

Amazon: Reinventing the Book - mqt
http://www.newsweek.com/id/70983

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Readmore
It's a $400 device that they "let's" you buy books for $10!

Just go buy 40 books. By the time you read them all the e-reader will be free.
This is not the reinvention of the book, it's just more useless stuff that all
of us tech people are tricked into thinking we need.

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mynameishere
I saw this was 7 pages long and didn't seem to contain pictures. So, here's
what I searched up:

<http://blog.scifi.com/tech/pics/amazon_kindle.jpeg>

[grumble] Bezos is a really good businessman, but he seems to have a few
weaknesses. The _obvious_ problem with his previous flop (the segue EDIT:
segway) was that it looked like a piece of medical equipment...something you
ride on into the grave.

Well, what about the "kindle"? It looks similarily therapeutic...maybe a
device to help stroke victims re-remember their ABCs.

~~~
asdflkj
That can't be the final product. I'd bet money on it.

~~~
joshwa
how much money? :)

[http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/19/live-from-the-amazon-
kind...](http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/19/live-from-the-amazon-kindle-
launch-event/)

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marvin
The author of this article mentions some nice philosophical elements of the
question of electronic books, but he skirts outside the entire DRM issue,
which is the thing that is keeping me back. What, the only difference between
the Sony "Reader" and this "Kindle" is that the Kindle can connect to Wi-Fi
access points? Give me a break.

A _decent_ e-book reader should be able to read any document format, be easily
extensible, _maybe_ support one DRM schemes as an afterthought (to appease the
publisher ass-hats) and of course have every other benefit a book has:
durability, portability, a touchpad or keyboard for taking notes,
waterproofness for the heck of it _and_ excellent connectivity.

Every e-book device I have seen have avoided all of these requirements. I
won't buy anything that isn't easier to use and better than my laptop. Not a
snowball's chance in hell.

How hard can it be to make a bloody gadget that works right? Every
manufacturer should be working to dislodge their heads, but it seems like it
is very comfortable in there. In the publishers' orifices, that is.

Bite me.

~~~
qaexl
I admit. If I ever get a Sony Reader, the first thing I'd do is to hack it so
I can access all the text files I already have. I want to be able to read,
say, the electronic copies of David Weber's scifi books that I bought, the
PDFs from my software reference library, the Art of War in the original
Chinese, and whatever I want off of Gutenburg.

I've seen the Sony Reader first-hand. There was a demo unit in one of the
Border's in Atlanta. It looks a lot cooler than the Amazon device. It is
almost as slim as an Apple iPhone. It also has a lot of random ports
surrounding the device ... pretty useless if I can't get it to access the
things I want it to access. Compared with the OLPC XO, it looks like it'd
break if I drop it.

On the other hand, the eInk display is everything the press says it is -- the
fonts are crisp and the display is a pleasure to read in standard lighting. It
has no backlights -- but neither does a hardback novel. The refresh rate is
too slow for animations. It takes almost as long for the page to refresh as
turning a page (that's probably perceptual ... I didn't time it with a
stopwatch).

It might just be easier to buy the eInk developer kit --
<http://www.eink.com/kits/index.html> and roll your own. For about a $3k a
pop.

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wmf
"Bezos explains that it's only fair to charge less for e-books because you
can't give them as gifts, and due to restrictive antipiracy software, you
can't lend them out or resell them."

Wow, someone in the DRM business admitted that DRM subtracts value.

~~~
ajju
And yet, it won't let you read PDFs from the SD card.

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comatose_kid
It's up on Amazon: <http://tinyurl.com/2au6ab>

And it's ugly. I don't care about all of the assuredly wonderful technical
features - I don't see myself reading comfortably with a device like this.

I can't believe that an organization known for its human interface design
could take 3 years to introduce such a mechanical looking product.

Well, perhaps using it is better than looking at it....

~~~
ajju
"assuredly wonderful technical features" yes, but locked down by DRM. I might
buy one if/when some hackers manage to add native pdf support and free access
to free blogs. Until then I'll just stick with my 12 inch laptop. (Or if I am
desperate buy the Sony reader thats $100 cheaper and actually supports PDFs,
even though it doesn't have wireless)

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henning
See also <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html>

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cmars232
Why would somebody actually pay money out of their own pocket for a device
that they don't actually own? Well, ok, telecom's a great example, but Amazon
does not have the same kind of stranglehold on books... A Sony Reader with a
bit of WiFi + Flash will make this lame offering look like the "Zune" of ebook
readers.

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aswanson
I could buy a linux board for $60, put a screen on it for another $60 and do
everything that thing can do plus compile, send phone calls, hack, play games,
and post here on news.yc. $400 for that thing is crazy.

~~~
rms
Can you post an email address in your profile or email me? I'm curious if
you're affiliated with KIPR, a Google search for awanson goes to the KIPR
message boards after news.ycombinator.com.

~~~
aswanson
Sent a mail to kfischer@gmail.com.

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JulianMorrison
PDF or no sale.

~~~
rms
"every Kindle comes with a customized e-mail address. You attach your personal
docs, and they are delivered to the device, can do this with docs, Jpegs."

