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Amazon's Kindle Sells Out In 5.5 Hours
necro81 writes "As reported on Engadget, Amazon's Kindle e-book reader has sold out. Charlie Rose's interview with Jeff Bezos reveals that the Kindle sold out within just 5-1/2 hours of going on sale. Amazon hasn't revealed how many it had in stock at launch, so it may just be that they didn't anticipate early demand. A check of the Kindle's product page shows that more will be rolling out starting December 3rd." Wired also has a brief head-to-head of the more prominent ebook readers and PCWorld has a review of the new gadget from Amazon.
I wonder how many units were made available.
I somehow doubt it is a case of 'we made lots, but demand outstripped supply'. More likely this was a limited production run to test the waters.
The Sony reader had a long latency to flip a page, as well as some stuff going on with the ink rearranging itself. If one could just flip fast without any image artifacts, it would be great. Most people will want color, but I think this is more important.
If the first buyers are big fans of Amazon, then they probably will soon leave reviews on the product page, giving us some descriptions of the product that aren't tarred by marketing hype. However, at the moment the reviews that are up are by people connected to Amazon, or those who haven't even used the product.
Another slashvertistment of a "sold out" product of unknown quantity? Then who the hell cares if it was X.5 hours.
Let the Early Adopters try it out and send in the bug reports. In a year or so, there'll be a version 1.1 that doesn't have as many annoying misfeatures as 1.0.
There's an old rule in the computer biz: Don't ever buy anything whose version number ends with an even digit.
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
Although its possible that they underestimated demand, I'd be more likely to believe that they manufactured enough for the holidays but wanted to manufacture a perception of scarcity.
Nothing sells product like an air of exclusiveness.
And before people think I'm trolling Amazon, I think this practice is good for both customers and the company -- the customers get something "hot" and the company sells in volume.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
1. There are always a number of people with "state-of-the-art-addiction" who must have the hot new gadget.
2. There are always people looking to profit from the above people, who jump on these product launches to then turn around and sell the product on Ebay.
Beyond that I wouldn't read too much into this just yet. The Kindle may be a success, or a flop. All we know is that it a newly hyped gadget that sold out at launch, like most new hot gadgets.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
I found out you have to pay a fee to get personal items onto it.
Also I would like it to play mp3s.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
it's not an LCD, it's e-paper or "electronic ink".
Yeah, they finally got that technology out of the lab about a couple of years ago.
How we know is more important than what we know.
The Kindle is not an LCD display, it uses e Ink, 6-inch SVGA 800x600, 4 grey scales. Supposed to be very easy on the eyes.
Well yeah it was the front page of amazon, yeah the entire front page.
Basically the best advertising that any device could have.
Not that I'm aware of. The few I've heard of all seemed pretty conclusive that it's perfectly OK. It can, however, make someone conscious of a vision problem they'd learned to unconsciously compensate for.
Everything will be taken away from you.
Kill it. Now.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Kindle doesn't have an LCD. There are no polarizers, liquid crystals, or bending of crystals to change the direction of the polarization.
Kindle has an e-paper display, which uses something resembling ink that can be turned black or white, or a few shades in between, and doesn't require any power to maintain that shade. It looks very similar to paper, and isn't color so the resolution is pretty good.
The Sony e-book reader also has an e-paper display, so LCDs aren't being used on new e-book readers.
If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
1. Market new product & advertize initial sale date
2. Do not reveal how many (hand fulls) of product units are available
3. On day of initial sale, reveal that product was sold out in 4 hours!!!!
4. Let lame media pick up stories
5. Enjoy free advertizement & viral marketing
6. Pick another date to release a few more units
7. PROFIT!!!!
No trees were killed in the making of this post; however, many trillions of electrons were horribly inconvenienced.
What I'd like to know is how this e-ink compares to what Sony is using in their latest generation reader. Is it faster at changing the display? Do they still have to flash the whole display to update one little part?
And why have they ever needed to flash the whole display anyway? Is there some reason they can't erase just one area, working with a dirty rectangle algorithm so things are faster? Surely they can put enough memory in to keep two copies of the display (old and new) then use XOR to figure out which bits need to be updated, speeding things up some.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Looks good, but it's way overpriced.
Either have cheap books or a cheap gadget, not both.
No sig today...
The number of people who buy a product on day #1 is largely irrelevant, that's just the fans - you can also charge them more (sorry, just had to get that in). The numbers that really count are a few months in, when the problems become known, the promised content does or does not become available and the initial euphoria wears off. I wonder how many units will still be in use and how many will be on at the back of a drawer somewhere?
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
I have to say I am impressed with their selection, which can get downright esoteric. Sony's selection(which has gotten better recently) has always left me wanting. I would watch Jon Stewart interview some author and then I would go see if I could find their book only to find out it's either not there or too expensive.
One of the things that really showed promise was having comic books delivered to the device. However, it never really panned out for Sony, one year on and there are only 14 items in the manga section, and Kindle isn't looking much better. The sample they gave with the Sony eReader actually looked pretty good in terms of readability, shame there isn't much content that I want on it though(I suppose I could go track down pdfs, but too much of a pain)
Monstar L
For example, the Wii shortage is very real. Outside of software, handling inventory can be very tricky.
A lifetime of free wireless access to Wikipedia for $399 - that's a pretty good deal.
I'm surprised it doesn't include "amazon email".
No sig today...
I'm happily using a cellphone with that kind of display since half a year now (Motorola F3).
It's kinda big and clunky, the screen doesn't fill the whole face, and it's pretty expensive. Also seems tnot to be all that open. The E-paper is nice and the wireless sounds like it should work well, but I'm really looking forward to the third generation of these things.
There's a lot more things going for it.. just watch the presentation.. but otherwise, yes, paying $400 for the pleasure of buying $9.99 books is a bit steep.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Everyone is bashing this product, and either I'm confusing my acronyms or people here don't realize this things greatest feature. The PCWorld article says it has EvDO, which I thought was a cellular technology, it lists that as the way to get more content on the thing. AND there is no usage charge for that, the PCWorld article says they take care of that in the background, so the price you see listed for the content you can browse is EXACTLY what you pay(OK maybe taxes or something)
So, either I need to cut back on the beers and pay attention to which letters mean what, or this thing is actually kinda cool, not that I'm buying one this year. If I'm way wrong, mod me to nothing, but otherwise, man do people complain about anything here!
Those who can, do.
"Most" books are $9.99. Maybe if they decayed the price to $1.99 as the new releases aged (like effectively what happens at a half-price bookseller). Plus, I can't keep the content for decades in my attic, to be dusted off and read again when I re-discover the book.
