Yesterday Amazon released an eBook reader/service called Kindle. Yesterday a lot of people wrote reviews of Kindle. Yesterday barely anyone on the planet had actually used Kindle, but they just couldn’t wait to tell you how much it sucked.
There’s a lot of premature hating going on. Hypercritical negativity is in season among a large set of the web’s independent tech observers.
Most of the 300 reviews on Amazon’s Kindle product page were overwhelmingly negative. Most of the blog posts on the web were overwhelmingly negative. Much of the tech news/review sites were overwhelmingly negative. Again, few people had actually used a Kindle. And none of the reviewers had a chance to live with one yet.
One thing we have all had a chance to live with are books and newspapers. They’re stacks of dead trees. Bulky blocks of words. They take up a lot of space, need to be pushed around by plane and truck, and quickly fill up your carry on if you want to take more than a couple with you. When you buy a book, you’re buying a tiny piece of furniture that you usually carry with you the rest of your life. Moving? Time to pack up the books!
I know book lovers like to talk about the permanence of books, but I think that’s overrated and over-romanticized. Some people love to build extensive physical libraries to house their books. Not me. I’d prefer to read it and move on. Sure I could buy a book, read it, and sell it or give it to a friend or a library, but I’m just looking for the knowledge, not the inventory or an exit strategy.
That’s not to say books are bad. Books are wonderful, important things. But they’re also terrible at a lot of things. You can’t search paper. You can’t bring that many with you at once. They suck up valuable resources in production and transportation. They take up a lot of space. They leave an artifact when you’re done with them.
I’m not suggesting we get rid of books as we know them. Ever. I’m suggesting there’s plenty of room for another model that shines the spotlight on convenience rather than the legacy attributes of print.
The Kindle sounds like a really interesting device with an interesting value proposition. It’s not tethered to a computer. That’s big. It’s more about the convenience and benefits — your books, small size, instant new books, morning paper delivery — than the physical product or the technology.
Kindle isn’t the first eBook reader, but it’s the first portable bookstore. That’s novel. A book in 60 seconds whenever I want it at used-bookstore prices. And the daily push newspaper feature sounds like one hell of a bonus. I love getting the paper, but I hate getting the paper. What a complete waste of resources just so I can get yesterday’s news. I like that there’s some genuinely new thinking behind Kindle. We should embrace this, not tear it to shreds before it even has a chance.
So I’m going to withhold judgement. Our Kindle arrives today. We’re going to live with it for a while and then we’ll write an honest review. Until then…
Full Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in 37signals.
Andrew Warner
on 20 Nov 07I don’t have to carry a brick around for a month to know that I don’t want to have to carry a brick around.
We all have iPhones, or Treos, or any of a million other gadgets in our pockets. Why not allow us to read books on one of the devices we already have?
Tom
on 20 Nov 07Well, way to ignore the number-one complaint about Kindle: the ludicrous, shitty DRM. It’s not the physicality of books that people love, it’s their reliability and permanence; that’s what Kindle fucks with. See http://diveintomark.org/archives/2007/11/19/the-future-of-reading for a great summary.
JF
on 20 Nov 07I don’t have to carry a brick around for a month to know that I don’t want to have to carry a brick around.
Andrew, you don’t have to do anything.
Well, way to ignore the number-one complaint about Kindle: the ludicrous, shitty DRM.
The DRM is ludicrous and shitty. Gotcha.
Well, the DRM doesn’t bother me. I see it as a tradeoff for convenience which is a deal I’m willing to accept. FYI, you can also load up Kindle with over 20,000 free books from Project Gutenberg or unprotected Mobi books.
The way I see it physical books are just as limited by their physicality as digital books are limited by their DRM. Everything has limits, it’s just a matter of which limits you’d rather live with. I’ll take the DRM and you can take the bulk, dead trees, travel hassle, and transportation costs.
that’s what Kindle fucks with
Kindle doesn’t fuck with anything. You can still buy your paper books if that’s what you want. The choice is yours.
Jamie
on 20 Nov 07I love the concept. Hell, I love the implementation – the eInk is wonderful and the push-content aspect is great.
But the DRM killed it for me. I can’t even put PDFs on this thing? What about epub support?
J
on 20 Nov 07Strictly commenting on the hardware design, the pictures on Amazon give me vertigo…seriously. It’s hard to tell if it’s flat or 3D. The right edge is like an optical illusion.
Jon
on 20 Nov 07I definitely agree that a knee-jerk reaction to this sort of technology (and the supposed “end of the book) is premature and ill-advised; however, there are definitely some issues with the product and related services, as much as the idea itself is promising.
as pointed out by others smarter than me …
http://freerangelibrarian.com/2007/11/19/kindle-doesnt-light-my-fire/
http://www.jasongriffey.net/wp/2007/11/19/more-on-the-kindle/
dusoft
on 20 Nov 07Unfortunately, if you are not located in US, Kindle is unusable. Thanks goes to Jeff for DRM and closed standards.
Peter Cooper
on 20 Nov 07As Tom suggests, a significant number of the negative comments aren’t due to the format, but due to Amazon’s decisions regarding DRM, PDF (or lack of support for) and third party content (charging to read blogs!?). Just a few badly thought out policies can generate a lot of ire in the blogosphere!
I’m not sure I get the hoopla anyway, although I guess it could be compared to the lukewarm (or even hostile) reaction the first iPod got when it came out. As a reader of primarily giant art books, TASCHEN books, and the like, though, I doubt I’ll ever need one of these.
Sunny
on 20 Nov 07You are missing the point of the flames. It’s not about bookness, it’s about openness.
Marc
on 20 Nov 07I completely agree with your perspective. Many of the negative comments were lame given that many had only seen the device and not actually used it.
I respect Amazon for pushing the envelope, trying to innovate and provide value to the consumer. Its a very cool and compelling idea. Amazon will be in it for the long term and continue to make it better and perhaps even better looking.
I could envision in 5-10 years people saying remember book stores like Barnes and Noble and Borders, the same way that Tower Records et al used to be around.
dusoft
on 20 Nov 07PS: How stands the legal side of paying for blogs written by authors, who gets nothing?
Anonymous Coward
on 20 Nov 07charging to read blogs?
Why don’t you take that up with the blog authors. They’ve set up a revenue share with Amazon. The authors are the ones saying “yes you can charge for our content.”
Lar
on 20 Nov 07While I haven’t got a Kindle yet, I like the way real books don’t crash or run out of juice.
Nick
on 20 Nov 07The only interesting thing to me about this story is the race to see who can craft the most punny headline.
I was going through withdrawals after the Leopard headlines dried up (“This Leopard earns its spots.” <—Genious!). Thank god for Kindle.
