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Amazon Kindle 2 Leaked, Sony Reader To Get Touch Screen
suraj.sun writes with news that the e-book reader market is getting more competitive. The Boy Genius Report got its hands on pictures of the Kindle 2, successor to Amazon's first e-book gadget. The new version is a bit bigger, with edges that are less awkward, and it has a revamped key layout. On the same day these pictures were found, Sony announced that a new model of its Reader would be getting a touchscreen, allowing users to "turn the page by swiping their finger across the screen" and "annotate text using a touchscreen keyboard." The advances for each gadget may help them regain market share against the iPhone, which, according to Forbes, has eclipsed both in popularity as a reading device. Hopefully the competition for sales and the work being done by the OLPC Project will help to drop prices as well.
Can I read run-of-the-mill letter-size PDFs on it yet?
Slashdotted. :-(
Since the original link is slashdotted, you can find some pics here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10058352-1.html
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
Wouldn't a scrollwheel be better than a joystick for the purpose of this reader?
I had been considering purchasing one, now I wonder if I should hurry up and buy v1 before the new one comes out.
"turn the page by swiping their finger across the screen" ...
Leaving smeary, Cheetos marks across my books.
Wait, that isn't really a change.
after being left in the cold by Sony with their librie (closed format, no fw upgrades to read pdf or epub) I will stick with my ipod touch and stanza, the screen is a bit small and not as nice as the librie's e-ink one, but at least I can read every format without issues and the integration with feedbooks is awesome.
-- the cake is a lie
"turn the page by swiping their finger across the screen"
Only appeals to those whose laptop screens are encrusted with fingerprints. Ugh. Gross. I'm also not impressed with cellphones that accumulate a "face-print" on their LCDs.
Yet another product that looks great until actually used. I'm sure the focus group loved it.
Perhaps the target market is those folks whom still run their finger along underneath the words?
It's like promoting the "quality" of HDTV to nation where 90% of sets have 1/4 inch of dust and pet hair and badly maladjusted picture controls.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
popular if they had any decent books in their store or actually supported non-windows platforms. You would think that in the face of the growing popularity of the mac and the heavy competetion they are facing that Sony would try to expand it's potential audience, but we all know modern Sony rarely displays anything that could be considered logic...
Monstar L
Ugh. The Kindle is one of the best-designed gadgets I've ever owned. I hope we don't suffer through a series of crappy re-thinkings based on some misplaced notion of hipness to try to sell readers to people who don't actually read books.
For instance, a touchscreen is an incredibly lame idea. You spend a _lot_ of time with an e-reader, ok? It takes hours and hours to read a book. Are you really going to want to read the another novel on that screen you've been dragging your finger across for the last three months? Yuck. Not a mobile phone, folks.
I was totally skeptical about the Kindle until I actually held one. It fits great in either hand, and unlike other readers I've seen you can use it one-handed. If you use your Kindle in the supplied leatherette case you're doing it wrong!
The Sony reader looks nicer in photos but doesn't have the same kind of balance. I'll take function over form on something like this any day.
Thing is, with a cell phone you only need the screen for a few seconds, you won't be trying to read text with no backlight for hours and cursing every single page turn.
Still, it'll look cool in the marketing videos and that's what counts.
No sig today...
Perhaps the target market is those folks whom still run their finger along underneath the words?
Those people are blind, you insensitive clod!
They're single-purpose devices with closed formats in an increasingly multipurpose open-format world. Why would anyone in their right mind spend about $400 on a device that is locked to proprietary formats and doesn't do much else except "read books." Just one more [expletives deleted] gadget to carry around.
On the other hand, smart phones like the iPod and Android, which can also presumably serve as schedulers, notepads, book readers, mp3 players/audiobook players and *gasp* phones?
Kindle and Sony were effectively obsolete the day they were released.
Until it is cheaper, it's not going to gain a lot of popularity - paying almost $400 for the ability to read books never made sense to begin with; and as the economy gets worse, it will make even less sense.
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/gallery/devices/amazon-kindle-2/
The screen looks to be about the same size as the old one.
iPhone App Store since July, has been downloaded more than 395,000 times and continues to be installed at an average rate of about 5,000 copies a day
MobiPocket was at 1 million downloads in 2003 (before being bought by Amazon), and god knows where it is now.
MobiPocket runs on Palm, PocketPC, Windows Mobile, and Symbian, and one of those is almost certainly the most popular E-book platform.
Crap, that looks like some kind of laptop from 1993; nice big bezel and itty-bitty screen. All that just so the geeks could have a physical keyboard. Points out how backwards the Kindle's software probably is.
Just license the UI crap you need from Apple and be done with it. You need to; your product amply demonstrates this. You have enough money.
In addition, EFF discussed some issues here.
When will they get it right? I would love to own an E-book and I'd buy lots of E-texts. But first they need to:
- Quit trying to force us into their middle-man monopoly.
- Let it read open formats.
- Get rid of the DRM.
Is it so hard to understand? I want to own the stuff I buy. PERIOD. I don't want a license, and I want to buy it from whomever I choose. Until then I'll keep buying pressed trees.