...But I digress. TREMBLE PUNY HUMANS!ONE DAY MY SPECIES WILL DESTROY YOU ALL!
Nice to see linux across the board for all of them - even running lots of proprietary stuff. :)
http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_Reader_Matrix
So... you're saying that a book has all the advantages of an abacus?
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
At first I was ready to buy the thing. It seemed wonderful with a long battery life, the ability to purchase books right from the device, and Wikipedia all the time. Then I noticed the price...what a shock.
I think I would have paid up to $125, as I still need to actually buy books to read on it. But $400? Either the device is expensive to make or the market researchers grossly over estimated the publics need for such a device. $400 buys some really nice toys, much nicer than a e-book reader. I think I'm going to spend my money elsewhere this holiday season.
What a shame, too. I would really like to own one when they become reasonably priced.
-- Posted from my parent's basement
Anyone who buys one of these things now deservers to have "sucker" tattooed on their forehead -- these things look like they're made to rip people off with continual "upgrades" as they gradually turn into something useable.
The e-paper displays sound interesting, I suppose, but if I'm going to spend $800 on a linux gadget I'd want it to have the full functionality of a laptop... paying that much for a crippled laptop doesn't make a lot of sense to me...
The sony ebook reader has one great advantage over the kindle: it reads .pdf files directly, and you don't have to pay Amazon for the privilege to have the .pdf file converted to the Amazon DRMed ebook format. This is a crucial difference.
That said, I would need a device with larger screen than either the kindle or the Sony gadget.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Yes! And none of the disadvantages of a modern computer at the same time!
(That's my second candle post today!)
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
They're charging money to read open Internet content like blogs, and it appears even for your own PDFs.
This is evil, in particular for an unsubsidized $399 device.
There are several reading devices for not much more money that give you free access to free content and are even programmable.
It Has DRM
Has nobody been paying attention to the many and various articles in recent years about "some random company" who decided to revoke their DRM product (new DRM, dropped product, company died, etc) and totally screw all their customers who had paid license fees to use this DRM functionality?
VOTE WITH YOUR WALLETS people.
Visit CryptoGnome in his home.
I do not have the device so I am going from video on Amazon website.
Here is what the device currently lacks:
1. Hi-res screen. Some competitors do UXGA (16x12). 8x6 is piddly.
2. Color. Tech manuals and such have color graphs. Need not be much but at
least 16-color display is a must.
3. Must have stylus and ability to attach notes to specific places in text
(ideally also voice notes).
4. The video said that when you buy from Amazon store, the data is
still stored on the server. Local storage is a must for everything from books,
to annotations.
5. Faster typing. The video made it look like 100cpm folks will be in pain.
6. It was not clear whether the device could connect to scientific journals.
The ability to get authorized through university proxies is a must. This means
the user must be able to make custom login scripts and update security software.
7. Affordable price. $400 is about an order of magnitude too high. This is a device
that lets Amazon sell more books so I would expect it to be a loss leader like some
game consoles. This must be an impulse buy kind of thing to take over the market.
REkindle and stoke the stock fires, or be kindling for understocking and understoking!
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Too rich for their own good, money to burn, since to own this device, you would already have a laptop, an ipod, a cell phone, digital camera, etc. etc. If you have the money to fork over $400 for a device less useful than just about everything else on the market, you probably own a Segway.
Not to say that its not nice being rich, but you're also an idiot since this overpriced, semi-useful device is full of DRM and all your books will likely be gone as soon as amazon decides to discontinue it or not to support the old form of DRM with their new model.
But hey, if you're both rich and dumb, its perfect for you. Maybe someone will invent a clip to attach it to your Segway so you can read while you ride.
No, Thursday's out. How about never - is never good for you?
Twenty to thirty dollar NYT hardcover bestsellers cost $9.95. Other book prices can range all of the way down to $1.99.
Then again, in the future I expect things like textbooks may be more than that. 'Course, on the other foot, one reason textbooks are supposed to be expensive are their relatively limited production runs. Not a problem with ebooks.
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
Actually it only has something like 2.5 stars on Amazon. Not a good sign.
The Yasashii Syndicate ||
(That's my second candle post today!) Try lighting a candle, or turning on an electric light, during take-off. I think you'll get a similar response to both.
My point is that the Kindle seems to offer very little over a regular book. The difference between a candle and a lightbulb is huge. The difference between a book and a Kindle is
When you manufacture a mass market item, you're not in a position to say, "Let's just make 100 of them for our first manufacturing run, so we can boast that it sold out in a few hours." There's a fixed cost to starting up and shutting down a manufacturing line, and that means there's a minimum number of items you have to make if you want to make them at a reasonable cost. If you shut down the run before you reach that point, you end up saving little or no money.
So what you do is make some kind of estimate as to how many you're likely to sell during an initial period. (Obviously, if that estimate is lower than the manufacturing minimum, you've got another Foleo on your hands.) That estimate has to be be pretty low for a new e-book reader, a product with a really dismal track record. It's probably not much more than the minimum manufacturing run.
This device has some features that may or may not cause it to break away from the pack. The big one is that you don't need any kind of network access to download content; it has a built-in EVDO device that you can use without a monthly fee — network charges are included in the cost of the stuff you buy. (That's the main reason I considered buying one.) On the negative side, the thing's pretty expensive (the main reason I'm didn't) and a little bulky. In that kind of situation, the smart thing to do is do a short initial manufacturing run and see if the product develops a following. And in this case it has. Standard business practice, no Machiavellian scheming required.
I have to say it again: we're all hi-tech geeks here, and hi-tech doesn't work without economies of scale. Yet nobody on Slashdot seems to grasp the concept. Pretty sad.
Titles can be backed up to a drive, or simply deleted and downloaded again from Amazon as needed. Then again, I'd think a single 4GB flash card would last most people quite a while.
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
depends on the book, toss one in some water, it will be in bad condition, and then it will grow mold, and be eaten away.
> ...so it may just be that they didn't anticipate early demand.
Unlikely. Anyone who's taken an entry-level business class knows this is a common strategy. It's what Nintendo did with the original launch of the GameBoy. You don't aim production to meet or exceed demand. Instead, you actually aim to not meet demand. As a result, supplies run out and the news picks it up, causing even more demand. This Slashdot article is exactly what they want. The fact that Amazon hasn't released numbers is a dead give-away that this is what's happening. Nintendo has used this strategy effectively with other products, too.
I'm not saying anything about the product or this strategy, but you can be sure Amazon marketing dept. didn't mess up on demand estimations.