Actually, there is another interesting thing. The design of Kindle is somewhat curious. Kind of looks like it was transplanted from 1994. Seems like there was potential to make this a little more elegant. Other than that, I (too) will withhold final judgment.
Luke Noel-Storr
on 20 Nov 07Before the announcement I was quite excited about the whole thing. For some reason I thought all the pre-release photos were a joke though. I should have realised they weren’t, what with all the sites showing the same images, but I guess I just couldn’t accept that anyone would bring out such a horrendously out-dated looking gadget in this day and age.
Maybe it just doesn’t photo well – I still can’t believe it can look that bad.
I’m actually a big support of eBooks. I used to read them all the time on my Palm 500. I loved being able to carry several books round with me in my pocket (something that it looks like isn’t possible with the Kindle), which I could read at any time. It was great on the train to work, and even better on holiday (especially as I could read in the dark). The only reason I stopped reading them was because I got fed up of searching the limited number of books for something half decent, rather than just being able to buy any book I wanted.
What I loved most about the software on the Palm was that there was no scrolling. Other software I’ve tried makes you scroll down pages and then turn pages too – drove me mad! It seems the Kindle is scroll free when reading books too, which is good.
I just can’t believe how big and ugly it is though.
Anonymous Coward
on 20 Nov 07The most surprising thing is the name… the connection I immediately made is that it sounds like they want to burn all the existing books.
tom s.
on 20 Nov 07It is obvious that most internet commenters have good eyesight. Any of the rapidly groing number of readers who needs large print knows that the selection of books available is terrible, and pigeonholed for a certain kind of audience.
I’m no fan of Amazon, but bring on the e-readers, kindling or otherwise.
Matt Radel
on 20 Nov 07Sooo…when is Defensive Design for the Web coming to the Kindle? :)
Kenn Wilson
on 20 Nov 07To echo what others have said here and elsewhere, the main problem is the price. $400 for the device plus $10 each for a limited selection of books? Paying for RSS feeds?
88,000 books is a lot but still a fraction of the titles available so it’s a replacement for some books, at best. The RSS selection is even more limited, assuming I want to pay to read them to begin with. I don’t need to try one to know it’s ridiculously expensive.
Will
on 20 Nov 07When new products are announced, people usually have a gut reaction to them. That gut reaction can be positive or negative. But since neither reaction is based on actually handling the widget and commenting from experience, then I think it would be hard to make the case that positive unqualified praise is any more meaningful or genuine than negative unqualified criticism.
Until the units come out, it’s all just punditry. But that doesn’t mean people aren’t entitled to their opinions, and it doesn’t mean that people aren’t allowed to have a negative initial reaction to something they haven’t personally tried yet.
Will all of the Kindle critics be eating their words in a year? Maybe, maybe not. But if the overwhelming majority of the initial reaction to something is so negative, then perhaps that negativity is based on a genuine lack of interest and acceptance from the market, rather than just a bunch of bored folks with access to blogs and tech columns who delight in belittling anything that comes their way.
Does the Kindle have intriguing strengths? Sure. Does it have fatal flaws? Arguably so. Time will tell.
Benjy
on 20 Nov 07Looking strictly at the hardware end of things, it seems like they could have done a much better job given products already on the market.
For $400, one gets: - 4.9” x 7.5” x 0.7” device that weighs 10.2oz. - 6-inch 800×600 greyscale display w/ physical keyboard below - 256MB memory built in
a $300 iPod touch, for comparison: - 4.3” x 2.4” x 0.31” device that weighs 4.2 oz. - 3.5-inch 480-by-320-pixel resolution color multi-touch display that allows for virtual keyboard on-screen - 8-16GB memory built in
How hard would it be for Apple to build a larger version of the iPod Touch, with a larger screen yet smaller overall form factor, and all the same features for about $400 that would blow away the Kindle? Doesn’t seem very hard to me…
Could that be the rumored mini-computer Apple’s going to unveil in January?
Colin
on 20 Nov 07Andrew: I have an iPhone, and I would definitely not want to read books off a screen that small (39.75 surface area vs. 10.8). Honestly, I don’t watch movies off my iPhone either!
Jamie: Kindle does offer experimental support for PDF conversion through the email-to-Kindle feature. They acknowledge that the conversion process is just not 100%, yet.
Andrew
on 20 Nov 07I’m glad someone with some readership is taking the wait and see approach. With the amount of negativity I’ve seen on Twitter, I’ve lost a good deal of respect for the blogging community. Talk about self-important bandwagoners! Tearing something down is easy. Giving an honest review is much more difficult (and only possible after getting hands-on time).
Daniel
on 20 Nov 07I’m excited about the possibilities of future versions. This is v1.0.
I do agree with some of what John Gruber has voiced, however – layout and type don’t get nice treatment here.
But again…it’s v1.0 and I’m sure it won’t be the last (unless it tanks really bad). Just like most electronics, I’ll skip v1.0, thank you very much. And it doesn’t really have to do with the many “main problems” that folks are listing.
But I’m certainly not ruling out future implementations.
David Stutler
on 20 Nov 07I received my Kindle this morning. After reading the accounts of yesterday’s press conference, I immediately bought one. After reading all the negative press following, I was worried that my rush to purchase was going to leave me disappointed. Not so.
This device exceeds my expectations. The connectivity is great, the integration with Amazon is great. I even emailed my copy of the 37 Signals “Getting Real” PDF to my Kindle and it worked great. Overall, holding it in my hand, using it, experiencing it for myself – I’m pleased.
John
on 20 Nov 07I’m not sure why you would need to “reserve judgment” on something like this. Either you like the idea of an electronic book reader…or you don’t. The details may make it a little better or worse, but the overall concept is the sell, isn’t it?
There are 100s of MP3 players out there…but they all play MP3s. The Kindle doesn’t seem to play much of anything at this point.
Tom G.
on 20 Nov 07I really can’t believe the mass market consumer hardware guys haven’t got this one right – yet.
Any student, or parent paying for the books can really appreciate the concept of one device that provides them all.
The day is coming when there really will be a viable electronic book that doesn’t run out of juice and I for one cannot wait.
As crazy as it may sound, I’ve read about a dozen novels in the last year on my phone. Mind you, its text only paper back novel stuff, but the Microsoft Reader technology on windows mobile works fine. My wife even likes it because my bedside lamp doesn’t keep her up. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.
Ben
on 20 Nov 07The DRM is the a bit of a killer for me. Conceptually, I like the “ePaper” idea. Seems cool. But the limitations are too great for me to fork over $400. I could, however, see it being very useful for people who travel a lot. If I spent hours and hours a week on a plane, I’d probably be more interested.
