Has anyone seen Amazon's new e-book device they recently released?
It's called the Kindle and allows you to take books with you via the device. It's essentially an iPod for books. I think it's quite an interesting concept but I'm curious as to how the strain on the eyes is. Amazon claims that it is like reading a book, but really they could claim the thing can fly to the moon if they wanted to.

It costs $400 and then $9.99 per book you download onto it. You can get magazines and newspapers too I believe.

Here's the link to the device:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FI73M...&pf_rd_i=507846

And here is a review and a comparison:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/our-kindle-verd...-bed-325939.php
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/ebook-faceoff/a...lery-326590.php

Would anyone consider buying this? It seems like a fair chunk of change to put out. That, and it is a ridiculously hideous looking device. I'm curious what others think about this.

Too expensive, too bulky. You can get laptops that are smaller and cheaper and accomplish the same thing. Plus, I still like the feel of a book in my hand. PDFs are not my ideal form of literature.

I haven't seen the Kindle, but it's ugly and looks uncomfy. I got to stalk the Sony table and play with the Sony one at Maker Faire here in Austin last month. The guy took pity on me and let me walk around with it outside. It's AWESOME. That e-ink technology is amazing. I could read it in full sun. It's smaller than the Kindle too. I want one! And $100 cheaper. I tried to talk the guy into "losing" one - he just laughed and gave me a brochure.

It was comfy to hold and had enough "heft" to it so I felt like I could actually read with it. The page refresh is pretty fast and it's a cool device. If only I didn't read so much, books aren't cheap in digital format. Until they come up with a way for us to trade them...

I will not consider buying an e-book reader until I can no longer buy paper books.

I thought so too until I got to play with this one... the ink is amazing! Check one out if you get the chance... I *want* one, but the amount of reading do doesn't make it feasible... imagine all the shelf space I could save! LOL!

The concept seems neat at first, but then I think about it and go ick!! Particularly when I realize that you can never share your downloaded Kindle books with anyone else!! That is so totally against the whole concept behind BookCrossing and all the book swapping sites I participate in along with, nevermind swapping, VBBs, etc. :angry2:

For a few similar blog posts on the subject:

Science Library Pad: Amazon Kindle: books you can never share

Bookyards: The Future of Reading -- Why Amazon's Kindle Digital Book Project Will Fail

Stephen's Web: Amazon Kindle: Books You Can Never Share

The Sony reader is wonderful.

It's comfortable to hold, the electronic ink doesn't make ones eyes hurt after looking at it awhile, and you can hold photos and mp3's in it as well.

the Kindle just seems Eh, compared to it...

I don't like the idea at all - I love my paper books! And the expense is ridiculous - but I'm SO not a gadget person - I won't even own a cell phone....

Why would I WANT to save shelf space? I love the fact that my apartment is crammed full of books.

I have no desire AT ALL to read books on any sort of electronic device, no matter how easy on the eyes it is. I like the feel of paper books, the look of paper books, the fact that I can trade paper books.

If I play with it, I'm sure I'll think it's shiny, but I won't want to own one.

:ditto:

The physical presence of books is something that just means a lot to me, so although I might curse all my books the next time I move, I wouldn't feel like I was "home" without them. Just running my fingers along the spines, remembering when I read each one, picking one up and flipping through it. It's not just the content that is important to me as a bibliophile.

I like both. I prefer paper books but I don't mind ebooks, especially since I spend so much time on my comp. I have a bunch of ebooks on my hard drive so I like knowing that as long as I have my comp, I have some books to read. That said, though, I don't really like handheld ebook readers. If I'm going to hold something, I'd rather hold a book.

I've heard really great things about the eink but the one thing that people don't like is that it doesn't have a backlight so you still can't read in bed or whatever.

Can't read in bed? Well since that's where I get 95% of my reading done, that's yet another reason for me to hate the Kindle!! :whip: :angry2:

Me too! I read before I fall asleep at night and before I take a nap. :giggle: Although I do read in my truck waiting on my kids at school.

I have to hold a book to read it. I like the feel of the pages and the smell of the book. So no e-books for me. :yuck:

I was so excited about the Kindle that I was ready to start saving for one ... until

I saw that their wireless access uses the Sprint network. Twixxy (dd) had a Sprint cellphone a couple years ago and it was always dropping calls and running into dead spots between here and neighboring towns.

Not the Kindle, the sony e-ink. I don't know if the Kindle has a backlight...I would assume so.

