Excuse my manners for shouting out, but why have I not seen or heard of this amazing device? This is a slightly geekier scope than for what Huddlemind sets its eyes on, but I really think this is the ‘first’ of its kind to making big steps in good directions - especially so in retrospective light of a previous post of mine. We’ve had readers, but none quite as featurable and easy-going as this one. Introducing :
Product Overview
- Revolutionary electronic-paper display provides a sharp, high-resolution screen that looks and reads like real paper.
- Simple to use: no computer, no cables, no syncing.
- Wireless connectivity enables you to shop the Kindle Store directly from your Kindle—whether you’re in the back of a taxi, at the airport, or in bed.
- Buy a book and it is auto-delivered wirelessly in less than one minute.
- More than 160,000 books available, including more than 98 of 112 current New York Times® Best Sellers.
- New York Times® Best Sellers and New Releases $9.99, unless marked otherwise.
- Free book samples. Download and read first chapters for free before you decide to buy.
- Top U.S. newspapers including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post; top magazines including TIME, Atlantic Monthly, and Forbes—all auto-delivered wirelessly.
- Top international newspapers from France, Germany, and Ireland; Le Monde, Frankfurter Allgemeine, and The Irish Times—all auto-delivered wirelessly.
- More than 350 top blogs from the worlds of business, technology, sports, entertainment, and politics, including BoingBoing, Slashdot, TechCrunch, ESPN’s Bill Simmons, The Onion, Michelle Malkin, and The Huffington Post—all updated wirelessly throughout the day.
- Lighter and thinner than a typical paperback; weighs only 10.3 ounces.
- Holds over 200 titles.
- Long battery life. Leave wireless on and recharge approximately every other day. Turn wireless off and read for a week or more before recharging. Fully recharges in 2 hours.
- Unlike WiFi, Kindle utilizes the same high-speed data network (EVDO) as advanced cell phones—so you never have to locate a hotspot.
- No monthly wireless bills, service plans, or commitments—we take care of the wireless delivery so you can simply click, buy, and read.
- Includes free wireless access to the planet’s most exhaustive and up-to-date encyclopedia—Wikipedia.org.
- Email your Word documents and pictures (.JPG, .GIF, .BMP, .PNG) to Kindle for easy on-the-go viewing.
- Included in the box: Kindle wireless reader, Book cover, Power adapter, USB 2.0 cable
This device is packed with awesome features and could see a huge demand in South Africa. Problem is - you can’t find them here. They are simply not sold in South Africa at all.
Of course we do have one small problem (for those that haven’t been paying attention to the news lately) in that South Africa find themselves alone on the Amazon blacklist. Yes, that’s right - you may as well forget they ever existed unless you don’t mind paying extra to have your items privately couriered down.
The price for one of these is $359. Before you start converting that figure into Rands and cents, spare a thought to how much easier it is to justify one of these in your inventory over an Apple iPod of any kind.
I give to you the future of eBooks, Creative Commons and information-technology hybridisation in a sugar cone. What will you do with it?
Sony has also just launched it’s own copy of the kindle. While I think it is most definately the future of reading, for the present time I think most level headed readers would still much prefer the good, old fashioned hard-cover bound book!
A few of the issues I would have with it.. you would probably need to charge it? Im assuming it doesnt run on lithium batterys? It dying whilst in a critical part of the story.. Dont think it would be a very pretty site!!
I dont think reading in the bath would be a very good idea either.. and also taking it to the beach with the sand likely to get into it.. and like cellphones it would probably be incredibly difficult to read in any sort of sunlight. Its also got limited space so what happens when you go over the limit? You have to delete a “book” you paid for??
All that said I think it would be an amazing tool for schools and universitys, with text books immediately available, and so easily portable rather than having to lug around monsters of books!! ;)
Just some of my thoughts.. xxx
Hmmm
It says that its battery life is about a week while reading - which is quite respectable. It has a very easy-going slow-on-the-battery screen responsible for it being easy on the eyes too.
As mentioned, it costs about the same as an iPod. Those fortunate to get themselves one may not be as rough-going with it has beaching at whatnot (I hope).
Space is not an issue. It can store loads of books (as text hardly takes up too much disk space). As it also surfs the net a bit etc, you also have space for an external memory card. This means that you can store far more books than a library could hold, no problem.
Apparently easy to use in the sun with its funky rubbery screen. It’s not the regular LED/LCD screen that you’ve become accustomed to.
A great prospect for schools and universities, yes! Many other applications in business and travel, too. But then we look back at the unreasonable cost :( Naturally that would come down in the future too?