GOKOR

strider_mt2k

watersketch

I like the feel of an actual book in my hands, binding and all, and being able to flip back and forth. Better still if it smells and feels like real dead tree.

E-paper book please!

naiad

Really, I think the downloaded NY Times might be nice, if it wasn't too expensive. Save me time from picking it up in the morning and also save me the hassle of throwing away tons of newspaper every year. Having two or three books to pick from on my commute would be kind of nice.

I think this is early adopter pricing. Next year's model will come down in price. Right now it seems like a reach.

TallManNY

One day e-books will take hold, but I think it's still 5 years off easy.

redman042

With music, movies and now books (hey and possibly even magazines via digital subscription) heading towards the digital age, is this the death of the shelf?

Gizmo

I'd love a device like this for my work, which constantly requires me to bring volumes of reading material on business flights with me.

elvindeath

chueychihuahua

Amazon Introduces Kindle; Apple Introduces Nothing [www.isights.org]

ghmlco

Scaramanga

MacAddict21

Eink screens are like paper books. You need to light them from the front.

flumbo

But being old-school, I'd say that this was better for reference material, not for novels. You can't beat a physical book for a story.

Kaiser-Machead

Mike918

as others have said before, might as well read paper, or get a laptop.

manguero

Imagine taking any text any articles from the Internet on this (such as Gizmodo), and reading it wherever you go, at the same quality as paper. (a computer screen really isn't so good for reading, it actually hurts the eyes like looking into a bright 19" light bulb.

Amazon needs to announce this tomorrow: that it supports any text format not only mobipocket, that it loads any content from the Internet over cellular and WiFi and not only Amazons content.

The price is high probably because nobody has yet been able to mass manufacture e-ink devices yet. But I'm sure as soon as Amazon gets to sell a few hundred thousand of these, and they figure some content subscription deals out (something like unlimited access to 88 thousand books, Google News reformated add-free, full access to a bunch of newspapers like NYT, WP and more for something like $15-20 per month) then for sure they will be able to sell this for half the price, or even below $100 as long as you sign the contract to pay that content subscription for like 2 years. Thus they could subsidize this just as one of those high end mobile phones.

Charbax

For $399 this should look like an oversized Nintendo DS, only vertical. It should fold closed and have TWO E-ink displays when open to simulate an open book.

Somebody should stop jumping the gun already and market an e-reader to college students and be content with the fact that every student in the country is enough of a market, and the RIGHT market, right now.

I wanted a Sony Reader until I searched their store to find that 4 of my favorite authors just weren't there. 88,000 sounds like a lot of books for Amazon's launch but I'll get excited when they have ten times that which will be around the fifth of never.

QquegChristian

coolrepublica

Aaron Martin-Colby

I mean, everything blends, right?

Have they ever done a video that DIDN'T end with it blending?

dotyoureyes

/Would never get it. I love my overflowing bookcase way too much.

smitty1123

1) It made a large library of music searchable and categorized it well allowing for instant access to any music.

2) It allowed for small thirty second previews of songs so that we could test music before buying it.

3) It allowed us to take our music everywhere.

I think the product will do the same for books as long as the software that supports is easy to use, plus Amazon will have some advantages.

1) Assuming the library is large enough, we will have the ability to instantly access a a searchable, categorized group of books.

2) If there is the ability to download the first chapter or first 20 pages of a book, I could easily see readers sampling more often resulting in higher sales.

3) We will be able to take the books anywhere easily.

Finally, a huge advantage Amazon will have from the start is the built in peer reviewing. It's the heart of Amazon already, and the ability to build communities around books will make a huge difference in sales.

The scenario I see is someone getting in bed and looking for a little bit of light reading or having a free afternoon to read. They select their favorite genre, read a couple of reviews on a book and then download the first chapter. Either they like it, are hooked, and will be fine paying to download and finish the book or they can just move on to the next title.

This instant gratification and the ability to find books based on peer reviews will provide huge advantages over traditional bookstores and even online book shopping. It's like all of the advantages of shopping at a bookstore and the convienience of doing it from your own living room.

There is potential for this program to make some serious waves, but I agree with many of the other commentors that the $399 price tag (and the subscription fees for the network connectivity (IMHO they HAVE to charge for the service if they are going to allow general internet browsing)) may easily keep this device from from catching on :( I really think the decision to go with the ev-do only will hamper Kindle from every bursting into flame.

But if Amazon will stick with this and learn from their mistakes they should be able to eventually find a formula that will revolutionize book reading just like iTunes did the music world.

walkingagh

nagash

ctfoley

There is precisely one thing that the Kindle has that subnotebooks don't:
It has a high-contrast screen with low power consumption.

Everything else, a laptop can do and do much better at minimal additional cost.
Web browsing/reading the nytimes in black & white? No thanks. For a $399 upfront fee? Hell No!

Amazon should've named this device "the bomb"

ThriftyTechie

daftrok

dambo29

Why would I want an "always on" connected reader? The only possible feature would be as a push browser for blogs and websites. I can't think of a use for that connectivity on a reader simply because that is not how books are bought. If I read a review of a book that sounds interesting, I can go to Amazon and order the book. Or go to Barnes & Noble and buy the book. It's not a "I want it now" desire like a song is.

Finally, as has been said, I read one book at a time. The only possible reason would be in non-fiction books on history or poli-sci with a linked bibliography. While that might be nifty, usually, I don't read the bibliography. I can't imagine anyone reading more than 4 books at a time, let alone 18,000.

OMG! Ponies!

debbi8

You can highlight text. You can enter notes on it. You can search Wikipedia. You can display plain, old Word and PDF files.

someToast

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.

geeksuperhero

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.

weatherman

@sorensilk: No backlight...how fuckn ridiculous

Sounds like a great product, looks like a bad one.

tin

Illustrious Chin

werk

trendspotter

drzeller

phatpat

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.

JoshS

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 :)

JoshS

weischris

mainlinx

Moonshadow101

Mandatory_Field

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.

Pope John Peeps II

bbfreak

Charles

wbremner

Joseph

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

cissyrene

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.

object.session

GOKOR

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.

frigg

$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.

AdmNaismith

lostlikeme

This one seems to try to overdo itself with features that I doubt people were really asking for in this kind of product anyway.

Feigr

[www.amazon.com]

John Percival Hackworth is a nanotech engineer on the rise when he steals a copy of "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" for his daughter Fiona. The primer is actually a super computer built with nanotechnology that was designed to educate Lord Finkle-McGraw's daughter and to teach her how to think for herself in the stifling neo-Victorian society. But Hackworth loses the primer before he can give it to Fiona, and now the "book" has fallen into the hands of young Nell, an underprivileged girl whose life is about to change.

This should be loaded onto Kindle for free.

Windhawk

djdare

Tired_

xxdesmus

@daftrok:
lmao

packetsniffer

daftrok

LittleBigPlaneteer

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.

Fzzt

MacAddict21

Amiash is not allowed

Galley

metonae

Lets just wait for Apples iBook.... iRead, something.

Andune

I'm with you. Give one or two books (maybe weekly comics.cbr files) one some e - paper and call it a day.

mainlinx

bowpair

sorensilk

contempt

mainlinx

and a blending feature.

mainlinx

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.

abes2

Acemonster

josejuan05

phi

werk

YourTechSupport

rexdot