Amazon’s New Wireless Reading Device: “This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere. Amazon Kindle is an electronic book (e-book) device launched in the United States by Amazon.com in November 2007. Buy Now!!!

Ho ho! Santa Claus Bezos is here to take a nice fat present FROM you!

Via teleread comment:

>>>Okay, so I’m loving my Kindle here…reading ebooks, visiting web pages…very nice…reading Project Gutenberg files from that web site…then I break out the manual and notice the License Agreement…so, about that free wireless web browsing….

>>>“General. Amazon provides wireless connectivity free of charge to you for certain shopping and acquisition services on your Device. You will be charge a fee for wireless connectivity for your use of other wireless services on your Device, such as Web browsing and downloading of personal files, should you elect to use those services.”

>>>Oh, and they can “chang[e] the amount and terms applicable for wireless connectivity charges” at any time.

http://www.teleread.org/blog/2007/11/20/wikipedias-kindle-page/

Thank you for pointing out the user’s guide.

I had missed that it has USB when I first looked at the Kindle page at amazon.com. The promotional blurb was heavy on the Kindle not needing a computer, and light on how it might connect to a computer should you happen to have one. I was afraid that the only way to get your own work onto your own Kindle was to pay Amazon money to do it for you. It’s good to know that you can transfer it yourself using USB. I also like that you can clip pages and transfer them to your computer. Hopefully, since it transfers them as text files, there are no limits on what you can do with those pages. It’s too bad that you lose any graphics that might be on the page though.

It’s good to know that there is at least a stab at a web browser. It seemed like such the obvious application that I was surprised not to see any mention of one in the promotion blurbs. Otherwise, it seems like the only reason for the EVDO network is for them to give you paid content and Wikipedia. I wonder if there is enough web browser functionality to use a webmail site. Hopefully, when the web browser gets less experimental, it will be able to clip web pages. If people start using EVDO more for web browsing than for Amazon’s paid content, will they care?

I don’t know that I like the ideal of automatic, unprompted, push updates though. I don’t like it when Microsoft does it. I’m not sure why I should like it when Amazon does it. I hope they don’t go there. I’d prefer to be prompted.

Finally, the DRM is troublesome, as well as the proprietary document format. Yes, they have a free conversion service. But not all of us work with documents that we can freely mail to third parties for conversion.
Of course, the Kindle is optimized for buying ebooks from Amazon, not the generation of documents from source materials. So I may just be complaining that doesn’t do what it wasn’t designed to do.

Having read the user’s guide, I find it a less problematic product. But, honestly, the Kindle Terms of Service are still scary…

I’ve got mine and its the most unique ebook reader I’ve ever used. That scrolling LCD thingy is taking me time to get used to. Their dictionary lookup is unique as well… My prediction, they’ll have to add a feature to turn off one or the other sets of flipper bars. This thing is very awkward to hold with out flipping a page unintentionally.

It coming customized with a note from Jeff to ME was pretty nice.

All my pre-purchased content was sitting there waiting for me after I got back from lunch. (I plugged it in and left for lunch) So far I haven’t touched the USB cable.

The display is PRS-500 quality e.g. last generation Sony Reader. You put a Sony PRS-505 next to it and you instantly see the higher quality of the PRS-505 display. $400 and they used last generation panels, sigh….

Six font sizes is nicer than the 3 font sizes Sony provides.

Page flip speed is comparable to a Sony PRS-505 but system operations are noticeably sluggish.

So far magazines are stripped of graphics, text only.

I agree that the iphone and touch could be the killer ebook devices. I use a pocket pc and would have to give up too much functionality to switch right now, but that may change when the sdk is released.

Kindle not available in Canada, would buy the Cybook Bookeen in a heartbeat if it supported the ereader format. I am one of the customers Amazon burned with their previous attempt at an ebookstore. Might as well have burned my money. Caveat emptor, if they did it before, who’s to say they won’t do it again.

As far as I’m concerned, the most evolutionary thing for the ebook biz would be for the Kindle to fail quickly, since otherwise I’m afraid they’ll choke the life out of all the other vendors by undercutting them.

Dear husband:

I love you. It’s nice that you thought of me. But please, I beg of you, STOP BUYING YOURSELF STUFF THAT WOULD MAKE EXCELLENT CHRISTMAS GIFTS. You do realize why you only get cologne and ties for Christmas and our anniversary, don’t you? Cause you buy it before I get the chance to think of it first! Hmmm, maybe this year I’ll think big! Yes, holiday underwear!

It will be interesting to see how this affects eReader. Personally, I am looking forward to a version of eReader for my iPod Touch (and iPhone) that I got to think will come once the SDK is released. I think the Touch will make for a good eBook reading device.

I just received my Kindle and am reading a Novel on it now. My initial impression is not great. It is a little slow and the contrast isn’t great. It is also fairly difficult to hold without accidentally pushing a button.

Six reasons NOT to buy a Kindle:
http://diveintomark.org/archives/2007/11/19/the-future-of-reading

Anthony:
Sadly, no Mobipocket or Mobicreator for mac. Yet. Here’s hoping though.

I actually thought a bit harder about buying one and was all set to pull the trigger before my trip to Amsterdam next week, but everyone must be buying them as they are now out of stock until November 29th. The urgency to get one (for my cross-Atlantic trip) is now gone so I’ll look to see James’ review and may then have found a good gift my wife can get me for Christmas.

A bit bummed I didn’t just buy one yesterday when it was announced

Also, expanding on what GoodThings2Life was saying about text books. I think Amazon would be very smart to get both University textbooks on this thing (being that I’m a student) but also primary and secondary school text books.

We hear on the news all the time about how kids are carrying way too much weight in text books on there backs. This is something I think high schools would jump at. Plus the delivery system is easy so each kid will have all of the books they need for the year in homeroom on their first day when their teacher passes out their kindles.

Is there some type of mobiCreator for macs that anyone knows about. I’ve spent all last night looking but I can’t find anything. I have a lot of .pdf’s to read and I would love to be able to put them on my kindle.

From what I’ve read, you don’t have to pay Amazon to have files delivered. You can have them email the .azw back to your PC for free and transfer to the device using USB.

It will also accept .txt and .mobi this way (with no conversion) so Baen books can be loaded easily and for free.

Also note that you can use MobiCreator to convert a .pdf file for viewing on the Kindle.

According to reports, the books will be DRMed, and you will pay for Amazon to send you RSS feeds that you otherwise get for free by going to their site. (Not on the Kindle itself, obviously.)

If I pay for a paper book, I can take it anywhere I go and use it whenever I want. That is a freedom that the DRMed Kindle won’t be able to offer.

I don’t like the color. Hey Amazon! The ’80s called, and they want their putty ‘puter back!

If it were for $100, had color (for magazine viewing), and weren’t ugly, it might be a bargain. It’s $400, is ugly, and therefor is no bargain.

Woadan