11-19-2007, 08:07 PM | #1 |
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why so emotional about the kindle?
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 |
11-19-2007, 08:11 PM | #2 |
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High expectations, underwhelming delivery.
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11-19-2007, 08:31 PM | #3 | |
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11-19-2007, 08:34 PM | #4 |
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To me this thing was simultaneously impressive and disappointing. The features look great. Good enough to make me look past the aesthetics. It's actually starting to grow on me. It looked bigger and clunkier in the initial pictures because you didn't see it in context. However I am still rather peeved about the .azw thing. If they had stuck with .mobi, even DRM-ed .mobi, and let non-Kindle-owners buy them, I'd be way more positive about the whole project.
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11-19-2007, 08:39 PM | #5 |
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There is always a lot of pain, cries and shouts of joy following any delivery.
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11-19-2007, 08:40 PM | #6 |
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Nate is due to receive his tomorrow so let's wait and read his review. He has used the Sony PRS-500 for a while and created quite a number of books for it. I for one am looking forward to his views.
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11-19-2007, 08:40 PM | #7 | |
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Dale |
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11-19-2007, 08:44 PM | #8 | |
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11-19-2007, 09:10 PM | #9 | |
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Kindle on the other hand will be able to demonstrate increased sales of eBooks and hopefully drive the prices down from the publishers. Dale |
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11-19-2007, 09:31 PM | #10 |
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Here's my reasons that I am passionate about the Kindle.
1. Amazon, a business that started out and continues today, provides book lover fulfillment. Therefore if anyone could get the Kindle right would be Amazon and Jeff Bezos, a purported book lover himself. 2. Amazon had 3 years and the benefit of everyone else's mistakes to open up the ebook platform to invite people in, rather than further confusing the issue with a superproprietary format that is tied to one device. 3. Jeff Bezos is on record for saying that DRM free music is the wave of the future. If Bezos and Amazon truly is following the iPod/iTunes model, why shift toward more DRM rather than away from DRM. Amazon assumes that either you don't have any pre-existing purchases or that you are willing to repurchase them. 4. Bezos and Amazon appear to be arrogantly ignoring the consumer. Since the very inception of the pictures and details of the Kindle on the internet, we have been crying out for a design change. Design is incredibly important and Amazon's refusal to acknowledge the consumer opinion is simply a negative sign. 5. If the Kindle fails, then the media and those with voices louder than ours will declare ebooks are dead. Given the investments that major publishers like S&S, HarperCollins, etc. have made in digitizing their backlists, I don't think ebooks are going away, but I wanted to see the Kindle actually fire us up rather than drag us down. I would have been the first in line to buy the Kindle if it had been a) a better design and b) allowed for me to read DRM'ed mobipockets. I think the passionate voices are those who really longed for Amazon to get it right and now we are really disappointed. |
11-19-2007, 10:07 PM | #11 |
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Original comments are in italic.
