Monday, November 19, 2007

Kindle This, Boyo!

So Amazon is launching their "Kindle" e-book reader today, as you might have heard elsewhere on the Intarwebs. And it looks like a real winner:
  • very expensive
  • only reads a very few file formats (which must be mailed via Amazon to the device)
  • a design sense reminiscent of Logan's Run
  • a jaw-dropping plan to charge $1.99 a month to read individual blogs...which are free on the Internet
As long as the e-book folks are throwing out abominations like this, those of us who prefer actual books will have nothing to fear.

Hey, Bezos! Wake me up when you've got a $100 reader I can put my own books on directly...

3 comments:

Di Francis said...

In which this has nothing to do with your actual post. But since you're the guy that I know that knows more about this stuff, I thought I'd ask you.

I need graphic novels recommendations for 15 year olds. Feel free to email me at dpf @ dianapfrancis dot com

Please? And thank you.

Di

Paul Weimer said...

only reads a very few file formats (which must be mailed via Amazon to the device)

I understand there is USB connectivity as well.

Anonymous said...

I was "sold" on the Kindle when I went to its product page on Amazon, and had to scroll for an eternity to get past all the self-hype. "Here's a paragraph devoted to each of 20 different books you can buy for it! Here's a video blog showing our janitor using it!"

And it is just me, or is that possibly not the best name they could have given the product? It reads like an appeal to those who are already craving e-books as replacement for those horrid stacks of paper--but those are the people you don't need to get to buy this.

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