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Tuesday, November 20, 2007

« GBM InkShow: Touch on a MacBook? Let's See....Main  | It's Here! Kindle Arrives »

Kindle Demo Video

- Rob Bushway

Amazon Kindle I've been watching Amazon's Kindle Demo video while impatiently waiting for UPS to deliver my Kindle. I've also purchased three books, while waiting, to see how Kindle handles the automatic download. Gadget arrival day will certainly try your patience.

It struck me while watching the video, how similar it is to the early Tablet PC videos, and last year's Origami videos - a guy walking around carrying a small tablet, using it in personal places - an extension of himself.

Another thing I picked up on is how much the scrolling wheel is used to select, navigate, etc. I can already tell that the lack of a touch screen and an active digitizer is going to bother me. Isn't a logical extension of reading a book being able to annotate it and mark it up using your own handwriting? Taking in to account the known battery life and outdoor screen readability issues, Tablet PCs certainly have the leg-up in the annotation department. Amazon would have really scored a coup had they implemented personalized notetaking and annotation. Maybe version 2 of Kindle will bring us that. Microsoft needs to get Amazon on the horn and begin talking up ink.



11/20/2007 11:32 AM MST  

Kindle Demo Video     Comments [3]  |  Digg This |  del.icio.us |  Citations 
Tuesday, November 20, 2007 11:51:48 AM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)
Sounds like you want an Iliad ebook reader. It has an 8" eink screen and a wacom digitizer for annotation. Much nicer than this imo for about $200 more.

I really don't see the added value of the Kindle compared to the Sony reader. $200 more so that you can dl books directly to your device instead of hooking it up to your PC w/ USB? Nah, just doesn't make sense to me especially when you consider that you can actually pick up the Sony reader for $60 through a special offer.

If anyone wants a good cheap ebook reader they should check out Sony's $60 ereader deal. Sign up for a Sony credit card and get a ereader for $60.

Another thing to think about . . . people are selling the Iliad readers used for around $450-$500. Kinda makes the Kindle even less attractive to me at that price point.
Kingjimmi
Tuesday, November 20, 2007 11:57:17 AM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)
Microsoft also needs to get on the horn with Amazon about releasing a software-based version of Kindle for existing TabletPC and UMPC users.

Meanwhile, Amazon needs to get textbook makers to jump on board with eTextbooks, and they'll pickup the student market in a heartbeat, especially at the college level where textbooks cost hundreds and are big, bulky, heavy objects that students seem to forget on their way to class.
GoodThings2Life
Tuesday, November 20, 2007 12:16:49 PM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)
I sold my x60t in September and got an iRex iLiad, and find it far more useful for my purpose than a Tablet PC because I read PDFs all the time and only take notes occasionally.

Aside from the price and weight difference, I don't think anything on the Kindle attracts me. EVDO is nice, but not a must as I don't buy books on impulse, but I do read lots of tech papers, which Kindle doesn't even handle.

iLiad's platform is very friendly to developers too, with only 2 hours hack, I added selective column viewing functionality to its PDF viewer. Good luck trying that on anything else!
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