This author takes full ownership and responsibility for the unpopular opinions outlined above.
Supposedly sony's new reader (version B as it were) is ~40% faster at screen refreshes than the first gen (slow refresh rates!) so I would assume this e-ink is about that fast (unless I'm mistaken it's the same technology, just a different seller.)
:)
And e-ink currently requires full screen rewites due to the screen being a singular entity, in the current incarnation the screen is a page in that it can only be drawn on once, then it has to be wiped (new page) before the next drawing.
My concerns with this unit are that in order to transfer your personal documents (that client file, your research, copy of HP7 you downloaded...) you have to either email the book (10 cents), or email the document (non encrypted/compressed?)to amazon to be converted by their machines into the kindle's format, which can then be transfered via usb. Hopefully I did in fact misinterpret the amazon page. Either way, I can't even consider getting it for a few years, so it's all academic for me
maybe that's what you're looking for? http://www.eagleonemedia.com/comic_book_cd-roms.htm
Books are not "light weight" if you are talking about books that contain the number of pages that the Kindle can hold.
The cake is a pie
More versatile, has a camera, reads a wider variety of formats. It's a (funny little, purpose-built, not-your-ordinary) *laptop*, but it has a book-reading mode and a 200dpi screen (in monochrome mode).
:)
A bit bigger than the Kindle, sure, but sure seems like the one I'd rather have in my backpack / fallout shelter / carry-on bag. After all, does the Kindle have a game pad?
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
yes!........ Amazon launches Linux-based eBook reader
You'd do well to make note that despite all of slashdot's noise about DRM. It hasn't hurt the public adoption of DRM, and I don't see it changing with this story. In fact this story reenforces it. Another slashnegative this story kills is the one about it costing too much, both the device and the books. Maybe one should start ignoring slashdot and start paying attention to reality?
A fair point. I usually keep two novels plus textbooks with me. On some occasions, I'll replace the two novels with a larger O'Reilly book (or something of a similar nature and dimensions). I think Kindle is smaller than the regular two novels and is definitely smaller than OSS Essentials.
The Yasashii Syndicate ||
and the "too hot" comment, I can burn a book with a magnifying glass on a summer day, i doubt this device is vulnerable to that attack....without a huge lens
Say I bought the idea that the typical book that the Kindle is replacing is this $20 hardcover bestseller (why not paperback?) which you can now get in e-book form for $9.99. You're saving $10 per book, that's what you're saying right? So you need to buy 40 books to break even? I read about 20 books a year and I'm a heavy reader, but few, if any, are NYT bestsellers.. but let's say they were, you're saying this 2 year investment will save me how much again? I'll break even, that's right.
I think the real value of this product is in the ability to read Slashdot when away from a computer (but I guarantee you can't post) and for reading newspapers, etc. Oh, and the free access to Wikipedia is just awesome. But the price will have to come down a lot first.
How we know is more important than what we know.
The one app that would make me buy it right now: an SSH client. I could get a lot of work done on a portable wireless terminal like that. Coupled with free ubiqitous wireless, that's a killer application... for nerds, admittedly. But still, it'd probably be quite easy to implement, and the bandwidth would be trivial compared to web browsing.
Wait... you mean like in a store?
But the world "Attack" raises another point. It's not possible to hack or rootkit a real book.
Ever price a media-rated safe? The Kindle is likely to fail at temperatures that wouldn't damage a well-made book. The Kindle is plastic. Plastic melts and burn into an unrecognizable lump.
Like the Sony model, only more expensive? Yeah, hope that works out for ya.
I was going to critisize the name, but then I remembered this was from Amazon.
Ever price a media-rated safe? The Kindle is likely to fail at temperatures that wouldn't damage a well-made book. The Kindle is plastic. Plastic melts and burn into an unrecognizable lump.
True, true. I gess I should have said:(In)flammability: they probably kill you from the fumes while you watch them burn.
Kindle has an SD slot, so you can add a GB or four of storage dirt cheap (not that ebooks take much space at all). Also makes for an easy way to get stuff onto it.
I'm just hoping this will bring down the price of e-ink displays. I'd love one on my phone (which is where I do my ebook reading - don't want to carry around something extra the size of a Kindle).
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
My E-reader sold out in only 5 minutes. Take that Amazon.
What a mess. I ordered one. They shipped me two. (only billed for one). The one I opened died after about 3 hours. Unit still worked but the eInk screen was dead. Sent that one back for a refund. In my opinion the build quality sucks and there isn't really any good place to hold the unit where you aren't accidentally pressing some button. I still have my free unit new in the box. I'm so un-impressed I may just send it back to Amazon for some other dumb bastard to buy it. I hope this endeavor dies in a big way to warn others.
Sony sold e-ink. Bezos sold "a way to get the emotions and experiences I love from books". Big difference.
The Kindle is nothing more than a marketing ploy.
Im still buying a Nokia N810, this thing doesnt do colour and has very poor support for alternate file formats ie PDF support isnt very good.
Sony screwed up so badly with e-books, they're the only company which would fail to sell oil. Sony's only successful invention this decade is Blu-Ray.
People are complaining about the cost of reading blogs and buying books for the device.
Given the free, ubiquitous connectivity, its like carrying around a whole bookstore with you. It seems like some people might find that level of convenience worth the media cost.
Carry four textbooks on your back a few days a week for four years, and then tell me paper books are more portable and lightweight.
With kindle you can read day and night with no flashlight/lamp/whatever. Uhh, no, you can't. As I said (and the review linked in the summary said) it is e-ink, and there's no backlight.
How we know is more important than what we know.
With the free wireless access to wikipedia in a small book-like device, I'm floored that no one has made a Hitchhiker's Guide joke yet.
> # Archival attributes: we will still be able to read in 100 years, but we might not be able to open DRM protected files.
I don't think the current books will last that long, actually. The paper is pretty cheap stuff. I like the idea of a device like a Kindle, I'd just want something more open to where I can transfer stuff around on it. That way when I buy a book, I can keep it around forever and move it from device to device.
Why was this modded insightful? A calculator saves you LOTS of time. This device doesn't save you any time (except the shipping time of the book). You still have to READ THE BOOK!
If the dollar is an "I owe you nothing", then the Euro is a "Who owes you nothing." - Doug Casey
I'm surprised that we haven't seen a single /. user so far say that they ordered one. With the early adopter tech-happy geeks here, you'd think there'd be at least one, even with a limited supply. Unless the quantity was quite suspiciously small.
I for sure wouldn't spend that kind of money on an ebook reader, amazing what people are willing to spend money on these days with gas prices continuing to hike up. I'd much prefer the ability to buy pdf versions of books myself...
