How I got a preview of the Kindle 3 – and totally geeked out

http://sonictruths.net/2010/10/how-i-got-a-preview-of-the-kindle-3-and-totally-geeked-out/

by jerrell • 16 years ago

47 32 16 years ago

kjuhygtfrde3• 16 years ago

He read his parents books! They had been licensed for the original purchasers use only - it's this sort of piracy that funds drug dealing and terrorism

sliverstorm4• 16 years ago

There really is nothing more un-American.

kjuhygtfrde3• 16 years ago

...queue scary advert voice ....

You wouldn't borrow another person's car or wife - reading other people's books is theft.

philh• 16 years ago

I feel somewhat the same way about bookshelves. When you walk into my parents' house, the first thing you see is three bookshelves covering a wall, stacked as high as you can reach without a ladder. I was looking forward to getting my own when I moved out permanently. Now, I don't see that happening. (On the plus side, I won't have to fight my dad over who gets to keep what.)

But I'm sure people felt the same about vinyl records. And now, if I want to check out a friend's music taste, I just look at their iTunes. I'm not old enough to know whether it's quite the same, but I'm not sentimental enough to think we haven't made massive improvements.

I suspect DVDs will be the next to go. (I don't have a DVD player of my own, but I like to have my fairly small collection where people can see it.)

petercooper2• 16 years ago

And now, if I want to check out a friend's music taste, I just look at their iTunes. I'm not old enough to know whether it's quite the same, but I'm not sentimental enough to think we haven't made massive improvements.

In some circumstances, you can even go a step further now. I stopped buying music about a year ago when I got a Spotify account and now 80-90% of my listening is through that.

I realized that most of my listening is to new/ephemeral stuff rather than stuff I want to listen to for years in which case, I'll just buy those albums if/when Spotify takes a dive.

hugh3• 16 years ago

I've bought a Nook, and I'm using it for reading on long journeys, but I'm being careful not to let it displace my book-buying habits, precisely because I want to be one of those people with a houseful of awesome books when I get older.

Therefore, my rule is this: I only use the Nook to read things which are public domain. There's more than enough public domain stuff I want to read out there to keep me occupied. But if I'm going to pay for something, it's gonna be a proper printed physical book which I can keep for the rest of my life.

jonhendry4• 16 years ago

The way I see it, a lot of my books are on my shelf through mere inertia, not because of any great love for them. They just happened to be physical when I acquired them, and as such, disposing of them is extra work. So they sit there.

In the future, I think I'll be reading books on my kindle, and then I'll consider whether the book merits a meatspace presence in my life. If so, I'll pick up a copy.

In the end, I'll likely have fewer books on my shelves, but what I do have will be a more meaningful representation of my tastes and values.

petercooper2• 16 years ago

I was pretty negative on the Kindle over time. Mostly because of its abysmal typography and fonts. But I bought a Kindle 3 because "it's so cheap" and because I plan to release some books for it and wanted to test direct. And.. I'm won over. The typography still isn't great, but the form factor and the ease with which I can read the screen for longer periods is much welcomed.

jseliger• 16 years ago

I bought one a while ago and find I don't use it as much as I'd hoped: http://jseliger.com/2010/09/29/the-last-word-on-this-version... .

jonhendry4• 16 years ago

Some ebooks from Amazon, using the azw format, have better typography, which is controlled by the publisher. It's almost like a scan of the source text. For example, there can be variation between instances of a character, as you see in some printed books. ("Against The Gods" exhibits this.)

The kindle 3's sans-serif looks nice, too. Somehow higher-res than the serif font.

alecco2• 16 years ago

I refuse to pay full price for a digital edition you don't own and can't resell or lend.

Most of my best books are in the hands of friends and family or given away to somebody who would use them. If the electronic version had a reduced price I wouldn't mind. Even if it was for a limited time, like renting the book. But full price? You got to be kidding.

Also the authors are still getting scammed by the industry and only see a tiny fraction of what the buyer pays. This is not it.

barrkel2• 16 years ago

This is key: digital edition books are way overpriced compared to second-hand books. Personally, I slightly prefer second-hand fiction books to new books. There's something about the book being a bit worn, having some history in human hands, rather than being the product of mechanized industry and being shipped out of a factory into your hands.

And I delight in having a book that's perfect for lending (usually means gifting) to a friend or family member who I know will enjoy it.

evilduck• 16 years ago

Fiction maybe, but nonfiction, especially computer related books, second-hand is near worthless. How valuable is a book on Python 2.2 today? Cost cutting with digital versions is a very welcome change.

dotBen• 16 years ago

Also the authors are still getting scammed by the industry and only see a tiny fraction of what the buyer pays. This is not it.

My partner is an author with a mainstream publisher and actually, Kindle offers a lot of opportunity for writers to publish independently and make more $$$.

An indie publisher can take take 75% of the profits from their Kindle sales. If Kindle as a format takes off then it removes the power of the publisher who is suddenly doing less and less (no need to print paper or deal with distribution contracts).

With lower overheads she can afford to sell her books at a lower price point (to your point on reduced e-pricing) and still make more than her traditional sales.

