I guess I'll have to fill my usual role in saying this is a great move by Amazon. Yes, it's very large, but that's the advantage that everyone has been waiting for - a larger screen with native display of PDFs that can probably handle technical material better than any other reader out there. This is absolutely going to own the textbook market. I don't see a lot of people doing casual reading on it, but maybe it will be good for a stay-at-home device. I guess I can see my dad using it...
For those naysayers bringing up the tired old arguments about being overpriced, being able to get a netbook for the same price, not being able to play video, etc. here's a hint; you don't get it. But you will in a few years when every person in high school and college is carrying this or something similar.
It would be great for buying all of your textbooks, but then you wouldn't have the opportunity to sell them back for 20% of what you paid. God I miss college bookstores.
@saycarramrod: Except the textbook companies are a multi billion dollar industry and they will not release textbook digitally.
Its actually a lot like the music industry... their wet dream is to sell CDs, vs textbooks. Neither wants to offer digital downloads because it would cut into their margin and they would be giving it to the demographic most likely to pirate it, copy, and give it to others for free.
With Music, it took CD burners to bridge the gap between CDs and MP3's. Maybe we'll have something like that for text books one day so we can start chipping away at the man.
First, for my college education in economics and legal studies, I received the majority of my textbooks digitally. I used various reading devices to read them in much the same way.
Second, with appropriate DRM (yuck, I know) on a proprietary reader, some textbook companies might jump at this sort of distribution model because (1) it decreases rates of cannibalization of new edition sales by older editions, (2) it decreases rates of cannibalization of current edition sales by used current editions, and (3) it decreases the cost of goods, thus increasing profits.
Third, whether we like it or not, this is where the industry is ultimately going. Amazon represents an opportunity for publishers to test the waters in a controlled environment. Of course, there will always be holdouts (not ALL of my books were digitally distributed), but eventually they will have no choice but to come along for the ride. For now, the risk/reward ratio is not to their benefit -- not even close, as zero of these devices are in the consumers' hands at this point. Nevertheless, eventually it will happen.
@tok3n ninja; can be controlled by quarter-circles: I remember spending more than this in one semester on text books. Seems reasonable for the benefits. I'd have loved something like this in college instead of carrying around 50lbs of books on my back.
The text to speech feature is a complete surprise to me - didn't see that coming at all. Audio books are too expensive and making any print book into an audio book certainly has a certain appeal. But I don't know that it's really a huge selling point to the core audience of heavy readers. I can see it being useful especially when driving though, assuming that the quality is good (I'd be highly suspicious of this - have to wait for the reviews).
@Sam Christian: color e-paper is still early stage, and very expensive. It's also of somewhat limited value to most readers, even if it is critical for textbooks and some academic material.
@weatherman: Yea, i did forget to realize it uses e-paper, and not just a normal screen i am used to. however, im sure we can agree that color would make it 2000 times better. the black and white makes it look sooo not with the times.
@samchristian: Agreed. Black and white is the best for reading text though - although I actually prefer to read white text on black background. I think the Sony Reader is capable of that with some hacking (I have one, but haven't hacked it). I don't know if the Kindle is though.
@Nick Mendez: When you have a lithium battery that can last about 2 weeks on a single charge (w/o EVDO), I'm pretty sure this thing will last a long time before you need to replace the battery.
I have a pretty substantial collection of books (a bit under 900 at last count). If I could scan the UPCs of all the dead tree books I own and have it download the entire text into the kindle, I'd buy one in a heartbeat. I'm certainly not going to repurchase my entire collection, or even part of it, in electronic format. I might be willing to pay some very small fee... a dime or a quarter or something per book... to gain access to an electronic version of it.
i dig it a lot, but $360 is still beyond my budget for such a luxury. this reminds me of the ipod in 2002. excellent work, but more folks need to make these, and it needs another generation or two to come down a bit in price.
@spuntyb: I think $260 would have been a better price point and would definitely attracted more customers. Then again, I think Amazon is aiming to make a profit out of these things in addition to the ebooks they're selling.
It surely is an improvement, but the basic concept remains the same; interesting for a small audience, not interesting for the vast majority... and in a few years, when laptop monitors will have the same reading quality, completely redundant.
@SamburgerHandwich: E-ink? I don't know, but surely displays will get better and better and in the end one kind of display will serve all functions.. it's inevitable.
@I_Like_Rabbits: Portability and size. I want a dedicated PDF reader. I have cases with hundreds of pages of medical records, already scanned into PDF. If I can take that to court or a mediation so easily, it's worth the $400.