Regardless of the DRM/openness/format arguments, there is one part of the Kindle that I know I don’t like: the God-awful industrial design. Wow, that thing is ugly. I don’t have to hold one or live with one to see that. The thing just flat-out looks bad! I know some people can live with ugly if the functionality is there. Me: no way. It can be the most functionally awesome device ever, but if I can’t stand to look at it day in and day out, I ain’t gonna use the thing.
JF
on 20 Nov 07the God-awful industrial design. Wow, that thing is ugly. I don’t have to hold one or live with one to see that. The thing just flat-out looks bad!
Holding one in my hands now I can tell you that in general the design is much better in person than it is in photographs.
Richard
on 20 Nov 07For me, it’s not the DRM or even the looks, it’s the content. I’d be happy to read a newspaper on it, or a magazine, or if I were going back to college to have all of my textbooks on it, but I don’t want to buy and then read all the other books in my life on it.
I agree with Jason, I don’t need a trophy wall of books as a trophy wall, but I do like having books around to give my granddaughter. Of course, she may only want digital versions of them to run on her Kindle or iBook (a rekindled name for Apple’s eBook).
sloan
on 20 Nov 07So at first I thought, wow, that is ugly. Then I thought, $400 to be able to buy books at $9.99 or email other stuff to it; weird. Then I started trying to reflect upon the whole idea. I mean, I bought a 10GB iPod 1st generation model for that much, so why am I initially adverse to this?
1) I like sharing books, donating them, selling them, buying them used for less 2) there is a sentimental aspect to holding a book, putting it on a shelf, knowing where it is 3) while the DPI is nice on the Kindle, paper is waaaaaay better. I hate DRM and have rewarded Apple and Amazon with tons of business for their non-DRM tracks. I love it. I know I OWN the music until I can’t find MP3 players. I can back it up, trade it, whatever.
(Note: if this device could do text to speech or allow you to download BOTH the audio and text version of the book at the same time, THAT would be a game changer maybe).
I guess, in the end, I am just completely turned off by the look of it. It looks like it is from 1985, the large buttons on the sides are thoughtful, but clumsily executed. The row based UI with a little ugly scroll wheel works, but seems very limited to one axis of control. I think it is mainly the balance of the screen vs. the keyboard that makes it look clumsy. I would think the main use of this is to read the screen and hit previous and next, yet the physical dimensions of the device seem to be split evenly between the paging buttons and the screen.
JF
on 20 Nov 07I would think the main use of this is to read the screen and hit previous and next, yet the physical dimensions of the device seem to be split evenly between the paging buttons and the screen.
It’s not even. It’s about 70% screen / 30%.
Here’s the other thing. And this is one of those things that people miss until they actually hold one: The keyboard area is also a “handle.” Your hand has to grab on to something so the screen is unobscured by your fingers/palm. The keyboard just happens to also live on the handle, but if there wasn’t a keyboard there I think the handle would still be there.
The iPhone is small enough to fit inside your palm so it doesn’t need a handle—it can be mostly all screen. But the Kindle isn’t a palm-sized device so it needs to nestle into your grip. The extra size of the Kindle makes that possible.
That’s not at all to say it can’t be better or more creatively designed, but there’s function in the extra size and “empty” space.
Bud Caddell
on 20 Nov 07I’ll admit, I’m one of those premature haters—but I’m surprised to see the vehemence generated here.
It’s an interesting product launch when compared to the iPhone—where the commercials really showed off the product and what it could do well before it was in the hands of users. With the Kindle, Amazon allowed the public to largely publicize the device and it was thoroughly lambasted…. kinda an argument for control.
Colin
on 20 Nov 07Jason: So when does the Kindle version of Getting Real release!?
Jason Long
on 20 Nov 07I’m not sure what not having used one has to do with the primary knocks against it – that is, the DRM and the price. You don’t have to be a Stallman or a Doctorow to see that not being able to share your books will hugely limit Kindle sales.
The Sony Reader isn’t a great device and the Kindle is a step backwards IMO. I’m a big Amazon customer and a lifelong reader, but I’ll keep on waiting for someone to nail a fantastic e-book reader.
Please do give us a review after using it.
Tom G.
on 20 Nov 07I just went to Amazon to read the negative comments and also buy one (I couldn’t – they sold out).
Every negative comment I saw while skimming was from people who don’t have one.
I don’t care what it look like if it works well. The attractive design will come in good time.
I suspect the PDF compatibility thing is a classic case of something you think you want but realize you don’t after you have it. All the eBook reading software that I like needs to reformat the page to fit the device, e.g. line breaks, pagination, etc. If you try to display a PDF with fixed formatting you get into zooming and scrolling and… well it sucks – you don’t really want that.
The most amusing negative comment I saw was related to how poorly they suspected the implementation for playing music was. Uhmm, this is a book we’re talking about…
Thanks Jason, I’m looking forward to your opinion since you were able to get one. BTW, if you decide you don’t like it, I’ll buy yours from you to see for myself.
Tory
on 20 Nov 07I saw the announcement yesterday, watched the videos, and I think I’m in love.
This is exactly the kind of thing I’ve wanted for a long time. I love being able to quickly read through the WSJ before it hits the stands on my MacBook Pro, but reading on a laptop is a pretty big pain in the ass after a while. And as nice as it is to sit down with a copy of a newspaper and hold it in your hands, the novelty wears off after a while. Having a small, paper-back sized device that you can hold comfortably in your hands just sounds amazing.
Unfortunately, it’s not available in Canada.
Jason, if you talk to Jeff Bezos, please let him know that we desperately want this thing up here. It’s absolutely perfect, especially considering the outrageously high price we pay for most books. Getting information immediately and not getting ripped off by our major chains (namely Chapters), would be great.
Tom G.
on 20 Nov 07Haha. Just looked on eBay – No Kindles
You can however get the patented screen protector for $24
David Stutler
on 20 Nov 07I just finished reading my first book on the Kindle – one I purchased using the Kindle store. My thoughts:
The screen is amazing The right side scroll wheel is very useful and well designed The EVDO implementation is invisible to the user The delivery of content is perfect I subscribed to Time magazine yesterday shortly after placing my order for the device. Within a minute of turning the device on the first time (I didn’t have to set it up at all) my first issue of Time was waiting for me.
Downloads of books took less than 15 seconds.
All-in-all, a very nice experience.
jess
on 20 Nov 07I’ll admit I’m looking forward to trying the Kindle, and for that matter the Sony Reader, to check out their screen technology. But wouldn’t want to take it on the subway each day.
I’m using reading software for my much more aesthetically pleasing iPod Touch. My Safari/webkit site is http://www.textonphone.com, there’s a catalog of 20,000 books in 30+ languages and you can upload your own reading material.
a book is a book
on 20 Nov 07enough said …
Jamie
on 21 Nov 07@Colin
Yes, but emailing documents to the Kindle costs $0.10 a time.
