Interesting review of the Kindle 3

[OakIris]

This review of the Kindle 3 on ArsTechnica is pretty good. It touches on some of the things that have been discussed here on MobileRead, too, such as the "feel and smell" of paper books as opposed to eBooks. I thought I would post a link here should others be interested:

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/revie...instream.ars/1

Holly

[desertblues]

Thanks for the link.
I quite liked the reviewer putting the Kindle in historical perspective.

Just a few thoughts about the review:
As always, I'm a bit surprised when reading on an ereader is compared to reading a paper book. I mean: when a mp3-player is reviewed, there is no talk about the 'real experience' in the concerthall or rockstage.

As for the use of highlights in an academic setting; there still is the problem of the locations, which I strongly feel are not suited at all.

He is right though about the prices. I know I saved up for my first iLiad, 2nd-hand for 399 euro (new 699). I think the prices will even get lower; certainly hope so for the Kindle-DX.

But the iLiad was not so prehistoric as he makes it to be. I loved it; could read PDF, get papers, browse (well: experimental..) and what more on it. Travelled all over the world with it.

When the reviewer says:
[ It's not all good news. The Kindle interface still feels like something that escaped from 1985 and time-traveled into the future. Text-based interface with no mouse or touchscreen? Black-and-white screen? Small delays between issuing commands and seeing their results? Check, check, and check—and if you try to do much with the Kindle beyond straight, front-to-back reading, these limitations will feel... limiting.
The Kindle (and similar reading-centric devices) promises the virtues of an electronic gadget with the distraction-lite environment of the book.]

I agree that Amazon can do a bit better on the above.
I don't need all kind of things on the Kindle as a fast browser, games etc, but I would like it to be a bit more intuïtive. Amazon really should make the effort to easily make collections on different levels, and to be able to browse quickly through all the books.

[Kitsapian]

As pretty much a straight front-to-back reader, complex navigation shortcomings are not much of an issue for me; besides I use the notesaving capability extensively for the things for which I would otherwise search backwards. The smell aspect of the review is interesting. I wonder whether Gutenberg had any complaints? His use of paper and oil-based inks would doubtless have had an odor different from that of the parchments emerging from the scriptoria. Probably people complained about the switch to the codex format from the good old reliable scroll.

Personally, I think that the ebook will do to paper publishers what Gutenberg did to the monks.
(Possible cause of scandals in the church--idle hands?)

[cjottawa]

Originally Posted by OakIris

This review of the Kindle 3 on ArsTechnica is pretty good. It touches on some of the things that have been discussed here on MobileRead, too, such as the "feel and smell" of paper books as opposed to eBooks. I thought I would post a link here should others be interested:

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/revie...instream.ars/1

Holly

Thanks for sharing Holly. I enjoyed the article.

I was especially interested in the "Magic Catalog" link from Project Gutenberg; while I frequent their site, I hadn't seen that particular feature.

[desertblues]

Originally Posted by cjottawa

Thanks for sharing Holly. I enjoyed the article.

I was especially interested in the "Magic Catalog" link from Project Gutenberg; while I frequent their site, I hadn't seen that particular feature.

Here you are (also on Sticky):
http://www.freekindlebooks.org/Magic...iccatalog.html

[rgeorg]

I am new to the Kindle and first saw the Magic Catalog explained in this article - it is amazing to use! I enjoy classic fiction and this is so easy...

[OakIris]

Originally Posted by desertblues

As always, I'm a bit surprised when reading on an ereader is compared to reading a paper book. I mean: when a mp3-player is reviewed, there is no talk about the 'real experience' in the concerthall or rockstage.

Sometimes there are comparisons between the "real" (read "better") experience of listening to an album on a turntable or with a good CD player as opposed to the digitalized "lacking" format as played on an MP3 player, but I understand what you mean. (By the way, I must confess that although I do have at least 3 versions of the iPod Nano, I also listen to music via my good CD players and my very good (IMHO) turntable/tube amp system. Each form of music reproduction has it's place, and though I might prefer music from my turntable system, I thank the goddess for the portability of MP3s. )

I haven't checked into the Magic Catalog as yet, but I do have it bookmarked. Good to see that the Ars Technica article brought this to the attention of some of the folks here - including myself.

Holly

[pinopao]

Originally Posted by OakIris

Sometimes there are comparisons between the "real" (read "better") experience of listening to an album on a turntable or with a good CD player as opposed to the digitalized "lacking" format as played on an MP3 player, but I understand what you mean. (By the way, I must confess that although I do have at least 3 versions of the iPod Nano, I also listen to music via my good CD players and my very good (IMHO) turntable/tube amp system. Each form of music reproduction has it's place, and though I might prefer music from my turntable system, I thank the goddess for the portability of MP3s. )

I haven't checked into the Magic Catalog as yet, but I do have it bookmarked. Good to see that the Ars Technica article brought this to the attention of some of the folks here - including myself.

Holly

and myself too

as for the difference of listening to music via a "real experience"... I miss the good old days when I had to go to La Scala in Milano to listen to very good symphonic music... then the black, round 78 rpm came out and all the magic was lost

Sorry, being a little bit silly... just tried to put things in perspective, sort of...

[pboss]

Thanks for the link. It seemed more like a rambling than a review though. Just another random thing to add... You don't need to use the zoom box to properly view web pages in the browser. You can use the font size adjustment interface.