Amazon Kindle (ebook thingy)

Interesting, yes, but I'm not feeling overwhelmed quite yet.

Email your Word documents and pictures (.JPG, .GIF, .BMP, .PNG) to Kindle for easy on-the-go viewing.

No PDFs, though?

OK, no PDFs. I would have been pretty interested if it had had PDF capability, but I have no interest without that, sadly.

Wikipedia is the "best encylcopedia in the world"

Yeah i stopped reading after this blatant sentence of death

I thought that was the name of Julian Cope's Krautrock book and webpage.

Oh, I guess that typo is only on our side.

is there anyway of changing that screen colour? black text on grey - ew

I helped design the hardware! I don't think I can answer any questions yet, but it's an exciting day for us out here in Cupertino.

Apple plots! Trickery! Or not.

hard to disagree

Watch the vids

OMG it has a bookmark function???????????????????

engadget claims PDF support, so now I'm confused. Essentially if I could fill this with math papers it would be awesome, but not otherwise.

anywhere-in-the-world access to wikipedia, in something the size of a paperback, sounds pretty awesome. i read a bunch of ebooks on a monochrome unbacklit palm, back in the day, and it was surprisingly pleasant (esp in comparison to later colour/backlit vsns, or reading off a computer screen). i think this is pretty awesome. still - the industrial design on it looks pretty awful.

Holy shit did this thing get designed by Tomy in 1988?

2.5 out of 5 is the average rating from 140 customers...
doesnt look promising.
the price is too high,it has a light problem and it's ugly: "electronic paper that Japanese were working on was only a thin sheet of artificial electronic paper A4 format which you can roll into a pocket"

no pdfs no credibility </lazy zing>

plus you have to pay to read stuff you already... own?? I have problems enough paying for that stuff in the first place

sony e-reader looks hella better and that was lame in the first place

boo amazon

I mean, amazon is one of the better web1.0 (yeah, whatevers) companies when it comes to, you know, like, having a fkn clue, but this flys directly in the face of any clue they have

2.5 out of 5 is the average rating from 140 customers...
doesnt look promising.
the price is too high,it has a light problem and it's ugly: "electronic paper that Japanese were working on was only a thin sheet of artificial electronic paper A4 format which you can roll into a pocket"

-- Zeno, Monday, November 19, 2007 10:09 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

didn't it come out like... today? dont know if i'd take those reviews too seriously

huh. i'll check it out in 3 yrs when it's cheap and usable.

report back!

ok!

yeah, 'bump' pls

"dont know if i'd take those reviews too seriously"
the reviews are written by testers of the product.
(unless they are liars)

unheard of!

I know that link to the Newsweek cover already mentioned it, but wtf... this failed miserably a decade ago.

This looks... less than usable. Sigh.

Shockingly ugly - and way too expensive to boot. The only way something like this could possibly take off is if it was free, maybe with some kind of reasonable subscription package - say, "twenty dollars a month for five books & we will throw in this ugly clunky device for FREE."

Yeah, I could definitely see this coming in handy--there are many occasions when I'll be working on something and I need a certain book; it would be awesome to be able to get it right away. But I'm not gonna pay four hundred dollars for it. I mean, it's a book! I'll just go out and buy it if I really need it.

But I'm not gonna pay four hundred dollars for it. I mean, it's a book! I'll just go out and buy it if I really need it.

-- G00blar, Monday, November 19, 2007 11:51 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

I don't think their initial target market is ILX. I'm sure if I'll ever take a business trip again I'll see some guys with these on the plane.

http://www.smallsurfaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/segway.jpg

I saw somebody recently using one of those professionally recently, in an airport or a big store, I think.

nice to see the whole internet thinks this kindle thing sucks :D

Yeah - everyone who hasn't actually used one.

^^^ he made it, kids

(which I mentioned at the top of the thread)

what, you want a medal?

Sheesh. Jerk.

sorry :( i guess you don't need any more hassle :(

wow what a dick!

that's what all my ladies say

I'd love to talk about cool lesser-known features and correct some assumptions and misconceptions about the device, but we've been specifically instructed not to do so. So for now, I'll just let it go... Sorry about the jerk comment...

The quotes in The Guardian article are kind of funny...

Amazon's chief executive Jeff Bezos... "Books have stubbornly resisted digitisation. I think there's a very good reason for that, and that is the book is so highly evolved and so suited to its task that it's very hard to displace."

Philip Makinson, of Greenwich Consulting... "Do not get me wrong, it's a very nice bit of kit but what need is it fulfilling? Books are quite portable, cheap and universally available already."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/nov/20/amazon.news?gusrc=rss&feed=10

Why the fuck would anyone pay £195 for this? Reading it is never going to be as comfortable an experience as reading a book, so much isn't going to be easily or legally available and, y'know, it costs more than an iPod and not much less than an iPhone on contract. Not saying they do the same thing, but yeah, perspective.

i feel sorry for that schwantz guy now :(

only possible appeal of this (or any equivalent) is not having to lift boxes and boxes of books when moving.

but when i fall asleep reading and the book inevitably falls off/behind the bed, i would be pretty mad if that book cost $200

I'd love to get one but the $400 is pretty steep.

I thought last night about all the Library of America editions I could line a shelf with using the same $400.

I'd rather add another $100 and get every Dalkey Archive book ever.

only possible appeal of this (or any equivalent) is not having to lift boxes and boxes of books when moving
I'm paying my movers way less than this costs.

http://diveintomark.org/archives/2007/11/19/the-future-of-reading

Oh, I guess you only get 100 books from them for that price nowadays.

i would miss different-sized books and cover art and the like

It's interesting - my co-worker and I both worked at ReplayTV together back at the beginning of the PVR, and he pointed out how similar the two products are in some ways:

Both products are/were not available in retail stores, so nobody could really try them out before buying.

Both products were greeted with similar "why would I need this?" reactions from many people. For ReplayTV, he remembered how people said stuff like "I already HAVE a VCR that I never use - why would I want this thing?"

And on the good side, most people who used ReplayTV (or TiVo, or other PVR) for a while couldn't imagine life without one after using it.

Time will tell if the Kindle has a similar effect on customers (and, to be fair, ReplayTV did not end up being very successful, although the PVR has become almost ubiquitous), but it faces some of the same challenges.

schwantz, did you work at lab126 in the a9 office on hamilton? i was there for a while. congrats on the launch.

so every book ever is available for this thing ?

I'm still a bit underawed by the grey lcd looking screen, is it even back lit?

this is a pda with less functionality

it looks nasty, and it sounds like a disaster from the planning 'how do we DRM it' PoV

I don't think the reaction has been so much "why would I need this" but "I'd like this, but not a DRM-crippled $10-a-pop no-hyphenating 1980s-looking one". Sorry to rag on yr work though, congrats on shipping.

Kindle Availability
Due to heavy customer demand, Kindle is temporarily sold out. Because we ship Kindles on a first-come, first-served basis, please ORDER NOW to reserve your place in line. See availability messaging above for estimated in-stock date.

ORDER NOW ORDER NOW ORDER NOW ORDER NOW ORDER NOW ORDER NOW ORDER NOW ORDER NOW ORDER NOW ORDER NOW ORDER NOW ORDER NOW ORDER NOW ORDER NOW ORDER NOW ORDER NOW ORDER NOW ORDER NOW ORDER NOW ORDER NOW ORDER NOW ORDER NOW ORDER NOW ORDER NOW ORDER NOW ORDER NOW ORDER NOW ORDER NOW

(much as i like Caecila)

Caecilia

I'm still a bit underawed by the grey lcd looking screen, is it even back lit?

It's electronic paper! No backlight necessary.

(regardless of the look and functionality of the rest of the device I think that's a huge UI win)

Anyone who compares to the iPod is a retard.

When iPods came out, you could immediately fill them with content you'd already purchased or stolen. With Kindle, I have to...re-buy all my books if I want to read them on the kindle? That's a massive barrier to entry given the cost of a Kindle.

The Kindle is beyond ugly. I want something more cuddly to take to bed or the shitter when I read. And I want color. If having paper-like display screens is so great, then why don't we have them on our computers?

I'm waiting for tablet Mac.

If having paper-like display screens is so great, then why don't we have them on our computers?

New technology, black and white only... so far. But it'll happen.

i'd quite like to see this screen to see how it's different.. is it just thinner?

I've seen a Motorola F3, and it did make me go "woah!". I thought it was a fake at first, the screen looked just like some paper or card that someone had drawn on. That only has a 7-segment type display, don't know what the resolution on the Kindle is like.

the e-paper on the kindle will be fine. i've seen other hardware with the same and it's nice. will be good for novels and a lot of straight text books. the stuff around it (hardware feel, 'product model') on the kindle seems like a giant fail though.

ledge, that was my phone up until about a week ago. It was pretty groovy, although text messaging got to be a pain.

