It's ridiculously too small a screen and although good for small articles on the web it's a horrible experience on the iPhone for books.
Anybody know if there's a way to mark your place in these google books? I moved it to my home page and I'm ready to rock (or read) and whenever I bounce to email or Safari and come back, I have to find where I left off
While inconvenient at the moment, I don't think it is a big issue. It seems to me that it would be very simple to create an App Store app that would access this site (using the SDK's WebKit access), save your page location and zoom (the same way making an iPhone homescreen bookmark does), and perhaps even other bookmarkable features (like a highlighter or special marker to indicate the line you last read).
Jobs says he isn't interested in paperless books because "no-one reads anymore". True or not, if and when the Newtbook arrives (I'm going to run with this) I doubt it will have Kindle-like abilities - for a start the screen technology is different.
Exactly - there may or may not be a netbook, you may or may not be able to read e-books on the iPhone / iTouch, but it will be a far cry from a dedicated device because the screen is different. Period.
Exactly - there may or may not be a netbook, you may or may not be able to read e-books on the iPhone / iTouch, but it will be a far cry from a dedicated device because the screen is different. Period.
You will never get a digital book reader from Apple that is of any use.
Apple cannot do background.
Imagine being 200 pages into your favorite book and your phone rings.
BANG. Your book is gone.
After conversation you go back to reading your book and have to find the page you were on and start all over again.
It will be safe for copy write laws because Apple can't copy and paste.
You will never get a digital book reader from Apple that is of any use.
Apple cannot do background.
Imagine being 200 pages into your favorite book and your phone rings.
BANG. Your book is gone.
After conversation you go back to reading your book and have to find the page you were on and start all over again.
It will be safe for copy write laws because Apple can't copy and paste.
Do you actually believe the stuff you write or are being paid to come on this site to push FUD? Not allowing 3rd-party apps to run in the background does not mean that apps can't save information regarding your lastet setup/position. I take it you don't own an iPhone or a Touch.
You will never get a digital book reader from Apple that is of any use.
Apple cannot do background.
Imagine being 200 pages into your favorite book and your phone rings.
BANG. Your book is gone.
After conversation you go back to reading your book and have to find the page you were on and start all over again.
Since you don't seem to have actually used this device for any meaningful length of time, I'll tell you that you're just flat out wrong. iPhone software is allowed to save state before it switches away and remember when it comes back. Maybe it's the lesser software that forgets. Palm did it this way too, I can exit a program and come back later, and it's like I never left.
Do you actually believe the stuff you write or are being paid to come on this site to push FUD? Not allowing 3rd-party apps to run in the background does not mean that apps can't save information regarding your lastet setup/position. I take it you don't own an iPhone or a Touch.
Give me a break JeffDM. You don't actually believe the crap you just typed.
I own the original iPhone and the 3G.
The application must be written to save the "spot" you were at.
This is only recenty being done because Apple can't deliver background apps (3rd party) to keep running.
So Apple is once again is making the developers change their apps for the iPhones software short comings.
I wish I got paid on all the short comings of the iPhone, I'd be a very wealthy man.
Apple has over promised and under delivered from day 1 of the iPhone.
Apple promised that background apps and push would be available in September 2008 not 2009 on the next iPhone).
Now they're giving us what they "think" we need.
I can't wait to be rid of both my iPhones and sell them on E-Bay to some dumb ass Apple Sheep for 4 times what they are worth.
The iPhone & Apple has become a gaming community. I don't want a toy. I want a Business Phone and Apple will never deliver that as long as Jobs is leading the playground.
Wait I want to listen to music now on Pandora. Got to go and relaunch Pandora.
Edit.
I wouldn't by a Touch if it was the last piece of technology I didn't own.
It has all the short comings of the iPhone and Apple makes the dumb asses that buy them pay for firmware upgrades that are buggy and lack features. So Apple makes them pay for a stable piece of hardware.
At least I get one bug ridden firmware after another for free.
You will never get a digital book reader from Apple that is of any use.
Apple cannot do background.
Imagine being 200 pages into your favorite book and your phone rings.
BANG. Your book is gone.
After conversation you go back to reading your book and have to find the page you were on and start all over again.
