why so emotional about the kindle?

[Alisa]

I'd love a deep brown (very bookish) or dark gray, maybe with more of a brushed finish. A lot of us bookish types love a bit of retro feel. This is just the wrong retro.

[JSWolf]

My guess is azw format is mobi with the Kindle's PID embedded into it. And the Kindle doesn't allow us to get the PID from the device. If that is true, then it makes sense why Amazon bought Mobipocket. They could be using the Mobi format in disguise or the Mobi format with a few tweaks to it.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by da_jane

RWood - I live in the romance genre world and they keep books. Lots of them. And re-read them. The cover article for the PW for December is about romances and the first quote is from a bookseller of romances that says her readers keep their books.

I have hundreds of ebooks and I don't want to be tied to one device. Bezos knows that is what consumers want for music and I argue that it is no different from booklovers.

Plus, I bought Adobe books from Amazon years ago and that content was deleted when it decided to no longer support the digital movement. If the Kindle fails, will users suffer the same loss?

The best way to support a failed device in that case would be to allow users to download the content via their computer to store it locally. Then update the firmware to support Mobipocket DRM. Then even if it doesn't work, you can still use it as a an ebook reader to read current content and be able to keep the content you've already paid for.

[afiggatt]

Originally Posted by Alisa

What's amazing me is the hate on the Amazon reviews. Almost 200 reviews now and hardly any of them have actually used the product. There are tons of one star reviews that don't even seem to grasp the point. So many of them are the typical Engadget "what do you mean it doesn't even have color?" variety.

To be fair, there have been many negative comments on-line about the Sony Reader because it lacks color, does not have a backlight, or the screen flashes when changing pages. I think most of the negative comments come from people who have never seen the EInk display or if they have, only looked at it briefly and think it should be like an LCD display. A lot of people, including many reviewers for magazines or websites, have not yet grasped the concept of a reader which is dedicated to reading, lasts for days on a single charge, and is not a PDA or tablet PC.

OTOH, a good chunk of the negative Amazon reviews are people piling on because of the high profile launch.

[Alexander Turcic]

Originally Posted by dugbug

There was a mild displeasure aimed at the Sony because of DRM (and a little about the mac platform absense), but this is way off the meter.

A moderator writes an article stating it may be the worst thing to happen to the ebook nation, Europeans are upset gen 1 cannot be used there (that would upset me too), people are screaming DRM, etc.

-d

I think Sony faced the same "critical observance" before the first Reader devices were actually shipped (heck, their PR department even launched a Q&A with us to calm down the situation). I wouldn't take it too serious... everyone has his or her own opinion about where we are at with e-books today, and only time will tell (and the first lucky MobileReaders to receive the Kindle these days) if the Kindle is a success story or not.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

My guess is azw format is mobi with the Kindle's PID embedded into it. And the Kindle doesn't allow us to get the PID from the device. If that is true, then it makes sense why Amazon bought Mobipocket. They could be using the Mobi format in disguise or the Mobi format with a few tweaks to it.

That's my bet too. If that is the case, and there's a way to get at the Kindle's PID, that would allow Kindle owners to purchase books from other Mobi stores.

[xristy]

I am an iLiad user and travel quite a bit and live much of the year in Nepal and the rest of the time in the US. I purchased an iLiad because it is relatively open, has support for PDF as well as mobi and has WiFi and tablet interface for note taking - taking notes in a book or journal article is a common thing for users of print technology to do. The size, resolution and clarity of display were also major considerations as is the fact that I can put a CF card holding 8GB of papers and books on it.

From the specs that have been published the Kindle doesn't approach any of these features and will apparently be pretty much in line with the current Sony offering technically and provide a massive DRM lock-in - this is my real gripe. Not only is the device and delivery technology of no use to me outside the US but the proprietary "it's mine; all mine" attitude of the DRM strategy and exclusionary practices by the 600 pound gorilla of book distribution means that ebooks will wither and die as a creative force and turn into lowest common denominator money making for Bezos.

