Amazon Kindle (ebook thingy)

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

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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.

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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