When will the press get it right?

[spideog]

Originally Posted by exreader

you know they didn't

now, the question is, who did... and who made the first commercial product? there's a good trivia question for the classroom better yet, the first hard-drive based product.


ex

Good question.

Could be any number of companies which have probably all since gone to the wall. Doubt it would be Sony though as they were probably still pushing their magnetic tape based music devices at the time. I did get through at least a couple of mp3 players well before any fruit based players came to market.

Did the hard drive player not come before the flash based one though, flash would have been an excessively expensive storage medium to get more than a couple of tracks on?

[Penforhire]

I would have said the Rio myself. But I would be wrong -- http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6450_7-5622055-1.html

Of course if we're just talking portable music then what about all those cassette tape Walkmans?

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by Penforhire

I would have said the Rio myself. But I would be wrong -- http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6450_7-5622055-1.html

Of course if we're just talking portable music then what about all those cassette tape Walkmans?

Note about the Sony Walkman: one of the things it had to overcome was the paradigm that a tape player could not succeed, it had to have a record function to succeed. The Walkman proved this wrong.

I could be wrong, but I think the Sony Cassette Walkman was the first successful personal portable audio player (meaning a player that you could carry on your person and listen via stereo headphones). That led to the development of other players, leading to the current generation of audio players. In terms of capacity, we've gone from players that can hold 2 hours of music, to players that can hold more than a month of music.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I think the word "led" means came before.

But, if it means and explosion of "sales" then you are correct. But, it sounds to me that they said...

Kindle LED to "new" readers like the nook and Sony Reader. That's the way I read it.

BOb

That's because that's how it reads. You are not misreading it at all.

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by Penforhire

I would have said the Rio myself. But I would be wrong -- http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6450_7-5622055-1.html

Of course if we're just talking portable music then what about all those cassette tape Walkmans?

I think the Diamond Rio was the first one to gain popularity (at least here in the US) even though it wasn't the first on the market. I had one of the Rios. It had a whopping 64MB of storage. It was over $200 as I recall. Besides, according to Wikipedia, the Eiger MPMan was first but they both got released here in the US in 1998 within months of each other. The MPMan was out in South Korea slightly before. Still, we're talking about a matter of a couple months between the releases. That is practically simultaneous. Sony was years ahead of Amazon with reading devices, along with other companies, before e-ink hit the mass market and with e-ink they were still out with the PRS-500 a couple years before the Kindle. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to call the Rio the first DAP. The Kindle is just too far away from being the first reader.

[kjk]

Originally Posted by Alisa

I think the Diamond Rio was the first one to gain popularity (at least here in the US) even though it wasn't the first on the market. I had one of the Rios. It had a whopping 64MB of storage. It was over $200 as I recall. Besides, according to Wikipedia, the Eiger MPMan was first but they both got released here in the US in 1998 within months of each other. The MPMan was out in South Korea slightly before. Still, we're talking about a matter of a couple months between the releases. That is practically simultaneous. Sony was years ahead of Amazon with reading devices, along with other companies, before e-ink hit the mass market and with e-ink they were still out with the PRS-500 a couple years before the Kindle. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to call the Rio the first DAP. The Kindle is just too far away from being the first reader.

I still have my Rio!

[spideog]

Re: Walkmans

The BBC gave a 13 year old one instead of an iPod to see what kids today made of them:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8117619.stm

[Penforhire]

That link was great. Maxell high bias tapes FTW!

But if kids think the first Walkman was too large you should try the first Motorola cellular phone (a.k.a. "brick" phone) on them. But it was the height of cool back in the day.

[exreader]

Originally Posted by Penforhire

I would have said the Rio myself. But I would be wrong -- http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6450_7-5622055-1.html

Of course if we're just talking portable music then what about all those cassette tape Walkmans?

well, i was trivia'ing on the first HD unit... which is the Hango, invented by Compaq (nee Digital Equipment Corporation)... I have the original flyer for it somewhere... about $850 swapped HDs too :>

yay Google


ex

[SensualPoet]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

"The success of the Amazon Kindle has legitimized the concept of an electronic book-reading gadget

I really think there is a little too much parsing going on; lighten up.

The message here is: "Amazon Kindle has legitimized the concept" and that is absolutely true. And, I believe, the writer's point. A e-reader is only as good as the available content and Amazon's entry, as a proven business model for delivering content, legitimized the concept. Sony is not now, and never will be, known for being a major content supplier. The Sony E-reader Store is a necessary corporate blip to sell devices; they have no interest in content.

If Amazon is wildly successful selling Kindles, it will promote its brand and business as a content provider (with a nice halo into other mail-order items like selling lawn chairs).

If Sony is wildly successful selling Daily Editions, what next? It's a CE manufacturer ... the only thing it knows about, or cares about, is selling devices. Buying content producers (like Columbia Pictures) is a side-line and a corporate distraction. It doesn't sell its own video games for the PS3; it's hardly going to start negotiating contracts with Stephen King; and it doesn't really want to warehouse (even electronically) a pile of books. At some point, if the Sony e-Reader device becomes part of the long-term CE strategy, the Sony e-book store will be spun off.