As a Canadian, I'd be curious to know of the wireless access to the amazon store would work in Canada. Has anyone tried to use one in Canada yet? I'm thinking a Kindle might make a good Christmas gift to myself or others, but I don't want to get it home, turn it on, and find no service available. Anyone with experience or information care to comment?
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
You can't deny it brings competition in this sphere and that is a good thing.
E-ink have so much potential, but are severely lacking - like they are all paperbook sized, but most of my textbooks are probably composed of sheets around 8x11 inch. I'm hoping someone brings out one in that size soon.
But it would never happen if there is only one or two companies designing and cranking out these things. Wireless would also be nice, not EVDO, but just 802.11b,g,n.
So that means they sold all 8 of them?
This proves it.
You can get a better product for less $$$
It is however perfectly easy for a company to launch with a limited number of items received from the factory. This is a basic sales trick. Amazon ordered the production of the kindle, but that doesn't mean all the units arrive in one go, that itself would be extremely foolish, it would delay the launch and cost a lot of money to stock everything.
Say that a factory can produce 100 devices per day just as an example. You want to launch as soon as possible so you tell them, when you got 500 send them over, so I can launch. Then at launch those 500 are "sold out". Sure they are, but the factory has been busily producing so they in fact now got 700 more, but because sending small orders is uneconomical you told them to NOT send the daily production over, you told them to wait till they got a 1000.
Bam, you get a head line of being sold out while the factory has plenty.
The kindle ain't sold out because it is still in production. It is trivial to set this scenario up and Amazon should fire its marketting department if they hadn't set this up. It is a basic move. Make the item seem hot, so that people get the idea that they MUST buy it now or they may not have another chance.
Have you EVER sold anything? It doesn't matter what house you are looking at buying, they ALWAYS got an intrested party about to make a good offer, so if you are quick you might just beat them. Decide NOW!
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I've discovered that the concept of making all applications look like a piece of paper on the screen is backwards & tiring as a result. Since the monitor is the source of the light my eyes need to block out the white light background in order to focus on the black letters. I've always enjoyed working in the console with white or green letters on a black background. In this case the letters - what you *want* to see - are the source of light. No need to focus where the light isn't.
Currently as I type this I am using the screen in the inverse mode that I get through the "SUPER+M" key combination whenever I have "Desktop Effects" (compositing) enabled in Ubuntu. I find I can work on the computer much longer this way without as much strain. The only disadvantage is that pictures & videos are negatives but it's super easy to just toggle the "SUPER+M" again to see what's there or for the duration of the video.
I expound upon this every chance I get. I hope more people would think about this to experience for themselves the difference. Am I in the minority here or has anyone else noticed this? I'd love to wake up one day to see that a majority of people would rather have light on dark instead of dark on light. Probably saves energy, too.
I use Clie for several years to read books. Initially I used project Gutenberg books processed with plucker. Then I found that there are tons of books available on P2P. I tried to find books to purchase but most of them come in proprietary format and can't be used by my palm. I would never go back to paper book unless I have no choice. Here are advantages of e-book reader:
1. Backlight - you can use reader when it is dark without disturbing people around you, like your sleeping wife.
2. You can carry several books on business trips and on the plane. I can fit probably 20 books on my 16mb device or much more on 32mb memory stick. I can go on a month long business trip and never run out of reading material.
3. Small and light - fits in my shirt pocket and weights less than a book. Very important when traveling.
4. Remembers page where you left it - you can read while standing in line in the store or any other line.
5. Has unlimited bookmarks and you can take notes right on the device. I hated bending corners of book pages, never did that.
6. Accessible - anyone can read it and works anywhere. It does not need network connection ether and with universal charger works anywhere in the world. I never had a problem so far.
7. Keeps other records handy. I use it for keeping my car maintenance log and other info.
8. Robust if you are careful with it - so far I only had 2. First I bought refurbished for $69 and second some years later on craigslist for $25.
9. Long battery life - mine lasts for 2 weeks if backlight isn't used.
10. Has dictionary lookup handy.
Over all I think it beats paper book hands down but of course it has downsides - like you cant take it to the month long desert hike. But so far I never taken one of these.
I would want my next reader be:
* small - to fit in my shirt pocket
* light - no heavier than my clie S360
* have possibility of memory expansion using sd cards
* have e-inc black and white screen - readable like paper if possible
* support pdf - this is optional. I can convert pdf to html and import html.
* have a backlight so I can read it in the dark.
Just my 2 cents.
400 dollars for a mono-color LCD screen? 10 bucks per book? Why does everything I read about this scream greedy. Slap some DRM on top of this, and you have me saying hell no. Awesome idea, but best suited for a company who's willing to do it right.
There are other benefits:
The calculus is:
1. $400 in your pocket
Versus:
1. Recovering your cost, and turning profit, after 2 years.
2. Carrying all your books around with you on one device (1000s of titles with a 2GB SD card, and you can carry multiple SD cards).
3. Free, wireless wikipedia.
4. Purchasing new books without having to travel to a book store, and with a 60-second delivery time.
5. Support for audio tracks and audio books.
6. Low/no publishing cost. $0.10 cents per file you transfer to your Kindle via EVDO, free transfers in Mobipocket, RTF, Doc, or Text format via USB, and integration with Amazon's Author-Self-Publishing service (ala Podcasts).
7. Support for Free Books, something which isn't possible on paperback.
There are plenty of other benefits than the $10 per NYT bestseller savings. Now, given all that, would it be worth $400 to me? No, probably not, but it does get me excited. Were this device $300? Or $250? I'd consider it quite seriously.
Were it $200? Or avaliable at a B&M store? Or *gasp* $100-$150? I'd have one by now.
It really is a neat gizmo, particularly when combined with the Amazon Whispernet concept.
Furthermore, I wouldn't be surprised if Kindle users start buying far more books than the average Amazon user, mainly because it is so much easier (and impulsive). If eBooks really did become very widespread, I can imagine the prices dropping down to quite low levels.
The main issue or me is that I think all this content should be free. The true dream would be to reduce copyright terms down to a few years. We clearly have the technology to make all the world's written information avaliable wirelessly to a digital tablet for a price of $400 or less. Can you imagine a society where everything in the Library of Congress, plus everything online, was at your fingertips?
I think it would be something like a New Renaissance age. But that is neither here nor there, until the law changes, or a consortium of companies realizes that all-you-can-eat content libraries would be able to sustain very high subscription rates.
WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
While they are all well and good they still suck on screen resolution or color. Even if someone was to crack it, that does not man you can display adequate PDFs or render decent HTML on it only that you have better access to the hobbled display technology these books are limited in offering.
