In a dramatic move, the pioneer of the (new) way we get reading material has stepped up the game in how we read. Amazon has announced a revolutionary e-book reader, called Kindle. Though many have tried to revolutionize reading before, I think Amazon has a far greater chance of doing so. After all, Amazon does run the best book store in the world. There’s all the great features you would expect from an electronic book, including mobile purchasing, search, and annotating. (Video) Most important of all, Kindle is just plain readable. By using E Ink, which actually manipulates chemicals to reduce eye strain, one can sit down and read through the entirety of War and Peace without having to get glasses. (Especially since text size is resizable for you aging baby boomers and you can get about 30 hours of battery life to a charge).
Newsweek does a very good job of summarizing what is amazing & scary about Kindle. I think the most important thing to see is that the loop is finally completed - every step of the writing/publishing/reading process can now be done digitally (easily):
Computers may have taken over every other stage of the process—the tools of research, composition and production—but that final mile of the process, where the reader mind-melds with the author in an exquisite asynchronous tango, would always be sacrosanct, said the holdouts.
However, the article does lead into some ideas which I don’t necessarily agree with - that writing will become a collaborative, wikized effort.
“The possibility of interaction will redefine authorship,” says Peter Brantley, executive director of the Digital Library Federation, an association of libraries and institutions. Unlike some writing-in-public advocates, he doesn’t spare the novelists. “Michael Chabon will have to rethink how he writes for this medium,” he says. Brantley envisions wiki-style collaborations where the author, instead of being the sole authority, is a “superuser,” the lead wolf of a creative pack.
The reason that I buy books is that they are blatantly one person’s thoughts upon a subject or one person’s story-one lone person’s perspective. I enjoy curling up with a book and reading what a lone crusader has written. However, I do see lots of potential in the annotation of our reading - contrasting/additional thoughts clearly marked as contrasting/additional thoughts:
Jim Gerber, Google’s content-partnerships director, suggests that it might be an interesting idea, for example, for someone on the liberal side of the fence to annotate an Ann Coulter book, providing refuting links for every contention that the critic thought was an inaccurate representation. That commentary, perhaps bolstered and updated by anyone who wants to chime in, could be woven into the book itself, if you chose to include it.
Despite all this, I don’t believe that Kindle will be the device to truly revolutionize reading. Instead, I think a more all-around device will prove to be the future of reading. Perhaps the XO? (Especially/already in Africa) What do you think? Will the Kindle become the “iPod of reading?”
Great summary of the release Arthus. I don’t think it’ll necessarily be the iPod of books - maybe more like the Zune of books. I think it’s a very intriguing product, and they seemed to have handled the creation of the Kindle quite well (i.e. free EVDO, pricing, downloading options, etc.) The name is kinda quirky, but I like it. Also, two other very important choices they made: using E-Ink (no eye strain, as you pointed out), and downloading directly to the device, rather than having an online store + transfers.
The design could use some touching up, but it is a first gen product after all. I think, depending on how many people buy it off the bat, that is could very well go somewhere. Fine tune the hardward design, software usability, and reduce the overall cost, and Amazon may be onto something here!
Thanks, Paul. (Still reading your blog, despite all the Surrey-centric stuff :P)
I think that the Kindle stands to do a little better than the Zune. For one, there isn’t already a compelling alternative in the market. However, the design certainly could use some work. (But, as you said it still is a first generation product)
In terms of access & general coolness, I’d say that the free EVDO is a very compelling feature. That alone might push me into buying one - but I’m probably going to wait until the second or third generation unless I get it for Christmas. Speaking of which, this was a very good time to get it. One of the few times that non-techies (who would buy this kind of thing) are actively looking at electronics. Of course, it’s also getting lots of promotion by being on the Amazon front page during a prime shopping time.
P.S. I too like the name - quirky, but unique. Easy enough to build a brand around.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention Arthus!
A really cool idea/product. One I’d love to see widely used, and there’s certainly uses for something like this in schools… although you’re definatly right, there will be another product that comes along and does it better, with a wider array of uses. In this day and age that’s what people want, all the tools they require/want in one device… one of the reasons the iPhone is such a compelling product in my opinion.
Glad to do so, Sean.
It certainly is a cool idea. However, I agree with you that we expect to have one device to rule them all - that does everything. However, one great thing about the Kindle is E Ink which is a feature multifunction devices (iPhone) don’t have. Thus, it makes ereading a lot more accessible for longer books instead of just short articles.
Actually, you bring up an interesting point of how this could be useful for schools. While I think that 1:1 laptop programs would be better, distributing a Kindle to every student would be a great initiative - I’m sure a mass distribution of eTextbooks and Kindles could be worked out with Amazon and publishers.
In school, annotations would become ever more important. Think of when you have checked out a book from the library and found lots of insightful comments in the margins. Via EVDO, classes could share what they’re thinking about a book in realtime - even at home. While I don’t think this functionality is currently in place, I’d love to see it in second generation models.
Another interesting endeavor would be a book rental system, kind of like Blockbuster Online, but for books. I could see libraries working out a way to make this so that we can sign out books from a catalog and have them available on our Kindle for a certain amount of time. Of course, publishers would oppose this to start but I think they’ll eventually have to come around or risk being outdated.
