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The updated version of Amazon's e-book reader device, the Kindle 2 is out.
So far as I can tell from a quick look at the website, the major differences between it and the original Kindle are: 1) it's thinner (only 1/3 of an inch!!!); it can talk to you (text to speech feature!); 3) longer battery life (by about 25%); and 4) a faster refresh rate (by about 20%).
And only $359.00!
Somehow, I think I'll continue to pass on e-books for awhile--for at least as long as new books on Kindle continue not to be price-competitive with paperback prices.
So far as I can tell from a quick look at the website, the major differences between it and the original Kindle are: 1) it's thinner (only 1/3 of an inch!!!); it can talk to you (text to speech feature!); 3) longer battery life (by about 25%); and 4) a faster refresh rate (by about 20%).
And only $359.00!
Somehow, I think I'll continue to pass on e-books for awhile--for at least as long as new books on Kindle continue not to be price-competitive with paperback prices.
disappointed
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Pretty decent review of the changes is here: http://news.cnet.com/amazons-kindle-2-leaked/
From an email they sent me, after their press conference:
"With a new sleek design, Kindle 2 has seven times more storage and carries over 1,500 titles. An advanced display provides even crisper images and clear text for an improved book-like reading experience. Page turning is faster, the battery life is 25% longer, and our new 'Text-to-Speech' feature means Kindle can even read to you."
I actually preferred the look of the old design, but didn't order mine before they stopped shipping. So, I'll tell you what I think of the Kindle 2 when I get mine next month. And, if you're in Austin and want to play with it, let me know. I'd be happy to let you fiddle with it. Also, it's thinner, but longer (taller).
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For what it's worth, I don't have much of an argument with the Kindle's design. But for the types of material I want to read, the Kindle remains a losing proposition economically. I mean to blog about this, but keep having a gap between when I'm in the mood to do so and when I have the time to give the issue the attention I think it deserves.
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I didn't think you were dissing on the Kindle, so much as expressing how it is not right for you, yet (if ever it might be). Therefore, I didn't take anything you said as indicative that I might not enjoy my Kindle. I do wish it had more textbooks available, though a lot of my texts now are actually non-fiction books and so I can hope that I can get some of those in electronic format for my last couple of semesters. I do spend a lot of time having to read journal articles in .pdf format, however, and this is a problem for me.
Like many of my fellow students, I am forced to choose between printing out said articles (many of which are thirty or more pages long) or reading them on a standard computer screen (which lessens retention of material covered and causes eye strain). It is my intention to just spend the couple of dollars on each article, so that I can covert them into Kindle format. That way, I can read them without the eye strain, notate them without writing all over what I am reading (that just drives me crazy), and take them every where with me without lugging around a lot of extra weight.
I originally wanted a Kindle for traveling, if for no other reason than to allow me to take trips without lugging around a lot of paper books. The extra cost on luggage these days means I was paying to take my pleasure reading with me on vacation. That just burns. Once I started wanting a Kindle for that, my brain naturally realized all other sorts of benefits to having one with respect to my coursework. So, for me, it's worth it. I could see how it is not where it needs to be for other segments of the population, however, just like some of its features are completely lost on me. I mean, I'm not going to buy e-subscriptions to a bunch of magazines and newspapers, you know?
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I was certainly expressing my belief that the Kindle isn't right for me (or, at least, not yet). However, I am trying to get my thoughts together about a blog entry in which I propose to try to examine who the Kindle is right for, and whether Amazon's apparent success with the Kindle (http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2008/08/despite-flaws-kindle-a-growing-success-for-amazon.ars) so far is sustainable.
I can see the benefits of having textbooks and other books a student must read for class on a Kindle, and it may well be that the student market will be a permanent market for such devices. On the other hand, your description of annotating books on your Kindle suggests, to me, that an even better idea might be a notebook computer with Kindle capabilities (or that is Kindle-compatible, at least), so that the student can have the annotated books, *and* his or her related notes/term papers/other works, etc. all on the same machine.
One might also ask why the Sony reader hasn't had comparable success, but I think I can guess the answer to that; Amazon cleverly has arranged to market not just the Kindle, but a large supply of downloadable books for it, adding a convenience factor that the Sony lacks. We'll see if that "tying" strategy continues to work over time.
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Anyway, my point is that unless the document is in some weird format or a .xls or something not based on words, it is possible to have all of one's class related papers, annotated texts, and other notes on a Kindle.
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That's an interesting point and one I was not aware of, thanks. Though I've seen the "keyboard" on a Kindle 1 and wouldn't want to have to use it for long bouts of typing. If I wanted a device to hold my books and notes for academic purposes, I'd want something I could easily write on as well.
That may just be me, however.
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New books from Amazon in Kindle format are typically cheaper than list price for the paper edition, and generally cheaper than either Amazon or Barnes and Noble. The paperbacks aren't much of a savings; 10% or so. Newly released hardbacks are mostly $10, which is a significant discount. If a lot of what you read is from Baen, their prices are considerably lower for e-format. And then there's manybooks.net and www.gutenberg.org, which between them have provided Shakati with a year's worth of free reading.