I say take one of those insanely cheap color sub-notebooks and hack that into a full color browsable PDF viewing, multi media playing, DRM free wireless, accessialbe, printable, high capacity and speed (relatively) E-library (compared to the current ebook specs it would be a library.)
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
Add Linux e-reader software to a Linux-based Nokia N800 Internet Tablet and you're there, and if you insist on having access that isn't via WiFi, add a
Better performance, and no vendor lockin.
Tech Public Policy stuff
You cannot have PROFIT!!! without first having ??????.
I'd like to point you to a post I made earlier.
Here's the meat:
1. Recovering your cost, and turning profit, after 2 years.
2. Carrying all your books around with you on one device (1000s of titles with a 2GB SD card, and you can carry multiple SD cards).
3. Free, wireless wikipedia.
4. Purchasing new books without having to travel to a book store, and with a 60-second delivery time.
5. Support for audio tracks and audio books.
6. Low/no publishing cost. $0.10 cents per file you transfer to your Kindle via EVDO, free transfers in Mobipocket, RTF, Doc, or Text format via USB, and integration with Amazon's Author-Self-Publishing service (ala Podcasts).
7. Support for Free Books, something which isn't possible on paperback (you pay for paper, ink, and printer maintenance. not to mention binding equipment).
There are all kinds of reasons why ebooks readers are cool, particularly one with a nifty new EVDO connection model.
Frankly, the free, wireless Wikipedia is worth $100, and the portability is worth at least another $100. I would love to be able to bring my library with me on a plane. Not just 2-3 books; the whole thing.
Any self-publishing through Amazon, something which will take some time to establish, seems ultra-cool. Not to mention that this device enables the possibility of other "online" book-like services in the same way that Wikipedia on a kindle is an "e-encyclopedia". Imagine text-books with interactivity, or the ability to submit homework and/or quiz answers directly through the device.
Hell, newspapers that update themselves are pretty cool, too. Not to mention that getting your books, news, and everything else electronically significantly reduces the amount of waste you discard.
WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
It's plenty easy to root a real book. Just don't do it in Australia.
and running them on my ~$100 Palm Zire 31. In fact, that's how I usually buy fiction. And since most of my leisure reading is SF, I get DRM-free downloads from Baen Books. I can also convert documents most major formats into something readable via Palm.
Tech Public Policy stuff
Most of what you said applies to candles as well, but we still like our electric lights.
Yes, we do.
Add to that all of the usual ebook advantages, like not having to lug around tons of books if you are taking a trip, or the ability to just download a book on a whim that suits your mood rather than haul your butt to the bookstore or library. It's rather like the difference between an iPod and a CD player.
That said, like an iPod I will not be taking an ebook to the beach anytime soon. (is that before or after sales taxes? I never groked the U.S. habit of *not* advertising the real price). Simple: they don't know if they are going to have to charge you sales tax, and if they do the percentage varies by state. Personally, I like being told exactly how much the government is taking from me every time I make a purchase.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Simply find or create special fonts to work with the screen resolution. (as Amazon did) I do most of my leisure reading on a 160x160 pixel Palm without significant eyestrain. And if the comments about Mobipocket (I usually use their Palm app as an e-book reader) being owned by Amazon are correct, they did exactly the same thing on Kindle.
Not that I'd object to a reader with a 300 dpi e-ink or OLED screen, but nobody sells one.
Tech Public Policy stuff
I can't stand the physical form factor of books. You have to hold the book with both hands - all the time - so it doesn't close on itself, or you have to almost break the book binding to keep itself open. Then you lay down and have it resting and you accidentally breath and the page flips back. Then the paper dries out your fingertips from flipping pages. As you work through a book the "keep it open" strategy changes as the bulk of pages moves from one side to the other. You can't enlarge the text and always need to have a strong light source around at the proper angle. Newspapers are large and bulky, and articles jump around all over the place.
Something like the Kindle could solve all those problems. If it's well done, I'd much rather read books, magazines, newspapers, etc. on a device like this than in the paper form factor. I do 99.9% of all my reading on computers. If I really want to read a book I can force myself through about one a year.
I don't care if it's artificially hyped. It's not backlit and I want one.
1. Convenience. You can do full text searches on every book in an eBook reader, an incredibly useful feature for anyone doing research or just looking up a particular term.
2. Portability. You can carry a thousand books and also grab other content (newspapers, blogs, magazines, journals) in a unit the size of a paperback, which you can throw in a backpack, briefcase, etc.
3. Flexibility. You can download any document off the internet (PDF, DOC, TXT) and take it with you without having loose papers to worry about. Granted, the Kindle isn't well suited to this, but other eBook readers handle many formats natively.
4. Efficiency. It wastes a lot fewer resources to manufacture one eBook reader than to print, assemble, and ship hundreds or even thousands of physical books.
5. Turnaround. You can decide to purchase a new book whenever you like, without going to a store, waiting for a shipment, or printing a huge stack of paper on your laser printer. The Kindle even lets you buy a book from wherever you have mobile phone service, though I don't like their DRM model.
6. Usability. If you have poor eyesight you can adjust font sizes on the fly. If you're not in a position to read print you can play an audiobook.
The Kindle is still a pretty primitive device, but over the next several years, as more content becomes eBook-oriented and eBook readers become more useful (better, color screens, solar/motion charging, touch interface) the paper book will become like the slide rule or the 35mm consumer camera: Still used and appreciated by some but more and more ignored by the masses.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
or .txt? or .rtf?
Hmmm, I wonder if we will be able to read the Road to Tycho series on the Kindle?
My neighbor got one, and has had it for almost two days now. He let me play with it a few times.
The display is very crisp and clear and easy to read. It has a clear surface over the e-ink display... the effect is like reading a really, really flat piece of glossy paper. Yes, if you have very good vision you can see the pixels, but it's so very very high contrast that that's not a problem.
The unit is much more attractive in person than its photos make it look on the web. It's not beige, it's very white. It's slim, and the angularness of it is less obvious in person than on the web, unless you look at it from the end. It has a nice leather case that it goes in which makes it rather book-like in many respects. When you turn it off, it puts something interesting on the screen (remember, e-ink takes no power to display, only to change, so you can leave something on an "off" e-ink screen) and my friends quite like that. The UI is easy enough to use - a minute or two of poking at it and I'd figured it out more or less. The wireless connection works very well. He downloaded a sample chapter (yes, you can get free sample chapters) in mere seconds after he'd typed in the title.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with it, and immediately recommended it to my aunt, who has been searching for a good e-book reader for a few years.