One last shill post: Computerworld article

Can I just say that the frickin' name is possibly the goofiest thing about this?

otm. I keep thiking there is something related to this guy
http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/F/htmlF/fugitivethe/fugitiveIMAGE/fugitivethe.jpg

Or these two, although it's even more of a stretch:
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/4/48/250px-KendallsGtHits.jpg

Would you use twigs or newspaper as kindle to light a bunch of these on fire?

"Kindle! We'll Turn Paper Books Into Kindling"

I think the wii has shown a goofy name is fine

So why no landscape mode for the screen? FAIL

http://db.tidbits.com/article/9329

http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/techtracks/archives/2007/11/the_kindle_a_reviewers_first_impressions_1.html

Congrats to Schwantz on a big launch and a great concept, but based on photos & early reviews I'm leaning towards "Omar Little OTM." As much as I'd love an iPod for Books, not sure this is my thing.

But I'll definitely check back around 5th/6th Gen. Look where it got Apple.

Http/1.1 Service Unavailable

still sucks then

Congrats to Schwantz on a big launch and a great concept

spot the deliberate mistake(s)

I have actually seen three of these on the train. they look like medical apparati for the visually impaired.

Congrats to Schwantz on a big launch and a great concept

spot the deliberate mistake(s)

-- DG, Friday, 6 June 2008 19:06 (Yesterday) Link

Spot the continuing-to-troll douche.

Medical apparatopotamuses.

Congrats to Schwantz on a big launch and a great concept
spot the deliberate mistake(s)

The capitalization of the "s" at the start of his name?

"This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere." Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker.
"This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere." Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker.
"This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere." Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker.
"This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere." Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker.
"This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere." Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker.
"This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere." Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker.
"This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere." Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker.
"This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere." Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker.
"This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere." Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker.
"This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere." Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker.
"This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere." Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker.
"This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere." Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker.
"This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere." Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker.
"This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere." Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker.
"This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere." Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker.
"This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere." Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker.
"This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere." Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker.
"This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere." Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker.
"This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere." Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker.
"This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere." Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker.

...

there's a thing in this month's esquire about how totally awesome and revolutionary the kindle is

if they add wireless connectivity to other users they make it the zune for the aspie bookworm set!

i think you'd be better off comparing this to a segway or something if you really want to take it down a notch!!!!!!!! do it

both are bulky as fuck

i know the kindle kind of needs to be but damn

it does contian every book.

dead sea scrolls?

all

i think you'd be better off comparing this to a segway or something if you really want to take it down a notch!!!!!!!! do it

-- s1ocki, Monday, June 30, 2008 12:50 AM

are you taking me or omar little to task here. also why

Saw a dude racing down the Ventura Blvd sidewalk yesterday afternoon on a Segway

Segways are awesome. Fuck is everyone's problem?

If everyone here could afford a Segway, I promise you we'd be all be sharing awesome Segway stories right now.

BOW DOWN BEFORE IT!

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/photos/uncategorized/2009/02/09/bezos_kindle_ket4a6nc.jpg

The new version measures just 0.36 inches thick, the diameter of a pencil, and weighs a little more than 10 ounces.

"The Kindle is designed to disappear so that you can enter the author’s world," Bezos said, calling it "a seamless, integrated reading experience -- it’s not just a device."

He said the Kindle 2 screen provides more crispness, using 16 shades of gray instead of just four, and has 25% more battery life, allowing users to read up to two weeks on a single charge. The upgraded edition has seven times more storage space, holding more than 1,500 books, and faster page turns than its predecessor. A new navigation system allows for better note-taking and easier reading of newspapers.

But perhaps its most novel aspect is the text-to-speech feature, which enables Kindle users to listen to their material.

"Any book, blog, magazine, personal document could be read aloud to you," said Bezos, as he had a Kindle 2 read the opening lines of the Gettsyburg Address with crisp, staccato enunciation.

And presumably you can use it to read under the covers without using a flashlight.

*beaming, but must not comment on this thread - sorry*

this device still seems pretty joyless imo

$360?? Cmon. No.

*slinks back to parenting board*

Amazon Kindle the Third, in family planning stages now!

Probably a stupid question, but what's the cheapest portable device out there that lets you read PDFs?

*beaming, but must not comment on this thread - sorry*

― schwantz, Monday, February 9, 2009 7:11 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

jeff?

Jeff Schwantzos

kindle killer http://www.coolhunting.com/archives/2009/02/plastic_logic_r.php

Can you install iTunes on a Kindle? That would be cool.

what if a kindle was also a portable microwave oven and yr own personal dictation machine

yah it seems inevitable that these readers will drift toward tablet computing and travel cooking devices

and taking voice notes seems like a logical feature TBH

plus it'd be cool if they could stick a little pen knife on one end

swiss army kindle--i like it

these things will be surfing the web in no time then people will stop reading their ebooks cause they can just surf the web

:o

i have only read one "nobody will ever beat the smell and feel of a real book in your sweaty hands" article so far, I look forward to more.

The key thing for me is that they have to be so cheap I can throw them away. I don't want to lug this around with me all day I want to read it and bin it.

yah books def hav some appealing qualities beyond lol nostalgia

reselling them, for instance

these things will be surfing the web in no time then people will stop reading their ebooks cause they can just surf the web

I thought the Kindle already came with a browser.

so it does - rip kindle

ya, too bad

hope they're flammable

http://thekindle.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/oprahkindle.jpg

What do books smell like?

Victory.

Oh my gosh!

http://eshop.webindia123.com/images/prodimg/large/COM0225_1lg.jpg

http://www.schools.pinellas.k12.fl.us/gallery/variety/bookworm.gif

For what it's worth, I just bought a Sony PRS-505 and am madly in love with it. For the most part, I download classics from Gutenberg. Reading them on my laptop was no fun, though. The e-ink displays are well worth the investment.

i can't fuck with this until it can fit in my pocket.

But then the display would be too small. :(

not if the text was nice and big

i mean, like a 33 1/3 book fits v. nicely in my pocket. if you could make it that size, i'd buy one in a sec

Consider it done!

haha

eventually this might be made of some high-tech plastic fabric (pencil-thick is fine) so you can just roll it up and put it in your pocket.

fold out screen iphone attachment

xpost, like a fruit rollup you can read!

they already have those

I'd love to have a Kindle that stored music instead of books...

TBH I wish it wasn't so expensive and it was available in Belgium. It seems awesome. I love to knit'n' read and this seems great as a replacement (for books). I can sort of read books but it's hard doing paperbacks (while knitting). Kindle seems great cause you can voice activate it (?), no?

No... :( It will read to you, but you can't control it with your voice. Although some people turn on the reading feature, but turn down the volume, and use it as an automatic page-turner. It is nice to be able to use it for reading with one hand, too.

Do they finally have a backlight on these things?

I reckon most book purchasers are too attached to the book as object for iPhone apps to ever really dent sales.

― Ronmael de Canarias (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 22 April 2009 17:49 (9 minutes ago)

Not to continue this derailment, but I'm sure there were a lot of record store owners saying the exact same thing about 9 or 10 years ago.

(xpost)

― homage is parody gone sour (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 22 April 2009 17:51 (5 minutes ago)

Apples and oranges. Reading anything at length is significantly less pleasant on an electronic screen than a printed page. Varying technologies have been around for ages without making much of a dint in book sales. Most music listeners other than hifi guys didn't care much what format they consume their music in,

i couldn't agree more

Personally, I agree. But I don't think we can speak for everyone. I know of two friends of mine, both voracious readers, who hate the Kindle but would love something digital to take its place to allow them to haul multiple books around at all times and to reduce the amount of shelf space books take up. I think, as more people spend more time staring at screens, this might change. Do I want it to? Hell no.

I haven't seen the kindle but my dad has a handheld reader (sony maybe?) and it's pretty awesome. never wanted one until I saw it tbh.

the problem historically has been that the resolution of paper is much better than the resolution of mobile devices but that gap is closing and will continue to close.

i wouldn't trust anyone who would decide to do all their reading on one of these things

Exactly, these things are going to continue to get easier and easier on the eyes, so I think one would have to be willfully difficult to just shut down and stick to the mantra that books will always be safe.

this shit just seems a little dystopian and boring

the problem historically has been that the resolution of paper is much better than the resolution of mobile devices but that gap is closing and will continue to close.