Eric
on 21 Nov 07My issues is the fact that you pay $400 for a device and then have to pay again and again to load it up with content ( 10c/document at least ). If you could could just load open formats and sync RSS over USB without paying a fee this device would have a lot more functionality.
When, not if, amazon decides to fold this experiment the kindle will just become another expensive paperweight/novelty item like all the other proprietary devices before it.
Anonymous Coward
on 21 Nov 07If you could could just load open formats and sync RSS over USB without paying a fee this device would have a lot more functionality.
Sigh. Over and over and over again this has been explained. You CAN load it up with text files (via email for $0.10 each or free via USB) or open Mobi books you may have already had or tens of thousands of free books from the gutenberg project, etc.
Jake Walker
on 21 Nov 07The charge of “charging to read blogs” is odd, and one that Amazon should get out in front of (I don’t know if they are the ones saying “free EVDO,” but that’s not really true either).... The 99 cent or $1.99 charge for blogs is for, at least in part, the EVDO connection.
tamberg
on 21 Nov 07Ordered mine today to a friend in the US. As I live in Europe the EVDO supposedly won’t work. And buying eBooks seems to be blocked for non US residents. But reading PDF converted to DRM-free MOBI files using the free tools from http://www.mobipocket.com/dev hopefully will work. I bet 399$ it does.
Brian
on 21 Nov 07I think the Kindle has a lot of great features, especially the ability to purchase content OTA without any cellular contracts (the price of delivery is built into the price of the product). This is the future of content delivery in my opinion.
However, I have a HUGE investment in PDF formatted books (as in paid for ... not pirated) and I have to take that into consideration. With the $400 price point, this just doesn’t add up for me.
I don’t have to drive a car that only burns e85 to know it’s a great product, but with no stations selling ethanol locally, know it won’t be a good idea (right now).
Dr. Pete
on 21 Nov 07Likewise, I’ve stopped reading the movie reviews on Yahoo that are posted a week before the movie comes out.
I know people feel strongly about their books, and e-reader technology is still in its infancy, but from a technological and practical standpoint, it just makes sense. Chopping down thousands of trees so that we each can buy the latest must-read business book (for example) that will then sit on our shelves for decades, not to mention the infrastructure required to support that, is just plain silly. Hundreds of years from now, people will look back at us, scratch their heads, and say “what was wrong with those people?”
Information is just that, and digitizing it makes sense. Paper books and newspapers aren’t going to disappear tomorrow, but e-books are coming and that’s a good thing. Whether or not Amazon does this right the first time, having a big player jump in with both feet will drive the technology forward and the cost down, and personally, I’m all for that.
Ed Fladung
on 21 Nov 07I don’t know, I don’t think the big preoccupation is with how the thing looks, although i personally think it’s gonna give Apple’s white keyboards a run for their money for being a ‘mung’ magnet. No one would argue that it has great features (unlimited EVDO, saving trees), the real issue is with the draconian DRM and Terms of Service. The digerati have every right to be pissed off. It doesn’t matter how cool the device is. In fact, the cooler this device is, the bigger problem it’s going to create. That is why the digerati are so pissed. Imagine if Kindle actually took off? The problems it would create? It’d make that baseball drm story look like a walk in the park.
Mark Pilgrim’s article The Future of Reading (A Play in Six Acts) is spot on (i’m sure you’ve read it by now). I can’t help but think that Amazon has to change the current drm/terms of service set up. It’s just awful. Did Bezos really sign off on this? There’s just no way you can rationalize it.
With that said, i’ll most certainly choose not to support the framework behind Kindle, but i’d buy an open/hacked one to try out on long vacations. that’d be sweet.
freeman dirkus
on 21 Nov 07Sorry y’all Kindle really does suck. It doesn’t take a genius or an actual experience with that awkward white overpriced thing that resembles a heart monitor to know that an iPhone can provide a great reading experience while doing many, many other useful things--and featuring a design that looks good and feels good, instead of the bland, plain, non-ergonomic, Vac-u-form piece of sh*t that is the Kindle. I can’t believe such a large company as Amazon spent so much dough on this goddawful thing. I 20-year-old at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena could have done much better. Oh, by the way—why Kindle? Retarded, stupid name. Dying to see what kind of lameass ads they create with it.
Jackson
on 21 Nov 07I think a lot of the initial negative comments were/are influenced heavily by the design of the Kindle. Contrary to the iPhone, which received raving reviews…also by people who had never touched the device. This would be a perfect case study of how design influences opinions. Everyone sees a product before they use it. Unfortunately, for a lot of products, you cannot use them before you see them and have already made an initial judgment.
Charlie Triplett
on 21 Nov 07Successful people, especially entrepreneurs, read alot of books in a year just to get the ideas out of them; but that pile of books won’t become a reference library for you without a librarian.
But with this, they could be.
Think of it like your own little librarian, she’s just not very photogenic.
MT Heart
on 21 Nov 07“Hello, I’m a Kindle…. and I’m a book”
It’s coming….
Michael E. Rubin, Blog Council
on 21 Nov 07Comments about the Kindle aside, I’m also astounded at the level of negativity. I, too, believe that people are entitled to their opinions, but the venom and vitriol being spewed is just massive. Where is it coming from? Animosity toward Jeff Bezos? Jealousy? Fear of the unknown?
I do sometimes think people just love to kvetch just for the sake of kvetching. But this reached level that I haven’t really seen in quite some time.
Any other thoughts on the negativity?
Keith
on 21 Nov 07How many times is a group going to push e-books on people? I guess I’d have to hold one to tell, but the whole the aesthetic & tactile experience of reading is as big a component as the story. I know it sounds strange, but the idea of cozying up by the fireplace with my favorite e-reader and e-book is not as appealing as pulling that well loved dog eared book off the shelf for it’s annual read.
I can certainly understand the convenience aspect of this product, but ultimately it is a technology that gets in the way of me and a book.
Ron Kurti
on 21 Nov 07I had the pleasure of taking a SONY Reader with me to India & Nepal for 7 months. I LIVED with it in sunlight, nightlight, flashlight.. on busses, trains, on the beach… everywhere.
I had over 30 books in there. I was downloading text files and loading them in internet cafes.
Regardless of the fact that my pocket calculator is faster.. this is an extremely powerful product, and the future is looking very promising for readers.
Ryan Allen
on 21 Nov 07When Apple release their tablet mac all readers’ll be bunk I think… iPhone is nice but it’s not big enough. I already have 20+ books from sites selling PDF copies of books and as soon as there’s a computer that’s small enough, and yet big enough to comfortably read them on the bus or what not I won’t need a specific device to do so :) But either way, I’m looking forward to something that’ll allow me to carry 40+ kilograms of books on something that weighs less than half a kilogram.
