"Amazon's Kindle (Book Viewer)" Topic

Any of you planning to pick this up? $400 USD

link

Absolutely not. I did become an Amazon seller over the weekend. It's an amazing alternative to eBay for slightly used newer items.

I already have two book viewers built into the front of my head.

I like books. I like the physical presence of them, how they feel, how they smell. That thing is okay for people from the future, but it isn't really for me.

Having said that, if anybody wanted to buy me one I would accept it. Be nice to have a book instantly on a whim (though I wonder how wide the available selection is). I wouldn't spend money on one, though.

I'd consider something like that I could slap my own PDFs into. Until then, no way, there's not enough mainstream commercial literature I'm interested in.

They won't display PDFs, so no.

The Sony E Reader does, though, as well as other formats.

These things aren't going to catch on until the price on the books comes down to the sub-$5 range. If I have to pay the same for an electronic version -- or nearly the same -- I'll just buy the paper version. I can always sell the book later at a yard sale or such.

I download lots of books, but they are rare/OOP stuff from Project Guttenberg or similar things that won't work on that thing.

Like Plykes, I like having the real thing in my grubby hands whenever possible.

Like as someone else wrote in another forum on this topic, I prefer the battery life in books…

My attitude about the Kindle is the same as the iPod when it first came out. Give it a couple of generations and a significant price drop and I'll get one. It does look like quite a cool toy. But not $400 USD worth of cool.

I don't see cuddling up in a great chair, soft bed or laying about at the beach with one. I'll stay with the feel, smell and weight of a good book.

Hard to underline or mark the typos also.

Dan

I agree that I like "real" books BUT>>> Once in a while I have to travel, and I like to make sure I can fit everything in carry on luggage if the trip is only a week (or less). I always seem to run out of room to take enough books to make it through a trip so something like this may be cool for that reason.

But I'll wait for more features and a lower price before I consider it.

Well, I want one! I've been waiting for a good book viewer and this is the first one that has gotten my attention. I've been really trying to reduce my paper information usage, either by borrowing from the library, reading magazines there, or passing on the couple rags I do subscribe to once I'm done.

However, for a piece of consumer electronics that's intended to see the world and all the hazards in it, $400 USD is just too expensive. When it hits $200, I'll probably bite (and with Sony's competing product at $300, there's some room for competition).

I did want one…until you tell me its $400. USD

I'll stick with my large collection of physical books. Always online, virus free and ready to read.

Maybe if the price dropped…a lot! Would we see a savings in the price of the e-book to offset all the paper, transport and storage that no longer would be required?

I don't know why it is but when I read a book I want to read a book. I would probably get something like this if I traveled a bit more. The price is about $325 USD more than I want to pay for it. I see this as a tool for Amazon to sell books to people. I think that it will not be too long until you see some sort of deal where they will sell it in conjunction with some sort of purchase agreement or subscription. It will be more about selling the media than the hardware.

I would give this some more serious thought if I could get my most used rulebooks in this format. Just think about it this could be a terrific aid to rules lawyers everywhere :)

Read the article in Newsweek this week on it. It has lots of bells and whistles, wireless (can receive magazines and blogs), store 200 books, run 30 hours on a charge (and re-charge in 2), etc. Claims books for it are $9.95 USD each.

Interesting, but when you consider that one can buy a ton of books for $400, not have to worry about dropping one or getting it wet, and you'd still have to spend money for the books, it does not sound even like an interesting toy.

Besides, how does one fill one's library shelves to impress others (smile)?

Dan

My laptop does the job as well as everything else it does. Books are great – you should see my collection – but I can't carry several hundred of them around with me. Some nice people put together collections of books and sell on ebay etc – instant and portable library!

"They won't display PDFs, so no."

There's a little app that converts your PDfs to allow them to be stored and read on the Kindle.

Los

Interestingly enough, Jeff Bezos, head honcho at Amazon has stated in defence of things like Amazon selling used books that a buyer of a book has the right to lend, sell on or give away a book.

You can't do that with the DRMed files on the Kindle