[Web4lib] Amazon's Kindle e-book reader

[Richard Wiggins]

Did anyone listen to Jeff Bezos pitch the product on All Things Considered
last night?  The npr.org Web site is undergoing a serious meltdown right
now, serving up broken links and content from 2005, but it's worth a
listen.  Bezos gently chided a blogger who dismissed the new device based on
a fuzzy photo in an FCC filing.

One of the key points he made was that the display technology is a kind of
electronic ink, not like the backlit LCD displays on the $400 laptops that
Roy alludes to.  It uses very little power; it can last a week without
recharge if you're not downloading using the Wi-Fi.

I think it's useful to think of the history of the PDA.  The Newton was a
disaster; Doonesbury even made fun of its handwriting recognition.  Millions
of us actually tried to learn another form of handwriting when wrestling
with our Palm Pilots.  It took Treos, Blackberries, and now iPhones for the
PDA to really come into its own.  But it eventually did.

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.

The only development that I see derailing that possibility is a Star Trek:
Next Generation level of tablet, weighing the same as the Amazon device,
using equivalent display technology, costing no more, and as easy to use for
the purpose of reading books.

/rich

PS -- I am biased here because in 1997 when SLA was in Seattle, Jeff Bezos
spoke at the conference.  A room of 200 librarians interacted with him, and
gave him suggestions.  Unfailingly he said "that's a great idea, let me take
that back" and he seemed to mean it.  Afterwards he consented to an
interview with me.  He spent much more time than a guy who'd already been on
the cover of national magazines needed to, and he arranged for a separate
visit for my wife and me to Amazon HQ.  He is truly a nice guy, probably the
nicest CEO you'll ever encounter.  I wish him the best.  See:
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_5/wiggins/

On Nov 19, 2007 11:59 PM, Andrew Hankinson <andrew.hankinson at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I don't know if anyone reads John Gruber's blog, but he's got a great
> post about Kindle.
>
> http://daringfireball.net/2007/11/dum
>
> Cheers,
> Andrew
>
> On 19-Nov-07, at 11:52 PM, Leo Robert Klein wrote:
>
> > Roy Tennant wrote:
> >> Hmmm...let me see...spend $400 on a device where the only thing I
> >> can do is
> >> read books, or spend the same amount on a different device where I
> >> can read
> >> books, visit any web site I want, make phone calls, listen to
> >> tunes, etc.
> >> Hmmm....
> >> Yes, I understand that one requires a service plan and the other
> >> does not
> >> (although at least $9 for every book you want to read). But come
> >> on. After
> >> watching the video I thought the interface was actually kind of
> >> annoying,
> >> again especially in contrast with the iPhone. My advice to
> >> libraries: don't
> >> rush out and jump on this bandwagon.
> >> Roy
> >
> > I got the impression it was a slow week at Newsweek.  I mean, when
> > the author brags about downloading Dickens' 'Bleak House' for a mere
> > $1.99 ("You can also get classics for a song"), I'm afraid I lost it.
> >
> > The stuff about paper vs. electronic and the joys of hypertext (the
> > "always-on book") could have been written by Vannevar Bush.
> >
> > It's scary what passes for popular tech writing these days.  The
> > whole piece was an uncritical paean to Amazon.
> >
> > LEO
> >
> > -- -------------------
> > www.leoklein.com (site)
> > www.ChicagoLibrarian.com <http://www.chicagolibrarian.com/> (blog)
> >
> > aim/msn/yhoo/goog: 'leorobertklein'
> > -- -------------------------------
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