Quote:
Originally Posted by Gideon
Meh....
Also.... what's the deal with people complaining about the price so much. I mean, yeah, I don't like it - but it's in keeping with the tech prices right now. It's not excessive or anything. How much is the big Iliad, again...?
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The Irex Illiad, the only existing e-Ink device near in size to that DX, is $860 without wireless (which is not an option).
Also, it has very slow response time for the stylus input, takes 40 seconds to boot up even in the 2nd edition, and has nightmarish customer support.
Here's a review on it:
http://www.alexonlinux.com/irex-tech...re-than-a-year
Also, on my blog I've an entry re David Pogue's online review of the amazing Novatel MiFi as well as a reminder that he once found the Kindle 2's pricing unfathomable (in his review of it) but that review no longer says that and explains just how expensive 24/7 cellular wireless is.
The MiFi is something that most of us may want for our netbooks or laptops but even then the minimal pricing is $40/month.
There have been many stories about AT&T's programs to offer netbooks by Acer and other companies for $100 with 2 year wireless contracts for $50 to $60/mo.
So, paying $489 one time for the DX, with its quite large screen ($130 more than for the K2) is not that unreasonable. The iPhone Basic service with web data is $60/mo. These are costs that go on and on. The new iPhone is $200 but with the monthly access cost of $70 now WITHOUT text messaging ($5 more) brings it to over $1,000 in the first year-- and the costs continue.
I say all this as someone who's pretty happy with the smaller size K2 and am not planning to get a DX.
As for webbing on the Kindle, there are plenty of mobile versions of sites now and the options of Basic, Advanced, and Advanced with Javascript, and Disabling or Enabling images can get you decent experiences when on the street and needing data.
Even at home in another room, I was reading a Wired RSS feed and following their links. In Advanced mode, the words are tiny so you get the full screen. Not needed. I switched to Basic and paid attention to the reality that the left column contents will show up first and need to be page-turned to get to the article body but it doesn't take that much time and the words are in normal size and the font is not shaded but black. Wire's photographs are in really good resolution and show up very nicely on the Kindle, though you can disable images if you're in a hurry.
On the street the other day, we needed to find an Italian restaurant for a special occasion, as the one we were at would not open for another half hour. I went to m.yelp.com and got a list of the ones nearby, summaries, and user-reviews. And found a great restaurant we'd ignored all these years.
24/7 wireless for no monthly charges has to be factored in as a huge feature when complaining about $360 for "an e-reader" or $489 for one that has a considerably larger screen and keeps the wireless feature.
- Andrys
http://kindleworld.blogspot.com