Exactly, these things are going to continue to get easier and easier on the eyes

i really have a hard time believing this

rip ballard

xp

Am I right in thinking these kinds of thing are pretty big in Japan tho so maybe I'm being Westerncentric?

i really have a hard time believing this

yeah, so did I until I saw one. it looked like a printed page.

it's just kinda funny because i think the people who are hardcore pushing this particular technology have no real grasp about how the little random ephermal shit like books makes life often kinda great (or they don't really care.)

hmm. i've seen and played with a kindle, it doesn't look like a printed page at all.

Omar OTM, but don't some people say the same about records? The little random shit like pulling a record out of the sleeve, scanning the liner notes, etc?

yeah i guess i don't understand the need to do shit like this, i guess the thought is: "we have the technology to replicate the printed page on a computer screen," like who the fuck cares? books work pretty well.

The inconvenience of records (lack of portability for example) is much greater than the inconvenience of PB books (they get crinkly in my bag.)

yeah but music as something to listen to "on the go" changed that decades ago and records were never the ideal way in which to listen to music in that way, obviously. but books are essentially perfect as is, it's not like you're stuck only reading them in a single room.

I admit I am totally the last person to care about this though. I buy most of my books used or remaindered for like $2-5. Kindle or whatever is going to have get awfully cheap to make me even thing about picking it up.

I wasn't talking about the kindle but some other ebook reader

xp

I'm not disagreeing with you at all, I'm just trying to point out that not everyone holds the physical book as sacred as we do.

I mean can Kindle replicate the Boris Vallejo cover and musty smell of this Frederick Pohl novel I got for $1.50. I think not.

i think a lot more people hold the book sacred than ever held (or hold) a record sacred, though

which is kind of scary imo xxpost

I wasn't talking about the kindle but some other ebook reader

yeah, the sony reader, right? i mean, i'd like to look at it too and check it out but i just don't see it happening. who knows, maybe this thread will get revived in five years and we'll all have a good laugh when we read it on our personal portable reading devices instead of a computer etc etc

yeah i mean i went to a bookstore, inspired by the recent graphic design thread, and bought about 15 old penguin paperbacks for $25, all with these amazing mid-century designs on the covers. that sort of thing can't be replicated at all. and also, regarding the record comparison, records i think are going to outlast CDs and it won't even be close.

Kindle seems more like a books on tape type of thing where it'll be convenient and neat for some people, but never take hold by and large.

exactly^^^

"records i think are going to outlast CDs and it won't even be close"

I don't think either are going away, but I suspect the price of petroleum may have something to do with how this fite turns out.

i figure it's totally great for the constant traveler (who wants to travel light) or fugitive on the run, but yeah...no other reason to really own one imo.

if the Kindle was *really* going to take off, it would have already

don't think this is true at all. i love books and they'll always be around, but even though i don't want a kindle now, i can totally see getting some kind of e-reader device once they get a lot cheaper and better (which is definitely gonna happen). the more my bookshelves start to overflow the more appealing it seems.

i can see it working out in a big way for universities, given the high cost of textbooks and the slight ridiculousness of having students sell back the same books every semester.

the more my bookshelves start to overflow the more appealing it seems.

yeah i totally understand this and 5-10 years ago i would be right there with you, but i've started to donate books that i know i won't need anymore. i just don't feel the need to own every book i've ever read? and if i need to buy something again, it's easy enough to find a used copy

and as far as cost and space issues go, there are always libraries

i mean shit, all you need is an ID and you get a card and limitless endless access to an unending stream of books for free

I have 4 packed floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in my basement, and I will always love vinyl, but I also find it hard to believe that after the near-demise of the music industry as we know it people still maintain that the print industry is completely immune

These are all really good and really valid points, but I don't think the mega-serious book lovers will be the ones to decide the fate of physical books. I mean, its pretty much the 5 CD a year people that decided the fate of the music industry, right?

returning books and paying overdue fees is a hassle, though (which is why people stopped going to video rental stores the minute they had an alternative).

i'm not saying the print industry is completely immune--not by any stretch of the imagination. there needs to be a correction there, too. i think advances for novels especially are way too high, for example, and there have been some adjustments lately, which is a good sign.

returning books and paying overdue fees is a hassle, though

you really think returning *free* books to a *free* library is a hassle?

yes

I am like a 5 minute drive from my library and it takes me 30 minutes to get there cuz of traffic so I rarely go

sounds like you could walk there

it's inconvenient, i put it off or forget and then they are no longer free

then again I could get my books routed to the library that I can walk to a block away so I don't know what I'm typing about

many libraries offer renewal services online

i can see it working out in a big way for universities, given the high cost of textbooks and the slight ridiculousness of having students sell back the same books every semester.

― Ømår Littel (Jordan), Wednesday, April 22, 2009 2:33 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

this is how I see it happening - assuming continued improvements in the device quality and capacity - if it catches on with kids in school, there eventually will be a generation that views somebody who carries books as quaint, like somebody who still gets their shoes repaired. and carrying around books is a huge pain in the ass for students.

segway (ewalk thingy)

also my library is a 5 minute drive away, I can renew online, and I still paid $10 to rent tron on DVD for "free"

library should offer door-to-door service imo

anyway, libraries are an amazing public service and all, but i worked in a bookstore for years and i've always felt good about spending money on books (although even paperbacks can be kind of ridiculously expensive these days).

can't wait to set my eggers page turn tones

ilx is the greatest book ever written

I saw some dude on a segway a few days ago waiting for the walk sign to change and he was just in one spot spinning in circles

much like this thread

nothing has ever wanted to make me buy something as much as that scene

holy shit some of the words in that sentence are in the wrong place

on the new kindle you can rearrange the words, make your own books

i suppose i think some technology or some things that are pushed on people as being these great new things (mcmansions! suburban subdivisions! wall to wall carpeting!) are actually things that end up making them a little more miserable and disconnected.

don't ask about the wall to wall carpeting thing, that's a whole other pet peeve i have.

indoor toilets, electric light, clothes

you should have seen the thread where the monks complained about the printing press

also my library is a 5 minute drive away, I can renew online, and I still paid $10 to rent tron on DVD for "free"

why didn't you just buy it for 5 more bucks?

http://www.amazon.com/Tron-20th-Anniversary-Collectors-Bridges/dp/B00005OCMR

because I support piracy

arrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhh

mr. que are you a librarian

I thought the library was a B&M pirate bay store

any guesses on which ilxors will be the first to hire a robot to lift the fork to their mouths?

goddamn right i'm a fucking librarian

(not a public library librarian)

a robot to lift the fork to their mouths?

o shit what have you heard? tell me they are working on this

there are private libraries?

I bet batman has a private library

i work for aquaman, in his undersea library.

but i know the woman who works for batman, she's really sweet and has helped me out with maritime law stuff on occasion

waterproof kindle in 2010 dude look out

mr. que are you sebastian the crab

i want my foldable digital paper ereader before i'm ready to hop on board
and this fucking thing needs to support COMICS and CROSSWORD PUZZLES, DUH

and not through some wackadoo transfer to .xpc file bullshit, but integrally

I have this sneaking suspicion that nintendo's nextgen handheld is gonna be a combo ebook that's gonna render the kindle moot.

Missed all the posts today.

1. No backlight. This is impossible on an e-ink screen. There are some frontlighting technologies, but make the screen look bad when they are not on (see the new Sony reader for example).
2. Re: "it's just kinda funny because i think the people who are hardcore pushing this particular technology have no real grasp about how the little random ephermal shit like books makes life often kinda great (or they don't really care.)" - That sentence was a little garbled, but I think I get the gist of it. I can't speak for everyone, but most of the people I work with spend a LOT of time thinking about this. I don't think the Kindle will ever match some of the physical aspects of books (smell, etc.), but there are definitely some things that make it BETTER than reading a book. For example, being able to instantaneously look up a word, in context.
3. I've always felt like fully-digital "libraries" would be a great end-run around all of the DRM/DMCA/anti-piracy issues, but I think they would have to by accompanied by some sort of entertainment tax.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=3662746

is a kindle an apple sniffing dirt repellent origami phone/book/watch? if not then i'm not interested, sorry...

Great. More things to drop into water.

the future is really really white

Ziplock bag works great as a waterproof case.

So did ppl figure out how to circumvent DRM and start filesharing files for these things yet? This is obv the main barrier to entry for pretty much everyone who bought an ipod

nah that sentence wasn't really garbled

yah, it was.

