Gizmodo
There's a lot to digest in Newsweek's seven-page all-out feature. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos sums it up: "This isn't a device, it's a service." Kindle starts shipping tomorrow for $399 and is "a perpetually connected Internet device" running off of EV-DO—it calls the service "Whispernet." It's totally computer independent: You browse for books (88,000 at launch) and buy them in a "one-touch process," it comes with a personal Kindle email address and it can browse the regular internet—keyboard sounds useful now, doesn't it?
New York Times bestsellers and hardback new releases will go for $9.99, with classics going as low as $1.99. Through the service, which is an extension of the Amazon store, you also can subscribe to newspapers (New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post) and magazines, which are automatically sent to Kindle when they drop on the wire.
Talking about the hardware itself, it'll hold 200 books on board, though you can supplement with unspecified memory cards. It'll get up to 30 hours of reading per charge and weighs 10.3 ounces. So, why does such a potentially disruptive device look so very plain? They wanted it to look like "an austere vessel of culture." The moniker Kindle is from the same line of thinking, "the crackling ignition of knowledge." But, thankfully, it doesn't get warm itself.
Some obvious questions are left though, mostly about the "always-on" connection—is the EV-DO-based Whispernet service included in the $399? If not, what's the pricing on that? And what are its limits, since you can go out onto the real web? Odds are, Bezos himself will reveal the answers tomorrow.
The goals here are pretty lofty: "Amazon believes it has created the iPod of reading." We really, really dig Jeff's vision, "that you should be able to get any book—not just any book in print, but any book that's ever been in print—on this device in less than a minute," so we hope about as much as he does that this little beige slab lives up to all the wonderful that they're promising. [Newsweek]
Comments
does it bounce?
Does it play MP3s?
Can it play Doom?
But will it blend?
Can you imagine a Beowulf cluster of those?
... can I use it to play Forums?
Why can't we just get software for any of our various portable devices with mobile internet access and storage to do this? I don't need another expensive gadget to lug around. I'll stick to reading ebooks on my Dash with mobipocket and hope that people start cracking the DRM on these books so we have more ebooks out there so I can read them on the devices I want to read them on.
So the EVDO service itself is free?
@rexdot: better question: Will it blend?
Will it run Crysis?
I think it's a great idea. While I am a big fan books and bookshelves, the ability to carry that many books with you at any time is a big step forward. It is really difficult to get over the ugly-factor .. if they had made it as pretty as an iPod, I suspect many people would want one simply because it looks nice. There's also something interesting to be said that the iPod got made first, which really points to our culture elevating music/videos above reading, and that is where the money is.
With that said, there are a few disappointing things about this. It's awesome it does search (I can't believe companies have released previous e-book readers without search!), but you still can't mark up the books at all. Granted, for most books written for pleasure that is unimportant, but for any type of text book, manual, etc. it is an essential feature.
MAN IS IT UGLY....it need some steampunking bad....
....
...
.
and a blending feature.
does it have electrolytes ? (you know...what plants crave?)
yeah, that thing is fugly. for cheaper, i can load up the XO laptop with books. like the idea, hate the execution. reminds me of the Palm /folio
I heard that it doesn't come with a backlight. Instead it has a small reading light attached to an adjustable arm. That right there is just stupid. I'll keep reading my ebooks on my iPhone.
why would you want to carry over 200 books with you unless they are reference books? (no sarcasm, Im serious) This only looks useful for a lit professor or something. I'm old school. One book at a time, and I appreciate the printing, paper, binding and even the dog ears of a well made and used book.
@bowpair:
I'm with you. Give one or two books (maybe weekly comics.cbr files) one some e - paper and call it a day.
"the iPod of reading."
Not a very pretty "iPod"...
Lets just wait for Apples iBook.... iRead, something.
Any word on this doing un-DRM'd PDFs? If it doesn't, then Sony's is already loads better.
Will it play Sudoku?
still has flaws in it? i'd rather buy book
its amazing how engadget bites gizmodo. look at engadget and everything you see that also happens to be on gizmodo, pay attention to the date stamp of the post. Gizmodo is ALWAYS first. FUCK YOU ENGADGET!
It's e-ink based, no backlight needed.
I've had vacations where it stormed A LOT and I was going through a book a day. It would be nice to actually carry around your 'if I had time to read this...' list of books.