Poopy
on 21 Nov 07Anyone know how easy it is to keep the Kindle clean? I do most of my reading on the toilet, so that’s why I like used books – I wouldn’t mind using the Kindle since it’ll be nice to have many options when I go to sit on the john, but it’d be cool to know durable it is and if it’s something I can easily wipe with disinfectant or cleaner to keep sanitary. Thanks.
Scott Meade
on 21 Nov 07Hence, the problem with having no stores. There is no where to try it. For books, records, and movies, where people are asked to make a minimal investment, that’s fine. For electronics and other big ticket items reviewed extensively and available to hold in your hands at other retailers, that’s fine. For a $400 proprietary piece of hardware – not the ideal way to sell. Amazon needs to get Kindle into Apple stores where people can get their hands on them, be wowed with the experience, see the print quality first hand, and then buy one – or at least go out and tell all of their friends that they tried one out. It’s one thing to read that Kindle disappears into the background, another to experience it.
Nic
on 21 Nov 07Does it come with free insurance so that I can read in the bath?
Jack
on 21 Nov 07I find the whole ebook concept appealing. I love the fact that I can carry around a stack of books and read whatever I want. I love the cheaper prices, and instant purchases. For traveling, it could be amazing.
In terms of cuddling up with my books on the couch, I might miss that but I don’t really make love to my books anyways. So that is loss may be overstated.
Where is Apple? Any offerings in the R&D lab?
Luis
on 21 Nov 07There was mention about the amount of trees used in making the paper books we love. Imagine how much of the earth’s resources is used making one of these Kindle units, let alone the cost to the earth for tossing it in the trash after we’re done with it.
And I can’t help but think you guys even brought this up because Jeff does have a connection to 37S. Hmmmm, interesting. Maybe it’s a little bit of ass-kissing, I don’t…just a hunch.
Sebhelyesfarku
on 21 Nov 07I like how dumbass Mactards compare it to the JesusPhone. This is an eBook, morons.
Scott Marshall
on 21 Nov 07I saw the Kindle on Amazon the other day having heard nothing about it before, and my gut reaction was: neat idea, too expensive for my liking, ugly industrial design, but nice rendering of type on the screen. It seems like a transitional device. I still love my first-generation iPod, but it feels like a brick compared to modern-day versions.
Having said all of that, I see no reason to buy a Kindle (even if I could here in Canada) when I already have a PSP.
Gayle Bird
on 21 Nov 07I was skeptical at first – I’m a book-lover – but after reviewing the site, I think the screen looks fantastic and I’d be willing to try it at a lower price (ie in a couple of years).
Mike Hickerson
on 21 Nov 07Jason, I’m looking for getting a Kindle or something like it, for many of the same reasons that you mention (i.e. paper’s not searchable).
But in academic or research-based fields, having a library is a requirement. “Read it and move on” works in a lot of industries, but not mine. So many valuable books are out of print or hard to access, that having a physical copy becomes the single most efficient way of accessing the information.
I’m looking forward to seeing where electronic book technology takes us, but I don’t think it’s there yet. I’ve been impressed so far by Google’s Book Search and their personal library option, but many of the books I use (I work in in theology, literature, and higher education) are from smaller publishers whose books aren’t indexed by Google at this point. None of the e-readers work with online search technology anyway, or with any of the great public domain libraries that are online. I am also still looking for annotation software that is as easy to use as writing notes in the margins and sticking post-its on key passages.
Dr. Pete
on 21 Nov 07@Luis: I don’t want to oversimplify the environmental side, and certainly an e-book has an impact, but look at it in the long-term. Imagine I have an e-book that I keep for 5-10 years, and I use it to read 50-100 books. It’s not just an issue of the paper required to make those 50-100 books, but the infrastructure.
The cut trees have to be shipped to the mill, the paper has to be shipped to the bindery, the books go to Amazon’s or its affiliates’ warehouses, and finally those books are put in a box (more paper) with a bunch of coupons (sorry, Amazon, but you get a bit crazy with that) and shipped to your home. None of that is necessary for transferring what is essentially information.
Now, I know some people are attached to the physical concept of books, and I’m not bashing that, nor will I be running around shouting “tree murderer” at anyone reading a paper book. I just think we’re looking at a natural, technological evolution, and in 50-100 years we’ll see far fewer paper books, newspapers and magazines.
sl
on 21 Nov 07How could amazon understand the value of DRM free music, and yet get such a perverse idea about how people want to consume books?
@Jason – you really must be blinded by your ties to bezos if you can’t appreciate why people have had such a negative reaction.
sl
on 21 Nov 07“When someone buys a book, they are also buying the right to resell that book, to loan it out, or to even give it away if they want. Everyone understands this.” – Jeff Besos 2002
from diveintomark.org
Anthony Baker
on 21 Nov 07I’ve been pining away for an ebook - a real ebook - ever since I read in Wired about the MIT students who originally developed electronic ink, sometime back in 1990-something.
When I first saw the Kindle hardware, I too scoffed (Sony’s seems to be leaner). That said, Jason’s hit the nail on the head. The big leap here is portability and being able to download a book without being connected to a computer.
If you look at the pieces of the ebook puzzle - which, when all rolled together equals a revolution - it seems to me we’ve got:
Wireless distribution of content Publisher and author support of content The form factor of the device itself Easy, intuitive access to the content for consumers Price (Ideally) the format of the content—open and able to distribute to other devicesWe’ve had attempts at hardware for a while now and, yes, Kindle does seem clunky. But Amazon’s big leap here is the wireless distribution, easy access and price. That hasn’t existed before.
Someone will likely come along and make a better device (I’m waiting for one that looks like an actual book, with pages that can reset themselves based on new data downloaded and that I can write notes on and have them off-loaded).
Here’s hoping that Amazon’s efforts are successful, or at least successful enough to be a wedge and bring others on to improve on what they’ve done.
Hell, look to Apple and iTunes as evidence that a company providing a wedge - a real disruptive technology - can break things open and create a whole new market. People scoffed at it in the beginning, and here we are now. Additionally, look only to the sale of TV shows online as an example of this. When Apple started this, very few content companies were participating on their own. Nowadays, online television everywhere.
Dempsey
on 21 Nov 07I’m not surprised and the extreme negativity. This is all on the Internet after all. What did surprise me is how little is mentioned about the E-Ink technology. That’s the game-changer and this is only the second device/company to offer it. A screen that is not a lightsource! I would guess that the number of people who are comfortable reading a 400+ page book looking straight into a lightsource is a profound minority.
