Amazon comments on lack of SD card and user-removable battery

[snape]

Originally Posted by Sporadic

Also, most new users aren't going to have GBs of material from other sites to put onto a SD card. Most of them are going to buy only from the Kindle store and in that case, 1.4GBs is plenty of space.

"New users" doesn't equal "new readers." When I first purchased my Kindle 1, I had plenty of material from other sources (PDF, Mobipocket, as well as dozens of Audible titles.)

I'm disappointed Amazon deleted the SD slot from the K2. Going from the potential for nearly unlimited memory in the K1 to finitely limited memory in the K2 may not be seen as a downgrade to some, but it sure feels like it to me.

[rho1640]

I had K2 in my cart and now I have saved it for later after much thought - I will wait to hear the reviews of new owners - I love my K1 and it works - so it isn't an emergency even though I really really want the newest thing.

I think my biggest thing is the lack of SD card ability - personally I think they did away with it because of the draining of the battery when it was indexing things - I like having a back-up of my books on hand in case I am not in an area (nor have my computer with me) in case I have to reset - and I like having the ease of setting up my SD cards by genre. Plus I can see myself running over the number of books it will hold in a year or two - - I don't think Amazon is going to disappear but right now if it did the only thing I could do is have my books on my computer and I never hook it up to the computer and would probably forget to update my books.

The other thing is I am sure the new battery is wonderful - in fact I had a Handigo Edge (I think that it was the Edge) that the battery lasted so long they had done away with the Edge completely and when it was finally an issue and I was looking for a new battery I couldn't get one and had to buy a new PDA to replace it.

But if I get gift certificates to Amazon and more reward certificates and manage to get to a CoinStar to turn in a bunch of change (which may take awhile with my broken right arm) I may still get the new K2 if the reports of it are super duper -- otherwise I will wait for K3 I guess.

[Amalthia]

""That's room for 1,500 books," Tritschler said, noting that any book a Kindle user buys is backed up on Amazon's servers -- and is available to the reader at any time. "There's no need for additional storage."

I think what bugged me about that statement is that not everyone actually reads just "books" on their device. I know a few people who are reading Manga and strangely adding music files...Even using LRF for mangas they do take up space if you add enough, more so than ebooks would.

Basically, I echo the person that says I don't like being told what I can do with my device. I like options.

[Ervserver]

Someone amongst us will post a how-to on getting to the battery on the Kindle II.....and you know who you are

Originally Posted by Alisa

I don't make the same kind of hardware but the stuff we make at my company has a reset switch we can program like that. I've only seen it fail when someone's mucked up the firmware. I've never heard of it failing in the field.

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by snape

"New users" doesn't equal "new readers."

"Most users" doesn't necessarily equal "you". I have to constantly remind myself that my assumptions as a bit of a geek don't necessarily translate. Many things I regard as a given come into question with the average enduser.

[Ervserver]

some refuse to see the BIG picture, there will be more and more content from all media sources becoming available to the Kindle. Newspapers, magazines, text books, audio books, etc. 1.4 GB will look awful tiny in due time, many Kindle II owners will have to become media misers

Originally Posted by snape

"New users" doesn't equal "new readers." When I first purchased my Kindle 1, I had plenty of material from other sources (PDF, Mobipocket, as well as dozens of Audible titles.)

I'm disappointed Amazon deleted the SD slot from the K2. Going from the potential for nearly unlimited memory in the K1 to finitely limited memory in the K2 may not be seen as a downgrade to some, but it sure feels like it to me.

[IntegrityWolf]

I'm honestly surprised that more people don't download manga/comics to their Kindle. I honestly don't know anyone else but me who does it.

It's so useful though. The greyscale looks beautiful, the pages turn nicely, and I can store TONS of manga books on my 8 gb card, great for travel. The program "Mangle" makes the resizing process a cinch.

In fact, I may have more manga and academic pdf files than I do books. How about that?