Personally, the iRex iLiad looks really nice: 8 inch, 1024x768 screen, all the nice stats, and can read more formats + has wifi (!). Downside: costs $699. Still, it apparently browses the net too (amazon only allows limited browsing features). >
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
Ok, I'll take a crack.
1. Convenience. You can do full text searches on every book in an eBook reader, an incredibly useful feature for anyone doing research or just looking up a particular term.
That's something computers are for - if I'm doing research, I'm not going to be doing it on a text reader.
2. Portability. You can carry a thousand books and also grab other content (newspapers, blogs, magazines, journals) in a unit the size of a paperback, which you can throw in a backpack, briefcase, etc.
Carrying around giant libraries of music (and video) makes sense, but people tend to read one book at a time.
3. Flexibility. You can download any document off the internet (PDF, DOC, TXT) and take it with you without having loose papers to worry about. Granted, the Kindle isn't well suited to this, but other eBook readers handle many formats natively.
This also tends to only make sense in the context of a portable computer of some kind (If I'm taking papers somewhere, I'm doing work; if I'm doing work, I want a computer, not a text reader).
4. Efficiency. It wastes a lot fewer resources to manufacture one eBook reader than to print, assemble, and ship hundreds or even thousands of physical books.
Could be. Although the vast majority of people seem to only buy a book or two a year, and gadgets like this get replaced every couple of years - could come out even in the end.
5. Turnaround. You can decide to purchase a new book whenever you like, without going to a store, waiting for a shipment, or printing a huge stack of paper on your laser printer. The Kindle even lets you buy a book from wherever you have mobile phone service, though I don't like their DRM model.
That is the only real, tangible advantage to these things that I can think of. (Of course the Kindle completely destroys it with the whole DRM business)
And even here, it's not like with music or movies - you'll be reading the book over a period of several days or weeks (or months), so being able to get one instantaneously isn't as big an advantage.
6. Usability. If you have poor eyesight you can adjust font sizes on the fly. If you're not in a position to read print you can play an audiobook.
Depends on the device, I suppose - when it comes down to plain comfort, real books have been pretty hard to beat for these things.
the paper book will become like the slide rule or the 35mm consumer camera: Still used and appreciated by some but more and more ignored by the masses.
I'm not buying it. Both of those examples are replaced by something that does the exact same function, but in a more powerful/easier to use manner; they have no intrinsic benefits over their replacements and the only reason to continue using them is nostalgia.
Whereas here, the new solution is not only searching for a problem in many situations, but is considerably worse in some. The main one being that it's very, very difficult to render a book unreadable, whereas these things have batteries and are very susceptible to physical damage or a splash of water; and people tend to read a lot away from home.
I do think these types of things will become a lot more popular, but not for all uses. For example, I can easily imagine most newspapers being delivered on such devices 10-15 years from now, but I can also easily see recreational reading sticking with actual books for some time. (Of course for all I know, all future exchange of information will go through Facebook, and this is all moot)
sic transit gloria mundi
DON'T PANIC ? The Kindle sounds like a precursor to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to me.
This is the post-literate generation; paper books are ignore by the masses now. This will never be anything more than a toy for nerds with too much disposable income.
Occam's razor: Maybe they're just lying about being sold out - to generate a bit of "buzz".
No sig today...
I think it will probably be no different, in the end, than the story of 35mm and digital cameras. The first "real" digital camera was the Kodak DCS-100 released in 1991. It was huge, with a 3.5" 200MB hard drive for storage. It took 1.3MP images. And it cost $13,000. Anyone who compared digital cameras to film cameras during the 1990s would have considered digital cameras overpriced novelties that could never replace a decent 35mm. But technology marched on, and as digital cameras became better and cheaper the convenience of being able to view photos without a trip to the 1-hour developer outweighed the progressively smaller quality and price disparity. Of course, technology then continued to march on, digital cameras have essentially caught up with film versions in quality, features, and price, and now you'd be lucky to find a major retailer that carries a selection of 35mm cameras. Now, underscoring the importance of convenience over quality, many people today are taking photos with their cell phones rather than carrying around a second device.
We're back in the 90s again when it comes to eBooks. They're bulky, poor quality, and expensive compared to real books, but they are more convenient in many ways and have quite a bit of untapped potential. The paperless office may be a long ways off, and quality hardcovers will surely stay with us for centuries more, but in 2018 a printed paperback, manual, or textbook may be no more common than a 35mm camera is today.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Okay, seriously folks - how are they justifying the price of this thing? When eInk first announced these new paper-like displays, we were told they would be immensely cheaper then any current displays - especially for mobile devices.
So the screen is cheap - it must have some awesome functionality, right? No - this thing can't do anything a $99 Palm Pilot can't do. In fact, I would venture to guess a palm pilot can do a lot more.
So the screen is cheap, the underlying tech is cheap, how can this be $400? The EVDO? Consider that Sony's EVDO-less model is only $50 cheaper at ~$350. So you're getting a dumbed down palm pilot with less features and a cheaper screen for 3x-4x the price? Note: I'm not saying a Palm Pilot is better, I'm just pointing out that the eReaders coming out should be much cheaper.
So what gives? Can someone explain to me where the high price is coming from?
or else!
Any idea when (if?) Amazon plan to start selling in Europe (and even more particularly, Sweden)?
Quick browsing of the info-sheet at Amazon.com reveals no information on the matter.
1. Create product
2. Program stocks shortage on launch
3. Let headlines say "product XXXX sold out in XXXX hours !!!!"
4. Profit...
Reminds me of the Wii.
My
...does it blend?
- Transferable: they have resale value including content... legally.
from what i remember Americans aren't legally allowed to resale books, but i only heard that once.. so i might be mistakenBecause of the wireless connection, can it be used on a plane? It would mostly appeal to people with money, that tend to fly more then average. And they would like you to turn of devices while taxing (which can take up to 20 minutes sometimes on Schiphol Airport, flying 10 minutes), although nobody does that.
This is the one stop place for comparing all the different e-readers:
http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_Reader_MatrixThis one is more comprehensive than the matrix posted at Wired, which BTW looks as if it was a cut & paste from some parts of the above matrix
I watched the Youtube video. Congratulations on being married.
Who the hell would buy such a thing for 399$ i am curious that this thing sold out. Its bader than the IPoad and IPhone stuff. A think you dont need for money you dont have... 3
Yah, but how many books can you fit in, well, one book - only one. This is not scalable and the multistoried stadium-size libraries are proof of that. My 512M SD card can fit 50 books, roughly 500 pages each (tech manuals). Beat that with your dead tree.
the interface is kind of old school, too many button, looks like a kids toy, and my mouse has a nicer wheel. aside the drm issue, if it had more of an iphone type interface, I would buy it.