"Until it is cheaper, it's not going to gain a lot of popularity - paying almost $400 for the ability to read books never made sense to begin with; and as the economy gets worse, it will make even less sense."
Well considering all the money I've spent over the years and subsequently lost because books aren't easily movable. $400 for a reader and I can easily take everything with me from now on. I'd say it's worth it.
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
It's still not clear to me why precisely I want a hardware keyboard in my ebook reader. There just aren't a lot of reasons to interact with an ebook reader that can't be done with a couple arrow buttons.
Frankly, the Kindle looks like a bargain-basement product, with an upper-tier price. Yes I know most of the cost is in the screen, I just wish it didn't look like crap. Also, open formats would be nice...
I'm not too keen on these latest announcements really. It looks like a lot of manufacturers are looking at the iPhone and getting worried that it can do a lot of stuff that their device can't.
I'm not really interested in that. I'd like a dedicated reading device. Why does the Kindle have a keyboard? Why is the new Reader getting a touch screen? I guess Sony / Amazon aren't making the screen tech themselves, so maybe just have to concentrate on other areas that they can change.
I'm happy with the features on the Sony Reader, I'd just like to see improvements to the screen. They should look at Apple's frequent strategy of focusing on what a device should be doing and not putting in unnecessary features. Some people will use an iPhone for reading documents, that doesn't mean the Kindle / Reader should compete with the iPhone.
Kindle is amazing. But the whole point of the kindle is not the reader per-se but the hundreds of thousands of titles that are 30 seconds away... anywhere!
I read 2 books a week on the kindle. It's better than I ever thought.
Once Kindle2 comes out, I give my wife the Kindle1 and buy one. With two people on one account you can share books too
Seriously...who thought that was a good idea?! If holding an e-reader I'd like it to have _some_ similarity to holding a book...not some cold piece of metal!
Now I'm thinking about getting V1 asap...even it will be a bit complicated (Kindle not available here...)
One that hath name thou can not otter
Well that might be a deal killer for me. Sounds like they want to move away from 'user supplied content', and this is the first step.
Wonder how the web browser is in this one, and when they will start charging for its use.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Keyboards for using the wireless to search for books. Putting touch on an eink screen reduces the visual quality of the display, for a device that is for reading books it seems like the wrong direction to go.
And yes, everyone tries to chase Apple's industrial design. Even when it doesn't make sense.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
when several fonts are accepted, the screen is in color instead of the bland look it has now. Even the ones that place pics in the e-books they produce are often disappointed with the outcome. I just think that with today's technology, I don't understand why the Kindle has not upgraded far better than it has. I look forward to the day when this product is really worthy of a purchase. But I can't see spending that kind of money on something that looks as though it came from the 1980's.
Keyboard is for entering search terms on the Amazon store. You finish a book and you want another one, you can 1-click it wireless instead of having to hook up to a computer again. Pretty handy for those who read serials and want to dive right into the next one.
Kindle reads open formats. It's even stated on the product page for it.
Amazon is making their reader look just like the classic iPod. Sony's reader has elegance and the features to put it on top.
All I want is a device with a screen the size of a paperback, an SD card slot, and the ability to read anything I throw at it - pdf, txt, doc. Oh and with enough battery life to turn 1000 pages. I dont want Wi-Fi, online services, subscription charges and I certainlly dont want any DRM. There are LOADS of books out of copyright that would make a device like this ideal. How many gzipped libraries of congress is an 8Gb SD card?
The PRS-505 launched in the UK recently, and I was all set on getting one until I saw the price of books for these things.
When I buy a book from Amazon, it's delivered the next day and at least two people read it. The same titles as e-books cost the same amount on the Waterstones store, if not slightly more than on Amazon, and only 1 person can read them unless I shell out for a second reader. And in some cases, I was able to get new books from Amazon BEFORE they would be available on the Waterstones store.
E-books have to be at least 30% less than their physical counterparts before I'll start buying them or a reader to read them.
Of course, if I could find a decent site on the net I might be convinced, but I never managed to find one that caters to most of my reading tastes.
I too once read ebooks on a PDA, but stopped a while back when I found that was the ONLY thing I used it for, and got tired of carrying it and a phone, camera, etc.. I now read 'em on my iPhone using Stanza. Battery life is better than that of my HP 5500, beats playing games or watching video, and the phone always goes on the nightstand charger anyway.
I think one rainy day I read maybe 5 hours on and off, and still had a half charge. After all, a book reader isn't very processor intensive.
About half my books, however, come from Audible. I can listen to audiobooks while on the go, working out, or pretty doing anything. Much more flexible.
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
This people will serve you Gutenberg project texts on a series of specific formats (or custom created PDFs or HTML). To the best of my knowledge, there is no other site like this.
manybooks
Pick a book. On the right side, you will find a button free download and some 500 formating choices (many custom, many gadget-specific).
PS I have no relation whatsoever with manybooks, but I was horrified that it took me so long to find them again at Google).