Too bad this isn't true. I've read a dozen books on my iPod from Webscriptions. For one thing, it doesn't keep my wife up if i decide to read a chapter with the lights off. For another, it takes very little energy from the iPhone on a long plane ride. And if i get bored somewhere like a doctor's office.
As far as Amazon goes...unless I can get the books to work on my laptop and iPhone it's a no sale. There's also no way I'm buying a crappy designed kindle. If I actually shell out money for a dedicated ebook it's going to be an irex. It's just a tad pricey. Or maybe a closeout on last year's Sony. Which is a heck of a lot cheaper than a Kindle.
But what the heck...I carry an iphone everywhere. It may be a sub-optimal reader but it beats yet another device to lug around and maybe lose.
I've found that in Stanza you can adjust the text size to be larger than that found in a book.
You also don't need an external light source.
And as has been pointed out before iPhone applications can save their state when closed, when reopened it's at exactly the same place, just like emails and a lot of other things.
Comments
why do we keep hearing about the ridiculous kindle? has anyone ever bought one?.
I've seen one, but I can't buy one because I'm in the UK.
Tthat stupid thing is never going to be a success.
A very confident conclusion to reach so early in this product's life. I remember reading that MP3 players wouldn't catch on. Didn't IBM reckon the global market for PCs was three ?
and on top of that, it's hideous.
No it isn't. It's actually quite elegant. Our opinions are subjective, but I don't think it deserves the epithet "hideous".
How about you take your quixotic character crusade somewhere else instead.
Already have, one other forum before this one, but I'll keep it here whenever I finish my custom DVORAK-based keyboard layout in Ukelele. TypeIt4Me just doesn't cut it, sadly.
Þe þorn shall rise þenceforþ!
(Admittedly it truly is beautiful typographically, odd that it fell out of usage being replaced by "y" and eventually "th".)
What? Text is there as filler?
Maybe you should go back to the 14th century as your signature says. In 2009 text is on the net to inform.
CNN's text can't be called filler.
Your text (or nonsensical gibberish) on the most part fit your description.
Perhaps I should have added sarcasm tags for your benefit. But it probably would've been pointless since "nobody" reads anymore.
I'm pretty sure CNN text is just filler though, hell even their news channel is just filled with filler, the number of times they repeat themselves in a night is astounding.
Sebastian
No it isn't. It's actually quite elegant. Our opinions are subjective, but I don't think it deserves the epithet "hideous".
The Kindle makes the Zune look good in comparison.
Maybe eBooks will be mainstream in the future, but I think they're garbage right now. The readers are incredible expensive. ($250-300 - no thanks!). If anything the Kindle should be a loss leader similar to consoles that make their money selling games. I haven't seen one in person, but the pictures of light black text on grey page don't make me want to see one. And eBook don't seem to be much cheaper than real books. And you can resell or give away a real book but not an ebook.
I get a psychic pleasure from...being able to sort through my shelf and pick a book out for a friend... I mean, what, am I supposed to say "oh, you'll really enjoy this thumb drive! I've got 10 books on it!
I know. Imagine if that had happened to records and CDs and prints from the photo lab: what would we be supposed to do, share our music and pictures electronically?
...This Google mobile books site is pretty nice but seems like quite a few typos in the text....
i found the pages below (be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom of the image) minutes after i began searching for a book i'd read as a kid. I'd hoped it might be out of copyright and thus available. Instead, i found an early 20th-century review with these amusing images.
I didn't notice the "typo" ("thumbo?") in the lower right corner of the first page until i scrolled down to the second page. I guess if you're manually scanning a bazillion pages you get careless once in a while. At least, I hope this isn't characteristic of the product.
why do we keep hearing about the ridiculous kindle? has anyone ever bought one? that stupid thing is never going to be a success, and on top of that, it's hideous.
it's risky to assume your usage practices apply to the larger universe. As Marshall McLuhan observed, "whoever it was discovered water, you can bet it wasn't a fish." It's easy to judge the ocean by what's in our little fish tank. But it can lead to misjudgements. The fact that you (or those you know) haven't bought one isn't sufficient data.
According to Time Magazine (summer '08): “On a title-by-title basis, of the 130,000 titles available on Kindle and in physical form, Kindle sales now make up over 12% of sales for those titles."
And from Forbes, 12/08: "Forrester Research... roughly estimates that around 400,000 Kindles have been sold in all--a small number in the world of consumer electronics, but around 30% more than Sony's... competing Reader device."