The other small thing I’d like to point out is that people who make a living off of using computer hardware shouldn’t really be deriding the environmental impacts of another technology, namely ink-on-paper. Especially considering it has proven it’s ability to retain data in a perfect state for 500 years. We’ll have to wait and see how the ones and zeros do. ;-)
Chris Padfield
on 21 Nov 07I love the idea, and the DRM dosen’t worry me that much. What does is:
US only, the main use for me would be to take travelling when I don’t want lots of books; If I can’t download books anywhere in the world, it’s useless. Cost of books. No digital copy of a novel (without all the cost associated in making the physical copy) should cost $9.99. The device is somewhat ugly. Battery life, while good, probably istn’t good enough. I go places where you don’t have power for a week – and that is exactly when you read lots of books.Anonymous Coward
on 21 Nov 07“When someone buys a book, they are also buying the right to resell that book, to loan it out, or to even give it away if they want. Everyone understands this.” – Jeff Besos 2002
Keyword: BOOK. Not eBook.
Dave!
on 21 Nov 07Disclosure: I love books. I’m one of those dorks who lugs around boxes upon boxes of books. I can’t throw out a book, even a bad one.
That said, I’d use an electronic reader. Not just for books, but for documents. I’m a law student, someday, a lawyer (bar willing!). I read a ton. Cases, articles, papers. You name it. And virtually all of them are PDFs.
For you, the DRM might be a minor inconvenience you are willing to accept for a trade-off. But for someone like me, who reads a whole lot of PDFs, it’s not. It’s not worth the extra hassle and time to convert them. I think Amazon made a big mistake not supporting open formats like PDFs. It’s the one reason I will not buy one, and I know I’m not alone.
Michael Puhala
on 21 Nov 07Kudos to 37 Signals for a ‘fair and balanced’ anticipation for what is surely to be an important device for 2007. Love it or hate it, it’s getting people to honestly look at the book in digital form and create awareness that was not present last week.
See my Kindle post at http://blogs.puhala.com
Adam Martin
on 21 Nov 07We seem to have gotten caught in a spiral, a desperate need to digitalize every aspect of our lives, person to person communication sure, music consumption sure, visual entertainment (video/games etc) sure, but books? Like a magazine, we consume it’s contents in a unique way, we browse and unlike the digital world where our attention span is short, we unconsciously give printed matter more time. Are newspapers defunct? No, far from it, sure their business is shaky, ad revenue is moving online, but their aesthetic quality and content remain engaging. A book is not a CD, it’s an artefact that isn’t so disposable.
You can talk trees and Prius’ until the sky turns red, but books can be recycled and are, pulped and re-used or better given the slew of chick-lit and thriller lite, turned into toilet paper which goes down the same shoot the Kindle should go.
And is it me of is it like something IBM conjured in about 1985?
Benjy
on 21 Nov 07I don’t think the negative comments are really meant to say the Kindle, but that given the price and features it seems to be obsolete the moment it hits the market. I’d like to have seen comments if it had been released exactly a year ago—before we had wind of the true power of the iPhone/iPod Touch. Those products raised the bar dramatically, and the Kindle can’t compete. We set expectations compared to what we do know, and it seems as if we should expect a ton more for the money.
Anonymous Coward
on 21 Nov 07I was really a skeptic about this tool until JF wrote something that hit home. “They’re stacks of dead trees.” This is a real problem for us in the world. If a simple device can alleviate a fraction of trees we consume, it would have a huge environmental impact.
Another note – Although Sony and other did similar products. Amazon has it’s brand pushing the product. Sony is lost its vigor a long time ago, they try but still suck.
Leo Klein
on 21 Nov 07Please stop talking about the demise of the traditional book! To do so in the same breath as the Kindle gives this contraption way more credibility than it’s due.
The defenders of this device say we shouldn’t rush to judgment while at the same time they make such extraordinary comparisons.
It’s marketing. That’s all.
Anonymous Coward
on 21 Nov 07Leo, the original post didn’t talk about the demise of the traditional book. That was not suggested at all. In fact, just the opposite was suggested. Books are great at what they are great at and the Kindle is great at what it is great at. Different things.
Leo Klein
on 21 Nov 07Okay, maybe not in the original post but…
I’m seeing the association time and time again. It was in the Newsweek article by Steve Levy titled “Future of Reading”. I’ve seen it here in comments.
The moment we hear that, it’s time to call ‘foul’.
Tom G.
on 21 Nov 07OK – I have to comment on the dead tree thing.
While I understand the value of recycling – we are currently doing an environmental impact calculator for a paper company – using paper is not always a bad thing.
According to a guy I spoke with from Georgia Pacific (not our client), a lot of the wood they use comes from fast growing trees farmed especially to make paper. Much of the bulk of wood is carbon. Growing trees to absorb carbon dioxide and then locking it into paper books is arguably a good thing.
I just am sick of carrying all that weight around.
Nate Cavanaugh
on 21 Nov 07Man, no wonder why America seems to be behind the times with technology. Heck, no wonder why the world is so behind.
Whenever a truly good, truly cool idea comes out, people come out of the woodwork bashing all the little things that truly don’t matter, and never offer anything of real worth themselves.
Remember guys, it’s really easy to be the rock. It’s really hard to be the window.
I’ll try to quickly go through the objections I’ve seen so far:
1. The medium: If the medium of books matters at all to you, you don’t love knowledge, you love books. Prepare to become a dinosaur.
2. DRM: Again, there already is DRM with books. It’s called physics. You are severely limited by time and space on what you can do with your book, and if you lose a purchased book, you have to buy a new one. Get over the DRM. The conveniences far outweigh any and all DRM issues.
Lastly, let me just address this, no one is taking away existing books, so why crap on a product that only offers more options?
Man, you’d think someone was raping children the way some of these people are reacting.
NO ONE IS FORCING YOU TO BUY A KINDLE.
However, I can see a day soon when these supposed technophiles will become the cranky old farts who refuse to buy a DVD player, use a computer, or ever change their habits.
And when the day comes, the rest of us who CAN adapt will keep enjoying our lives, while you continue to crap on any hope of progress.
The Kindle, as I see it, will completely change the world. Students won’t need to carry 15 pounds of books to class, school costs will go down, easier access to knowledge will exponentially increase. Also, blog authors can now have a way to make money from a truly great blog that doesn’t rely on ad revenue.
Yes, Apple (or enter company here) could do “so much better”, and there are a lot of improvements to be had, but this is the best so far, and this means that e-readers will finally be taken seriously, which only has pluses for those of us who truly love reading, no matter the medium.
Evgeny
on 21 Nov 07I imagine the Kindle to be more like Cap Pickard sitting in his room, reading from that tablet he is holding in his hand.
