Results tagged “Kindle”

I don't know about you, but apart from financing my holiday gift-giving, finding the perfect green gift has always posed a challenge. Here are five gifts that are sure to enthrall your friends and family members of the geeky persuasion, with an added dash of eco-consciousness.

Bookworm:

Kindle - Amazon.com

Still not cheap, but the device will pay for itself over time if the recipient is a voracious reader (Kindle editions are generally cheaper than paper ones). Also, you vastly reduce the emissions, since logging, bookmaking and shipping are replaced by data centers and wireless networks used to store and transmit e-books instead.

Barnes and Noble's Nook was up for consideration, but it's sold out for the remainder of the year. (What good is it if you can't get your hands on it?) Plus, the effect of the unit's LCD touchpad on battery life has yet to be experienced by consumers.

To be honest, I was less than wowed when I heard about Amazon's Kindle for PC software (Mac version available soon-ish). After reading BetaNews' take on it, it occurred to me that Amazon may have already established a toe-hold in the tablet market well before Apple ships its mythical slab (sub req'd) or Microsoft launches the Courier (if ever).

System requirements for the software are extremely modest: XP SP2, Vista, or Windows 7, at least a 500 MHz AMD/Intel processor and 128 MB of RAM, (800 x 600) screen resolution, and 100 MB storage. Conceivably, if it supported Linux-based operating systems or WinCE, such a lightweight app could actually run agreeably on recycled hardware; providing the foundation for a DIY Kindle actually running Kindle software.

There's nothing preventing an owner of a current Windows-based tablet PC like the Dell Latitude XT2 from loading it onto their machines now and sparing a few trees in the process.  Just like that, you have an full e-book platform in a fairly portable package on a screen that handily beats most e-book readers in terms of size. Chances are you already carry your tablet PC around, anyway. Plus, there's nothing else to buy (the software is free too).

The whole selling point behind e-books, to me at least, is that you can come close to replicating the experience of reading print thanks to electronic paper. (I once tried to read "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" on a Palm and it fell several thousand leagues short.) But for the few people out there that invested in a tablet PC, your e-book tablet has arrived.

Oh no! Just when solid competition for the Kindle shows up in the form of Barnes & Noble's well-received Nook, it seems that e-book makers want the tiny market to implode.

Exhibit 1: IREX's "premium" $449 e-book reader. It's got a generous 8.1-inch screen, a svelte (if homely) look and some delicious functionality, but it's $449. Have we learned nothing?! Available (though backordered) at Best Buy if you're so inclined.

Exhibit 2: Nook's severely limited lending feature. Think long and hard about which fellow Nook-owning e-bookworm will get your 2-week loan of "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" because it is the first, last and only time it will ever happen. So much for leveraging social networking(ish) capabilities to drive book sales.

Amazon today exposed the downside of an always-on, cloud-connected e-book platform. Ironically enough, the e-tailing giant yanked George Orwell's "1984" and "Animal Farm" published by MobileReference from customers' Kindles.

That's right, someone flipped the kill-switch from Amazon HQ and every Kindle within Whispernet's coverage area found their digital copies of the books deleted.

Customers were refunded, so they were made monetarily whole, but there are lingering concerns that a person's collection of digital literature can fall prey to the machinations (or whims) of publishers. Granted, there's a lot we don't know about what prompted this move and, for now, Amazon is taking the vague route toward an explanation. (There are other versions available for purchase.)

As much as eco-conscious geeks long for the end of dead-tree books, here's one situation in which paper prospers. Short of a publisher dispatching someone to your home to reclaim a book off your shelf, there's little they can do to reclaim their published work. They have to bite the bullet and learn from their error or business hiccup.

And let's not dismiss the intrusiveness and just plain creepiness of a corporation--imagine a government--that can reach into your devices and excise books or data that they deem you shouldn't have in your possession, whatever the reason.

Let's hope this is the first and last time this happens. As it stands, my desire for a Kindle is somewhat diminished after this episode.

Source

Update: It looks like the e-books that were pulled were unauthorized.

Amazon's Kindle 2 e-book reader is cheaper today by $60. The online retailer knocked 17 percent off its $359 price tag for a consumer friendlier $299. Tempted now?

The larger Kindle DX's price remains unchanged at $489, in case you were wondering.

First, non-hands on impression: I'll pass.

I know that color e-paper is prohibitively expensive at this point, but that's what would sway my opinion solidly into the WANT NOW corner of the gadget buying matrix. The "regular" Kindle is fine for what it is: a way to read bestsellers, some blogs and your books without lugging a hardcover or paperback around.

Kindle DX is basically a larger-screened version of the device meant to allow you to read newspapers, magazines and textbooks on a display with the surface area that better approximates those mediums. In short, less scrolling and stuffing content into squished formats. Taken at face value, it appears to be the perfect device for enjoying all that content on the go.

Except it doesn't.

In my experience, nearly every newspaper I've picked up recently features color photography, oftentimes to stunning effect. Which is not to say that black and white photography can't be stunning. Oftentimes, however, you just want to be reassured by those pristine blue skies after a devastating storm has passed; melt in the brown soulful eyes of a rescue dog; or relish in the red sands in a travel story.

The same with magazines, many of which extensively use images, graphs and illustrations to accompany an article to add flair or provide further context. Several magazines are all about products and rely heavily on the use of color photography (e.g. automotive, gadgets, and fashion). And textbooks? It goes without saying that color enhances diagrams and cutaways.

Although I'm excited that Amazon is advancing e-paper and e-ink, it's still too early in the game to be the savior of newspapers and magazines facing a declining subscribership and the dip in revenues as a result. I'm looking forward to the day that the technology will let me download the latest issue of Wired, for instance, and enjoy as I would thumbing through a full color hard copy.