Top eleven sellers for Kindle right now: plz to speculate about user base

1.
Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto by Mark R. Levin (Kindle Edition - Mar 24, 2009) - Kindle Book
Buy: $9.99

2.
New Moon (The Twilight Saga, Book 2) by Stephenie Meyer (Kindle Edition - Aug 8, 2007) - Kindle Book
Buy: $6.04

3.
Breaking Dawn (The Twilight Saga Book 4) by Stephenie Meyer (Kindle Edition - Aug 3, 2008) - Kindle Book
Buy: $9.99

4.
Eclipse (The Twilight Saga, Book 3) by Stephenie Meyer (Kindle Edition - Aug 7, 2007) - Kindle Book
Buy: $9.99

5.
Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1) by Stephenie Meyer (Kindle Edition - Jul 18, 2007) - Kindle Book
Buy: $6.04

6.
Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man by Steve Harvey (Kindle Edition - Jan 27, 2009) - Kindle Book
Buy: $9.99

7. (n.b. this is the spanish-language ed. of no. 8 )
La Cabaña by Wm. Paul Young (Kindle Edition - Dec 4, 2008) - Kindle Book
Buy: $8.24

8.
The Shack by William P. Young (Kindle Edition - Jun 20, 2008) - Kindle Book
Buy: $8.24

Auto-delivered wirelessly to Kindle
(2,995)

9.
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell (Kindle Edition - Nov 18, 2008) - Kindle Book
Buy: $9.99

10.
The Love Dare by Alex Kendrick (Kindle Edition - Sep 28, 2008) - Kindle Book
Buy: $8.99

11.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance - Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem! by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith (Kindle Edition - Mar 25, 2009) - Kindle Book
Buy: $7.19

(republicans, twats, twats, twats, twats, twats, spanish-speaking christians, christians, twats, twats, twats)

lighten up, schwartz, this "device" raises serious issues

anyway it's pretty interesting in the way that audiobooks are, and the way it could replace textbooks is actually A+.

if it could hold a ton of music and maybe even have the lyrics that would be cool too. maybe also the videos to the songs.

the textbook thing, especially on the college level, would be a long overdue improvement and engage a customer base in a very apple like way. If $500 bucks gets you the machine and all your books until you get a degree, you better believe this fucker'll sell like hotcakes... hell, even to rent it at that price would be a huge price break.

Sorry Omar - I just get a little defensive when people shit all over my work, or assume that because we work on this, we must somehow hate real books.

A sheet music option would be sick. Videos won't look great at 2fps, but maybe someday...

"This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere." Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker.

I have visions of an electrical fault/obsolesence making a library of 100s of books (and $1000s) suddenly unavailable. But I am also a codex lover, so feel free to ignore me.

I got a Kindle a few weeks ago. I love it. It lets me read comfortably on the bus, and there's a ton of free/cheap classic content available of stuff I've wanted to read but didn't want to haul around. (Reading Wilkie Collins The Woman in White right now.) Being able to annotate text, keeping a commonplace book, jumping out to the dictionary or wikipedia at will - all made simpler/less destructive/whatever. I'm a book collector (or possibly fetishist) too - the Kindle might replace my reading copy of some things, but it won't replace most of my physical copies any more than listening to mp3s supplants owning vinyl. It's a useful tool.

but there are definitely some things that make it BETTER than reading a book. For example, being able to instantaneously look up a word, in context.

how is this better than reading a book and using a dictionary?

http://dictionary.reference.com/

how is this better than reading a book and using a dictionary?

lol u old

good answer

clicking on a word to get the definition is wonderful - u can do it on nytimes.com

how is this better than reading a book and using a dictionary?

Metro driver used the bus dictionary as a wheel chock, R - Z and part of the pronouncing gazetteer now missing ;_;

It's a useful tool.

I believe you, Jaq. I suppose that, if it performs useful actions that cannot be duplicated by another tool, or at least not at the same level of efficiency, then, for any person who requires that greater level of efficiency, it has proved worth its salt.

I personally do not require any increase in the efficiency with which I read. A Kindle won't let me read more easily, or more quickly, or with greater pleasure or comprehension. There are no texts for Kindle I cannot access in other ways with sufficient ease.

Its most attractive and unique features are not features that I am likely to either need or use, but might well be a boon for someone else. I somehow acquired a sufficiently large vocabulary that I almost never look up a word in a dictionary, and when i do it was not prompted by my running across the word in a text, but as a form of mentally flossing out a word that has become stuck in my brain. I do not do most of my reading on the web. I still subscribe to a newspaper, for heavens sake!

I don't plan on buying one. If given one it would probably retain the status of a toy and a novelty. I would be too cheap to buy downloads for it.

But maybe, possibly, if the Kindle or its kin could claim to allow me to use hugely less of the earth's resources than I do at present, then such a claim, if well-founded, might convince me to switch over.

r u hi

nope that's just me

do u really know all the words

He presents a Wodehouse stiff upper lip front, but really he's seething Jim Thompson-style underneath.

Other pluses (for me obv, ymmv) - can increase the font size of any text so I can read w/o my glasses and my mom (who is going blind from glaucoma) doesn't have to rely on gigantic multi-volume large print books, I can upload a knitting pattern to it and keep track of where I am simply, I can read ILX or other mostly text sites on it (wait, not an advantage), I can carry two newspapers and a big selection of books in the space and weight of a single trade paperback (important for my daily 2 hours on bus + 2 hours walking commute)

what about porn can u download and read porn with it

Kumdle

http://i.friendfeed.com/dc2cd905013dea7fcd12071d9a00ecea9ecf1bcc

http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1225924506/ref=sr_nr_n_5?ie=UTF8&rs=157028011&bbn=157057011&rnid=157028011&rh=n%3A154606011%2Cn%3A157028011%2Cn%3A157057011

Product Description
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Jaq, i feel you on your points. The problem is that most people who will buy a Kindle in the future, if it catches on as it seems to be catching on, will not keep buying books. But good for you.

What happens when "Mom's Night Out" turns into group sex?

Mom's Night Eating Out

Table, I doubt it, but time will tell.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51wo2ycvbAL._SL500_AA246_PIkin2,BottomRight,-15,34_AA280_SH20_OU01_.jpg

Fuhrer's Panties

Mom's Kristallnacht

do u really know all the words

Words enough for a' that and a' that. I can leap from stentorian to sterorous in the blink of an eye, quicker nor a lamb's tail's shaking, that I can. Watch me sometime.

what the fuck is going on on this thread

unenlightenment

devolution

arsing around

overindulgence in blatherskite

my sincere apologies

this is random but, have you ever played in an orchestra?

no?

Microsoft Songsmith (e-orchestra thingy)

sterorous

excuse me, stertorous was what I instructed my fingers to type

orchestra? if that was directed at me, then: no, never. I am mediocre in musical talent.

Mediocre in humility also.

eh.

If you ever see me claiming that knowing a lot of words makes me a better person, you might have a fair beef. Until then, all I have claimed is that I know a lot of words. Which is true. I can assure you that 99.9% of the time it is a singularly useless attribute for anything but esoteric self-amusement, similar to a baby sucking on its toes.

oy, let's keep it on an unsponsored thread folx

fair dinkum

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.flagrantfoul.com/images/amazon_kindle_logo.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.flagrantfoul.com/stories.html&usg=__Hs2fk3u2_jRJ2CNFD-N8YW12fNA=&h=39&w=160&sz=2&hl=en&start=6&um=1&tbnid=9oHZEB0yaClbiM:&tbnh=24&tbnw=98&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dkindle%2Blogo%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

is dinkum like jenkum but smellier

I bought a Sony Reader PR505 a few months ago for $250, mainly because it doesn't have Kindle's DRM issues and I really don't need to pay for the internet on 3 separate devices. After a long dry spell in being able to finish a book, I've read two in the past month or so. I figure as long as there are text/pdf files, I'll be able to use it.

Sony's software and support for the book are laughable. There's an open source replacement, Calibre, that works. I wish it was easier to rip RSS feeds into an ebook format, because it would be a more legit option than paying $14/month for a Kindle NYT subscription.

If you're looking for good newer books to read for free (with suggested donation), check out:
http://www.truly-free.org/

Just so you know - internet is free on Kindle (no monthly fee), and you can read all sorts-of DRM formats (other than PDF) on it too. The Sony device is nice too, though.

all sorts of NON-DRM formats (Freudian typo?)...

i would hope that monochromatic internet browsing would be free

And it is, troll.

; )

wow what can't the kindle do

it reminds me of

http://www.retro-trader.com/images/jan2/DVC00871.JPG

i just downloaded the (FREE!) Kindle iPhone application so I can bring longer books with me on the go...

So I thought I'd go to the Kindle site and get a book, and everything I type comes back with no results. There's no Faulkner, no Pynchon, no Nabokov. Is this shit just for reading Twilight and Harry Potter and shit?