Matt Russell
on 21 Nov 07The Amazon reviews tell a story in themselves: all the 4 and 5-star reviews I saw were people who owned one. 90% of the 1-star reviews didn’t.
I’m concerned about the DRM, but it’s probably worth the trade off. I’m concerned about the price, but I think I’ll make it up in money saved on hard copy subscriptions and hard backs within a year.
Kevin Milden
on 22 Nov 07Books, CDs, DVDs, paper mail, bills, receipts, checks, newspapers, credit cards, telephone books, software and game boxes — will all become a thing of the past.
Smile it’s a good thing.
dusoft
on 22 Nov 07You are right, we don’t have to buy Kindle.
You can buy: http://www.bookeen.com which is DRM free.
Heelo
on 22 Nov 07I think there’s a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding about the Kindle:
(1) It doesn’t support PDF. The $0.10 fee for converting documents that I own is a rip-off.
does support PDFs. They just have to be converted.The $0.10 fee is not the price for converting your documents, it’s the fee for having those converted documents transmitted to your Kindle. You can have your converted documents sent to your email address as an attachment for free, and load them onto your Kindle via USB.
(2) Regular books are better.
they are. They're cheaper in used condition and at low volume. They never run out of batteries. But they're worse, too. They're big and bulky, they rip and tear, their production, transportation and storage put strain on the environment, and if you lose/damage them they cannot be replaced by any means other than buying a replacement.(3) DRM is evil.
is a tool, like a gun. A gun used for evil can be a tool of oppression and suffering. A gun used for good can be a tool of liberation and empowerment.Face it, DRM is unavoidable if you want publishers to get on board. It’s part of the deal, and it’s a small price to pay for the convenience and environmental advantages of ebooks.
(4) It’s ugly.
was borderline outraged by the design when I saw the first photos. I think it's because I imagined it to be the size of a tablet PC, for some reason. But when you watch the videos and see how small it is, the design makes more sense and seems more reasonable. I do wish they'd done it in a color scheme other than grey and white, though. I mean, I understand that Jeff Bezos wants it to be the iPod for books, but jeez...(5) It’s stupid because it doesn’t have a touchscreen or play video or surf the web well.
a ebook, not a UMPC or MID. An ebook's main feature is its display legibility and its battery life. The current state of the art necessitates that compromises be made in terms of refresh rate and display functionality.The Kindle has taken the ebook usage model one step further by adding instant blanket connectivity. I think this confuses people into thinking that it should be an iPhone. It could be an iPhone. It would just have to sacrifice legibility, battery life, and free connectivity. You know, everything that makes it a killer ebook.
(6) The $2 blog fee is a rip-off.
and no.Yes, $2 doesn’t seem like a very good deal for a sub-standard version of content that you get on your computer for free.
That said, the bulk of the $2 fee goes to cover the bandwidth necessary to push new entries to your Kindle wirelessly over Sprint’s 3G network.
It’s not that they’re not trying to rip you off with that fee. Time magazine, for example, is only $1.50 per month. That price structure is out of whack until you consider that they only need to beam Time to your Kindle once a week compared to twenty times per day for BoingBoing.
It’s not a scam. It’s just more expensive than it’s worth.
Samuel Cotterall
on 22 Nov 07I can’t quite decide where I stand on this.
One one hand I’m a big fan of eBooks, and the world needs to start using these readers rather than cutting down trees.
However, my concerns are that the price is too high, I’m not going to pay $2/m to read a blog and I could get the arguably better looking and technically comparable Sony Reader for $100 less.
I’ll be looking forward to the 37Signals review.
Steve
on 22 Nov 07“You can’t search paper.”
The OP seems like a casual reader, at best. Anyone who does even a smattering of academic research would find his “read it and move on” position quite puzzling.
I’m all for eBooks, if someone gets it right (jury is out on Kindle), but frankly someone who doesn’t appreciate the look, feel and yes, smell, of a beautiful book has a cold, black heart.
GeeIWonder
on 22 Nov 07This was a mistake. 37signals has no business promoting or reviewing Kindle, even with the disclaimer.
It doesn’t matter what the truth is: If you review it favorably, you look like shills and lose all credibility as an independent/hip/cool entity with the ability to look at designs etc. impartially.
If you review it unfavorably, one of your major investors looks like a fool. A fool that’s invested in you. Yeah, umm…
James
on 22 Nov 07@GeeIWonder
All this would do is show that 37Signals can have an adult relationship with an investor. I for one expect an impartial review covering good and bad points, and I admire them for building a level of trust with their readers that would allow them to post a respected review on Jeff’s product.
If you don’t trust them to post an impartial review, don’t read the review ;)
GeeIWonder
on 22 Nov 07James,
Yes the middle ground is the secret 3rd preferred option, but even so it’s very difficult to review yourself or your friends impartially.
It’s not a matter of trust, it’s a matter of perception. I know companies like to get the synergy going, but is it worth risking 37signals perceived credibility for a review? What’s the reason to just not review it, or link to others reviews of it?
Marc
on 23 Nov 07Jeez… I never thought I’d see 37s endorse DRM and bad interface design, let alone in a single product designed by someone who has invested in 37s.
How Microsoft-onian of you.
Miki Mann
on 23 Nov 07Wow, if this was 37signals from 2 years ago, they would have completely ridiculed the design. A little funding goes a long way. Disappointedly.
Undergrad Joe
on 23 Nov 07Where is my highlighter. I have to print off this blog and make some notes in the margins.
It’s called active learning. Something I couldn’t do with an ebook today.
Anonymous Coward
on 23 Nov 07The name sounds like something …erm… that 37 signals would have come up with, …did you?
Anonymous Coward
on 23 Nov 07I never thought I’d see 37s endorse DRM and bad interface design
37signals didn’t endorse anything. In fact they said they’d withhold judgement until they actually used one. Read the post, don’t make up your own.
Take your grudges elsewhere.
August
on 23 Nov 07I’m surprised nobody mentioned that Amazon didn’t bother to get approval from many of the blogs whose content it’s selling, and that it didn’t feel the need to pay many of those bloggers as well.
I also find it interesting that many people here don’t see the fact that books are designed objects (not the just the page, but the whole thing) as contributing to the reading experience; somehow it’s all just “information”, as though the majority of people read books to be better in their field rather than because they simply want to read books.
I can see this being an excellent product if that’s how you feel about reading, that it’s just another medium for the quick consumption of transient information that you can use to get ahead. If this were cheaper (and available in Canada) I could see myself using a product like this for things like newspapers and reference volumes. But I think that if you view reading books as an experience that enriches your deep self (your “soul”, if you can get past the religious implications of that term) then it should be easy to understand why this product fails to live up. Every encounter with a book is, and should be, unique. Some should even be difficult; this takes away much of what is emotionally fulfilling about reading, I think. But if all you care about is “the information” in a book, there’s probably a huge section of your local bookstore you’re missing out on anyway, so losing the individuality of the reading experience probably won’t bother you so much.
