The Amazon Kindle

[FerraraZ]

Lets talk about this product from Amazon. First off, I'm reading a lot of praise from the device and to be honest I'm happy that Amazon is finding success and trying to change their market. I mean after 6 or so years the company is finally profitting and thats good to hear.

As for the device I personally would love to grab one. I'm not a reader, but I read alot online and I know that a device like this for one reason or another would make me read because I have the freedom of selecting what I want.

One downfall I see is that I'm spending almost 400 bucks for the device and I still have to buy books?? I mean the news is free but hell my macbook air can give me that at the same weight and alittle bit bigger size.

What are your thoughts about the device and the idea that e-books could become the new way of reading?

 

[frostedflakes]

I'll definitely be waiting until they get a lot cheaper before buying, and probably going with a different brand (the Kindle has too many restrictions, I'd rather download from my home PC and import to the reader; the convenience of wireless downloads isn't worth the extra cost to me). And eBook readers will be awesome in the future for students. I literally can't lug around all my textbooks, they just won't fit in my backpack. Fitting them all on an electronic reader would be much more ideal. Could mean much cheaper textbooks as well.

 

[bassoprofundo]

I use a Sony Reader and love it. The ability to read online info and purchase directly from the device wasn't really a requirement for me, although it'd a nice value add if Sony could pull it off, too. I have quite a sizeable unread library on my pc already and can't see getting through them all as-is. Call me shallow, too, but the biggest thing (besides the price) keeping me from even considering the Kindle is that it's just ugly. I normally have no problem brandishing tech gadgets in public, but IMHO, the Kindle just reeks of the 1980s, when anything tech was beige/white. Plus, it's painfully obvious to all around that you're sporting a Kindle. Like the Ipod Earbuds, it just screams "Beat me up and take my valuable gadgets." The dark blue color of the Sony is much more attractive and understated to me.

 

[FerraraZ]

I think they made the kindle look the way it looks is to keep with the conservative image. I mean their market is defiantly the older crowd since that is the crowd that on average still reads hard back books.

 

[Kaido]

My advice would be to wait until Revision 2 comes out. I had a Kindle and it was super-cool, but the ergonomic design is terrible. As as far as your "I still have to buy books?" comment, you still have to buy music for your iPod...it's no different with the Kindle. Content is king, whether it's music, books, ink, or gas. The $400 you're paying is really for the lifetime cellular connection inside the device. I think that's why the cost of e-books is still only $1 or $2 cheaper than most books...they have to make their money somewhere to pay for that lifetime connection.

Overall the Kindle is a great concept marred only by first-gen design problems. Hopefully they'll listen to owners and fix the ergonomic issues in the next release. Other than that, I can't really complain

 

[Naeeldar]

Originally posted by: Kaido
My advice would be to wait until Revision 2 comes out. I had a Kindle and it was super-cool, but the ergonomic design is terrible. As as far as your "I still have to buy books?" comment, you still have to buy music for your iPod...it's no different with the Kindle. Content is king, whether it's music, books, ink, or gas. The $400 you're paying is really for the lifetime cellular connection inside the device. I think that's why the cost of e-books is still only $1 or $2 cheaper than most books...they have to make their money somewhere to pay for that lifetime connection.

Overall the Kindle is a great concept marred only by first-gen design problems. Hopefully they'll listen to owners and fix the ergonomic issues in the next release. Other than that, I can't really complain

I picked up a bookset in hardcore on my kindle recently for 5 bucks. Would of cost 20 in stores.

Since I always buy new releases in hard back for series I'm reading this is going to save me a lot of money in the long run.