A big textbook version is meant to come out tomorrow. If it can do annotations I will be tempted.

@WGW: No Harry Potter on Kindle ;) Right now, it seems like AMZN is focusing on new releases. Public-domain stuff is also available, but stuff in-between those two extremes is harder-to-find. Getting e-publishing rights is a monumental task.

@Ed - the current products already do annotations.

i got Animal Farm for 99 cents, so i'll see how that treats me

New Orleans Sketches is the only Faulkner available from Amazon at this point. That truly-free site linked above had a couple, but I can't get to the site right now to verify. I do hope some Pynchon gets released, because I don't want to haul Against the Day around.

IF you have an actual Kindle, you can download the Feedbooks meta-book. This thing has links to a ton of Kindle-formatted public-domain books, and even takes the meta a step further with a link to the latest version of itself. All of the books download for free.

With the iPhone app, you can only read books from the official Kindle store.

Amazon announces Kindle DX

This enormous document reader will kill us all, said newspaper sources.

native PDF reader is nice and tempting....but I'm still waiting to see what Apple can offer. For almost $500 I'd like more than just a way to read books and papers.

If it can integrate with Papers or Sente, annotate and bring those back into the above, VPN into the campus library, search academic databases download papers over the air and work with knovel. I might be interested.

imna design one of these kindle book bitches - its basically just stripped down html right - im designing in indesign for print and then converting to pdf for one ebook format but then id like to convert to the native kindle format as well - anybody got any tips for me

the coming huge iphone tablet thingy is obv gonna be amzing - itll be way more expensive than the kindle tho - more like a iphone/laptop/kindle hybrid - the kindle will still hav its niche likely

yeah, it's not really the price of this thing that's my problem, it's the price for what it can do, which is just display books. Yeah, you could bitch about the original iPod also "just" being a music player, but it was easy to get digital music for no cash, either from ripping your cds or.... But with the Kindle I guess you could scan books into PDFs, but it's a lot more work to get right than ripping a cd.

There is a decent piece of free software for Windows called mobipocket creator, and on the Mac, there is something called Calibre, I think.

thx dude calibre looks promising - ill check out mobipocket in parallels if that doesnt work out

lol

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bc5-zw3yTPk/Sfi9PAQVgvI/AAAAAAAAAGE/FjuUKw1-8Fw/s400/kc-chart1.jpg

u got to think the the ebook piracy damn is abt to break - people just hav to crack whatever drm is on there - right now theres not really enough people reading ebooks to hav a critical mass but once all those college kids get readers for text books its over

tho obv there are so many fucking out there especially when u consider out of print titles that prob a huge % will never make it to file sharing - i could see piracy driving down prices to something more like $5 - which seems reasonable when u consider how much publishers are saving on printing/distro/wholesaling - this should be pretty interesting def - every book ever published at a mouse click - plus tons of people self publishing

I think the graph is more interesting than lol. Amazon's selling a lot to older people who struggle with reading regualar books because of the small type size.

i can lol if i want to
i can leave e-books behind

Are they ever going to sell this fucker in the UK?

its interesting the oldies are early adopters here - says something def for the simplicity of the device - also young people just read bloggz

this is pretty nuts http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-kindle-sales-now-a-shocking-35-of-book-sales-when-kindle-version-available-2009-5

I think they also have the cash and are more willing to pay for the luxury of adjustable font sizes and not having to carry a pile of print around. The kindle's lack of fashionability, butt-ugly grey facade and inability to mod probably drives away the younguns and mothtoflames the seniors

yeah that is nuts!

irl i have only seen kindles in the hands of old(er) people on planes

i hav never seen a kindl :(

an older woman on my bus has one, she seems weird. she wears old school walkman headphones and listens to a discman and for awhile i swear she listened to static for white noise purposes. now i'm not so sure. i heard music, real music the other day. she's the kind of person who on an empty bus will place her bag next to her so no one sits next to her. not sure what this says about the kindle. i sometimes sit next to her. she was reading some book about thomas jefferson last week. the print was clear and easy to read, i'll say that much. kindles make it much easier to see what yr fellow bus rider is reading.

also dude in one of my classes had one. youngish guy but he's super geeky and dorky and stuff.

i have never seen anyone using one on the bus but someone would probably punch you in the face and steal it and run off the bus like with iphones

actually lol who am i kidding no one would steal one of these things

theyd take it and then be like wait wtf is this thing a really old ipod

why does this ipod have a keyboard

this isn't an etch-a-sketch?

lol

maybe they would just punch you in the face and *not* steal it

*punch* what, regular books aren't good enough for you, fucker?

They might punch you in the face and then hand you a Sony eReader

I'm interested in how the textbook thing plays out. Textbooks are damned expensive due to the resale issue and this removes that but whether you have to buy individual titles for this thing or universities will get a site license as they do for journals and things like knovel. I suspect the latter so I wonder if schools will be doling out kindles and they were doing so with ipods a while back. It will be interesting to see apple and gookle duke it out for this space if the ipod tablet surfaces.

apple tablet w/full keyboard would be pretty much the best thing for college - read yr books - bring it to class as yr laptop - txt on there - whatever

itunes

im thinking youd hav some sort of fold up dock that has the keyboard and angles the tablet up and has ports and power supply - then when u want to just take it out and read or whatever u go to the touch screen - the doc could hav wifi so u could connect to harddrives phones or whatever while yr in wireless mode

Amzon, not google, possibly a prescient freudian slip.

all the classics are available

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51F19998D6L._SL500_AA246_PIkin2,BottomRight,-12,34_AA280_SH20_OU01_.jpghttp://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51jE0LfTCYL._SL500_AA246_PIkin2,BottomRight,-10,34_AA280_SH20_OU01_.jpg

etch-a-skindle

i finished my iphone kindle Animal Farm in like three subway rides and a few in-between-bands-glances. I know it's a small book, but i honestly think i read MUCH FASTER on my iphone app than with a regular book

Its these little blocks of text that you can just gulp down in one bite and flip past, instead of staring at entire pages of words.

Ever since I was a kid I would space out while reading long passages. I get as much two pages ahead and realize that I haven't actually READ anything paragraphs, I just LOOKED at the book while I thought about other things. I didn't do that at all with my lil phone--and when i did, i was just stuck on a little page with 40 words and i could just reconnect in 2 seconds. I'm totally into reading books on my iphone.

Next I'm gonna do White Noise, which I only got through half of last time because I left my book inside the Tate Modern and never got a new one.

friend of mine is thinking of getting one since he's gonna be going to africa for a few months and wants to bring hell of books with him

what a big fat bald baby this guy is

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2009/06/for-jeff-bezos-the-great-run-for-books-is-over-really.html#more

Levy: For a special book, do you still want to read the physical book?

Bezos: No. No, in fact, I now ... I kind of am grumpy when I am forced to read a physical book. Because it's not as convenient. Turning the pages ... I didn't know this either, until I started using the Kindles a couple months ago, I mean a couple years ago, I didn't understand all of the failings of a physical book, because I’m inured to them. But you can’t turn the page with one hand. The book is always flopping itself shut at the wrong moment. They’re heavy. You can only take one or two of them with you at a time. It’s had a great 500-year run. [Audience laughter.] It’s an unbelievably successful technology. But it’s time to change.

I wish they'd release it here. I still prefer actual books though.

lol at that bezos quote; surprised he didn't bitch about paper cuts

I think this thing may finally be catching on in "middle America" (lol whatever that is). I mean, all of my Mom's friends (Midwestern middle/working class) are buying these and raving about them.

can't wait for the nyt article about whole houses with no bookshelves and the great bookshelf bust as demonstrated by a trip to an ikea and a west elm.

... and container store; takes three to be a trend, remember?

I think this thing may finally be catching on in "middle America" (lol whatever that is). I mean, all of my Mom's friends (Midwestern middle/working class) are buying these and raving about them.

Fair enough, but it's gonna make book burnin's a lot more expensive now.

Fahrenheit 488

Ha. I was just surprised to see that people I actually knew were starting to buy these in any numbers.

it's mostly older people, from what i've read

You know how old people like to jump on trends.

the ones i've seen in person=youngish guy, slightly older woman, oldish woman

muddy waters, "oldish woman"

i don't think her name is muddy waters, but if she's on my bus tonight i'll ask her

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/report_90_of_waking_hours_spent?utm_source=a-section

fantastic. that's on par with their best.

my main attraction is that I would be able to knit 'n' read at the same time. Now it's a bit hard cause paperbacks don't really lie flat that easily. :-( maybe that's why a lot of your mom's friends are getting these? i know it's a really big hit with ravelers (knit related community)

I occasionally buy a book for the Kindle app for my iPod touch, but this story made me decide not to buy ebooks from Amazon regularly.

can't wait to dig into this story, Nicholson Baker buys a Kindle
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/08/03/090803fa_fact_baker?currentPage=all

I wonder if the Kindle will ever see any sort of mass adoption. Maybe many years from now, some digital reading device will become popular, but I doubt it will be the Kindle.