Actually I remember reading that it didn't have backlight. Which is why I'd immediately assumed it was the Kindle you were talking about. But that the screen was somehow bright enough to read anyway, even in bright sunlight? So I'm not sure if that same technology would allow you to read by the same nightlight via which I read regular books in bed. :shrug:

But nope, no backlight on the Kindle either from what I recall....

way too expensive even to consider it for me. hubby reads stuff on his pocket pc all the time, and I could see where that would be useful, especially if you wanted to take a lot of books with you somewhere. But until books in digital format are a lot cheaper, I doubt I'd seriously consider it. So for me, the idea is fine, but the prices aren't. That particular thing looks too big and cumbersome to me :shrug:

ETA: Not to mention, I LOVE cover art... if a book doesn't have good cover art that goes with the story, I feel kinda cheated :( I really wish the e-books would include that! Maybe some of them do, I've only read a couple so far.

ETAA: So I keep thinking of ways that book devices are good, like I could probably get away with reading some at work if it was on a pocket pc, because it doesn't look like a book, but still not enamored of the kindle! :lol:

You cannot backlight e-ink. Just like you cannot backlight a book. Remember, this is REAL ink, it's not LED or anything. You can read in full sunlight, just like a book (can't do that unless you use e-ink). You can use a booklight or a lightwedge or something, JUST like a book. I'm telling you, go find one to play with... I was seriously gonna steal it *laugh*

I guess one of my things is getting rid of stuff. Years ago we started tossing stuff on a regular basis. While I love my books, I love the idea that we are getting closer to perhaps moving to a more digital medium. Better for the environment and better for my "toss it" attitude :)

I'd definitely prefer to move to an ebook format if I had the right device. But my desires are so mixed that I'm not sure the right device even exists as a concept, much less a physical object. For some purposes, I'd like something tiny that's easy to drop in my purse. But for sitting at home on the bed or couch, I'd rather have something bigger and easier to have lots of text.

I also won't switch to an ebook device until there's a way to swap files. I rarely pay more for a book than $3 -- approximately the cost of shipping. There are so many books I want to read that I don't feel compelled to read the absolute newest books that just came out, so I'm happy to wait until they're available through a UBS or swap site.

Most ebooks have the same cover art as the paper version. It might just be the ones I sent you didn't :whistle:

I think for me, what I like is that I can have the same book in both e and paper, and then I can read in paper when I'm home and in e when I'm out and about.

I have one! I ordered it in mid-January and it arrived on 11 February. I didn't get to open the box until the 17th because I was in England when it was delivered to my home in Texas. It was a *long* 6 days!

I hadn't made up my mind about eBooks before I ordered it. I did do a lot of research to see what books were available, formats, etc. I also installed a couple of eBook reader software programs on my laptop so I could experiment. Once I had the Kindle, I needed to make up my mind whether to keep it -- given the 30-day return policy -- and so I bought a Kindle-format book from Amazon, choosing a book that I was particularly eager to read.

It took a little bit of time to figure out how to hold the Kindle without accidentally hitting the "Next Page" or "Previous Page" buttons. They do take up too much room on the sides of the device. But other than that, I love the Kindle.

The Kindle's display, like the Sony and several others, is termed an "e-Ink" display. That means that unlike a laptop or computer monitor, the display is not back-lit. The good news is that you can read in bright sunlight. (My laptop is totally unusable in the sun.) The bad news is that you can't read in the dark without an outside source of light, which means I still use my "book light" or a flash light when reading in bed. I have found that I set myself further from the edge of the bed when reading with the Kindle since I really don't want to drop it onto the floor when I fall asleep with the book in my hand!

I'd rather read an eBook with a handheld device than on the laptop. Two reasons ... one is that the layout on the Kindle is much more comfortable than using the software on the laptop. The second is that if I'm reading on the laptop, there's a lot of competition for my attention from Spider Solitaire and Firefox!

This is one of the frustrations that many people have with eBooks. Unlike a physical book, there isn't a legitimate way to sell or loan the book, short of transferring your reader with all its content. But it seems to me that eBooks are subject to the same rules that apply for downloaded audible books and music.

That said, libraries have been able to get around this. There is a provision for content to be moved from device to device under the control of a content server. Some libraries are now able to "lend" an eBook in a manner very similar to the way physical books are loaned. You download the eBook onto your device from a server at the library, and it expires on its due date unless you renew it. And some libraries will even lend the reader along with the eBook.

I like this and know that the New York Public Library has lots of good stuff like that. But I also like the chance to trade books with my family and with the folks here. I suppose I could get the ebook version for myself and then buy a hard copy for trading.