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Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
10/21/09
Amazon are pretty weak for giving into it but I recognise how much hassle these things are. The problem is because they gave in to this they've opened the door to all sorts of other idiots who'll look to make a quick buck off them.
Guys an idiot for dropping his gadget bag, an even bigger one for expecting Amazon to compensate him for his stupidity. #kindle2
10/21/09
It's cheaper for Amazon to settle then to go through litigation with this guy. Sure he might have to equally pay his lawyers but if he is willing enough to pull up the law information on this then I'm guessing he's willing to follow through with his claims to sue. Amazon pays their lawyers a lot more dough and so $400 is a drop in the bucket for them to get this guy off of their backs.
As far as common sense goes I think most of us know not to drop our electronics on the ground. As this guy stated he merely dropped his bag from 2 feet in the air. If you take Amazon's word for it then your device wouldn't have been broken.
I drop my bag on the carpet and my laptop doesn't get broken. it's not like I'm slamming it 10 feet off the ground with ninja force. I'd expect the kindle to be able to handle a small drop like that, especially if their advertising gives me the idea that it can handle that.
We all pick our battles. It just so happens that $400 was important to this man and Amazon didn't want to hassle with it. Some people who are more loaded would have just went out and bought another Kindle with 0 questions asked.
10/21/09
Actually it's more expensive to settle most of the time. Generally most legal battles end with the loser paying the winners legal fees. Amazon could have easily thrashed his claim in court and he'd be the one left out of pocket. It is significantly less hassle to settle but the problem is that it leaves others to take advantage of the fact that they let it slide.
Amazons "word" or that drop test is not an explicit guarantee, it's merely a demo that it has a reasonable level of durability. Also the conditions of his drop and Amazons demonstrated durability test are quite different.
The main thing being that it was in a bag. What I imagine happened is when he dropped his bag something in the bag impacted the screen. I don't think Amazons promise of reasonable durability covers stuff like that happening. #kindle2
10/20/09
Congrats to him. #kindle2
10/20/09
IMHO, asking for the extra $200 was kind of a douchey move and really over-valued the "diminution of utility and value of the device as well as of the e-books I have purchased for that device." This is what it looks like when someone figures out how to work (cheat) the system.
10/20/09
That's something I might be interested in, as this does look pretty nice. I like the Kindle also, but this is pretty sleek... #nook
10/20/09
First, I think the Kindle 1 is superior to Kindle 2.
Second, the Nook is nice, and should the time come, I will consider buying one, depending on how the price drops, and book availability.
also, the ereader magic price is $200. Companies need to realize this.
10/20/09
$200 Would seal the deal for me. Maybe next year. #nook
10/20/09
10/20/09
Don't hold your breath. Being connected to the web or any network eats the battery in these things. It isn't worth it. #nook
10/20/09
Color screen and touch controls - cute, but waste of battery power - why not keep the controls simple and hopefully more rugged?
AT&T Advantage - please, I am laughing so hard my iPhone is digging into my side.
WiFi - that would be good, though I don't think the lack really hurts the Kindle. I don't really like E-Ink for web surfing, so can't really care, though since Nook has crappy AT&T WiFi matters more.
Replaceable battery - would like that, though Apple seems to be leading a trend in the opposite direction.
Direct PDF - THAT would be nice - a clear advantage there. But no word docs, and Kindle can do PDF, just clunkier.
Sharing books and note sync - clear advantage here, though probably not game changers for most people.
The biggest thing is that the Nook is the only other e-reader that is tied to a decent selection of new books - really this is the Kindle service's first real competitor. #nook
10/20/09
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10/20/09
1) It makes this seem less biased (it's really not, but some people might note that it's worse in some categories, so it must not be biased)
2) Those features are essential to both devices, and to leave them out would make it seem incomplete (eg. battery life)
3) The feature is really so unimportant, that no one's going to care that the Nook doesn't have it (eg. .doc capabilities) #nook
10/20/09
The Nook, c'mon
So you can take that Kindle
And stick it up your.. yeah!
Stick it up your.. yeah!
Stick it up your.. yeah!
Stick it up your #nook
10/20/09
(A side note: Notice how they compare themselves to the Kindle? That's what everyone will compare their ebook reader to. Same principle happened with iPhone and other smartphones). #nook
10/20/09
10/20/09
Also, I was thinking the sharing wasn't a big deal since there aren't gonna too many of these around even if it sells well. Then I realized it hopefully means I could share books with iPhone/iPod Touch users and even Mac/PC users and it suddenly makes more sense. #nook
10/20/09
I strongly doubt we'll ever get anything that awesome though. #nook
10/20/09
10/20/09