Anyway, I think it will bite Amazon later in the butt if they continue to underestimate the average user of the Kindle. Not everyone just has "books". There is so much information and media out there for reading/audiobooks, and the Kindle needs to be able to handle it in order to be a proper "reading" device, and in order to be successful.

[damaso]

I think they made a mistake by removing the SD card slot and user replaceable battery. If you have music the 1.4gb fills up fast. I don't think it would be a deal breaker for me but I feel they should leave the choice in the hands of the user...

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Alisa

I don't make the same kind of hardware but the stuff we make at my company has a reset switch we can program like that. I've only seen it fail when someone's mucked up the firmware. I've never heard of it failing in the field.

For Palm devices which also had the same issue there were some reported cases were the user had to let the battery run down to get the device to work. But these cases were rare.

[wayrad]

My Zodiac also has a "non-user-replaceable" battery, but after the company failed, online tutorials for replacing it appeared fairly quickly, as well as cheap aftermarket batteries with larger capacities than the original. It's a finicky job but perfectly doable with a bit of caution. Wouldn't surprise me if battery replacement proved to be equally possible with the Kindle 2. Availability of batteries might be another matter...

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by Ervserver

Someone amongst us will post a how-to on getting to the battery on the Kindle II.....and you know who you are

Of course. about 30 minutes after they get it into their nimble little hands.

BUT, if you do this, and then have problems with the unit afterwards, will Amazon stand behind it, or will they say that because you replaced it yourself, its warranty if void?

[TadW]

I once tried to replace the battery of my old iPod Mini (Gen2?). While I managed to replace it, I also managed to ruin the entire casing with ugly screwdriver scretches. I wouldn't want to see my Kindle end the same way...

On the other hand, the $59 battery replacement offered by Amazon for the Kindle 2 doesn't sound like a bad deal. It's comparable to what you would pay for fixing an iPod device.

[Meemo]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

And yet they've already quoted a price of $59 to have it replaced..........after the first year. Doesn't sound like they have much faith in it.

Well, clearly some will fail - nothing is "failsafe". And I'm sure they knew that there would be K1 users who wouldn't like the idea. They had beta testers who gave them feedback. They no doubt monitor the forums, they know what people have been saying. So they were ready with an answer when the question was asked.
Bottom line is they can't please all the people all the time, so they have to go with what they think will appeal to the biggest market. And honestly - my guess is they were thinking more of appealing to more NEW customers rather than people who'd had a Kindle for a year or less. That would be my business model - get as many people reading on the things & buying the content as possible as soon as possible - helping to bring the publishers on board, which will help bring more readers to the Kindle, etc, etc... One way to do that is to address concerns that had people "on the fence" to begin with, obviously the perceived "clunky" design was a big one, so they made it sleeker, which meant using a battery that isn't user-replaceable (and yet lasts twice as long between chargings, which isn't a bad trade-off - until you have to replace it after the first year).

[pshrynk]

Originally Posted by Dragoro

Ipods have never had replacable batteries, and the vast majority of its users dont know how/dont care to know how to replace them on thier own. And yet there is no public outcry about that....

Actually, there was a class action lawsuit filed in California when the batteries started punking out and people had to replace them off warranty and they got back an erased hard drive. Apple lost.

[Meemo]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

The 2nd year Extended Warranty cost $65 and would cover a complete failure of the battery, but perhaps not a loss of capacity. It has to be bought within 30 days of your K2 shipping. The warrenty is not from Amazon but from Service Net.

Good point - I'm not getting a K2 (yet) but if I were, I'd be getting the extended warranty this time. I didn't get it for my Kindle, and now I wish I had. Not that I've had issues, but I'd feel a little better in 6 months when my warranty runs out. I don't see myself every being without a Kindle now, so it'd be nice to know I was covered for a couple of extra years. And with three of them on my account, it feels like chances are even better that one of us will have an issue that an extended warranty would've covered...