If I have the money someday, the device that I'll be giving a try is sold by http://www.irextechnologies.com/
They have been producing a nice one for some time, but their new series of e-readers is one step closer to my dream. The price tag is way too high, but considering the amount of material I have to read (tech guy + PhD student) it is still an investment worth considering. I can not read from the screen no matter what kind of device (laptop, lcd monitor, shiny, glossy, crt etc..) I use. E-Ink seems to be much more promising, and especially the new line of devices with almost A4 size is perfect for me. They also have annotation support with a stylus. The downside of the thing seems to be the page flipping speed. Now if only they had a lower price tag...
You've stated the problem yourself, without realizing it.
You say "As a poor college student, I really can't afford a $400 reader now, but I don't find the price tag to be excessive on its face; just for me at the present time.". Okay, but at what time do you think you'll have $400 of disposable income to spend on the Kindle? Let's assume you're not one of the really dumb college kids who say "Oh, I'll put it on my credit card". No, we'll assume you're one of the smart ones who say "I'll wait until I have $400 in the bank to pay for this".
When you graduate from college, this may represent 2-4 weeks of after-tax income. So I ask you again, when do you think that will be?
The answer is.... and you won't like it... by the time you can really afford one of these things, they won't appeal to you any more.
"The idea of an ebook reader is enticing to some of us, regardless of how you feel about it."
How the parent poster feels about the Kindle plays no role in how you feel about it. But he/she is correct in that the world is converging to a single device in your pocket. A device small enough to carry, but large enough to actually read for eyes older than 35 years is a challenge that will not be met soon. Particularly if you factor in the ridiculous price.
You can't beat paperbooks, not when you can rent them for free buy them used for less than $5, or buy them new at Costco for about $6-10. And they don't require a $400 reader and books that cost more than paper books.
The entire point of these devices is to force you into a model where Sony or Amazon makes money as the middleman. Otherwise, there would be no reason for the proprietary formats and DRM.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
I think you mean "pouch-fucking" when it comes to carnal relations with a Kangaroo.
Hrm. I was hoping for color ePaper by now. I love the look of ePaper. I've played with the Sony reader and the Kindle and the displays look just like a piece of paper. So much more pleasant to read than an LCD or similar display! But was hoping for color by now.
Sure, the average novel doesn't require color, but any book with illustrations, graphs, photographs or maps (as often found in Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels) would really benefit from color.
I've followed the ePaper tech for a bit and I know color is being worked on. Once it's out, ePaper will be able to display just about anything which can be printed in a book or magazine (albeit with lower resolution).
The ONLY good thing about these e-book readers ARE their "monochrome" screens, which I have found BEST for use as a reading device.
To this day, since the demise of my Gemstar/Rocket REB-1100 (IIRC) I still use an old Palm IIIx monochrome to read e-texts, although the REB-1100 remains my favorite(really need to look into whats the problem with it one of these days). I've tried various Palm and other color handhelds, but do not care at all for the way they display text for reading purely or mostly purely text, not to mention the considerably lower battery life that ALL color devices give v. the "monochrome"/greyscales.
On top of this BOTH the Sony and Kindle offer little in the way of features beyond what the REB-1100 offered, yet they cost almost four times as much as I paid for the REB-1100 almost 10y ago now! I could get a netbook or limited full notebook for about the same price as what they want for something that is really only USEFUL for reading e-texts on... what is the point?
Ignoring price, the Kindle is actually more useful as it IS possible to put your own content onto it w/o re-course to Amazon's "services", although they play it down significantly as they'd MUCH rather have you pay them to convert it for you then pick it up wirelessly off of their "service".
The Sony, when I looked at it had NO capability to easily put user created content onto it.
The REB-1100 could have user created content put onto it via use of shipped software and/or 3rd party applications as well as commercial online texts via a pokey 56kbps dialup modem. Or through uploading from the PC to the REB-1100 via the USB port (GEMSTAR version) or serial port (Rocketbook version).
Fictionwise bought up the GEMSTAR reader inventory adn had been selling them for a while. I have no idea whether or not they still are. (They also had another company's reader that GEMSTAR bought as well that was color but had a VERY short battery life and was initially incompatible with the REB as they each used a different OS, although the last version of the REB from GEMSTAR and what fictionwise sold IIRC used a version of the OS used on the color reader.)
I'm a big fan of manybooks.net. I've downloaded, well, many books from there for my Kindle, including a fair number of Jules Verne novels that you simply cannot find in dead-tree versions.
If you find that you are using the site frequently, please think about making a small donation to help keep it going. (Just for the record, I should point out that I have NO connection to manybooks.net either.)
If you have a Kindle or some other portable, you can use manybooks' mobile-friendly version: mnybks.net
"The unit didnâ(TM)t go down too much in size which is unfortunate, but then again, you want something pretty large so itâ(TM)s comfortable to read on. He says that the unit is a little wider and a little longer, but it should help those that thought the first unit was a little too awkwardly-shaped."
It didn't go down too much in size which is too bad . . . in fact it's both wider and longer, which is good?
I want a kindle myself - if I get ahead of the game next year it's my next priority after upgrading my PC, but who actually posted that?
Too bad it's not smaller, oh thank god it's bigger? That is either someone impossible or absurdly easy to please.
Pug
An Invisible Entity of Vast Power whose existence must be taken on faith alone: Liberal Media