But five years from now, if single-purpose e-readers are still popular, Amazon will still be here driving more Kindle sales with more e-books with more Kindle sales with more e-books (etc). That IS their core business -- selling blades for the shaver.

[Enkidu of Abydos]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I was reading an article on PC Week's website about the Kindle development quote and right at the beginning of the article we find:

"The success of the Amazon Kindle has legitimized the concept of an electronic book-reading gadget and led to an explosion of competing devices like the Barnes and Noble Nook, and the Sony Reader."

I'm sorry, but the Sony Reader came out will before the Kindle. After reading a sentence like this I have to question anything else said in the article.

Does anyone fact check this stuff any more?

As far as I can remember, the Sony Reader PRS-500 was the first widely available and mass-popular (relatively) e-reader after the experimentation with the Sony Librie (or whatever it's name was, I think that was the first e-paper based e-reader) in Japan (I guess they sold it in Japan only because the Japanese are the quickest in adapting to and embracing new technologies) and therefore the one who "opened up" the market and "proved" the concept (that you could make a device solely for reading and profit).
The Kindle might be more popular today (I don't know the sales numbers for the two series) but the market would still exist if it had never been released.
The PRS-500 is what got me interested, and while I was considering buying the PRS-505 was released, which I bought and have today.
The Kindle is similar to the iPhone in the fact they both owe their stellar popularity (within their own markets) to aggresive and all-pervasive marketing, not technological capabilities. The difference is that the iPhone at least looks nice, while the Kindle is uglier then the hunchback of Notre Dame (IMHO).

P.S.
I've been an occasional visitor to this forum for almost two years, since I got my e-reader, not yet having any serious problems or questions about my reader, but now I had to stand up and say my piece. Journalist stupidity sometimes really irkes me.

[Enkidu of Abydos]

Originally Posted by jaxx6166

The problem is that the kindle is now becoming synonymous with the digital reader. Ugh. Therefore, everything must come after the kindle!

Like when any new smartphone is released they say : "Could this be the iPhone-killer ?" and there were already a host of devices technologically superior to it (they even compare devices not at all similar to the iPhone).
Ugh !

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by Tom2112

It is much like saying the the iPhone led to an explosion of smart phones. It did.

Well yes.

But anyway, if they'd said "In America", they might be right. I still see far more Sony's than Kindle's over here, and for good reason (its traction's been...poor).

[Enkidu of Abydos]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

The message here is: "Amazon Kindle has legitimized the concept" and that is absolutely true. And, I believe, the writer's point. A e-reader is only as good as the available content and Amazon's entry, as a proven business model for delivering content, legitimized the concept. Sony is not now, and never will be, known for being a major content supplier. The Sony E-reader Store is a necessary corporate blip to sell devices; they have no interest in content.

I find that some people but especially Americans have strange ideas when it comes to the issue of copying digital information.
Let me spell it out for you - the ONLY reason I bought my e-reader was to read books for FREE, as ALL books can be found for FREE on the Internet. I had used my computer for reading books before that but that hurt my eyes and my back much more.
The same goes for the only other person I personally know that owns an e-reader, and the several other people that I know that read books and have considered buying an e-reader.
For me and for all of them buying a digital file is pointless as you pay almost as much as for a paper book and are left with nothing (but the file on the reader) after you read, where as if you buy a book you have a physical object to put on your shelf and enjoy having as part of your collection.
I know another advantage of an e-reader is portability, but I don't travel anywhere for more then a week and don't have enough free time on any trip to read more then a single book, so that doesn't matter. The same goes for these other people.
I do sometimes buy books, but in paper edition, and only the ones I like the most, the ones I consider worth having.
My point and the response to your post is - for me and a lot of other people the "available content" of Amazon and Sony's store is completely IRRELEVANT as we want the devices, not the files.

P.S.
Please let's not get into an ethical debate about copying files without giving money to the original author, let's just say there are many people (like the Swedish Pirate Party for example ) who think it's alright (that it's enough to pay for the electricity because it's the only thing being spent) and many other who think it's evil, anti-social, communist and sinfull (not to mention illegal, but that's not a matter of opinion but of location).

P.P.S.
Oh and the mistaken statement wasn't about the book selling service, it was about the device.

P.P.P.S.
Oh and for you people who actually pay for digital files - the Sony Reader (and most other e-readers, as far as I know) can open non-DRM files like .txt and .rtf, so wouldn't it be possible to buy a book from Amazon's store and then convert it or rip it (as far as I know ripping what you own is legal in the US ?) or copy the contents into a .rtf file and then read it on the Sony Reader ?
I know it's a little bother for the average idiot user, but I edit any book I read anway, to adjust the margins and such things to my personal tastes.
Again, please don't be angry at me because of political/ideological issues...

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by Enkidu of Abydos

(as far as I know ripping what you own is legal in the US ?)

If it's DRM'ed? No, not under the DMCA. (And it's criminal offence, not a civil one as downloading from the darknet would be)

"no person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title."