For all the hoopla surrounding this thing, I still think I like the Sony Reader better (just a book reader, no wifi, no keyboard, etc) though they are both still too expensive.
The Sony reader needs to drop to around $99 and the Kindle should try to hit $199.
Just wait till Apple reveals the iRead in January and starts selling e-books on iTunes for 1.99 - 4.99 a piece.
Will it give me head?
@mainlinx:
People crave those too.
@daftrok:
lmao
Yeah, but it's really ugly. Something that ugly will never become "trendy".
The 'real web' will be next to useless on an e-ink device (you thought dial-up was bad...imagine every page change requiring a full e-ink redraw).
yah, and i thought e-ink was just black and white? so surfing teh interwebs in black and white?
Right out of Neal Stephenson's "The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer"
[www.amazon.com]
This should be loaded onto Kindle for free.
These types of e-ink readers never really seem to catch on. I think there needs to be one that becomes really popular and has appeal to the masses, and as much as I dislike Apple I think the best bet is if they come out with the iPod of reader so to speak, that make them hip or whatever.
This one seems to try to overdo itself with features that I doubt people were really asking for in this kind of product anyway.
seems like an interesting new concept, but i'm not so sure that it will catch on with the casual reader. it really depends on the ev-do and how much that costs. the last thing i need is another internet/phone/television/etc bill every month. the one place i could see it being useful, though, is for university students. text books cost a fortune now, so if you could pay $399 and then 10 quid or so per book you'd have a huge savings over the 4 years (or upwards of 4 years depending on the individual ;-).
$400? Is he joking? I can buy a whole laptop for that much allowing me to read books and do a hundred other PC sorts of things.
$50. Maybe $75. The price of the books seems about right (although paperbacks are still less than $8, usually). I can buy 50 paperbacks for the price of this thing.
Buying this then textbooks for another >$10 would be great and I like his philosophy of book access, but for casual reading- feh.
Ears are more forgiving than eyes, and public acceptance of audio compression in the iPod will not be replicated by equivalent compression in the Kindle. The Kindle's comparatively low resolution screen (compared to the deceptively huge resolution of a printed page) will make the user feel like a long, cold, hard serrated knife is being inserted into their forehead with each and every page. And then tasering them.
Its one thing to download and store a book - easy - but another to display it - not so easy. For something as old school as reading a book, this device is ironically 10 years premature. Attempting to curl up around a fireplace and joy read on a Kindle will instead escort the reader into the flames of hell, one pixilated letter at a time.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, this thing is ugly and overpriced, but am I the only one who had the horrible pop culture reference of Steve Gutenberg?
@bowpair: i think you make a good point and i agree. as described, it would only be really valuable to a lit professor, although with addition of textbooks and electronic journals, it'd be useful to the academic and research market. (and academic can also include high school students.) other markets could probably be satisfied, like businessmen, although i don't really know what they need to read or reference.
but these devices seem to be more aimed at the casual reader. which is in part understandable because there are more casual readers than heavy readers. but as far as the device having long term potential, i think the device would have to be picked up by people that could really use it.
the newspaper thing could be a step in the right direction, since i know a number of people that read more than one newspaper a day.
I have the Sony E-reader, and I love it! I read A LOT! Could go though 4 or 5 novels a weekend. Could read for hours at a time.
The reason the E Reader, and this thing, whatever its called, is better, is becuse they have a screen that very closely replicates paper. It causes none of the eyestrain that computers or other handheld devices cause.. Thus also the reason for not having a backlight... Backlights cause eyestrain.
These type readers are awesome. though this one is really fugly
The Foleo was a better idea than this.
Is that a wedding ring on his finger?
It's $400, and books cost $10, which isn't much less than buying an actual book. It's a good idea, but it needs to be $100 and books for a couple bucks to get any sort of use. I don't understand how something that really only needs a monochrome LCD (and it's not even an LCD, it's e-ink) and a tiny battery (plus the what has to be incredibly simple inner workings) costs $399. It's ridiculous.
Books wont go digital completely until they can provide a way to provide a digital platform that is cheap enough to compete and even kill the paper book as we know it. Which isn't going to happen anytime soon. The only digital books I've ever bothered to read after all, have been on the computer and thats about it. Books-A-Million, Barns & Nobles have little to worry about just yet. The only thing is is really dead is general information books, but that was killed by the internet rather than the digitalizing of books.
