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Originally Posted by Cthulhu
Death to the papyrus eaters of the West!
Long live the Mighty Electro-Phoretic Priests and their gifts from the Gods!
All right, now that everyone knows where I stand (would rather burn most of my books for warmth than pack and move them again), I have to sat that I agree that the Kindle could be more disruptive.
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I could live with packing and moving the books. The 1,500 or so vinyl LP records are another matter.
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Amazon is all ready seen as a paradigm shaker, and they have little to no bad press WRT hardware or customer service (to words: Root Kit) to overcome.
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<chuckle>
I don't think folks are worried about a root kit on the PRS-505. (But there's that old devil DRM raising it's ugly head again...)
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Someone more tech savvy: could a mini-USB dongle be added to a Reader 500/505? Do not see such a need for a keyboard, but wifi would be nice, especially for travelers.
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The question isn't whether you can attach a keyboard, but what you would do with it if you did.
Having a keyboard implies something running that you can type into. I'm not sure that exists for the Sony Reader. (Someone with a Reader will corret me if I'm mistaken.)
Someone else here had a pointer to a build for the iRex iLiad of Beaver, a lightweight Linux based text editor. If you have something like that, a keyboard becomes a useful item.
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As dumb as the Kindle looks, I can see it being more comforting to people--the Reader is nearly too slick, too miminalist for some people to not be intimidated. The big buttons, chunky profile, and keyboard have a 'down-home' feel to them.
I can see the Kindle winning, if this is a competition, though I don't know that I'd be happy about it.
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If the Kindle wins (and there are early indications it may be doing so), it will be because of Amazon's marketing prowess. Amazon already has the distribution infrastructure in palce to provide content, and the last I knew had something like four times as much content for the Kindle as the Sony Connect store had for the Reader. I believe that Amazon's store is easier to deal with, too, but since I don't have either device, I have no direct experience in using them. Current Kindle and Sony Reader owners can chime in on this.
Apple has demonstrated with their product line that design sells. I agree the Kindle could
look better, but I don't see questionable product design as being a serious factor at this stage. The market is still nascent. The question on the Kindle isn't how good it looks, but rather how easy it is to use. If you get one for your non-technical (or perhaps
negative-technical) parents, can they download and read their newspaper, or get content from Amazon's store without calling you for assistance?
If they can, it's a winner. If not, it loses, regardless of how stylish the package is.
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Dennis