9 thoughts on “”

  1. Part of me really wants one (once it’s past the early adopter phase, of course), but part of me can’t help but think this is just transitional technology. Except for the buying-and-reading-books aspect (which is the coolest part), it seems like it doesn’t do anything that any other Internet-ready handheld device like the iPhone can’t do. So, how much longer will it really be until book capability is available on other handhelds? It seems that just adding that one feature would make the Kindle obsolete.

  2. My problem with other handhelds is the size. I don’t want a cell phone that’s bigger than, say, a Blackberry. But I also don’t want to try reading a book on a screen that small. The Kindle comes very close to approaching the size and appearance of a regular book and allows you to have what is essentially a portable and lightweight library when you travel.

    I love my iPod and consider it a traveling necessity, but I don’t want an iPhone. I don’t want a combination mp3 player/cell phone/book reader. If the buying-and-reading-books aspect was available on my cell phone, I have to say, I would not be tempted to use it.

  3. I thought you might have been posting about Rock Band, which I have a similar feeling about (a cooperative music game you can play with three other people? Sign me up!).

    I have no desire for a Kindle at the moment.

  4. I’ve never even heard of Rock Band.

    I have no immediate or overpowering need for a Kindle, and my temptation can’t overcome the hefty price tag, but I’m much more interested in it than I expected to be.

  5. It does look nice. Which is more than I’ve ever said about any other electronic book-reader. If the display looks as good in person as it does on their video demo, I could actually see myself using one, maybe. Can’t see myself buying one, though. At least, not when I’ve still got 460 actual, physical books I haven’t read yet. 🙂

  6. I want the kind of thing people were always wandering around with on Star Trek. Those nifty, thin little pads that stacked up so neatly.

    But then again…Picard always read books when he wasn’t making it so. Hmm.

    Happy thanksgiving, Fred!

  7. There are arguments floating out there about some of the specific ways Amazon is handling things, especially when it comes to blog subscriptions on the thing, but most of the arguments I’ve seen against the technology really haven’t been, but more arguments for real physical books. Which, unless I’m very much mistaken, aren’t going anywhere. (Although, ultimately, even as a book lover, I have to wonder, from an environmental standpoint: if a paperless product could one day reproduce the look and feel of a paper book, wouldn’t that be a good thing?)

    I think, as Neil Gaiman pointed out yesterday over at his journal, the Kindle is probably best used as a lightweight portable library. Sometimes, especially if you travel, you just can’t (and wouldn’t want to) carry around a dozen or more books. A reader like this would let you do that, while still keeping lots of the real things on your shelf at home.

    Maybe I’m less attached to the idea of books as objects than some, but I still love the things and am surrounded by them. (Most, to my chagrin, still yet unread.) But I couldn’t definitely see using something like this…

    …if, like Betty says, it works as well as it seems to in the video. And if it was at least a couple hundred bucks cheaper.

  8. My favorite paperbacks are all dog-eared with certain passages underlined. I wonder if this device has a similair ability.

    I wouldn’t buy it, soley because it seems to be the first of its kind. It will likely be obsolete by tomorrow.

  9. It may very well be, but, like I said to Eric, I don’t want an e-book reader that does more than display books. I can’t think of many bells and whistles tomorrow’s versions might have that I’d really want.

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