I think devices like the iPhone will become *much* more popular over the next few years.

This new Apple tablet is probably not going to go mainstream tho: http://gizmodo.com/5323446/financial-times-confirms-apple-tablet-features-september-launch

Thanks for that link, Mr. Que. Looks like a good article.

Yeah, I'd be curious to hear what a paper hoarder like Baker has to say about the kindle.
My head tells me to wait three or four years until they optimize these for comics and crossword puzzles and they shake out the problems. My heart wants new gadgets.

i still find this things's potential end result to be unbearably depressing

Agreed.

'Unbearably depressing' makes it sound as though its failure will bring about something apocalyptic...

i dunno, the idea that people won't read actualy books any longer...is not necessarily apocalyptic, but really terribly depressing.

By "actual books" do you mean physical books? If so, I agree with you that that's sad, but I don't think the Kindle will change how much people read. Those who read will continue to read, and people who don't read probably won't have a Kindle in the first place.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I thought you meant 'the Kindle failing and sucking ass' wld be the end result. Do you mean not reading the books we all know and love, printed on paper? Or never read anything ever at all?

bahaha xpost

i don't think books are going anywhere anytime soon

My wife and I just ordered one. I'll keep you all updated on our enjoyment thereof.

There's nothing like an epic ILX thread where people mourn the fact that no one reads, ever...*crosses fingers*

x-post -- Treekiller. Uh, wait.

maybe we could publish some really funny ilx threads in e-book form and everyone can read them on their kindle

Kindle App for the iPhone is a far worse experience than just reading a physical book. Haven't used the Kindle itself.

maybe we could publish some really funny ilx threads in e-book form and everyone can read them on their kindle

― omar little, Monday, July 27, 2009 12:28 PM (14 seconds ago) Bookmark

Didn't someone try to publish an ILX ebook or book once and it was a shitshow?

Wasn't a thread also published in one of those Best New Music books, and that was also a shitshow? (People not getting paid or something?)

we could call it "excelsior: the e-book"...just a thought

That being said, I would totally buy a book that was a compendium of the best ILX threads.

Truth

Excelsior the book

some underrated Dr. Phil-isms upthread. don't sleep

Where did the whole "Excelsior" meme come from anyway?

maybe we could publish some really funny ilx threads in e-book form and everyone can read them on their kindle

for the ultimate in meta, I only read this thread from my kindle.

btw, Barnes & Noble is giving away 6 free eBooks right now, when you download their eReader (if you have a B&N account). Looks like it manages downloads via iTunes.

Excelsior by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The shades of night were falling fast,
As through an Alpine village passed
A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice,
A banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!

His brow was sad; his eye beneath,
Flashed like a falchion from its sheath,
And like a silver clarion rung
The accents of that unknown tongue,
Excelsior!

In happy homes he saw the light
Of household fires gleam warm and bright;
Above, the spectral glaciers shone,
And from his lips escaped a groan,
Excelsior!

"Try not the Pass!" the old man said;
"Dark lowers the tempest overhead,
The roaring torrent is deep and wide!"
And loud that clarion voice replied,
Excelsior!

"O stay," the maiden said, "and rest
Thy weary head upon this breast!"
A tear stood in his bright blue eye,
But still he answered, with a sigh,
Excelsior!

"Beware the pine tree's withered branch!
Beware the awful avalanche!"
This was the peasant's last Good-night,
A voice replied, far up the height,
Excelsior!

At break of day, as heavenward
The pious monks of Saint Bernard
Uttered the oft-repeated prayer,
A voice cried through the startled air,
Excelsior!

A traveller, by the faithful hound,
Half-buried in the snow was found,
Still grasping in his hand of ice
That banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!

There in the twilight cold and gray,
Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay,
And from the sky, serene and far,
A voice fell, like a falling star,
Excelsior!

But more to the point of your question, I always assumed Ned thunk it up.

you can’t turn the page with one hand. The book is always flopping itself shut at the wrong moment. They’re heavy. You can only take one or two of them with you at a time.

Are you tired of all the hassle of "conventional" books? Hardcovers are just so heavy, and paperbacks never stay open! Does your library look like this? "Conventional" books can be a storage nightmare! And sharp paper pages can be dangerous -- for you, your children, and even your pets. Say goodbye to the hassle of those messy, maddening "conventional" books, and say hello to something new.

No, I'm done. A quick search of the archive will reveal that I don't get mad & say I'm leaving or stuff like that, so this is it. PEACE OUT

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Wednesday, June 23, 2004 3:10 PM (5 years ago)

But more to the point of your question, I always assumed Ned thunk it up.

Ha, no. I believe it was either Tom E. or stevem/blueski who used it for the first such thread, in fact let me check...

Okay, it was stevem, here was the very first thread:

this is the thread where you copy and paste whatever other posts on ilx made you laugh out loud

The second:

this is the ALL NEW thread where you copy and paste the posts that made you laugh out loud

And the third, where Excelsior appeared in the thread title:

i can't believe its another 'posts that made you laugh out loud' compendium thread, excelsior yadda yadda

'Excelsior' itself coming from its use by Stan Lee in Marvel comics news column signoffs.

Ah, thanks Ned! That's great. :-)

Seriously Ned, I never can figure out how you do that.

NB in terms of the takeoff of the Kindle I think adoption by actual people is going to be almost insignificant in comparison to the things they could possibly do with education -- I mean, it's a totally killer and totally sensible thing to put coursework and reading on these things (which I think they're doing trials of at the college level, but would make just as much sense for wealthy primary schools, where parents complain about their kids lugging around six big textbooks a day), and I don't doubt that they're totally looking at the potential there to get at people young and make their whole experience of reading Kindle-based

my sister just started a gig as a librarian at a silicon valley college prep private school and I think they're looking to do just that.

I don't know if it's even humanly possible to be so in love with physical books that you'd rather go to a crowded college bookstore, purchase 15 pounds of Intro to Anthropology reading, carry it home, and scatter it all over your room than just beam it all onto your Kindle in five minutes and then go out drinking

i had this big conversation with a friend yesterday abt Kindle and material culture, aesthetics, point and purpose and meaning of dif media forms, wasting of paper/trees and etc. i was recalling all the coursepacks and photocopies i'd gone through over the years (esp grad school, holy shiz) and how a Kindle would have been so perfect for all that. (and i wouldn't have all these stupid boxes of files still! digitize now!)
so yeah, nabisco otm

Seriously Ned, I never can figure out how you do that.

Work in libraries a lot = get used to using search terms as effectively as one can.

Yeah, that too, but I meant the candyman thing where you appeared and clarified as soon as your name came up.

Oh, that. Blood sacrifices.

gotcha. Hail Satan, Ned.

nedraggetnedraggetnedragget

Two 't's please.

ZS could do wonders with a photo of an ilxor in a mirror w/r/t this

with evil eye dog in background

i mean, i really like the record. and yeah, there's both good and bad experimental psychedelia, just like any other kinda music. But it doesn't seem to me that this particular Sandy Bull album is any-more self-induldgent or boring than something like Vision Creation Newsun or some Xenakis album. But all three of these albums were made for different audiences at different times, who obviously had different expectations.
I just think it's weird that a guy who clearly doesn't have an affinity for the style would review the record. I dunno. Where is Ned Ragget or someone to write a better review?

― Special Agent Gene Krupa (orion), Saturday, December 31, 2005 12:30 AM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

HI DERE
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, December 31, 2005 12:31 AM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

not creepy at all.
― Special Agent Gene Krupa (orion), Saturday, December 31, 2005 12:32 AM Bookmark

Hahah

LOL

mr que otm - the idea that books will die just seems impossible - that's like saying 'now we have photos/computer screens/etc. painting will die'. the way i see it, who cares if kindle-type things overtake mass-market paperbacks? why are mass-market paperbacks so precious or somehow culturally superior? and i say this as someone who loves the physical-ness and materiality of books, and someone who has spent obscene amounts of money on books.

there's no way i'm forking out several hundred for one of these things anytime soon - but if some better comes along in the next few years, and the price drops below $150, i will def be getting one. the idea of being able to carry around several books on a little gadget makes me very happy.

I think Ned was mentioned in one of the football-by-which-I-mean-soccer topics but failed to creepily emerge*. Disappointing.

*I tried to find a gif of Homer gliding through Ned's hedge, but no luck.