So for pretty much the price of a Playstation 3, I get the PRIVILEGDE of paying for books?!
THANKS SO MUCH! THANK YOU. THANKS VERY MUCH. I was looking for new and exciting ways to lose money. I'm so sick of packing it into a wastebasket and just setting fire to it.
As someone who has done pretty much all of their fiction reading electronically for the last few years (technical/technology books and other work-related material are still read on dead trees: Higher resolution = greater retention), my initial thought was whether we really needed yet another device for reading electronic files. If this helps to popularize the consumption of content electronically, though, this means that a greater volume and variety of content will be available for all of us....
Does it have some sort of flip cover? I'd sooner burn my wallet than buy an unprotected screen of that size to carry around. Faster means to the same end.
@hughjass:
You're right. Lets just go to starbucks and get some lattes'.
that bastard, i had this idea for newspapers, in Denver but used wimax instead. there goes my dreams of being rich.
I love good old-fashioned books, but I am somewhat excited at this. however:
1. Couldn't they have improved the look? I mean, it's ok, but it could look nicer...
2. Why do all ebook companies limit themselves when the technology offers so much more? I want to be able to highlight sections, have multiple bookmarks, have a built in dictionary and thesarus, search on wikipedia, etc. This is what will make ebooks worth reading.
3. No backlight? Doesn't sound so good. Also, don't underestimate our burned in tendancy to flip pages. I and many of my friends hated using ebook readers with arrows to push. Maybe our attitudes will change.
4. Lastly, give me content, and lots of it. I basically want every book ever written :)
Oh, one mroe rant. The price is too high for people to adopt this quickly, but perhaps the parts justify it...
And I better see cheaper book prices. I shouldn't have to pay the same price for a real book when all I'm getting is a digital version. Think about it. Publishers will save a LOT of money on transportation and production. Pass those savings to me please.
People made the same arguments about price when the iTunes store first opened up. But somehow Apple is still selling lots of songs.
@werk: You could, but you probably don't have the easy-reading e-ink screen on your current device, nor the same size/shape screen. Having bot TabletPC's and PDA's, my opinion is that the TabletPC's are too heavy/big for reading in bed or on your side (or to carry with you all over) and the PDA screen is just too small for me. I like something in this size range and with the e-ink display.
will it be color e-ink?
@drzeller:
I have no problem reading Mobipocket ebooks on my Dash, I do it all the time. On the subway, on the couch, in bed, etc. Guess I just have good eyes.
$400 and you still got to pay for the books... maybe i wouldnt be so critical if the thing wasnt so huge, hope it has a good selection, and an e-ink screen is required not an option so it better have one. ;)
IF it didnt look so crap id be interested.
@sorensilk: No backlight...how fuckn ridiculous
Sounds like a great product, looks like a bad one.
While overall I agree that this is too pricey and too ugly, there area two points that I think could make this successful: first, Amazon does have the clout and the relationships to bring textbooks to this, and if they do it could quickly become a standard on college campuses. College students spend a lot on textbooks every year, and a device like this could make them a lot easier to carry. $400 is a marginal cost in a college education for this convenience, especially if publishers discount the ebook versions enough to pay for it over a 4 year period.
Second, the auto download of the NYT or other papers could be a big hit. Sure, NYT online is free now, but it still costs close to $500 for home delivery of the NYT, and the offline reader is $170 (but you can only read that on an XP or Vista machine). If there are no additional charges for EVDO or content (at least for the first year) then it'll be both cheaper and more convenient to get this than an entire year of home delivery.
That said, it's really got a long way to go before I think it gets broad acceptance. I don't think this is the world-changing device. The service Amazon provides might be, if they're not going to try to own the whole hardware side.
My wife is an avid reader--3+ books a week. This will be far more convenient on a vacation than a pile of books! Not to mention all the totally full bookcases around the house.
For the no backlight...um, books have done just fine for hundreds of years without a backlight. The e-ink screen works more like paper than a laptop/phone type screen.
The article says *hardback* new releases are $9.99--which is less than buying the regular $20+ hardback. Yeah, paperbacks better be less to be worth it...$2 to 4 rather than $7 to 10 in a store.
Looks functional, but sure could be prettier.
Many of the questions about the device are answered in the article.
You can highlight text. You can enter notes on it. You can search Wikipedia. You can di