Comments on: Amazon Kindle

By: Erin Hoffman

Erin Hoffman — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 20:35:08 +0000

I’ve had a fascination with these reading devices not out of any dislike for regular books — I agree that they have an immortal aesthetic ultimately — but because of how appallingly wasteful the whole publishing industry is in terms of natural resources. The shipping of the books, the destruction of the unpurchased books (stripping), the shipping back of hardbacks — all of it. It seriously gives me the heebie jeebies. So I’ve been interested in the Sony Reader for some time, and, comparing the two, I do think that the Kindle is a substantial improvement over the former, though interestingly the first generation Sony Reader looked a LOT like the Kindle, in terms of clunkiness and size with the keyboard (which is what most people seem to be complaining about). The addition of free Sprint wifi takes this onto an entirely new level. I do think that they’re ahead of the curve in terms of the totalitarian way that cell providers currently nickel and dime you on data connection (and don’t get me started on SMS), which is significant.

I don’t know. I feel like I should stop buying paper books (with the possible exception of small press collector editions) and be an early adopter of one of these systems. $399 is a kick in the pants, but it is the price of new technology and represents enough of a step forward that I was very tempted with the Sony Reader — and within a year of release that device came down to $140 with a $100 download credit on Sony Classics. I would predict something similar happening with the Kindle within a year or two, which is the only thing holding me back right now. That, and for the same price you can buy two OLPC laptops, one for an African kid and one for someone in the States.

By: Ian Chai

Ian Chai — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 02:42:21 +0000

P.S. This text file reader was last year’s project. This year’s project is to enhance it to be able to deal with PDF files directly without having to first extract the text — and also to be able to display the pictures.

By: Ian Chai

Ian Chai — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 02:41:32 +0000

Does DocReader run on standard Java MIDP phones? Being from a third-world country, it’s incredibly important to me that I don’t have to pay for more hardware to read the magazine I already shelled out hard-earned low-exchange-rate Malaysian Ringgit converted to US$ for!

That’s why I worked with a student to make this free Java midlet program that will run on any standard modern cell phone.

By: Blue Tyson

Blue Tyson — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 13:25:23 +0000

Ian, if you download the .pdb as well and use DocReader might come out more nicely than your standard pdf text extract?

By: Ian Chai

Ian Chai — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 02:28:13 +0000

For what it’s worth, I read most of my SF lately by extracting the text from Analog PDF files I buy from Fictionwise and use this program to put them on my cell phone: http://foe.mmu.edu.my/software/ebook/ebook_reader_v2

By: Blue Tyson

Blue Tyson — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:58:17 +0000

On ubiquity – the Sprint things looks like another example of a US only product.

By: Blue Tyson

Blue Tyson — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:28:54 +0000

Speaking of design, from what I have read by some publishers of ebooks only, they do still have covers – well, artwork to look at that functions the same way, so still an important factor.

Is it $10 for mass market paperback type books, or for the annoyingly overpriced trade paperback type publications, speaking of expensive?

Baen does $4-$6 for the former, more expensive when newer I think, so you are right on the $3.99 thing I think.