RJ
on 23 Nov 07Why wouldn’t I want to send email from my books? Why wouldn’t I want a keyboard on my book reader?
Why wouldn’t I love a device covered in buttons, especially in this post-touchscreen, post-iPhone world?
http://38thsignal.blogspot.com/2007/11/kindle-bursts-into-flames.html
I don’t care how useful you think your features are – user experience is king when it comes to user acceptance, and this thing simply doesn’t look fun to use. Regardless of how useful it might be, if it doesn’t look fun, people won’t buy it.
People would still by iPhone if the phone service stopped working altogether – it’s that much fun to play with. This could be the best e-book reader on the planet and no one will want it because it looks like a left-over from 1995.
Marc
on 23 Nov 07Does look a little ugly from the photographs. Shame they didn’t add the ‘apple’ touch and make it look amazing.
Evan DiBiase
on 23 Nov 07August, do you have a source for your claim that “Amazon didn’t bother to get approval from many of the blogs whose content it’s selling, and that it didn’t feel the need to pay many of those bloggers as well”?
Everything I’ve read about the blog integration indicates that bloggers can get a cut, if they so desire; as Engadget reported, “Blogs that are aggregated by the Kindle get a revenue share with Amazon, since it costs money to get those publications.”
B
on 23 Nov 07Regardless of how useful it might be, if it doesn’t look fun, people won’t buy it.
Yup, which is why it sold out on the first day and has already sold out the second batch of inventory.
August
on 23 Nov 07Ed Champion has posted about it twice, with quotations and circumstances from specific bloggers who were not contacted or compensated:
http://www.edrants.com/?p=7129
http://www.edrants.com/?p=7123
James
on 23 Nov 07@GeeIWonder
If an organisation is too concerned with perception, how is that organisation ever going to be motivated to try anything risky or innovative? Even if some people do perceive 37Signals as biased on this, do you really think they should keep quiet because of that? Should DHH avoid commenting on PHP because he’s involved with the Rails project and so people might perceive him as biased?
Greg
on 23 Nov 07I think what everyone who prescribes to the “just download all books to my blackberry, PDA, or Iphone” are missing a key point. As the boomers age, their eyesight falters, and reading for extended periods on a tiny mobile device is a problem. Soon after you hit 40 you’ll understand. The decline is rapid.
Although the Kindle may not be sexy or techie enough for the Gen X’rs for this will be proven as a convenient, familiar and comfortable device for the boomer mix. It crosses a chasm between new tech and a old familiar friend. Perfect for the not so tech saavy boomer generation. This could end up and ideal Mothers day gift.
I think Bezo’s hit his target audience bang on, people with money who don’t mind paying for services rendered, convenience, are environmentally concious, love to read, and have declining eyesight.
This will be huge hit in the 35-85 demographic and maybe the business can survive on that alone.
Personally I’d like to get the latest bestseller which only comes out in Hardcover at $20 + dollars for a mere $9.99. I don’t have to waste gas on the drive to the bookstore, or go to the curb to pick up the newspaper and then recycle it later that week.
For people who are not mobile, shut in’s, at retirement homes, this may work as well. What’s stopping two people from sharing the book on different shifts. Last time I checked this didn’t have fingerprint or Iris recognition technology built in so sharing is possible.
I’m in that demographic and my eyes have seriously declined in the last 6 months, I love to read, I travel the world on business and spend countless hours in airports and on airplanes and don’t want to lug around books every where I go. This works for me.
If you are concerned about the decline of hard copy books in the “Fareinheit 451” doomsday scenario I think that will never happen. People will always cherish the books that shaped their lives and find a way to share and protect them.
GeeIWonder
on 23 Nov 07James
You’re right about the risk and business. And I apologize for my poor grammar/thought train in my previous post.
But risk can be measured against reward. Doing risky things just for the sake of it is no way to stay in business.
To my eyes, it just shows a remarkable lack of foresight, or a foresight way beyond what my mind can compute. Either way, I’d like to know.
What do they gain by writing a review of their own product (yeah, I know it’s not their own, but they are a few degrees away)? I’m not sure. Especially when you consider they could just say hey look what Amazon came up with—and what people are saying and oh by the way we can’t pretend to be impartial on this. Instead, they’re risking though is their reputation (credibility, ability to assess design well, etc) and arguably their largest competitive advantage.
GeeIWonder
on 23 Nov 07Ah ok, I’ve got it!
37signals rips into Kindle and says they should rethink the design. With the aid of the first (beta, really—but who would buy beta hardware) users and their useability complaints, 37s and Amazon redo the design to make it all very more iThingy-ish. Then they release Kindle 2.0:
reKindle.
Genius!
Evan DiBiase
on 25 Nov 07August, thanks for the links. It does sound like something strange is going on with those particular blogs—. In general, though, it sounds like Amazon does require blogger consent to publish a feed through Kindle, as Alder Yarrow wrote in a comment on one of the links you posted:
jen_chan, writer MemberSpeed.com
on 25 Nov 07Actually, I’m one of those people who love building physical libraries. I can’t just read a book and move on. Aside from the desire to read my books over and over again, I suppose it also has something to do with vanity and pride. I love looking at my shelves. :)
Lynn
on 26 Nov 07I am not a tekkie, I don’t know what DRM means that so many are upset about. What I am is in my mid-50’s, and a reader. I bought over $3000 worth of books from Amazon last year. Most were for personal entertainment. Those I read & then threw away. I go through 5 or 6 books a week. I have to order them from Amazon, wait for them to be delivered, carry up to 10lbs worth with me when I go away for the weekend, then leave them in the motel room, airport, or seat pocket of the plane. I figure the kindle will pay for itself in a few months, and will take a lot of weight off my aching back having to carry so many books around. With the kindle, I won’t have to carry 3 books just to go see my Dr., because if I finish 1 while in the waiting room, then don’t like the 2nd one, I can have another choice. I can’t wait to get mine. I can’t read books on my computer or PDA, or phone, because looking at a screen too long gives me headache. The kindle seems perfect for middle age plus avid reader like me, who just like to read for the fun of it.
Me
on 26 Nov 07Using personas here? :)
Anonymous Coward
on 26 Nov 07Whether or not the current implementation is good (I have no idea since I don’t have one and probably won’t get one) the possibilities for future iterations are amazing. How much power could this bring to the developing world to have a portable library that doesn’t require a computer? Or text-to-speech and voice search to be usable by those who are illiterate but could use the device not only to gain knowledge from the content but to learn how to read?
This discussion is closed.