[Web4lib] Amazon's Kindle e-book reader

[Kyle Felker]

>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.
 
Um, I don't see people here saying that consumer ebooks are not viable.
 I want them so bad I can taste it.  But *this* product, *this* service
model, *this* way of distributing them...it's not going to work.  At
least, I hope people are smart enough to realize the shortcomings of a
proprietary file format completely tied to one device.  Please [deity]
help them if they are not.
 
Kindle can be a bonehead move without invalidating the entire concept
of consumer ebooks.  It just means nobody has done it right *yet*.  
 
>Has anyone mentioned selling these to libraries yet? I'm not sure
>they're set up for itùyou can't take the book off it or move it
>between them, can you?
 
The device has a USB port and also has support for SD cards.  So yes,
you can move the content around.  It won't do you much good,
though...the content is in a proprietary format and is DRMed, so it can
only be read on the Kindle.
 
>It's the DRM that they're putting in there, and the fact that they're 

>artificially limiting it.  It's EVDO, which is not WiFi, so expect to 

>pay a monthly fee just to have the wireless connection.
 
To be fair, the Kindle documentation states that a "lifetime
membership" to whispernet is included in the purchase price.
 
And I still think it's too expensive.
 
Kindle documentation link:
 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&nodeId=200127470

 
> 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 
 
Oh how I wish Amazon had adopted some of the alternate business models
Gruber suggests!  I would be bouncing off the walls about Kindle if it
were less expensive, and the kindle version came free with every print
book you ordered!  They could DRM it into oblivion then and I wouldn't
give two hoots.  
 
I might even be willing to pay a nominal fee on top of the purchase
cost of the book if it got me the digital version as well.  I could pay
extra for books I like to travel with.
 
-Kyle
 
 
 
**********************************************
Kyle Felker
Technology Coordinator
Washington and Lee University Library
Phone: 540-458-8653
Email: felkerk at wlu.edu 
Chat: geeklibrary (aol) techbookgeek (yahoo)
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