No magic in the Kindle: Three reasons

[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?

Overall, nothing new, and perhaps with more than a grain of truth, but seriously, can you blame Amazon (or Sony for that matter) for being first movers in a new market? Give it some time, and the magic moment will become quite real.

Thanks to cassidym for the tip!

[wallcraft]

The article is well worth reading. I had not come across the Annie Proulx 1994 quote before: "Nobody is going to sit down and read a novel on a twitchy little screen. Ever."

[zelda_pinwheel]

i particularly like this :

E-books are simply a different format for something we've had for hundreds of years. When penny dreadfuls were introduced in the 1800s they were scoffed at, as were paperback novels in the 1930s."

Also in the 1930s, as farmers were being signed up for rural electrification, one of the most common responses was: "Why do we need electricity? We have lanterns!"

[Tom90deg]

Hmm..always happens with a piece of new tech. I'll bet anything that back in the day there were tons of articles saying, "Do we really need MP3 players?" and the like. Just got my Kindle, and I love it.

[desertgrandma]

Oh please. errrggggg.......someone pushed my buttons with this one. Does this person who wrote this article even read? I mean read books, not scan articles or magazine you find at the check out counter.
1) So right now Sprint doesn't work outside the US. Get over it. Its an american product, in its infancy, and if early indications are any sign, eventually Amazon will deal with this. In the meantime, there are other ways to download books.
2) "The world isn't in greys?" People, I graduated from picture books a long time ago, how about you? I don't need or particularly want a color screen. This one allows me to read just as if I had a book in my hand, only easier. I can turn pages with one click, and continue eating. (A bad habit, I know!) Magazines? Most are ads anyway.
3) Ah....the "Where's my favorite books??" complaint. Yes, I know, there are many authors and books not represented. Many of my favorites. However, again, be patient. The thousands and thousands of complaints will not fall on deaf ears, and eventually I have faith we'll be able to download any book we want.

In the meantime, I love my kindle. No, I adore, worship, idolize and revere my Kindle. Today, waiting in the doctors office, (just a routine checkup) I was able to read, download yet another book, and the sucker even keeps my place for me. I"m not stuck reading a book I have no interest in, I choose whichever one I want! And best of all, I"ve found this site, and a few others, and a ton of info I never knew existed. My quilting has gone by the wayside, my house is no longer immaculate, tv watching is minimal. No matter where I am, I am not alone. Thanks for listening...

[Ervserver]

The writer isn't saying anything extraordinary here, these arguments could be applied to anything new tech, there are always limitations or nor will everyone want it

[talaivan]

The screen of the Kindle too little (Iliad is much better) and you can't format text in your own way. Who cares about color or not being able to get every conceivable book (there are many books you can't get in the store either -- and out-of-print books may not be available anywhere except libraries). Finally, the wireless on Kindle is, in my opinion, nothing less than amazing. Imagine being stuck somewhere and being able to get any one of over a hundred thousand books almost instantly -- and being able to read part of it for free to be sure you want it. To me that's hardly a flaw.

[JSWolf]

What the eink readers are good for is reading novel format eBooks. They aren't good for reading text or reference books or anything that needs color.

There are issues with content. Take Tor for example. yes it's nice that we are getting eBooks from them. But they are book 1 is a series and the others in the series are not available as eBooks. Also we get the latest eBook in a series to come out but try to find the others and they are not available. Also you go to look for a specific author's work and find some eBooks available but not all. Or you find the eBook you want in a format your device cannot read and you cannot convert. These are real issues and serious ones before eBooks can be considered a mainstream success.

Color for most eBooks is not needed at present. Sure we'd have color cover images. But that's not a big deal. When we get devices good enough for books that need color then it can be considered an issue (maybe).

One problem can very easily go away. If all reading devices standardized on one format then we could purchase any eBook as they'd all be compatible. I'm thinking ePub as the format as it's new enough to not have some of the flaws that the older formats such as eReader or Mobipocket have. But, until that happens, we are stuck with a leaning tower of eBable waiting to fall over.

But for the eBooks that I am interested in and am reading, I do enjoy my 505. The screen is easy to view and the device easy to hold. I would like a larger screen at some point in the future. But what I have now will do fine. The tools I have for content conversion make it easy enough to get eBooks released in other formats. So I'll have eBooks that I can convert to whatever my next device supports. So I'm all set for the future.

The article doesn't say anything new. Just says the same old things in a very bland way.

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What the eink readers are good for is reading novel format eBooks. They aren't good for reading text or reference books or anything that needs color.

There are issues with content. Take Tor for example. yes it's nice that we are getting eBooks from them. But they are book 1 is a series and the others in the series are not available as eBooks. Also we get the latest eBook in a series to come out but try to find the others and they are not available. Also you go to look for a specific author's work and find some eBooks available but not all. Or you find the eBook you want in a format your device cannot read and you cannot convert. These are real issues and serious ones before eBooks can be considered a mainstream success.

Color for most eBooks is not needed at present. Sure we'd have color cover images. But that's not a big deal. When we get devices good enough for books that need color then it can be considered an issue (maybe).

One problem can very easily go away. If all reading devices standardized on one format then we could purchase any eBook as they'd all be compatible. I'm thinking ePub as the format as it's new enough to not have some of the flaws that the older formats such as eReader or Mobipocket have. But, until that happens, we are stuck with a leaning tower of eBable waiting to fall over.

But for the eBooks that I am interested in and am reading, I do enjoy my 505. The screen is easy to view and the device easy to hold. I would like a larger screen at some point in the future. But what I have now will do fine. The tools I have for content conversion make it easy enough to get eBooks released in other formats. So I'll have eBooks that I can convert to whatever my next device supports. So I'm all set for the future.

The article doesn't say anything new. Just says the same old things in a very bland way.

I agree with *most* of what you're saying. However, I find my Cybook is just *fine* for reading my de-/re-constructed embedded Linux manuals. Sure, I've got to first deconstruct the CHM files and then import them into Mobi, but, once done, they're great! And they jump between chapters and references just fine. (Of course, I'm *still* working out how to do a decent Index... )

Derek

[pilotbob]

Certainly U.S. only products can never be successful.

[Alexander Turcic]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Certainly U.S. only products can never be successful.

The hamburger used to be a an US only product (according to Wikipedia, invented sometime around 1880-1900). You've probably heard the slogan... New York’s gift to world cuisine, the hamburger!

So what's next? Amazon's gift to the literary world, the Kindle!??

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

So what's next? Amazon's gift to the literary world, the Kindle!??

is Amazon like McDonald's ? it's a rather frightening thought... i'm not sure i want that gift !!

[Alexander Turcic]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

is Amazon like McDonald's ? it's a rather frightening thought... i'm not sure i want that gift !!

Wait till Morgan Spurlock ("Super Size Me") makes a movie about the Kindle... it may lead to a comeback of organic paper books.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

Wait till Morgan Spurlock ("Super Size Me") makes a movie about the Kindle... it may lead to a comeback of organic paper books.

heh...

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

Wait till Morgan Spurlock ("Super Size Me") makes a movie about the Kindle... it may lead to a comeback of organic paper books.

That will be sold on Amazon.