You guys seem awfully defensive of this source of yours. And no, he wasn't right. Sure, Steve was losing weight. But did he ever say in his letter that it was a life-threatening situation? No. Your source made it sound as if the man was mere weeks or months from dying. That's simply not credible.
The bottom line is that the initial story was inappropriate to publish. Hopefully Steve Jobs' personal health is a subject you and other tech blogs will now refrain from approaching.
You don't need to listen to Gizmodo, just read what Steve said...
"As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my #1 priority."
Combine that with...
"Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause - a hormone imbalance that has been "robbing" me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy."
...and you should be getting that he was in bad shape. Dramatic weight loss has deadly consequences.
Didn't he become a vegetarian in the not-to-distant past? I wonder if the rapid change of lifestyle caused all this.
Protein crash, brought on by simply not eating enough protein foods, which seems like it would be quite common as beginning vegetarians often don't know which foods contain enough protein.
Cancer survivors tend to, IMO, over-react and drastically change their eating habits after/during treatment. For his case, combine that with problems with the pancreas, and your system basically gets de-stabilized. His initial weight loss might have been accompanied by a "Oh that's good, I'm losing weight on this new diet because I'm 'eating right'!". It eventually would have gotten to a point where he would have gone "I need to stop losing weight now", and then realized there was a problem.
(Note, I'm not a doctor, just a cancer survivor. My observations are related to my recovery only)
05/06/09
For those naysayers bringing up the tired old arguments about being overpriced, being able to get a netbook for the same price, not being able to play video, etc. here's a hint; you don't get it. But you will in a few years when every person in high school and college is carrying this or something similar.
05/06/09
05/06/09
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05/06/09
Its actually a lot like the music industry... their wet dream is to sell CDs, vs textbooks. Neither wants to offer digital downloads because it would cut into their margin and they would be giving it to the demographic most likely to pirate it, copy, and give it to others for free.
With Music, it took CD burners to bridge the gap between CDs and MP3's. Maybe we'll have something like that for text books one day so we can start chipping away at the man.
05/06/09
First, for my college education in economics and legal studies, I received the majority of my textbooks digitally. I used various reading devices to read them in much the same way.
Second, with appropriate DRM (yuck, I know) on a proprietary reader, some textbook companies might jump at this sort of distribution model because (1) it decreases rates of cannibalization of new edition sales by older editions, (2) it decreases rates of cannibalization of current edition sales by used current editions, and (3) it decreases the cost of goods, thus increasing profits.
Third, whether we like it or not, this is where the industry is ultimately going. Amazon represents an opportunity for publishers to test the waters in a controlled environment. Of course, there will always be holdouts (not ALL of my books were digitally distributed), but eventually they will have no choice but to come along for the ride. For now, the risk/reward ratio is not to their benefit -- not even close, as zero of these devices are in the consumers' hands at this point. Nevertheless, eventually it will happen.
05/06/09
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02/09/09
why the hell would they not add color?
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And if you want to listen to a book, get an iPod.
02/09/09
I don't know that dual-mode screens (like the XO) can achieve the same paper look as e-ink as they work completely differently.
02/09/09
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And when I can go into my local used book store and find year old novels @ $10 for 5, I just think this is a solution in search of a problem.
02/09/09
02/09/09
"You were right. You were right about me. Tell your sister... you were right."
02/09/09
01/05/09
The bottom line is that the initial story was inappropriate to publish. Hopefully Steve Jobs' personal health is a subject you and other tech blogs will now refrain from approaching.
01/05/09
You don't need to listen to Gizmodo, just read what Steve said...
"As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my #1 priority."
Combine that with...
"Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause - a hormone imbalance that has been "robbing" me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy."
...and you should be getting that he was in bad shape. Dramatic weight loss has deadly consequences.
01/05/09
Protein crash, brought on by simply not eating enough protein foods, which seems like it would be quite common as beginning vegetarians often don't know which foods contain enough protein.
01/05/09
Cancer survivors tend to, IMO, over-react and drastically change their eating habits after/during treatment. For his case, combine that with problems with the pancreas, and your system basically gets de-stabilized. His initial weight loss might have been accompanied by a "Oh that's good, I'm losing weight on this new diet because I'm 'eating right'!". It eventually would have gotten to a point where he would have gone "I need to stop losing weight now", and then realized there was a problem.
(Note, I'm not a doctor, just a cancer survivor. My observations are related to my recovery only)