Somehow, I'm reminded of this comic: http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=212
but my question is whether I can get my textbooks in ebook form. If I could do that, then I wouldn't need to carry heavy college textbooks to class. Hell, my laptop is lighter than any of my textbooks, I could use that. However, if all I can read are some random romance novels that were published in ebook form, I'm not going to go for it.
What's the availability of ebooks for college courses? Will they be compatible with this thing.
It's obvious that there would be a market for a low cost alternative to, well, almost any ebook reader, so I just went to have a look at eInk's website to see if there is a developer kit. There is, here and even the prototype they have there looks pretty cool. So I went to have a look at the shop...
I don't know much about the hardware business but I would say that $3k is way too big an entry cost for a developer kit. OK, they probably haven't got to mass producing the screen yet, but the rest of the hardware is common enough, the OS is Linux and the drivers and applications are open source. So what are we paying for? How much does a production licence cost? I'm all for eInk making an honest profit out of their work, but this looks like a stumbling block for the development of an open alternative.
Anyone else notice a somewhat excessive and undeserving use of the "Overrated" mod on many comments critical of the Kindle?
BTW, Good list. Let me add one: "Green footprint: can be made of 100% nontoxic, natural materials in very eco-friendly way."
Also, put a guy reading a book in a train/bus and another using something that remembers a laptop in some places in the world to check which one has the higher chance of being robbed.
I for one would not buy an e-book or something of that matter until it can run on more than just batteries as I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be pleased when I finally get to the end of the book and the fucking batteries die on me.
http://stoploudness.org/
Dude, and how much did every one pay for a vic20 then a c-64 which if the same hardware was put on a cell phone today
;-) in a modern cpu/arm.
would be less than $5 worth of IC, and still produce decent games at 320x240 res on a cell phone (someone make a 100% c64 phone with built in 500 games)
Id love a thrust clone it was awesome. And impossiblemission games, as if java can do that in 32000 BYTES!. Let alone the main logo.jpg
6510 as bytecode might actually be faster than java
So its $1000 for a c-64, about in those days.. 1/10th of a salary, thats like paying $7,000 today for some hitech toy, we just dont have that
these days. $400 is peanuts, but you have to like peanuts, not everyone does.
NOTE TOP SLASHDOT coders, seven dots in a row, is not a junk Character dudez, program some saner detectors, like if repeating dots are >5% of the message.Length()
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
Books have some major problems people don't see because they can only express their wishes about books in book terms. It's kind of like explaining recursion to a GW-BASIC programmer.
- Books can't be searched by terms not in their indexes
- Books can't be reassembled by the owner for different reading experiences (say the book itself and notes from a different author)
- Books don't self-update (but this is also an advantage)
- Libraries can't be easily searched
- Books occupy space (I have no problem about my good books - the ones I enjoy re-reading after 20+ years - taking up space, but I do with all those throwaway technical books about a single version of something I ended up accumulating over time
- You can't easily publish them
But I agree most e-readers suck real badly.
I have a wishlist: http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=367599&cid=21445193
http://www.dieblinkenlights.com
For ebook readers, I'd say the main issue is long-term readability on a sunny day in the park.
But still pretty awful compared to a typical printed novel or a glossy magazine.
Well, personally I would say that they should fire their marketing department for not being capable of marketing honestly. But that's another issue.
On gullibility vs. sales tricks, I agree. The very fact that amazon's kindle page has a special sold out message instead of the usual tried and tested stock level reporting system that's used for other products should tell you that it's fishy... as if you needed any more evidence of it.
Even with zero printing and distribution costs, there are a lot of fixed overheads that have to be amortised over the entire sales run. If you can sell more copies, you add a smaller percentage of this to each sale and the overall costs come down.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Books are broken. They are: * Proven to be temporary. Much of history has been lost thanks to the use of books. * Break. Definitely within a 20 year timeframe. * Unreliable. The book becomes unusable if it gets wet. * Lack of archival attributes: We definitely can't read a book in 100 years. We might be able to break the DRM in that time. * Not portable. Can't carry more then a few at one time. * Heavy. Can't carry more then a few without them becoming heavy. * Inaccessible. Can't get to a book if you don't have that particular one immediately on hand. * Difficult to store. As someone whose running out of room to store his books, this is a definite plus for ebooks. But I'm sure this won't persuade you're luddite heart. I'm surprised you didn't mention the fact you can feel and smell the paper. Your sort of people laugh that. Myself, I'll just embrace the future instead.
I think colleges and universities could benefit most from something like this. Imagine if as part of your tuition you were given one of these slick ereaders. Then you download all your textbooks onto it. You can choose to purchase a cheaper time-sensitive copy which expires after the term is up. No hassle of trying to resell your textbooks after the semester only to find out the professor changed the edition, so the next semester doesn't want your used book.
Heck, I remember my own CS courses, the books averaged $80 to $150 each! Times 5 classes per semester, times 2 semesters per year, times 4 years. Whew - lot of money went to books I'll never touch again.
Also, no heavy textbooks to lug around. And if the device allowed you to highlight passages to be aggregated into your own study notes- even better. The professor could even release his own notes as an ebook, so no more need to copy down his annoying powerpoint lessons.
We've already seen resistance from paper-back fans how an ereader just doesn't make sense compared to a paperback. So if these things can't take off in the university setting, I don't see much hope for their wider adoption.
Of course- I prefer paper books- they look nicer on my shelves and are more likely to still be in my possession 20 years from now than any ebook.
Reading Word is almost useless (for me since I use pages, numbers, and keynote for work). I'd be interested if it could read PDF. The I could scan in a few things before leaving, and read them on the plane. Can some1 please make a PDF writer for the kindle. I can't do it because I'm not a programmer. Cheers, KiwiCanuck
- cheaper
- color
- wifi built-in
- readily available third-party software
- plays games
- web browser built in
- mp3 player built in
- rss built in
- video player built in
- easily re-flashed w/custom firmware
- bookr PDF/text reader
Worked fine for the last two books I read, Les Miserables (1232 pages) and The Stand (1344 pages). I don't think O'Reilly books count as 'big boy books,' I'd reserve that designation for books that have been edited by someone capable of both reading and writing the book's language.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
> So... you're saying that a book has all the advantages of an abacus?
