Amazon's long-awaited e-book reader, Kindle, is launched at last, and although I was guilty of declaring the device "not sexy" earlier, Evan Schnittman on the OUP blog has me seriously rethinking my prejudices.He also reckons that if Kindle fails, the e-book is over.
Customer opinions on the amazon.com site are divided ...
Me? I want to test drive one to see.
Postscript:
Messy Christian loves her Sony Reader. But is it true this Kindle thing wouldn't work here?
Postscript 2:
The environmental arguments for e-books are compelling, Nicholas Clee argues on the Guardian blog:
.. digital supply is becoming the most economical and environmentally friendly way of distributing the majority of published books. ... The returns system is one of the most distressingly wasteful by-products of the operations of the book industry. Books are shipped from distributors to thousands of bookshops; the copies that do not sell are shipped back from those thousands of bookshops to the distributors. By this time, most of these copies are unsaleable, and are moved on again to be pulped.
5 comments:
They should let Apple design an e-book...
I donno - it takes the joy out of holding/smelling/feeling a book...
I'm actually severely tempted to get one... if it's waterproof.
Well, the service where you can download the blogs, newspapers, magazines and books will not be available here so it probably wouldn't work here. If it had Sony Reader's ability to import text files etc however, maybe it's worth buying. But I read a review and it says it can't seem to do it. Apparently what you can do is email yourself the file and download via wireless but they charge you for every transaction so in the end, what for lah ... ;)
Roger Sutton blogged about Kindle not having a backlight! (http://www.hbook.com/blog/2007/11/burning-down-house.html#links)
If it's got good fonts, is waterproof, has a backlight, and doesn't break if you drop it, then maybe.
If you solve the major problems with books (ie. they get wet and soggy, they are hard to read without a light) and you don't introduce any new ones (like it breaking if you drop it) then it might work. Otherwise probably not.
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