Amongst my group, I'm known for my near hatred of Amazon's Kindle (not the ecosystem or apps, just the devices) due to their shoddy typography, but even I've caved and ordered one of the new ones. They're cheap enough now that, I think, anyone involved in writing/publishing needs to keep a good eye on what Amazon's up to. For writers, the Kindle (ecosystem) is rapidly looking like it could become their equivalent of the App Store.
Not because it's the best, prettist, most elegant way to consume books, but because it's the best, prettiest, most elegant way for ME to consume books, based on the currently available options.
I find myself reading more since I've gotten my Kindle, and for the price point, if I decide in a year that I DON'T like it, it's not a major loss (plus has some decent residual value).
I completely agree with this. I'm also reading more, which in and of itself makes it worth having. I recently went on a trip to Europe, and the free 3G was invaluable, since we didn't always have a good source of internet.
It's getting to the point that, were I to have to choose between losing my iPhone and losing the Kindle, I'd rather lose the iPhone, even though it costs 3 times as much to replace. It makes me that irrationally happy.
I was pretty anti on the Kindle as well--I don't like the idea of my book running out of batteries--but the cheaper price (plus, for whatever reason, graphite) had me within one-click of buying one the other day. Right then I read a very convincing case that it will drop below $100 in time for xmas (http://www.slate.com/id/2263787/pagenum/all/). FYI.
(genuine question) don't the wifi/3G draw power? or is your 'weeks' assessment including normal wireless use?
Oddly, i feel must less strongly about Amazon's hold over the the platform the Kindle represents than i do about Apple and its hold over the music platform iTunes represents. Irrational? Probably. Uneconomnical? maybe (i buy far fewer books than i do albums/audiobooks). I can't fathom why but i just somehow feel like, when i've read a book, the ideas it containws stay with me and become mine whereas an album is something that perpetually stays somehow external (apologies for the airy-fairieness of that: i'm not sure how to express it but i feels like a difference thats significant for me and i'm curious whether anyone else feels the same).
Only when you're getting new books over Whispernet. And if you'd loaded up on reading material and were off on holiday, you would just leave it off.
I don't see the iPad and Kindle being direct competitors esp. since Kindle is really just software; an iPad is a "Kindle" with a couple of clicks on the App Store (there are Kindle clients for BlackBerry, etc too) and Amazon makes the same money regardless of what physical device they deliver the file to.
It is vaguely annoying having both iBooks and Kindle apps tho' I've not yet forgotten which one had a particular book in!
Oh. Yes, that would seem blindingly obvious wouldn't it? OK, I'm an idiot (in my defense, i've been awake since before 4am this morning. Be gentle with me).
Isn't technology wonderful that our biggest issue is which app we have to launch to read the best that the literary world has to offer (and Dan Brown novels :-).
With a Kindle 2, I found that I only get the 3 weeks of battery life if I leave the radio disabled. So I only enable the radio for a few minutes when I need something. With the radio enabled continuously, battery life reduces to a few days. But the newer Kindle might be better in that regard.
but Kindle books are DRMed and iTunes music isn't.
...anymore. iTunes books have DRM. iTunes music had DRM for years. DRM is the way you get big media to shift business models. Without DRM they'll happily forgo the new revenue stream and die slowly. So you first concede on the DRM point and restrict content just to begin the transition to the new model. 10 years after Napster major labels finally allow (most of) their music to be sold DRM-free. Print publishers will get there too.
Oh, I completely agree. The earlier post was specifically talking about "the music platform iTunes represents" so I didn't understand what the comparison there was and how it ended up with happier feelings toward Kindle.
Only if you're buying them from Amazon. There are plenty of wonderful texts available in the public domain, and already formatted for the Kindle: http://manybooks.net/
That's actually why I placed my order: I won't abide by the DRM, which will force me to read older works to get value out of the device. A goal I've had since reading a quote dubiously attributed to Einstein: "Somebody who only reads newspapers and at best books of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely near-sighted person who scorns eyeglasses. He is completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of his times, since he never gets to see or hear anything else."