She agonizes over the DRM however, which I think is still hurting this area. She also sells PDF's but the issue then is the lack of distribution as you can't sell PDFs on Amazon obviously. It will get better over time, however - like iTunes went mp3 in the end.

chrisbolt• 16 years ago

DRM on Kindle is optional.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-10439335-250.html

And iTunes didn't go mp3, they just dropped DRM. It's still mp4.

sliverstorm4• 16 years ago

Very few ebooks I've bought have been full price. They are typically 50-75%. I suspect you see equal pricing mostly on very new books. I also expect the market to shift. I have been known multiple times in the past to pay $0.99 for a nicely formatted digital edition of a public work I could download (raw text or broken formatting) for free or buy at a booksale for $0.49; one of these days, people will pay MORE for ALL digital books, because it will be worth more to them.

> Also the authors are still getting scammed by the industry and only see a tiny fraction of what the buyer pays. This is not it.

Ok, first I think the idea that we should reject groundbreaking advances because they haven't fixed every problem by themselves is insane. Second, it really is opening the door for authors to get a larger cut. The industry had the authors by the neck because the authors depended on a lot of the value the industry added (publishing, editing, advertising, etc). Many authors still rely on those things, but with digital distribution it is now POSSIBLE, for authors who are willing, to do it (at least mostly) on your own.

russellallen• 16 years ago

I've got floppy disks and zip drives and old, dead hard drives full of stuff which I can't run or read.

And that's for files that I created on hardware I own.

Amazon as a company is only 15 years old - will it be around in 50 years? Any given Kindle will only last for a few years - will I always be able to afford to buy a new one? Will they always be available to buy?

It is a big issue for me that I can't buy an ebook and have a reasonable expectation that the ebook will be mine for the rest of my life, and can be given to my kids to read.

It makes me think of ebooks as disposable - I can't build up a library. It's more like borrowing someone else's books where they can demand the book back.

But, like this guy, I still use them for convenience...

sliverstorm4• 16 years ago

If you are concerned you will not be able to download them in the future, archive them now. With sane file storage and backups, you can keep them around. I have managed to hang on to files I made when I was 12 all the way up to present adulthood; surely an adult can manage to do the same. (hint: it's a lot easier to do once you accept the dominance of .doc and .jpg, and sign up for Dropbox)

As for Kindles only lasting a few years- they may introduce a new version, but the beauty of computers as appliances is they will last as long as their battery and 120 volts hang around. I have an ipod from the beginning of ipods; the only reason I haven't repaired the battery is I no longer depend on it to listen to music.

Lastly, before you worry if your Kindle will last for the decades-to-centuries range, and elect to use books instead, recall that books themselves must be carefully printed, stored and used to last 50 years.

kjuhygtfrde3• 16 years ago

You are probably too young to remember the days before MS Office domination.

It's a good job that some of the stuff before Windows95 actually got printed out.

ps. suppose Amazon decide to stop Kindle, or get a better deal from the publisher - or just decide all your existing ebooks don't work on kindle 4. Just like Walmart did with their online music service. With the wonders of DRM you can't back up a copy of the ebook, it only works as long as Amazon's licence servers work.

zzzmarcus• 16 years ago

Here's an idea:

A touch screen bookshelf replacement. A large screen you could hang up as a virtual bookshelf with an interface similar to Delicious Monster / iBooks.

You could flip through your books and still see the cover art and enjoy browsing them in a size comparable to that of as a paper book.

Your kids could still see that books have "physical" presence in your house.

You could still show your books off to people visiting your house.

The shelf would also incorporate sharing. You could drag a book from your shelf to one of your devices shown as an icon on the screen or share it via an email address.

As a starting point you could have this an app for Google TV and Apple TV (when/if they open it to apps), but ideally it'd be touch screen.

aberkowitz• 16 years ago

In every new medium is missing a few endearing qualities of its predecessor - qualities which can never be replicated no matter how hard you try.

jerrell• 16 years ago

That's a nice idea!

To be honest though, my concern about bookcases is more about accessibility and DRM than it is about the physical and aesthetic value.

There is something special about physically browsing shelves, but what really worries me is that my collection of books will have no single 'library' containing them in 20 years - whether physical or electronic.

bambax• 16 years ago

The only thing that prevents me from using a Kindle is DRM: I want to be able to backup and really "own" the books I buy, and read them in whichever device I choose (or Notepad).

Does Amazon realize how terrifying the '1984 incident' was?

On the other hand, Amazon doesn't need to lift DRM: a crack would suffice. Any news on this front?

gst• 16 years ago

Sure - just Google for "mobidedrm.py" (and verify that you have the latest version - there are some old versions out there).

One note of caution: Most Amazon books are encoded in the Mobipocket format and can be easily cracked. However, there are some (few) books in another format (AZW) which cannot be cracked yet. It is possible to find out in which format a book is before you buy it.

golgo13• 16 years ago

I love going to my local book stores here in Austin. I feel kinda bad when I buy something for the Kindle app on my iPad instead of the physical books. But having the ability to read a book on the iPad, or my laptop or my T-Mobile MyTouch is a killer feature.

riprock• 16 years ago

How are programming/technical books on the Kindle 3? I've read reviews that the Kindle DX can handle them but the normal Kindle has a much more attractive price point.

How I got a preview of the Kindle 3 – and totally geeked out

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