Saturday, February 23, 2008

The Amazon Kindle....What Do You Think???




Okay, this Amazon Kindle thing is really starting to get to me. Yeah, I know, it costs $400, but man, is it tempting!

Books are only $9.99, which isn't bad, and it can hold up to 200. And according, I suppose, to what time of day you check, Amazon says it has either 80,000 or 90,000 or 100,000 titles available. I know I've looked up several books I'm considering purchasing only to find they are available on Kindle.




My gut reaction is to wait until the 2.0 version comes out, but Amazon has given no indication of when that might happen. Sure, any 1.0 product is bound to have a few bugs, and if they're not bugs that lead to crash-and-burn, I'm willing to consider it. It seems the page-turning function has a few issues, but most reviewers say that it just takes some getting used to. Plus the new version might be a bit cheaper, which would be nice. I'd almost certainly buy it if it fell into the $200-ish range.

So does anyone own one? Has anyone seen one? Is it something you'll consider buying? Why or why not? Let your voice be heard.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I am really interested but will definitely be waiting for version 2.0. Between the bugs and the price drop, I find it's usually better to wait.

My big concerns deal with copyright and notations. I'm pretty sure you can't print or save text, I know you can't transfer books to a different device, and I'm also pretty sure you can't underline or make notations. I hate the fact that they're using a proprietary file format (AZW) which basically means you can't do anything with those files except read them on Kindle. What if you find a different reader you like better sometime in the future, or what if your Kindle breaks and you don't want to shell out another $400? You'd be SOL.

The justification is that a proprietary format protects against misuse, but in reality it's great for the manufacturer and crappy for the consumer.

John said...

I'm intrigued, mostly because of how they've integrated the shopping for books into the machine. But $400 is just too much, both for the reasons that Trent mentions, and because it raises the breakeven point so high, even with $10 books.

I hadn't thought about being unable to make notations in books since I don't write in books. But I would have no problems marking up a digital copy of a book--if there was a device that would allow it.

Dr. Phil (Physics) said...

If I was buying one today, I'd take a long look at the Sony unit, not the Kindle. (grin)

Dr. Phil

Andy Wolverton said...

Actually some of the reviews I saw preferred the Kindle over the Sony. I think I'll sit back with my bulky hardcopy volumes and see which device makes the most improvements in the 2.0 version.