Amazon Kindle

[Spooky]

Showdown: Kindle 2 vs. Sony Reader

Amazon's Kindle 2 has undergone a liposuction and is slimmer, sleeker and a has better profile than its predecessor. The new Kindle also sports a 25 percent longer battery life, says Amazon, and has a better keyboard making it easier to flip pages.

Even as Kindle 2 tries to convert some of the traditional book buyers, the device's biggest competition will come from the Sony e-book Reader. Other competitors such as Plastic Logic which is also making an e-book reader are yet to launch their product.

Sony introduced its e-book Reader in 2006. The device uses the same E-ink electronic paper display as the Kindle. But it has more versions including a touchscreen and non-touchscreen one available and has so far has been appreciated for its better design.

Now that Kindle 2 has gone through a redesign it is time to take a look at how it stacks up against the latest Sony Reader PRS-700BC. The biggest difference between the two e-book readers is the availability or the lack of wireless connectivity.

Kindle 2 doesn't have Wi-Fi but uses Sprint's EVDO wireless data network to search and download books. Sony Reader users have to via the USB cable to their computer. After a one-time download of the e-book software they can browse the online store using their Internet connected PC and download titles to the Reader. It's a cumbersome process and its the one area where the Kindle truly rules.

Here's how the Kindle 2 and the latest Sony Reader PRS-700BC compare. We haven't reviewed the Kindle 2 yet but based on a feature comparison our winner is for the Kindle 2. The Kindle's wireless connectivity and the basic web browsing feature that makes it more powerful. It also has a bigger e-book store available and the better screen is likely to make it easier for readers.



http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/02/showdown-kindle.html

[Spooky]

http://kindleville.blogspot.com/2009/02/they-just-don-get-it.html

They just don't get it

You'd think book publishers would have learned something.  After seeing the recording industry ignore then dig in and fight new technology to the extent that now they're struggling to maintain their current business model, one would guess that book publishers and authors would see the folly and strive to avoid repeating it.

Not so much.

Before the floor of the Morgan Library in NY had even cleared after the press conference heralding the coming of Kindle 2.0, some in the business were already proving that they would not go gently into the good e-book night.

Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild, raged against the Kindle's new "Read to me" feature.  ""They don't have the right to read a book out loud,"  Aiken told the Wall Street Journal.  "That's an audio right, which is derivative under copyright law" (Fowler).

Attaboy, Paul!  Cling to that vague copyright language!  Even if it means alienating a growing percentage of your customer base.  Who cares that it's only a "GPS voice," as Stephen King called it at the press conference, and not a true reading of the text?

Meanwhile Carolyn K. Reidy, chief executive of Simon & Schuster, was crying to the New York Times about the pricing of e-books.  "We do not agree with their pricing strategy.  I don't believe that a new book by an author should ipso facto be less expensive electronically than it is in paper format" (Stone).

As the young'uns today say:  "O RLY?"  The fact that there is no paper, no ink, no electricity to run the presses, no packaging, no shipping, and no money paid to retailers when unsold books are returned should have no effect on price?  Interesting.  Ipso facto indeed.

As John Siricusa at ars technica observes in his excellent (albeit too cozy with Apple for my taste) essay, "The once and future e-book: on reading in the digital age,"

    In short, the terms [of e-books] are unbelievably favorable for publishers. It essentially moves them from print publishing margins to software publishing margins: pay once for the creation of the content, sell an infinite number of times with no additional per-unit cost.

So why do some publishers and authors continue to fight against the future?  Fear?  Greed?

They certainly should take some time to study the recent history of technology and media distribution.  Maybe even have a lunch date or two with some record executives before they, too, learn too late and grieve their industry on its way.

The future is coming, with or without you.

Paul

[Spooky]

The Kindle's Dirty Secret

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/02/the-kindles-dir.html

[Spooky]

Amazon Backs Off Text-to-Speech Feature in Kindle

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/amazon-backs-off-text-to-speech-feature-in-kindle/?apage=4

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Amazon retreats on Kindle's text-to-speech issue

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10184406-93.html

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I understand that Amazon is doing this to keep in the good graces of the publishers and that they need the publishers to continue to release books in electronic form for the eBook reader market to grow, but I might balk at buying a book, if/when I get the Kindle2, that would not allow me to use the "text to speech" feature. I would also email the publisher and tell them so.

[TinkTanker]

Kindle gets laser-etched

[Eric]

I'd love to buy one so I can read in the dark (if it's backlit), but $400 for the K2 is a bit more than I'd want to spend. 

[TinkTanker]

$400 is a chunk of change, especially these days. Price it at $199 and they'd fly off the shelves.

[Eric]

Whoops. $360 for the K2.  Not that it matters that much.

[Spooky]

$400 is a chunk of change, especially these days. Price it at $199 and they'd fly off the shelves.

The eInk screens are to expensive right now. I've read that they Cost Amazon in the $150-175 range for each Kindle

[Eric]

We need more rich people like Spooky to buy them and bring down the costs for those of us in the unwashed masses.