[Web4lib] Amazon's Kindle e-book reader

[Pons, Lisa (ponslm)]

I don't get it: who's talking about dumping iphones, blackberry's etc...
for this? It's an ebook reader, not a tricorder!

For my part, I think this is cool. WAY too pricey for me, so I will wait
and see if it goes the way of the iPhone and the price goes down.

One thing I know- as much as I LOVE my 30GB iPod, I do not want to read
books on it, nor my phone, or palm. Screens are just too small. So, I
might give this a try,and if the display is good-yeah! If not, well, I
can return it, or put it in my "Museum of Now Useless Though at One Time
Cool Things", like my first 3 palms, my first two mp3 players (256mb!!),
my first laptop (1 GB Harddrive!!),and assorted modems, scanners, and
monitors. 

For me, the jury is out.Knowing this is the first generation- I see the
good as someone who reads non-stop, I love the idea of 9.99 for books-(
though I wonder if I can put a restriction on myself to or my credit
card: nomore than 20.00 month?) As someone who gets their news online
(due to lack of good paper here), I would love to read the NYT,
Washington Post, and blogs and more on a smaller device, where I want
to, instead of the computer. (Yes, I have wireless, but still hard to
read sitting on my deck in the sunlight).  

So, I look forward to reading what other actual users of it say.

Lisa




> -----Original Message-----
> From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org 
> [mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Leo Robert Klein
> Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 11:29 AM
> To: web4lib
> Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Amazon's Kindle e-book reader
> 
> Roy Tennant wrote:
> 
> [snip]
> 
> > The other reason is more substantive. First Blackberries 
> and now the 
> > iPhone have demonstrated the kind of unification of 
> functions that has 
> > been predicted for many years -- you will no longer have a 
> PDA and a 
> > phone and a music player and perhaps even a laptop as 
> separate devices 
> > -- they would be all one. And the fact that the same amount 
> of money 
> > will buy you either a book reading device or a phone and a music 
> > player and a web browser and a ...makes the Kindle a 
> complete non-starter in my book (sorry for the pun).
> > And to think folks were complaining about the price of the iPhone.
> > Roy
> 
> I think this unit makes sense only if you ignore the vastly 
> successfully alternatives now available to people.  People 
> want Nokias and SideKicks. 
>   They use their phones to text-message, take pictures and 
> surf the web.
> 
> Amazon has made a single-purpose device and it's pretty 
> obvious from their standpoint why they did it.  It's less 
> obvious why people should suddenly dump their smart phones for this.
> 
> It just doesn't make sense.  It's like thinking people are 
> going to dump their color tv's for b&w units because the WWI 
> documentaries look so much better.
> 
> 
> "Richard Wiggins" <richard.wiggins at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> [snip]
> 
> >> I think there is no doubt that the purpose-specific e-book 
> will come 
> >> into its own as well, and I think people who nay-say it without 
> >> seeing it, touching it, feeling it, and using it will someday look 
> >> foolish.  They may not look foolish with this attempt, but 
> someday they will.
> 
> I'm perfectly happy to look foolish!
> 
> LEO
> 
> 
> -- -------------------
> www.leoklein.com (site)
> www.ChicagoLibrarian.com (blog)
> 
> aim/msn/yhoo/goog: 'leorobertklein'
> -- -------------------------------
> _______________________________________________
> Web4lib mailing list
> Web4lib at webjunction.org
> http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
>