Ned's December 2005 HI DERE just gave genuine workplace lols - great stuff.

On a thread related note, the University I work at is also seriously looking at this kind of device as well for all the reasons upthread; the potential satchel-lightening (esp for science courses) would be amazing.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203577304574277041750084938.html#printMode

At colleges, trials of e-textbooks and readers have been mixed. When Northwest Missouri State ran its trial with the Sony Reader last fall, dozens of the 200 participants bailed out after about two weeks. “The students more often than not either suffered through it or went and got physical books,” says Paul Klute, the assistant to the university’s president, who oversees the e-book program. Students didn’t like that they couldn’t flip through random pages, take notes in the margins or highlight text, he says.

Penn State ran a pilot program last fall with 100 of the Sony Reader devices in honors English classes, and found similar results as Northwest Missouri State. The devices are good if you’re using them “on a beach or on an airplane,” said Mike Furlough, assistant dean for scholarly communications at Penn State University Libraries. “But not fully functional for a learning environment.”

guessi should add this part to be fair, last few paragraphs

ony’s newest model, the Reader 700, now features note taking and highlighting, says Steve Haber, president of Sony’s digital reading business. The Reader, he says, “is not a multipurpose device, it is designed for focused reading.”—something that many educators are looking for in a world where students’ lives are filled with digital distractions.

Northwest Missouri State has since decided to pursue e-books that can be read on small laptops known as netbooks, rather than just a single-purpose e-reader. “A tablet netbook that is sturdy and is as fully functional as a PC has the ability to do word processing and run other programs,” Mr. Klute says.

Some Northwest Missouri State students say they remain fans of digital reading. Eric Pabst, 21, used his laptop to read e-textbooks in his finance class last year. “It’s cool because we don’t have to lug around a huge book anymore,” he says.

hm, if i were studying, writing papers, doing research, i would totally want a stand-alone reader, rather than have it integrated into my laptop

this is all going to be so much better/functional/pleasant when screens and cpus are paper-thin

I think Ned was mentioned in one of the football-by-which-I-mean-soccer topics but failed to creepily emerge*. Disappointing.

Sorry about that, I might have been asleep.

(haha i have no idea why i used the term 'cpu'. do people still use that word even? i mean processor, motherboard, keyboard, battery, all that circuitry stuff)
xpost

(Best part of that Dec. '05 exchange is that it was NEW YEARS EVE.)

my kindle's cpu is a neural net processor a learning computer

>(Best part of that Dec. '05 exchange is that it was NEW YEARS EVE.)

Can there be any other way to see in the new year? champagne, fireworks and a chorus of "Auld Lang HI DERE"...

Sorry about that, I might have been asleep.

My main thing is Kindle books are too $$$...$10 avg IIRC. 85+% of books I want I can find at the used book store (for $1-6, most of which I can get on credit), and then just recycle those back (if I wan't too crazy abt them) next time I go to the used book store. Or the books I want are OOP and I just have to cross my fingers someone sells them to the used book store.

Most books I buy new are graphic novels & I can't see those working on a Kindle.

The thing that wld be NICE abt a Kindle is I always end up lugging 8 books around on vacation & those take up so much weight/space in a suitcase.

But what about your bot?

It was being a lazyass punk.

The thing that wld be NICE abt a Kindle is I always end up lugging 8 books around on vacation & those take up so much weight/space in a suitcase.

My local library will MAIL you books that you check out via the internet!

My main thing is Kindle books are too $$$...$10 avg IIRC. 85+% of books I want I can find at the used book store (for $1-6, most of which I can get on credit), and then just recycle those back (if I wan't too crazy abt them) next time I go to the used book store. Or the books I want are OOP and I just have to cross my fingers someone sells them to the used book store.

Most books I buy new are graphic novels & I can't see those working on a Kindle.

― bad-boy (sic) cartographer (actually a girl) (called) (not named) (Abbott), Tuesday, July 28, 2009 2:16 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i think the price point thing is huge here--i got one as a present and didnt mind it so much but if im going to spend $10 i want something i can hold in my hand and actually own instead of a little file thats proprietarily encoded. i sold mine on ebay.

Also this:

http://www.ndsbooks.co.uk/100_classic_dsbook-large.jpg

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Technology/Pix/pictures/2009/1/5/1231161972587/100-Classic-Book-Collecti-001.jpg

There is one of these in my house, but I have not yet had any reason to actually sit down and read something on it. I think as far as I've gotten has been paging through a newspaper and thinking it looked nice (although unlike a paper, or even the web, you couldn't just eyeball it and figure out hierarchical stuff about what you wanted to read).

Max, maybe you can answer something for me -- I didn't ask too much, but it seems frustratingly difficult to put your own material on one? I.e., if you have a manuscript or PDF (or whatever format) of a text you need to read through -- if this were simple I assume you'd have working people in any number of fields (say, publishing) who'd happily adopt.

nabisco, all you have to do is email to your Kindle.

er, email it to your Kindle

They each have a unique email address

what sorts of documents are displayable?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200321920

Sending Personal Documents

You need to establish your Kindle's e-mail address and list approved "From" e-mail addresses to send files for conversion. When you e-mail personal documents to your Kindle's e-mail address, they are automatically converted to a Kindle-friendly format. Then you can download them via USB using your computer or you can have them wirelessly delivered to your device for a small fee.

Your Kindle will only receive converted files from e-mail addresses you have authorized on the Manage Your Kindle page to help prevent spam.

* Microsoft Word (.DOC)
* Structured HTML (.HTML, .HTM)
* RTF (.RTF)
* JPEG (.JPEG, .JPG)
* GIF (.GIF)
* PNG (.PNG)
* BMP (.BMP)
* PDF (.PDF) is supported natively by Kindle DX and by Kindle in our experimental category
* Microsoft Word (.DOCX) is supported in our experimental category.

oh looks like a free option here?

to avoid a fee, or if you're not in wireless range, you can send an e-mail to "name&qu✧✧✧@f✧✧✧.kin✧✧✧.c✧✧ and download the files via USB in a Kindle compatible format to the device(s).

that's fucked up but it looks like you can do it for free

the fee is currently 10 cents.

I've sent txt, pdf, rtf, and doc files to mine. chm is probably supported too.

You can also format them yourself (basic html - Mr. Jaq is working on King Lear) and just drop them on via your computer.

xpost, obv.

ha, wow, never mind -- I guess we were just being incompetent one afternoon

I ran across a similar device for sheet music and composing the other day: http://www.music123.com/Freehand-MusicPad-Pro-Plus-Version-4-0-Electronic-Sheet-Music-Display-241190-i1126007.Music123

Looks like a giant pda, has a touchscreen, backlit, etc. Has anyone seen one IRL?

that ds book collection sucks by the way. Shitty interface, screen way too small.
The killer app that might push me to a kindle is the electronically delivered magazine and newspaper subscriptions. They're much cheaper,easier to carry around, easier to search and i get tired of bundling out paper to recycling.

Ha it does suck.

"You know how I'd like to read Jane Eyre? Three hyphenated sentences at a time on a screen half the size of a postcard while a fifteen second lite jazz riff recycles endlessly in the background."

http://www.avclub.com/articles/apple-reportedly-at-work-on-kindlekiller-and-lpsav,30976/?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=feeds&utm_source=avclub_rss_daily

For some time now, rumors have been percolating that Apple is working on a new device--best-described as a laptop-sized iPod Touch--to compete in both in the netbook and tablet PC markets. Over the past 48 hours, those rumors have reached critical mass, as leaks out of Cupertino seem to indicate that the device will be ready to go this fall, in time for Christmas. And Apple has also reportedly been hard at work on some new applications to make the as-yet-unnamed computer more desirable. Among them: an e-reader that could pose a serious threat to the Kindle (since the new app will offer color, have the backing of iTunes, and might be able to access a cellular network for instant downloads just as the Kindle does), and new "digital album" bundles that will allow people who download them to access lyrics, liner notes, video and other bonus material while they listen. Whether Apple's new tablet will really be a "Kindle-killer" remains to be seen; Kindles will likely still have a much longer battery life and the non-eye-straining "e-ink" as key selling points for people who just want to grab books on the go and read. But the digital album concept is intriguing, especially since it's designed to stimulate music sales by moving consumers away from the one-track-a-time a la carte model that record labels have begun to decry. Is it too late to change the habit of a population that's grown used to shuffling? And does anyone have any money left to buy Apple's latest toy?

does it have an e-meter?

the DS book collection doesn't have to be so terrible, why's the top screen sitting there completely wasted? They could have like SEVEN words to a line rather than four if they didn't insist on it opening like a book!