Of course it still takes a lot of discount or free books to add up to $359.00. And the technology isn't perfect. And the DRM is a royal pain. But I found myself buying a book for the Kindle that I already had in paperback because I liked the reading experience so much more. And you really can't beat the "It's midnight, I'm awake in a hotel in a strange city, I need something to read" availability or the "going on vacation for 2 weeks, bringing all my books" capacity.
The differences between the Kindle and the Kindle 2 aren't enough to persuade me to get another, but I'm definitely glad I have mine.
(no subject)
Your post does broach the question that's been in my mind about the Kindle, which is "who does Amazon think its target audience is?" Judging from the price structure of Kindle offerings, it seems to me that Amazon is targeting two main groups: 1) people who read a lot of NYT bestsellers and hard cover or trade paperback fiction, and 2) people who are reading a lot of e-books (from Gutenberg.org or other places) anyway and could use a more convenient way to do so.
I don't fall into either camp. I don't read a lot of Baen's fiction--much of it is SF military fiction or other hard SF in which I'm not very interested. Nor do I read a lot of fiction that comes out primarily in hardcover or trade paperback. Yes, I read some, and I'd likely read more if I *had* a Kindle, but I don't read enough of it to justify my purchase *of* a Kindle.
The other type of book I read a lot of is non-fiction history. Many of these books are books about costume, costume-related archaeological finds, or non-costume archaeological finds, for which photographs, and photograph quality, are essential. The Kindle isn't good for that (yet, at least) and most such books aren't being released for the Kindle anyway.
And, sadly, the out-of-print ones aren't showing up yet on Gutenberg.org either. :-(
I agree it would be nice to have large quantities of book in a light, convenient package for when I travel, but the books I want aren't on the Kindle yet, and some may never be.
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Or not available at all, which I agree is a problem, although it is diminishing for fiction, at least. And yes, it's a poor choice for anything where photos, or even illustrations, matter.
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As for fiction, well, let's see. Let me look at a number of fiction books I've bought lately in other media and price them. (That's not the best metric for determining whether my assertions about the cost of fiction books on the Kindle are correct, but it will at least explain where I'm coming from here).
For example, here are the present prices for Jacqueline Carey's "Kushiel" books, most of which I have in mass market paperback, from Amazon itself:
Kushiel's Dart: $6.39 Kindle. $7.99 new in mass market paperback (but available in MMP from Amazon Marketplace vendors starting at $4 new, and $2.75 used);
Kushiel's Avatar: $5.69 Kindle. $7.99 new in mass market paperback
(but available in MMP from Amazon Marketplace vendors starting at $4.22 new, and $2.65 used);
Kushiel's Chosen: $7.99 Kindle. $7.99 new in mass market paperback
(but available in MMP from Amazon Marketplace vendors starting at $4.15 new, and $2.85 used).
Granted, a lot of fiction is no longer published in MMP anymore, so let's look at a trade paperback I just bought today from Chester County Book & Music Company: John Maddox Roberts's latest SPQR murder mystery--Under Vesuvius.
I bought it for $14.95 list. It's not out on Kindle, Amazon sells the paperback itself for $10.17. Amazon Marketplace sellers have copies new from $8.46 and used from $8.99.
There's a previous SPQR mystery, which I don't own, called "A Point of Law," that is on Kindle. Its list price in trade paperback is also $14.95, and its Kindle price is $10.09--a significant savings. But Amazon Marketplace sellers have copies even cheaper: new from $5.00 and (used copies right now, interestingly, start at $10.80).
What this says to me is 1) I cannot count on the new fiction I'd like to read being available on Kindle, and 2) even when it is, if I feel like shopping around a bit, I can get a dead tree book considerably cheaper than the Kindle price.
Now, I don't think that this is a stable situation, and it may well change in Kindle's favor in the near future. But right now, it doesn't pay me to buy a Kindle, IMHO.
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I didn't emphasize it, to be sure. But I'm aware it's there. However, in many cases, it *still* doesn't raise the price above the Kindle price, and in any event Amazon itself sells some of the books in which I'm interested in dead tree versions for less than list price (if not for less than the Kindle price); Amazon, of course, will ship for free if you buy $25 or more from it in a single order. And I've been able to get used books amazingly cheaply elsewhere on the Web; I just stuck to Amazon as an example because I wasn't feeling so great and was lazy when I composed my reply to your last comment.
There isn't. I found a comment thread on the Kindle 2 (?) Amazon page to the effect that you can't even easily share a Kindle book, purchased by one Kindle owner, with another Kindle owned by a different person (the example was of a husband and wife, both having Kindles). Apparently you can get around this (I think by getting the Kindle book converted, as
You also make an interesting point that people who like to resell old books would not really be interested in a Kindle, though that again may be a dying market.
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Baen books has a lot of free ebooks you can download, and reasonably price ebook as well. They also sell ebooks from TOR and a few other publishers. I would much rather give my money to them, as more if it goes to the publishers, editors and authors than happens when you go through Amazon.
ttyl
(no subject)
I really should do my big post about the Kindle's sales model, sometime.