It's true that number can't compare to iPhone numbers--not by a long stretch. But the cellphone market had been around for a long time and developed its following slowly too. So it's not quite fair to compare the numbers.
Þ & þ are called "Thorn" & þey represent þe sound you've associated "th" wiþ since þe 13þ or 14þ century. I'm bringing it back.
Sebastian
þhat's just þilly! (but funny, too) Loving that era as you do, will you bring back þhe plague next?!
I agree. I often wonder, though, if this is because we were raised on physical books. I do enjoy reading dailies online. It's just something about a book you look forward to dealing with for more than a day or so that wants to be in a non digital form. We'll see, I suppose, as younger people start using these devices more and more.
If you're comparing it to the iPod model, Apple has released actual sales figures of the iPod all along.
Sorry, I had iPod in mind when I was thinking of it. Those and Macs are presented in clear numbers, though they don't break down how many of each model are made other than notebook vs. desktop.
The fact that you had to buy an expensive proprietary device doesn't help. I can easily buy 40 books for the cost of one reader, and those books don't need a reader to work. The fact that the books are largely the same price as the paper version isn't helping either. And I can resell or give away a paper book, I haven't seen anything that suggests this is true of any eBook platform. The publishing and distribution costs should be lower for ebooks too. It's a total cost shift to the consumer.
The iTunes music model was different, where computers could play the music, and you can burn CDs to play in anything with a CD player, you didn't have to buy a specific brand device to use the music. My sisters had even bought iTunes tracks for a couple years without having had to buy an iPod to enjoy the music.
Except I've never bought a device specifically to read books. I had a Palm Pilot. Now I have an iPhone. I bought these devices for other reasons. The fact that I could read on them was a huge bonus. If you read the article I linked to on Ars Technica, you'd see that this is the premise. People already own devices that are great for reading. Why not give it a try?
Except I've never bought a device specifically to read books. I had a Palm Pilot. Now I have an iPhone. I bought these devices for other reasons. The fact that I could read on them was a huge bonus. If you read the article I linked to on Ars Technica, you'd see that this is the premise. People already own devices that are great for reading. Why not give it a try?
I'm sorry, but I'm not going to try. This brings up a different issue. The screen on the devices you mention too small for me, I can't stand to read lilliputian text for long periods of time. The reading that I do on a pocket device is for only short intervals. I do have one program on there, but it's only for times I'm really desperate to pass the time, and that has not happened yet.
Already have, one other forum before this one, but I'll keep it here whenever I finish my custom DVORAK-based keyboard layout in Ukelele. TypeIt4Me just doesn't cut it, sadly.
Þe þorn shall rise þenceforþ!
(Admittedly it truly is beautiful typographically, odd that it fell out of usage being replaced by "y" and eventually "th".)
Perhaps I should have added sarcasm tags for your benefit. But it probably would've been pointless since "nobody" reads anymore.
I'm pretty sure CNN text is just filler though, hell even their news channel is just filled with filler, the number of times they repeat themselves in a night is astounding.
Sebastian
Let's try something new on this forum. How about you do us a favor and put your filler on another forum or type something that we can #@*! READ. Do you understand my new language.
Except I've never bought a device specifically to read books. I had a Palm Pilot. Now I have an iPhone. I bought these devices for other reasons. The fact that I could read on them was a huge bonus. If you read the article I linked to on Ars Technica, you'd see that this is the premise. People already own devices that are great for reading. Why not give it a try?
Sorry but the iPhone is not "Great for Reading". It's ridiculously too small a screen and although good for small articles on the web it's a horrible experience on the iPhone for books.
I've already tried it with Stanza.
Anybody know if there's a way to mark your place in these google books? I moved it to my home page and I'm ready to rock (or read) and whenever I bounce to email or Safari and come back, I have to find where I left off
While inconvenient at the moment, I don't think it is a big issue. It seems to me that it would be very simple to create an App Store app that would access this site (using the SDK's WebKit access), save your page location and zoom (the same way making an iPhone homescreen bookmark does), and perhaps even other bookmarkable features (like a highlighter or special marker to indicate the line you last read).
Jobs says he isn't interested in paperless books because "no-one reads anymore". True or not, if and when the Newtbook arrives (I'm going to run with this) I doubt it will have Kindle-like abilities - for a start the screen technology is different.
