wow what a dick!
― jeff, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 21:12 (sixteen years ago) link
that's what all my ladies say
― DG, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 21:14 (sixteen years ago) link
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...
― schwantz, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 21:23 (sixteen years ago) link
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
― Jeff LeVine, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 22:30 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 22:47 (sixteen years ago) link
i feel sorry for that schwantz guy now :(
― DG, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 22:48 (sixteen years ago) link
only possible appeal of this (or any equivalent) is not having to lift boxes and boxes of books when moving.
― Jordan, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 22:51 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― calstars, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 22:54 (sixteen years ago) link
I thought last night about all the Library of America editions I could line a shelf with using the same $400.
― calstars, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 22:55 (sixteen years ago) link
I'd rather add another $100 and get every Dalkey Archive book ever.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 22:56 (sixteen years ago) link
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
― stet, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 22:58 (sixteen years ago) link
Oh, I guess you only get 100 books from them for that price nowadays.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 22:59 (sixteen years ago) link
i would miss different-sized books and cover art and the like
― omar little, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 23:01 (sixteen years ago) link
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, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 04:20 (sixteen years ago) link
schwantz, did you work at lab126 in the a9 office on hamilton? i was there for a while. congrats on the launch.
― Colin M. Saunders, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 05:50 (sixteen years ago) link
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?
― Ste, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 09:58 (sixteen years ago) link
this is a pda with less functionality
― ken c, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 11:39 (sixteen years ago) link
it looks nasty, and it sounds like a disaster from the planning 'how do we DRM it' PoV
― Alan, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 11:43 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― stet, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 11:44 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Ned Trifle II, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 12:13 (sixteen years ago) link
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)
― Alan, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 12:23 (sixteen years ago) link
Caecilia
It's electronic paper! No backlight necessary.
― ledge, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 12:25 (sixteen years ago) link
(regardless of the look and functionality of the rest of the device I think that's a huge UI win)
― ledge, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 12:26 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Dandy Don Weiner, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 12:32 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― ledge, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 12:34 (sixteen years ago) link
i'd quite like to see this screen to see how it's different.. is it just thinner?
― ken c, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 12:38 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― ledge, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 12:45 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Alan, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 13:02 (sixteen years ago) link
ledge, that was my phone up until about a week ago. It was pretty groovy, although text messaging got to be a pain.
― Ste, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 13:16 (sixteen years ago) link
One last shill post: Computerworld article
― schwantz, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 20:57 (sixteen years ago) link
Can I just say that the frickin' name is possibly the goofiest thing about this?
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 21:08 (sixteen years ago) link
otm. I keep thiking there is something related to this guy http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/F/htmlF/fugitivethe/fugitiveIMAGE/fugitivethe.jpg
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 21:12 (sixteen years ago) link
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
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 21:13 (sixteen years ago) link
Would you use twigs or newspaper as kindle to light a bunch of these on fire?
― calstars, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 21:18 (sixteen years ago) link
"Kindle! We'll Turn Paper Books Into Kindling"
― omar little, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 21:19 (sixteen years ago) link
I think the wii has shown a goofy name is fine
― Jeff LeVine, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 21:23 (sixteen years ago) link
So why no landscape mode for the screen? FAIL
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 22:50 (sixteen years ago) link
http://db.tidbits.com/article/9329
http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/techtracks/archives/2007/11/the_kindle_a_reviewers_first_impressions_1.html
― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 22 November 2007 00:24 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 22 November 2007 17:41 (sixteen years ago) link
Http/1.1 Service Unavailable
― Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Friday, 6 June 2008 19:01 (fifteen years ago) link
still sucks then
― DG, Friday, 6 June 2008 19:05 (fifteen years ago) link
Congrats to Schwantz on a big launch and a great concept
spot the deliberate mistake(s)
― DG, Friday, 6 June 2008 19:06 (fifteen years ago) link
I have actually seen three of these on the train. they look like medical apparati for the visually impaired.
― akm, Friday, 6 June 2008 22:42 (fifteen years ago) link
-- DG, Friday, 6 June 2008 19:06 (Yesterday) Link
Spot the continuing-to-troll douche.
― schwantz, Saturday, 7 June 2008 02:18 (fifteen years ago) link
Medical apparatopotamuses.
― libcrypt, Saturday, 7 June 2008 02:55 (fifteen years ago) link
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?
― B.L.A.M., Saturday, 7 June 2008 03:20 (fifteen years ago) link
"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.
― am0n, Monday, 30 June 2008 04:33 (fifteen years ago) link
gah. bought actual official penguin classic version of Notre-Dame de Paris and it's full of typesetting badness. have seen the following several times:
‘some speech’, and then,’ some more speech’
where the third apostrophe is also the wrong shape, a 9 rather than a 6.
épice appears as ¿pice in the footnotes
and generally the footnotes are per-page, and each has its own entry in the toc, meaning the toc is 18 pages long and, of course, the ebook pages aren't the same as the original's so the numbers are pointless. the footnote markers are also superscript leading to a bigger line gap on the lines where they appear.
(all of this fixable locally but annoying)
― koogs, Tuesday, 28 February 2023 08:52 (one year ago) link
> I've ordered a nia> ledge
how are you finding it?
― koogs, Tuesday, 28 February 2023 08:56 (one year ago) link
It's my wife's, I haven't used it myself but she's perfectly happy with it. I'll try and have a go with it later.
― ledge, Tuesday, 28 February 2023 09:06 (one year ago) link
https://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2022/03/22/how-collections-work-after-latest-kindle-update/
― Think Fast, Mr. Mojo Risin’ (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 16 March 2023 01:08 (one year ago) link
Anyone had any luck trying KOReader on the Kindle?
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 11 April 2023 19:39 (eleven months ago) link
reading Jennifer Saint's Ariadne. but they've hard-coded the font (Sabon LT) and it's very spindly especially on a backlit screen. but i have an editor, i can change that...
20 different 'txt' styles and it's specified in every single one. the C in CSS is for cascading. also fixed the first-line-indent which was way too low. and added a margin before the sections. does nobody ever read these things?
(what's bigger than a paragraph? new paragraphs are indented by a character or two but there's no gap above them. but once in a while, one a major change of subject, there'll be a one-line gap and the next paragraph will be hard to the left. is there a name for this? section?)
― koogs, Saturday, 4 November 2023 12:01 (four months ago) link
CARELLA: What made you cnoindente your mind?PATRICIA: I cnoindented my mind, that’s right.
took me a while to work out what was happening here. i wonder if the original kindle version was correct?
― koogs, Sunday, 11 February 2024 19:32 (one month ago) link
noindent whoever came up with that find & replace.
― organ doner (ledge), Monday, 12 February 2024 06:13 (one month ago) link
it's that time again...
just went to download recent purchases and it's forcing me to upgrade Kindle for PC version, which means more reading around on how to break the d r m. only out £1.99 of this doesn't work but it's annoying.
― koogs, Saturday, 2 March 2024 19:26 (three weeks ago) link
new plugin needs new calibre...
― koogs, Saturday, 2 March 2024 20:03 (three weeks ago) link