Not quite, an abacus can withstand *three* toddlers
I was trying to read the reviews, they all seemed rigged? The first 30 I looked at had 5 stars, but overall the device gets 2 1/2 stars. The device looks extremely unusable and what happens to your e-Books in 20 years?
By the way, I don't know about Kindle, but my lBook is lighter and thinner than the vast majority of my paper books.
if you want to convert your .doc and .html and .txt files over, amazon charges $0.10 per file.
Speaking as someone who's had a number of service-supported devices made useless because the service provider quit providing the service, this is a deal killer.
For $400, I expect something better than a $100 PDA, not something worse.
1. Is this your first eBook device?
2. If so, why did this one attract you?
3. If not, what are you doing with your existing eBooks?
4. What's your monthly 'toy' budget, to the nearest $100?
For now, the iPod Touch is the best reader/browser combination.
Because this is ridiculous. The Nokia 770/n800/n810 has an amazing 800x480, 4.1" in diagonal, 225 pixels/in screen and still fits in your pocket. With FBReader installed through the package manager (yes, it runs Linux), it can read nearly anything and is great for web browsing.
Compare that to the iPod touch, with a 3.5" screen with 480×320 pixels at 163 ppi.
In Soviet Russia eBook kindles YOU!
push-button bookmarks, being able to make notes without messing up the book itself, and being able to cut and paste paragraphs or sections from a book into the applications of your choice. I paid full price for a current PDA because I wanted to write a how-to Linux article and wanted to make sure I had current hardware to base it on. Now, of course, one simply downloads a copy of JPilot or KPilot and lets the app talk to the device.
Tech Public Policy stuff
and if you insist on having access that isn't via WiFi, add a mobile phone adapter for under $100.
Tech Public Policy stuff
see title.
Tech Public Policy stuff
How can you get a whole bunch of books into something you can stick into a pocket and walk away with?
I've got 327 books loaded into my Palm PDA.
I've got room for another several hundred. That's several boxes of paperbacks I won't have to move the next time I change my residence address, And the Palm goes with me when I go anywhere, so I don't have to worry about running out of reading material. Or listening, there's plenty of room in the 1G flash memory for MP3s.
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fit into even a large pocket?
Tech Public Policy stuff
I've read 275 or so. I prefer reading on a PDA to reading deadtree books and find that I now avoid getting books unless I can get them in a Palm-compatible format. The only thing I miss is illustrations, but that's my fault for picking a PDA with a limited color/gray scale range. I'd like a larger screen, but if the desire for this becomes overwhelming, I'll simply upgrade to an N800, which with the purchase of an adapter, gives me smartphone capabilities as well.
Actually, the PDA goes into the back pocket of my backpack when I'm on the road... or a jacket pocket this time of year. This should work equally well with a N800.
Tech Public Policy stuff
Yeah, and you'd better want to reread the books you buy, because unlike real ones, you can't resell these down at the local shop for new ones.
Personally I think the price-point is way high. They have virtually zero marginal cost on these, plus they can't be resold (meaning you need to subtract the resale value from the price you'd be willing to pay for the exact same product otherwise), or even loaned to a friend or shared.
It's a step in the right direction but Amazon still seems to be trying to have it both ways: they're basing their price on real physical books (admittedly at a discount, but they're still taking the dead-tree price and working down, not taking the actual marginal cost and working up), but then restricting your use of them in ways that are only possible because they're digital. Pretty raw deal for the consumer, IMO.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Have you ever seen someone who uses an abacus daily? For daily addition, they can perform as fast as you can enter the info into a calculator. Fast and without electricity!
Besides, how often does the average person use a computer for computing? I seldom use the calculator (in fact I find myself using Google more!). If the number is too big to do in my head, I'll resort to a calculator, but usually one on my desk. If I had an abacus, I might be inclined to use it!
The biggest point I can make is: how many really good books can you get for $400? I can bring home a crate of books from a used bookstore for much less. I'll take the real deal, thanks!
Oh, and what are supposed to do when you're trapped on a deserted island? Your ebook will die in a week, while the real book will keep you company long after you loose your mind!
Huh?
What amazon is providing the ability for anyone to get books that non-slashdot readers enjoy reading. Pick up 50 of the best books of this year - doesn't matter which books you like, pick any list you like - and tell me how many of them you can buy in pdf format. Get it? 400$us if buying you the ability to get any newly released book in a portable format. 400$us if buying you amazon's power to get editors to put books in an electronic format. No e-ebook has ever been sucessful because of the lack of contents interesting to most people, not technicalities. I understand /. loves technicalities, but you need to wake up and smell the reality. No one really cares if you can read PDFs on it. People only care if they can get one of NYT's top 10 books to read while they are on the move or on vacation. And if they can do it while they are on vacation - without a freakin' computer - the better. They want to buy a book if they read a bit of it at a store. They want to buy a book if their vacation friend told them how good it was. And now you can, in a portable format. You don't even have to go to a wifi cafe'. You just do it before you pack to beach.
Get it?
It's not a fair comparison of a book to a kindle.
A more suitable comparison is a bookstore and personal bookshelves to a kindle.
With a Kindle, you can be sitting in your home, your car, a coffee shop, a restaraunt, at the beach, etc and have your library with you to select from. You want something new? It'll download in 60 secs. You want to lookup an item of interest? Wikipedia is an immensely valuable knowledge base.
I looked with interest at Sony's technology, and PDA-based opions for years, but never bought one. However, this one I bought 5 mins after reading about it.
I got it 2 days ago and love it.
Just a note about the parent author, it's clearly a paid-for astroturf campaign. They are a recent joiner of slashdot, and have at the time of writing, posted only two comments which speak about amazon's new product. Both posts read like PR scripts, yet despite being posted within 30 minutes of each other: state that they have owned the device for 2 days yet have experienced 3-4 days of battery life.
I am sorry if the fact that my first post on SlashDot carried an opinion was upsetting to you. I guess you'd rather see all the critical comments from people who had never even seen a Kindle. The opinion of one who actually has one and likes it must be of little interest to your narrow mind.
as for the kindle guy: no offence for your inspiration for a new tech, but if you're not being paid for your blatant sound-bite filled advertising, then you're nothing more than a fool.
But do not think for a second that you look cleverer.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Make the price $200, and I'll think about buying one. Then I'll decide not to because this is strictly a luxury item and I could buy 20 real books for that. Make the price $125-ish, and I will actually buy it, grudgingly.
Of course - the new ebook world is limited just to the US. Amazon state "... Kindles cannot currently be sold or shipped to customers living outside of the U.S." What is the rest of the world? Months or years behind? Maybe Amazon is doing us a favour.
Great! now we can burn the books and save the trees!~