Originally posted by: foghorn67
Originally posted by: Kaido
Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
I'm not liking this either.
No backlight? Battery should last pretty long then... but it doesn't

No backlight? Can't read in the dark then. Need a separate light.
No color? Come on....
$10 a book? This is the #1 reason I won't be buying it. There are no printing costs, no distribution costs, no store shelf costs. It is almost pure profit for these book companies to sell e-books and yet it's more expensive. I sure as hell won't be buying anything at this price, not to mention they're opening up e-book pirating on themselves with this pricing. And how would you resell your finished books? When I buy a book I want to be sure I can sell it again to recoup some costs.
10 cents an email is really stupid. It's frickin' email. In this day and age it's more common to use you email than your actual home address or even phone number.
I think your reaction is going to be the typical consumer reaction - "why should I buy this over a regular book?" However this is a start...Amazon is the largest online book retailer so they have a lot of power behind them...it can only get better from here!
Since you made yourself the official spokesperson for this crap, I would like to see an answer to fbb's questions since he asked exactly what I was going to.
Sure:
1. No backlight: I think this is dumb. If you're going to improve on an existing technology, I think it should have improvements - why no built in light? There's not even a book light on top. This is dumb.
2. Battery life: 30 hours with Wifi on, a Week with Wifi off. Even it was only a day period, I have no problem plugging it in. I plug my phone in at night, how hard is it to plug an E-book in?
3. Color: Novels aren't in color, why should E-books be? This is a BOOK replacement, i.e. Black & White. Again that begs the question though, why not improve upon an existing technology? From what I understand, E-Ink is just barely coming out with color technology and from what I've seen it doesn't look all that great. In time there will be color, but not for awhile.
4. Price: I agree. Since you're not paying for paper, ink, and distribution costs, the books should be a lower price - at least 50%. I think that this would be a major incentive to buy an E-Book reader. Why would I buy an actual book for $10 when I can buy the electronic version for half the cost, $5? That's a very strong arguement. The question right now is, why would I buy an actual book for $10 when I can buy the same electronic book for $10? Weak arguement. Although a lot of older titles are less than $10, it doesn't make much sense for you to pay the same amount for people who don't care about (1) consolidating their library electronically or (2) getting a book whenever, wherever, to switch over to the electronic version.
As far as the design goes, I think it's horrifically ugly. But it's an ebook, so who cares - I don't need it to look pretty. In person in looks much better, but still...(1) it's ugly, (2) it's white - it's going to get dirty. I think that Amazon should release two versions for the next edition: (1) a better-looking Kindle 2.0 and (2) a Color Kindle in Legal size for reading textbooks, magazines, children's books, etc.
Also foghorn67, I'm not defending it or naysaying it either way. I just think it's cool and I'm sharing it with Anandtech. No need to get touchy about it
