Comments on: Amazon Launches Wireless Portable Reading Device

By: Ashley

Ashley — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 22:14:08 +0000

I think the sub $100 price would be perfect, although I don’t know if I could see anybody offering a reader for that price.

By: Ian Cammarata

Ian Cammarata — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 21:57:10 +0000

Ashley wrote:

Michael Dobrofsky wrote:

It looks terrible, and at $400…are they %$^#&ing joking?
Please, Apple, do what you did for music and invent a nice-looking, simple-to-use eBook reader. iBook.

The reason eBooks haven’t taken off is simply because no one has got the format/device right – now Amazon included.

If Apple were to invent a nice-looking eBook reader, it would probably be pretty costly too seeing how much their current products are.

Not to mention Apple wouldn’t use a better format, it would be locked down, probably using some newly developed proprietary format. And if there’s one thing Apple isn’t into, it’s competitive pricing.

IMHO an ebook reader should be simply an e-ink display with an SD storage slot, and minimal processing power, just enough to do decode and display various formats: PDF, ODF, DOC, HTML, etc… And it should be sub $100, cause if it’s anywhere near the price of the current offerings, you’re better off just getting a laptop for the same price.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 21:49:10 +0000

bob89 wrote:

Next year when I’m going to college I think this could be very useful though. If they have a lot of college books that I need, for low prices, that would be a really big selling point for me.

I didn't think about that. If they did sell text books on there at reduced costs it would be really awesome. Unfortunately they would all be in black and white.

By: bob89

bob89 — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 04:16:37 +0000

I thought $400 seemed like a lot, but maybe the electronic-paper display is expensive. The built-in wireless probably drives up the cost too. I think they probably would have made it touch-screen if they could have, but maybe they couldn’t do that with the electronic-paper display. Touch-screen seems a bit unresponsive sometimes anyways.

Next year when I’m going to college I think this could be very useful though. If they have a lot of college books that I need, for low prices, that would be a really big selling point for me.

By: Ashley

Ashley — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 04:14:17 +0000

Michael Dobrofsky wrote:

It looks terrible, and at $400…are they %$^#&ing joking?

Please, Apple, do what you did for music and invent a nice-looking, simple-to-use eBook reader. iBook.

The reason eBooks haven’t taken off is simply because no one has got the format/device right – now Amazon included.

If Apple were to invent a nice-looking eBook reader, it would probably be pretty costly too seeing how much their current products are.

By: DeepQuest » Kindle: Amazon’s New Wireless Reading Device

DeepQuest » Kindle: Amazon’s New Wireless Reading Device — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 03:52:28 +0000

[...] e-book reader? « School Library Media Blog » Blog Archive » Amazon releases K.. Amazon Launches Wireless Portable Reading Device New Way to Read? « a bibliophilist’s reading list Conversation Agent: Dead or Alive, [...]

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 03:18:35 +0000

I don’t think that the price is absolutely terrible because it includes the built-in wireless service, but all of those buttons at the bottom make it a lot larger than it really needs to be. So I agree with Richard and Michael above that the design could be better.

A touchscreen option might have been nice as Richard suggested, and that would have removed the need for some of the buttons at the bottom. The only issue with that is many middle-aged people that I know don’t really like the touchscreens for typing. They prefer the Blackberry-styled keys, and this would be right up their alley. I’m sure Amazon has a target market that they are trying to hit, and I’m sure their research affected the design.

By: Michael Dobrofsky

Michael Dobrofsky — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 23:01:45 +0000

It looks terrible, and at $400…are they %$^#&ing joking?

Please, Apple, do what you did for music and invent a nice-looking, simple-to-use eBook reader. iBook.

The reason eBooks haven’t taken off is simply because no one has got the format/device right – now Amazon included.

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 22:15:27 +0000

After watching the 6 minute demo at Amazon i have a few thoughts on the device:

1.Could of had a touch screen option
2.I am ok paying for papers,books,magazines but not so for blogs
3.Looks very 1990’s and not stylish or modern
4.Not fan of the qwerty keyboard or mouse style at side could of had better design
5.If it was in Europe would it use 3G or like the iPhone for connection