MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - The "Kindle" iPod of reading

Bob Russell · 11-18-2007, 09:48 AM

Hmm. Lot's of potential ways they could stub their toe with the Kindle. They are trying to do a lot with it. And especially after seeing the pictures, I don't have a lot of confidence that it will have the comfortable feel of using a Sony Reader, and $399 is a lot to spend on something that might not work well. The first "real" reviews from tech sites will be very interesting.

Here are the features (beyond the basics) that sound really exciting to me:
# Over 88'000 e-book titles will be available on launch
# NYTimes bestsellers priced at $9.99
# First chapter of almost any e-book for free

Yay! First chapter free! Why didn't Sony Connect do this? All it does is increase sales and get people more familiar with the purchase process. And what could it possibly cost them, other than sales of books to a consumer that even want it after they see it? That can't be good at all, except for really bad authors.

TadW has a great point about the format. If they lock the MobiPocket format delivered over WhisperNet or WiFi to the Kindle only, that's a sad thing. Not as terrible if they can also read DRM'd mobipocket from other sources, but not great. I'd like to see how well it handles formats like txt, RTF, PDF, HTML (and ePub) also.

I have to ask... given the sort of things that the device does, is e-ink the best choice for display? I might have liked it with a nice backlighted LCD display, decent battery life, and zippy response.

Btw, my favorite quote from the article... "the e-book reader is coming of age".

But bottom line is always how it works when it is in your hands, so I'll certainly give it a chance in the meantime.

11-18-2007, 09:48 AM	#15
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	Hmm. Lot's of potential ways they could stub their toe with the Kindle. They are trying to do a lot with it. And especially after seeing the pictures, I don't have a lot of confidence that it will have the comfortable feel of using a Sony Reader, and $399 is a lot to spend on something that might not work well. The first "real" reviews from tech sites will be very interesting. Here are the features (beyond the basics) that sound really exciting to me: # Over 88'000 e-book titles will be available on launch # NYTimes bestsellers priced at $9.99 # First chapter of almost any e-book for free Yay! First chapter free! Why didn't Sony Connect do this? All it does is increase sales and get people more familiar with the purchase process. And what could it possibly cost them, other than sales of books to a consumer that even want it after they see it? That can't be good at all, except for really bad authors. TadW has a great point about the format. If they lock the MobiPocket format delivered over WhisperNet or WiFi to the Kindle only, that's a sad thing. Not as terrible if they can also read DRM'd mobipocket from other sources, but not great. I'd like to see how well it handles formats like txt, RTF, PDF, HTML (and ePub) also. I have to ask... given the sort of things that the device does, is e-ink the best choice for display? I might have liked it with a nice backlighted LCD display, decent battery life, and zippy response. Btw, my favorite quote from the article... "the e-book reader is coming of age". But bottom line is always how it works when it is in your hands, so I'll certainly give it a chance in the meantime.