Rather than taking an attitude of "how can our company offer a quality product and service that returns a profit" it would seem that the attitude is more like "how can we ensure that we make the most money possible while appearing to offer a service to the hapless consumer."

Most of the world isn't connected sufficiently to make EVDO work effectively and what is needed is a way to get libraries of books to people around the planet not just satisfy some Ameri-centric view of life.

The 90K or so books in the Amazon Kindle catalog should be of benefit to people beyond the borders of the US and on any device that a user may have.

So my gripes are many and I think based in actual experience with eBooks and usage scenarios that are thwarted - not just not supported - by Amazon's Kindle adventure.

I'd like to know why it is that people on this forum see the Kindle as interesting.

[edsohsmith]

A reason that people are so passionate about the Kindle offering is because of the bookstore not the device. Upon entering the ebook arena, Amazon immediately becomes the largest ebook seller in the world. If you do not own a Sony Reader, then the Sonny connect bookstore is irrelevant. This is not true of the Amazon bookstore. This is what makes Amazon's decision to ignore epub standards and to go with another proprietary DRM format tied to a single device so disappointing. Not unexpected, but disapointing.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by xristy

Most of the world isn't connected sufficiently to make EVDO work effectively

No, most of the world uses the internationally standard GSM technology for its phone networks, not the proprietory CDMA technology of EVDO. Many developing nations are jumping fixed-line networks altogether and going straight to GSM for their phone systems. Much of the "third world" has pretty good GSM coverage.

I'd like to know why it is that people on this forum see the Kindle as interesting.

It is undoubtedly interesting. Something can be interesting without being desirable.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by edsohsmith

Upon entering the ebook arena, Amazon immediately becomes the largest ebook seller in the world.

Er, Amazon were already the largest ebook seller in the world, due to their ownership of MobiPocket.

[slayda]

Originally Posted by xristy

Rather than taking an attitude of "how can our company offer a quality product and service that returns a profit" it would seem that the attitude is more like "how can we ensure that we make the most money possible while appearing to offer a service to the hapless consumer."

Very on point!

Originally Posted by xristy

I'd like to know why it is that people on this forum see the Kindle as interesting.

Because it's the new ebook reader on the block.

[xristy]

Originally Posted by Harry T

No, most of the world uses the internationally standard GSM technology for its phone networks, not the proprietory CDMA technology of EVDO. Many developing nations are jumping fixed-line networks altogether and going straight to GSM for their phone systems. Much of the "third world" has pretty good GSM coverage.

I was focusing on EVDO since there's another thread where somebody listed a bunch of places like Rwanda that have some sort of EVDO service. My point was that most such places have limited connectivity to the internet of the developed world. Here in Nepal I am submitting via EDGE service which is pretty decent at about 128Kbps but costs around $0.08US/MB which starts getting expensive if you visit many modern websites and is outrageous if you want to download an audiobook or an OS update (Mac OS X 10.5.1 is 110MB = $8US to update the OS).

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by xristy

Here in Nepal I am submitting via EDGE service which is pretty decent at about 128Kbps but costs around $0.08US/MB which starts getting expensive if you visit many modern websites and is outrageous if you want to download an audiobook or an OS update (Mac OS X 10.5.1 is 110MB = $8US to update the OS).

But that's a perfect example of what I was saying. There are relatively few places in the world more remote than Nepal, and yet you have EDGE - ie GSM technology. At 8c/MB that would be 3 or 4c for the typical eBook, which is peanuts by anyone's standards.

[edsohsmith]

Er, Amazon were already the largest ebook seller in the world, due to their ownership of MobiPocket.

Then now Amazon owns the two largest ebookstores in the world, each with their own incompatible DRM. Terrible.

[zartemis]

Well I really got a bum deal from Amazon. I ordered well before Noon with overnight shipping while it was still in stock. I watched as hours later it went out of stock on the site and delivery was pushed back to Nov 21 and then Nov 28. All the while my order was listed with an expected delivery of Nov 20th (today). Wake up today and it has not shipped and has a revised delivery of Nov 30th.

I may cancel. I don't like being treated unfairly -- ordering early and then being delivered way after everyone else just doesn't make any sense.