There have been many eBook readers over the years but none o ……

Who the heck wants one of these ugly things?!

I want real books with actual pages when reading. I also want good industrial design combined with useful technology when appropriate; iPhones and Audi TTs all the way!! However, please don’t try to combine extremely poor industrial design with an unnecessary implementation of technology and try to sell it to me for $400!!! It is criminal!!!!!!!

Also, for the person who mentioned the issue with airports. Yes, you can’t have an active EVO connection once you board the plane but like most smartphones you can turn that off. Many users are turning it off unless they need to download something.

I ordered the Kindle for my mother-in-law (not monster-in-law!) who has poor eyesight and loves to read. The big draw for me was the adjustable font size and the wireless connectivity to the Amazon store. We just got it (only took one day to deliver) and so far she’s loving it. It’s extremely simple to use for the non-tech savvy, weighs like a paperback and feels like a paperback when you’re holding it in its black leather case. The wireless service makes it damned easy to order books from anywhere without the need for a computer.

Ugly? I’m too happy with its functionality to be bothered by its looks. From a consumer perspective, it was worth every penny spent. My technologically impaired mother-in-law can finally read without a magnifying glass which is an amazing feat in itself.

“Why is the new Kindle eBook reader from Amazon and not Apple?”
http://counternotions.com/2007.....vs-iphone/

Update: This entire post was written before looking at the pay-as-you-read RSS pricing structure. Click down to the end to see how Amazon’s pricing has changed my point of view. The Story: So Amazon launched Kindle, the first major US…

(computer voice)
beep boop boop beep beep boop boop i am KinDull. read me . read me. beep boop boop boop beepboobeeboo.

computer process “Beige/White outer skin.org” beep boop boop jane austen downloading beep boop please wait 20% off coupon uploading beep boop

would you like to read? please select yes/no. you have selected beep boop boop Yessss. uploading chapter 2 rendevous by the gardensiiiiiiide beep boop.

YES!! aesthetics are VERY VERY important. people like things that look nice. they also like to own things that love them back. they also like things that are easy-to-use. apple does this over and over and over again. they just get it.

this is also why my ironing board is in a closet.

ask Buick if looks are important. they can tell you about the last 30 years of declining business making cars for my grandparents. then ask my grandparents if looks are important in their buick. oh wait. they are dead, just like the rest of buick’s demographic. (this is why they recently rebranded) it turns out that kids dont like to lose their virginities in the back seats of buicks. they like to go to funerals and jehovahs witness conventions in them. (wow. that was a childhood memory resurfacing)

1. i love my books and magazines. in print. i like to read them on the crapper and not worry about fecal particles all up in my gadgets.

2. i am not emotionally attached to this “thing”. it looks sharp and clunky and the buttons are like the Franklin Electronic Dictionaries. it doesnt look friendly or cuddly and it definitely looks like an engineer designed it. no offense, engineers. i love you and know youre super important, but leave designing to designers. why doesnt it FEEL like a book? it looks like a tool for people who have trouble speaking.

3. ironically, the amazon video shows the user in the airport. he will be required to turn it off on a flight. also, no backlighting might be great in the sun, but it will suck by my bed.

4. No color!! why go back to Gutenberg 1.0? color should be required today…especially on-screen!!especially when i have to go to the amazon store, in black and white, to download a black and white book or magazine or blog….as much as i want to love this concept, color and imagery rules. conceptually, i do not understand the thinking behind “the reading of the future” and then going back to square one with b/w screens and clunky UIs.

5. it should just be for reading. whats the deal with Word Docs?? Come on! who cares? does my issue of Time open Powerpoint? No! am i ok with this? yes!

6. its just another bag-filling gadget. ipods are a must, phones are a must. laptops arent a must, but are nice. this is excessive and people will feel the same way.

7. $399 to read 200 $9.99 books. That equals $2400 for 200 books. What’s the REAL advantage?? There is no real cost advantage. The classics are all $10-15. I see this as a hassle…potentially losing data, crashes, IT getting involved with my reading and running out of storage? i can read my favorite blogs IN COLOR on my laptop or iphone.

8. i am an early adopter and i cannot see getting into this. music is auditory. reading, however, is a physical experience that cannot be fully replicated electronically. a real page turner is not the same on screen.

9. i hate to be brutal, but i would not want to be near this device or be seen in public with anyone who owns one. i wouldnt give it to my grandmother because she would be terrified of it. also, she is dead and i would not want to give a gift like this to the deceased. it’s just not aesthetically pleasing.

10. the design team responsible for this is hiring a LOT of people. this means 1 of 2 things: 1. they are anticipating the revolution of world-changing ebook gadgets or 2. this project was such a cluster eff that the entire existing team quit before the crap hit the fan.

thanks for hearing my 3 cents.

I think the key to ebook readers success is not the online ebook store.
All the efforts on creating pseudo ebook stores will not help much.

Remember. 97% of the content that fills iPods are not songs purchased from the iTunes store. They are songs users made themselves from ripping the CDs.

MP3 is the key and easy CD ripping help users create 97% of the content!

ebooks are no different. all these efforts by Amazon and Sony will contribute to only about 3% at best.

It is user-generated PDFs that will help create the other 97% to fill ebook reading devices of today and next generation of iPhones for books.

However, users can now convert printed books to PDF using a book ripper from our company called BookSnap.

It’s like everyone can easily scan a lot of books using pretty much the same procedure that is being done at the Internet Archive, OCA, and Google (Google Book search).

I see we are at the dawn of ebook industry boom.

http://www.atiz.com
Atiz Team

“There is a new SaaS, Something as a Service every month.” This is how I mused a month ago when writing The next SaaS post. Newsweek has the story about the new Amazon reader, Kindle. The device (that looks anything but kindling) will be sold for $…

In news of products that no one is asking for, Amazon swiftly moved into the publishing business this week with the official announcement of Kindle, their new ebook reader.  While there has definitely proven to be a market for ebooks, no matter how ni…

To all the people crying to read on their cell phones and laptops: Don’t you realize that reading is a very specific activity that deserves and favors its own, specific controls?