No magic in the Kindle: Three reasons

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

Three reasons why the Kindle isn't magic - according to Cherise Fong of CNN:

1. Wireless only works with Sprint, Sprint only works in the US, so non-US folks likely to be very unhappy;
2. The world isn't grey: or, how lack of color limits my reading choices;
3. Oh e-book, where art though? - "Amazon may boast the largest proprietary e-library with 126,994 Kindle books listed on its Web site, but one of the outstanding complaints from e-readers who have purchased any dedicated device is not finding the e-books they want."

Article: Are we spell-bound by e-books?

I haven't used the wireless aspect of my Kindle all that often, and I still love the thing .... so I'm supposed to be unhappy why exactly??

Sorry that text limits her reading options. I know there are a lot of people out there who simply must have the big color pictures in order to be entertained by a book. I guess I'm just fond of actually reading books.

And, if the publishers would just get their butts off their comfy chairs and down to work, there might be a LOT of books that would be available for all the different e-readers.

Sorry .... but whoever wrote the article sounds a bit dense to me.

[Alisa]

Small screens, black and white, have to be in range to get signal, few media choices. You could say that about the first TVs which had to compete with cinema yet people still found them useful and the technology kept improving.

[GyGeek]

Well, if you look at her issues with the thing as keeping the Kindle out of mainstream, she is correct. These reading devices will be almost as prevalent as cell phones when they build in the versatility. A reader with a bigger screen, 801.11 wifi, accessibility to standard word processing formats and html, and of course a lower price is certainly doable, but proprietary concerns are stifling things right now.

The way I see it, the Kindle is still for earlier adopters, and those of us that were reading books on phones and PDAs years ago are the true progressives when it comes to the printed word.

[Nate the great]

This story is just begging to be satirized.


1. Lightbulbs only work with electricity, and you don't find electricity everywhere.

2. Lightbulbs don't last long enough, and they're not very sturdy. Why, one time I dropped a lightbulb and it broke.

3. They're feature limited. All they do is emit light.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

This story is just begging to be satirized.


1. Lightbulbs only work with electricity, and you don't find electricity everywhere.

2. Lightbulbs don't last long enough, and they're not very sturdy. Why, one time I dropped a lightbulb and it broke.

3. They're feature limited. All they do is emit light.

he's right about that, it's absolutely scandalous. lightbulbs are not sturdy at all. but i hear they're working on new flexi-lightbulbs, so you'll *also* be able to play football with them (which will help with issues number 1 and 3 as well).

[JSWolf]

To be honest, there's no magic in any of the readers currently available. But then we didn't purchase them for the magic. We purchased them to be able to portably read eBooks. They do that so they do what they were purchased for. Just because they don't do many different things like a lot of today's cell phones is not an issue. In fact, my cell phone does a lot less then most cell phones. I want a device that does the primary function well. My 505 does eBooks well. My cell phone does phone calls well. My Rio Karma does audio on the go well. So I'm happy. yes I have three different devices. But They all do well what I need better then some all-in-one device. Oh yes, almost forget my portable GPS. That doesn't require spending more per-month like it would to use on a cell phone.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by GyGeek

Well, if you look at her issues with the thing as keeping the Kindle out of mainstream, she is correct. These reading devices will be almost as prevalent as cell phones when they build in the versatility. A reader with a bigger screen, 801.11 wifi, accessibility to standard word processing formats and html, and of course a lower price is certainly doable, but proprietary concerns are stifling things right now.

The way I see it, the Kindle is still for earlier adopters, and those of us that were reading books on phones and PDAs years ago are the true progressives when it comes to the printed word.

You say you want wifi, accessibility to standard word processing formats and html? Bigger screeen? Go to Best Buy and get an Asus eee pc.....7"screen, you can download all the books you want....its called a laptop. The kindle is first and foremost a bookreader. With the ability to download books directly from Amazon, or mnybooks.net, and now, I understand, fictionwise. An easy on the eyes screen. If it were any bigger, it would be bulky to carry around. I'm sure by Christmas the price will be considerably lower.
Perhaps they should leave the reviewing of such devices to those that actually use them on a regular basis.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

he's right about that, it's absolutely scandalous. lightbulbs are not sturdy at all. but i hear they're working on new flexi-lightbulbs, so you'll *also* be able to play football with them (which will help with issues number 1 and 3 as well).

Oh ... my ..... yes. I want to wait and get a lightbulb after they make one that I can just shake to make it change states. So much easier than those switch thingies.

I stand by my opinion that the author of the article is a dim

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Oh ... my ..... yes. I want to wait and get a lightbulb after they make one that I can just shake to make it change states. So much easier than those switch thingies.

I stand by my opinion that the author of the article is a dim

I think the only problem with satirizing through a lightbulb analogy is that e-ink readers are *STILL* not commodity-priced. Even the *expensive* CFL bulbs are cheap, by comparison.

Derek

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by delphidb96

I think the only problem with satirizing through a lightbulb analogy is that e-ink readers are *STILL* not commodity-priced. Even the *expensive* CFL bulbs are cheap, by comparison.