I just ordered an Amazon Kindle 2 e-book reader for myself. I've wanted one forever (at least since Kindle 1 came out) but teased myself with anticipation of the second generation of this device. I love to read and I carry books with me everywhere, and soon I can carry just this little device and have access to all the books I could possibly want.

And yes, this is related to sex. I don't know about you, but sometimes I want to to carry a book of erotica or the latest sex book I'm reviewing for this blog into the coffee shop, the gym, or the airport, but I leave it behind because the blatent cover or title would bring me unwanted public attention.

As soon as my Kindle arrives, I can carry all sorts of books, including those that people assume a 65-year-old woman doesn't read! Of course I'll still have to be wary of people reading over my shoulder or saying, "Oh, is that a Kindle? May I look at it?"

Do you have a Kindle or other e-book reader? What sex-related books do you read on it? An Amazon search on " sex" within Kindle books lists 2,947 books, and " erotica" yields 4,882 titles. That'll keep me busy.
from Joan Price's Better Than I Ever Expected blog (http://betterthanieverexpected.blogspot.com/), by Joan Price, author of Better Than I Ever Expected: Straight Talk about Sex after Sixty. http://www.betterthanieverexpected.blogspot.com

http://i.friendfeed.com/dc2cd905013dea7fcd12071d9a00ecea9ecf1bcc

― Dr. Phil, Wednesday, April 22, 2009 11:03 PM

I've heard about the apple thing, that's a definite wait and see.
There are other homebrew e-readers for the DS that appear to work quite well.

This is cool twist:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/25/sonys-daily-edition-reader-launch-event/

hm. Getting warmer.

i know nothing about ebook readers but im looking to buy one to use at the gym on the cross trainer. waterproof, a4 or a5 size, able to display .doc and .pdf files. which is the best one out there and how much would something like this be? it *feels* like they should be about £50, which i'd be fine with, but i'm guessing they cost waaaay more than that, is the price likely to drop in the next year or two?

qu2, could a nintendo DSi be used as an ebook reader of sorts?

Available in England today, sort of.

Fwok. Would it be possible for me to purchase? I live in Belgium. Probably pointless. But DAMN I NEED/WANT.

Just check. WOOHOO! It ISSSSSS. :-)

haha yeah — people have been asking me what i think of the 'e-reader' phenomenon for months, and i have always said 'well, i don't really see the point', and as soon as i saw that i could get one i went: oh, how much are they? that's not that much, is it? i can afford that, can't i?

for realz! hehe. but then i'm a complete gadget freak anyway. i think i'm actually gonna ask my parents for one. i'm celebrating my birthday in a couple of weeks. it's that or the volvo XC60. so this'll be a bargain for'em. hah. i did check the list of books and it's great! they have the charlaine harris boxset for like 36 dollars! if only i had it earlier as i spent much more on the books.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/25/sony-announces-daily-edition-reader/

I'm waiting for that one to come out because of the library partnership.

Hey, they are currently giving away Perdido Street Station for free.

Okay I'm holding off on the Kindle. My reading has more or less stopped (mainly because I can't seem to finish Notes from the Underground, it's fine when I read trash hah). I wanna see some reviews first. Also what about that iTablet thingie Apple is gonna release? Will it be big? Doubt I'd want that: too expensive for what I "need" it for really. Hmm maybe I should get the Kindle after all. Sigh.

i'm holding out for the Apple 451 Degrees

What?

lol

baked apple

hahaha Woke up, read it and laughed. :-)

http://www.univirtual.info/451_files/fahrenheit451-3.jpg

Kindle for PC

www.amazon.com/KindleforPC

yawn

I don't see anything about a Mac version, but I'm sure they'll release one eventually. I've tried the Kindle app for the iPod Touch, but I found it really hard to read anything that way. I don't think I'll be buying many ebooks until the technology matures a lot more.

Amazon Yawndle

a future of nothing but glowing screens and handheld electronic devices is a depressing and impersonal one.

yeah i'm never reading an e-book

i refuse to let books die! over my dead body!

exactly

^^^

it's like some horrible '70s science fiction film where a man checks books out of libraries but instead of an actual book they're copied into his brain stem and he reads them in five seconds and dinner is a capsule, each capsule being marked w/words like "meat" or "vegetables" or "fruit".

i was talking last night about how so many people are protective of books but no one gives a shit about dvds getting replaced by downloads/streaming

people don't really seem to bond with dvds/microfilm/laser discs/lots of other dead media (says the guy with the cassette tape tattoo)

because watching a movie has never required you to be holding onto something?

i mean that's a totally different thing

also, the cheapness of recordable cds & dvds renders them kind of worthless and disposable in a way books never were/are

hey i didn't say it was like a deep thought or anything

and yet people are totally protective of vinyl

i think it's the whole flipping of the record thing + the relative care that is put into LPs maybe.

i think with videos, the leaps and massive improvements are all about convenience without really losing quality--it's just as good to watch a video on your laptop vs. a big tv, there's not much difference. but with books, the kindle and ebooks aren't really an improvement. i dunno.

maybe because you look at 12" vinyl cover while listening to music, but rarely scan the dvd box when watching the movie?

yeah dvds, etc. have very few characteristics that lend themselves to becoming fetish objects. books and records have a lot of them. xp yeah cover design is one example

this is to books as frozen dinners are to cooking

a good book with a good index (if we're talking non-fiction of course) is an amazing piece of "technology"

i think the only dvds that people really feel excited about are particularly elaborate releases that come complete with tons of interesting extras, booklets, etc. that's why criterion does so well.

yeah and criterion has really nice covers and the dvd boxes feel heavy because of all the stuff in them

I think, with vinyl, you're looking at a very tiny percentage of people. Same as with books, I think in the end we'll see the e-book (by and large) replace the paper format. I also bought an ekindle but have yetto start a book on it. I am still trying to finish The Informers (paperback). In the past I'd never have thought of not caring about books (or records or..), but now, fuck, who cares about paper format books? In the end I don't give a shit about my book collection, I care about the stories in'em. Also, the ekindle is portable and you don't need as much space to store your books. Same goes for MP3s: I prefer that over boxes of CDs. Although I have to admit I hold on to my vinyl. Also hold onto my CDs because my husband refuses me to toss'em out. Ah well.

I don't care about objects (DVDs, CDs,...) honestly. It's a mindset and I have changed. (Not saying it's better of course, just... different.)

Mainly bought the ekindle because that way I can easily knit and read. I can't do that as well with a paperback. I bought a few of those stands but not that great...

I think, with vinyl, you're looking at a very tiny percentage of people. Same as with books, I think in the end we'll see the e-book (by and large) replace the paper format.

i find that extremely depressing : /

i don't think the world is well-served by what may be the eventual total reliance on electronic devices.

My wife got a Kindle recently and it's been interesting to observe how it has affected her reading habits.

The library remains her first resort for most stuff (she's a librarian). Anything she wants to be able to loan to others still gets purchased as a hard copy. She's also decided that the Kindle is lousy for diet/health books, because it's not simple to flip through to relocate a particular recipe or chart or whatever.

The Kindle has become her primary means of consuming genre fiction, especially the urban fantasy she previously bought by the pound in rack-sized paperbacks. For the most part, these are not books she's likely to lend or re-read or want to show off on shelves.

The biggest selling point for her: if she needs something to read, she goes online and downloads it immediately, no trip to the store.

I have yet to read more than a few pages on the thing myself, but it's a very usable device, and being able to change the size of type is a plus. I can't see buying Kindle content myself, but I understand why she likes it.

Instant gratification for customers + the absence of shipping and inventory costs make these gadgets cash flow machines for Amazon.

i just don't trust ebooks not to become unreadable for some reason and require replacement. i'm glad you guys enjoy yours, but the idea that they'll replace paper books worries me, just because paper books are so durable.

i can see why people who read a lot of genre-fiction type stuff might like it, tbf

it's fun to predict the future, though. back when i worked at record stores like 10+ years ago, people would walk in and say: "WOW THEY STILL MAKE RECORDS," and we'd say yeah they do. but we kind of suspected that records were on the way out and would be gone forever pretty soon. now it seems like vinyl is as strong as ever--maybe even stronger? i mean, you can buy records at Borders now! and i think there are a *lot* more people who love books than records. i just don't see the kindle as destroying books, sorry.

Yeah, I think mainly I bought the Kindle for my trashy reading (Charlaine Harris and the like).

xxxpost Why? Why are electronic devices so bad? (Serious question)

Que, that's why so many recordshops have closed here: no sales. Just kidding.... sort of.

So what if they are durable, Maria? The kindle (or rather books on it) are also "durable" in a way: you can download'em ad nauseam