Exactly - there may or may not be a netbook, you may or may not be able to read e-books on the iPhone / iTouch, but it will be a far cry from a dedicated device because the screen is different. Period.
Exactly - there may or may not be a netbook, you may or may not be able to read e-books on the iPhone / iTouch, but it will be a far cry from a dedicated device because the screen is different. Period.
You will never get a digital book reader from Apple that is of any use.
Apple cannot do background.
Imagine being 200 pages into your favorite book and your phone rings.
BANG. Your book is gone.
After conversation you go back to reading your book and have to find the page you were on and start all over again.
It will be safe for copy write laws because Apple can't copy and paste.
You will never get a digital book reader from Apple that is of any use.
Apple cannot do background.
Imagine being 200 pages into your favorite book and your phone rings.
BANG. Your book is gone.
After conversation you go back to reading your book and have to find the page you were on and start all over again.
It will be safe for copy write laws because Apple can't copy and paste.
Do you actually believe the stuff you write or are being paid to come on this site to push FUD? Not allowing 3rd-party apps to run in the background does not mean that apps can't save information regarding your lastet setup/position. I take it you don't own an iPhone or a Touch.
You will never get a digital book reader from Apple that is of any use.
Apple cannot do background.
Imagine being 200 pages into your favorite book and your phone rings.
BANG. Your book is gone.
After conversation you go back to reading your book and have to find the page you were on and start all over again.
Since you don't seem to have actually used this device for any meaningful length of time, I'll tell you that you're just flat out wrong. iPhone software is allowed to save state before it switches away and remember when it comes back. Maybe it's the lesser software that forgets. Palm did it this way too, I can exit a program and come back later, and it's like I never left.
Do you actually believe the stuff you write or are being paid to come on this site to push FUD? Not allowing 3rd-party apps to run in the background does not mean that apps can't save information regarding your lastet setup/position. I take it you don't own an iPhone or a Touch.
Give me a break JeffDM. You don't actually believe the crap you just typed.
I own the original iPhone and the 3G.
The application must be written to save the "spot" you were at.
This is only recenty being done because Apple can't deliver background apps (3rd party) to keep running.
So Apple is once again is making the developers change their apps for the iPhones software short comings.
I wish I got paid on all the short comings of the iPhone, I'd be a very wealthy man.
Apple has over promised and under delivered from day 1 of the iPhone.
Apple promised that background apps and push would be available in September 2008 not 2009 on the next iPhone).
Now they're giving us what they "think" we need.
I can't wait to be rid of both my iPhones and sell them on E-Bay to some dumb ass Apple Sheep for 4 times what they are worth.
The iPhone & Apple has become a gaming community. I don't want a toy. I want a Business Phone and Apple will never deliver that as long as Jobs is leading the playground.
Wait I want to listen to music now on Pandora. Got to go and relaunch Pandora.
Edit.
I wouldn't by a Touch if it was the last piece of technology I didn't own.
It has all the short comings of the iPhone and Apple makes the dumb asses that buy them pay for firmware upgrades that are buggy and lack features. So Apple makes them pay for a stable piece of hardware.
At least I get one bug ridden firmware after another for free.
You will never get a digital book reader from Apple that is of any use.
Apple cannot do background.
Imagine being 200 pages into your favorite book and your phone rings.
BANG. Your book is gone.
After conversation you go back to reading your book and have to find the page you were on and start all over again.
Too bad this isn't true. I've read a dozen books on my iPod from Webscriptions. For one thing, it doesn't keep my wife up if i decide to read a chapter with the lights off. For another, it takes very little energy from the iPhone on a long plane ride. And if i get bored somewhere like a doctor's office.
As far as Amazon goes...unless I can get the books to work on my laptop and iPhone it's a no sale. There's also no way I'm buying a crappy designed kindle. If I actually shell out money for a dedicated ebook it's going to be an irex. It's just a tad pricey. Or maybe a closeout on last year's Sony. Which is a heck of a lot cheaper than a Kindle.
But what the heck...I carry an iphone everywhere. It may be a sub-optimal reader but it beats yet another device to lug around and maybe lose.
You also don't need an external light source.
And as has been pointed out before iPhone applications can save their state when closed, when reopened it's at exactly the same place, just like emails and a lot of other things.