Derek

Your point would be better if price were one of the three reasons she thinks it will fail. I don't see it there, but then perhaps I missed something. After all, I'm the one who recently read "clog" as "dog."

[Daithi]

I think there is some magic.

I now carry around literally hundreds of books, a virtual library, in the palm of my hand. Most of these books are literary classics that I have heard about but never actually read. Just from an enlightenment/educational standpoint my Kindle has been magical. Plus, the vast majority of these books didn't cost me a cent (more books should be public domain).

The electronic-ink screen is also magical. It is very easy on the eyes and I can read for hours with no problems.

I have also found the wireless capabilities magical. I don't have to do anything in order to connect to amazon, and with 1-click have a new book on my Kindle in just seconds. Once again, I have a library of over 130,000 books in the palm of my hand. That is just freaking incredible -- and if that ain't magical I don't know what is.

I do think the article does have a point in regards to content. There are some VERY popular books, and series of books, that are not yet available on the Kindle. What really ticks me off is that the number of books not available is probably fairly small. I estimate that there are less than 10,000 books that are very popular but that are not available on the Kindle. It is really beyond me why Amazon has not aggressively addressed making these books available. I understand that there is not a lot Amazon can do when an author like Rowling or Clancy balks , but there really is no excuse for the Dune series, many Stephen King books, or for heaven's sake Dashiell Hammett and Mickey Spilane not being available. I'd also love to see Amazon sell groups of books for a discounted price (i.e. all of Asimov's sci-fi books, the top 100 sci-fi books of all time, the top 100 westerns, etc.). Of course they would need to have the top 100 [insert genre] of all-time available first.

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by Daithi

I think there is some magic.

I now carry around literally hundreds of books, a virtual library, in the palm of my hand. Most of these books are literary classics that I have heard about but never actually read. Just from an enlightenment/educational standpoint my Kindle has been magical. Plus, the vast majority of these books didn't cost me a cent (more books should be public domain).

The electronic-ink screen is also magical. It is very easy on the eyes and I can read for hours with no problems.

I have also found the wireless capabilities magical. I don't have to do anything in order to connect to amazon, and with 1-click have a new book on my Kindle in just seconds. Once again, I have a library of over 130,000 books in the palm of my hand. That is just freaking incredible -- and if that ain't magical I don't know what is.

I do think the article does have a point in regards to content. There are some VERY popular books, and series of books, that are not yet available on the Kindle. What really ticks me off is that the number of books not available is probably fairly small. I estimate that there are less than 10,000 books that are very popular but that are not available on the Kindle. It is really beyond me why Amazon has not aggressively addressed making these books available. I understand that there is not a lot Amazon can do when an author like Rowling or Clancy balks , but there really is no excuse for the Dune series, many Stephen King books, or for heaven's sake Dashiell Hammett and Mickey Spilane not being available. I'd also love to see Amazon sell groups of books for a discounted price (i.e. all of Asimov's sci-fi books, the top 100 sci-fi books of all time, the top 100 westerns, etc.). Of course they would need to have the top 100 [insert genre] of all-time available first.

The touchscreen and the WiFi aren't all that important to me... Although that's enough of a 'geek' quotient I wouldn't turn down a Kindle handed to me for free!

As for the vast quantity of content, well, this is true for Mobi titles as well - and I *STILL* hate finding all but one title in Mobi-and that not the most recent release.

But yes, even on my lowly Cybook Gen3 and EB-100, I find the ability to store several thousand titles which I can read in glorious 4-level grayscale on a 6" display to be *QUITE* magical!

Derek

[BooksForABuck]

Not sure about the "world isn't gray" comment. Ever read a book? Unless it's a very expensive book, I doubt you'll see a lot of color inside. I certainly don't pick up novels hoping to be entertained by font color choices.

Rob Preece
Publisher, www.BooksForABuck.com

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by BooksForABuck

Not sure about the "world isn't gray" comment. Ever read a book? Unless it's a very expensive book, I doubt you'll see a lot of color inside. I certainly don't pick up novels hoping to be entertained by font color choices.

Rob Preece
Publisher, www.BooksForABuck.com

I dunno 'bout that. I've got "A Drug War Carol", "The Probability Broach: The Graphic Novel" and "Roswell, Texas" (all by either Scott Bieser or L. Neil Smith and all available to read online at BigHead Press, http://www.bigheadpress.com/) sitting on my bookshelf right now. I'm not sure I'd have enjoyed them quite so much in grayscale.

But yes, for the most part, the novels I read do *NOT* suffer from being limited to black text on white (Well, more of a very pale greyish... ) paper. In fact, by being so monotone, I'm not distracted from the vivid scenes I create in my mind as I read the words!

Derek

[spooky69]

The Sony Reader is cooler than the Kindle because it has a (mostly) metal case, is uniformly thin, and keeps its intended functionality relatively narrow. Also, I like the "book-like" justification or whatever you call it where the words spread out to both edges. Is there a hack for the Kindle to make the fonts and formatting not look ridiculous?