1. Amazon, a business that started out and continues today, provides book lover fulfillment. Therefore if anyone could get the Kindle right would be Amazon and Jeff Bezos, a purported book lover himself. Until we use the unit we are not sure of how well it works in the hand. When I use my Sony I see the screen and the rest of the world fades away. Perhaps after we hold one and use it for a while (walk a mile in its shoes) we will have a better impression of the unit. 2. Amazon had 3 years and the benefit of everyone else's mistakes to open up the ebook platform to invite people in, rather than further confusing the issue with a superproprietary format that is tied to one device. And in that 3 year period they overcame most of the problems that plagued the other readers. The 88,000 ebooks are a massive increase over what we have seen elsewhere. Consider that Sony launched with ~10,000 books. As for the DRM issue, it is most likely the only way that they could get the publishers to sign on at this time. Amazon is in the business of selling books, this way they don't have to split the profits with other parties. You can still buy material at Fictionwise (for example) in unprotected PRC files and load them. They have over 6,000 books in unprotected "multiformat" that works on almost every reader ever made. 3. Jeff Bezos is on record for saying that DRM free music is the wave of the future. If Bezos and Amazon truly is following the iPod/iTunes model, why shift toward more DRM rather than away from DRM. Amazon assumes that either you don't have any pre-existing purchases or that you are willing to repurchase them. Unlike music, most people do not reread a book. I very, very seldom reread a book. Reference books are used over and over but that is not what I intended to read on the Sony and I have held to that. Publishers are worried that someone will snatch their content and sling it over the dark net. DRM is a way to launch the product and get it in the hands of many people. I doubt that most of the people buying the unit will care one way or another about DRM. 4. Bezos and Amazon appear to be arrogantly ignoring the consumer. Since the very inception of the pictures and details of the Kindle on the internet, we have been crying out for a design change. Design is incredibly important and Amazon's refusal to acknowledge the consumer opinion is simply a negative sign. So it doesn't look like an iPod or an iPhone. So some think the Sony or the Gen3 is sexier. Heck, the Apple ][ looked a lot sexier than the original IBM PC but it got clobbered in the sales department. They did listen to the consumer -- the computer interface and download issues are gone. It is a single piece with a clean interface and a direct link to Amazon for new books. My 85 year old Mother-in-law could use it. I fear if she tried to buy a book through Sony. 5. If the Kindle fails, then the media and those with voices louder than ours will declare ebooks are dead. Given the investments that major publishers like S&S, HarperCollins, etc. have made in digitizing their backlists, I don't think ebooks are going away, but I wanted to see the Kindle actually fire us up rather than drag us down. I agree. It is as close as anyone has come to creating a toaster for reading books. I would have been the first in line to buy the Kindle if it had been a) a better design and b) allowed for me to read DRM'ed mobipockets. I think the passionate voices are those who really longed for Amazon to get it right and now we are really disappointed. The jury is still out and will be out for a while. It seems that Amazon sold out the first batch and is still taking orders for more. |
11-19-2007, 11:01 PM | #12 |
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I for one don't think the device is ugly, but I realize lots of people do. Which sorta puzzles me, I mean, if they have a keyboard on this thing, what else could they do with the design? Blackberrys are ugly too, but I don't hear those complaints about them.
Besides, I have a Sony Reader and if you had a keyboard attached to the bottom if it, it would basically look like the Amazon Kindle. PLUS a lot of people complained about the "page" buttons on the Sony Reader, and the Kindle's placement of them seems to be more logical. Also on the Amazon comments section, it appeared the that many of the negative people were the "but you can't curl up with it by the fire unless it's a paper book" and the "but I miss the smell and history of the books" people. I also think that for what it does right out of the box, the Kindle is pretty good so far. They have plenty of time to tweak things such as DRM and whatnot for the future. If you read the newsweek article, Jeff Bezos seemed really passionate about it, so I am assuming they will stick with it. Besides, Sony has a DRM format too. So I don't view this as all that different except that non-DRM'd .mobi files are more numerous than non-DRM'd .lrf files which I am surprised and somewhat disappointed that DRM'd .mobi files don't work on it but that is something they can change in the future. Of course, I say all of this but I won't have one in my hand until tomorrow--I may end up hating it or something after playing with it for a bit... Last edited by tsgreer; 11-19-2007 at 11:04 PM. |
11-19-2007, 11:03 PM | #13 |
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In regards to the looks, I was just listening to Bezos on All Things Considered and he was saying that it was beautiful and I did get the feeling he meant it. He blamed the initial bashes on blogs on the bad FCC photo. I will give it to him that it does look better than the initial photo but I think maybe he just has questionable taste. Or maybe he got too wrapped up in the idea of making it "disappear" which made him cling to that sterile white color. I do think a different color and case material would actually make this thing much more attractive. I think bibliophiles would've actually appreciated a warmer look and feel. I wouldn't want to curl up with an iPhone either.
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11-19-2007, 11:11 PM | #14 | |
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I'm not real fond of the white. I think a deep reddish brown color--um not ugly, but a sorta deep leatherish starbucks kinda feel would look better. Also I think the contrast of the screen would look a lot better if the case material were darker. Last edited by tsgreer; 11-19-2007 at 11:18 PM. |
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11-19-2007, 11:15 PM | #15 |
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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? |
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