Kindle Kindle Kindle!
It’s here! Not that I knew it was coming. The reason I’m so excited about this product that no-one else seems to have heard about is because I’ve been predicting it and hoping for it for years. Now unless I’ve been living under a rock – I’ve not yet encountered an electronic book. We’ve had digital picture frames, PDA’s and darn small laptops – but never an actual reading device that can be stuffed in your bag holding hundreds of books in the space of less than one.
Which, if you haven’t guessed by the picture and my introduction – is exactly what Amazon’s new Kindle is. This is interesting for so many reasons – but a big one for me is that it comes from Amazon? I know Amazon are rolling in the Benjamin Franklins and unless my memory deceives me – their origins are planted in online book sales, but I just never expected Amazon of all companies to come up with a great little piece of tech like this.
Personally I had my money on Amazon all the way. It just seemed another stage in the iPod evolution. First they had black and white music, then colour music, then colour music, videos and pictures and I’ve even lost track now. But I was sure it was no more than a few years before Apple developed an palm-sized iPod that could handle full books and magazines.
But it seems Amazon have made first place
The Kindle is a hand-held device for reading primarily books, but also uses an advanced wifi technology called EVDO to access hundreds of blogs, top newspapers and magazines and can also manage your personal Word documents. Even though full internet browsing access isn’t granted – users have the ability to download samples of books and magazines before the proceed to download the full versions, free access to wikipedia.org and also includes email technology. And it’s not 72dpi before you moan! Although I don’t actually know what resolution it displays at, the official Amazon site states that the Kindle sports a “Revolutionary electronic-paper display provides a sharp, high-resolution screen that looks and reads like real paper” – cool!
It all sounds great. But a nasty side effect of living in this rapidly evolving technological revolution is that nothing seems to amaze us any more. The Kindle hasn’t even been released in the UK yet, but I’m already awaiting it’s follow-up. If Amazon take a leaf out of Apple’s book, or unless Apple get there first – the next logical step would be to include full blown internet access, or installations of DTP software like Word, or the ability to watch videos or listen to music…. or make phone calls!
The Kindle sounds great, in the US at the moment it currently retails for $399 from Amazon.com. I’m unsure as to an official UK date. But there are 2 aspects of this addition to the hand-held screen tools market that possibly concern me.
Firstly – what’s next? We’re gradually getting closer to the ultimate hand-held device. The iPhone is an extremely powerful device (and so cool), the Kindle is useful but let’s face it, from the screenshots on Amazon’s site, it’s not exactly hip and dandy. But what about when we reach the stage of a device that can play music, videos, books and print media, browse the internet, use Messenger, email, phone people, video call, remote access your Sky box, play games etc. Imagine combining the iPhone, Kindle, Sony PSP and palm-pilots (or other generic small laptop device). Then what’s next? I guess that’s something for the sneaky developers to come up with. It won’t be long till we have the silicon chips inside our heads!
Secondly – what does this mean for physical books? I have a computer, an iPod, an Xbox and a laptop. I can’t remember the last time I bought a CD, DVD or PC game, and I very rarely buy a newspaper anymore. You can download everything or access it online for (in most cases) free, or at very affordable prices. Which links in with my ‘What Can’t you do on the Internet article’. You may laugh it off, but this little device could potentially cripple the book market.
Well enough doom and gloom, and waffling for that matter. If you’ve managed to reach this point in such a long-winded article, I congratulate you. Will I buy an Amazon Kindle when they’re release over here? Probably not. Because although it would save me money, space, portability and the discomfort of holding a big book for hours – I don’t want to loose that. I’m no book worm but I like to read, and I like buying a new book – the smell of it’s paper and the neat, unturned pages. I stare at a computer screen for at least 8 hours a day, sometimes you need a break.
But you never know, let’s see when Version 2 comes out.
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damion said:
That looks cool
Digital Photo Frame said:
I wish I had one of these – but I live in the UK. Can’t wait for it to launch over here. Any idea when that might be?
Sometimes I go away on business for a couple of weeks. I can easily read one book on a long haul flight there, one on the way back and maybe a couple when I’m stuck in some hotel. If I had one of these I could just load it up with a few books and have a lot less to carry.
Chris Kindle said:
Just came across your blog on Google. Interesting post, you bring up a few good things to think about. Good luck with the blog.
RBR Productions said:
That is a great portable device for anyone who enjoys reading. How many books can it store?
aamirraza said:
This is best technology.In our free time we want to read books but we cannot carry books everywere due to their weight.This is best solution of this problem.