I am waiting for electronic paper (MIT where are we up to?) Lightweight, flexible, stashable, robust e-paper. Then the e-reading for info & pleasure might go ballistic. Yet another hard-edged piece of electronica
(a YAHPE) leaves me underwhelmed.
minh
Aren’t we all, aren’t we all. I can’t wait for MIT to release viable electronic paper. Actually, E Ink (which is used in the Kindle) was developed by Joseph Jacobson, a professor in the MIT Media Lab. We’ve got ink, we’ve got a slim device. At what point does it become paper?
You do make a valid point, though. Hopefully, further generations will perfect the design and make the Kindle feel less like a computer and more like your good old worn paperback. (Though they do include a “book” cover :P)
I want to be able to write on it & that annotation, scrawl, doodle to be preserved somewhere via an uplink or in the paper’s memory so I can deal with it the next morning or after the plane lands or I get home from school …..
I am very fond of those Media Lab folk, the Learning & Epistemology crew are also adorable.
minh
@minh I too want to be able to write, scrawl and doodle - then have the data stored in the cloud. Amazon is aiming as similar functionality but has a ways to go.
(I love the Media Lab too
They do some amazing work)
Much as I love the idea of e-books, there are serious issues with the Kindle that make it a non-starter for me. These issues include the price point and the inability to share books (even on a limited basis) with other users, something that is always an option with a real-life book.
The biggest reason, though, is that I’ve been burned before, by Amazon and Adobe’s DRM. When I purchased an e-book PDF version of “The DaVinci Code” back in the day, I didn’t get around to reading it right way. Last year, when I finally tried to read it, I discovered that my Adobe registration key no longer worked. Numerous calls to Adobe failed to solve the problem, and I currently have, sitting on my hard drive, a 465-page PDF that only shows me blank pages.
I’m not drinking the DRM Kool-Aid this time.
I’m sorry to hear your tale of woe, Richard. I too hate DRM and wish it wasn’t part of this world. Unfortunately, the publishing industry is currently too short-sighted to see it go free.
Indeed, the “feature” of easy sharing is one of the most important in real books. I see no reason we should not receive the same level of service from ebooks. After all, we have bought the book, we should be able to share it as we wish.
I think an interesting interim step would be to include the ebook version of every book you buy. Like, you can go on the publisher website and enter the serial code of your hard copy, then get a download. That way, adoption can begin but nobody would have to take risks.
I also recommend those hesitant about ebooks check out Project Gutenburg-some of the greatest classics available for free.
It’s time for the publishing industry to open up to a new, social world where you can no longer be the sole tyrant over your product. The peasants are revolting and we’re demanding some control as well.
Either the publishing industry gets with the DRM-free picture or become absolute.
P.S. @Richard Did you contact Amazon about Adobe not working? They provided you with a product and are responsible that you can at least access it.
i heard/read someone recently declare the music industry to be dead - not merely obsolete but daid, superseded by alternative arrangements.
i think the trigger for this declaration was Madonna’s signing with a non music industry group to distribute her stuff - & a cupla other big money spinner groups had also left home.
i don’t think we peasants even need to revolt just turn quietly from the conglomerates & check out the amazing alternatives. But that is what a revolution is a turning - revolve!
minh
I think the industry is ready to be dead, but not there yet. Still, when Radiohead offered their latest album for the price you are willing to pay, you could hear the music industry beginning to crumble.
Still, the music industry is definitely more flexible than the publishing industry. After all, music format have changed and new distribution methods have had to be modified. However, the publishing industry has been the same for hundreds of years - you reject their game, you’re a book burner. Far more authoritative and less subject to the whim of the crowd.
Let’s keep on turning.
Yeah, Project Gutenberg is great–DRM-free text in a variety of formats, but it’s mostly classics that the populace at large has little interest in reading.
I certainly sympathize with the publishing industry’s fears–like the RIAA and the MPAA, they’re faced with three choices:
1. convert current media (text) to DRMed e-versions, which drives otherwise-legitimate customers to piracy
2. convert current media to non-DRMed e-versions, and figure out some other way of making money
3. do nothing, and see what happens.
Up to this point, Option 3 has worked very well for this particular industry: even hardcore geeks tend to favor the printed word to the pixellated one, at least for legibility, readability, and scribbling margin notes in. Regardless of what happens, it will be very interesting to see what the future brings.
Oh, and yes, I contacted Amazon about the Adobe problem, but they just referred me back to Adobe. Live and learn…!
I doubt the Kindle will be the iPod of ebooks. Take a look at their scheme for actually downloading material onto it, as well as the fact that you have to PAY to have files (your own files) put into a Kindle readable format. One of the reasons the iPod was so successful (and the whole mp3 player idea in general) is that although you can buy things off the iTunes store, you can also put any music you already have (CD, mp3, whatever) onto the iPod. If the Kindle allowed me to port any file easily and gave me significantly lower prices on books, I’d be more interested.
There are good alternatives, by the way — Sony’s reader and the Cybook Bookeen both also use the same eInk technology. Although the current versions of those aren’t wireless, they’re very free in terms of formats you can use, making it easier to get your Project Gutenberg books on there in the first place.
Of course, if you REALLY want to be able to write, there’s the iLiad. You need deep pockets for that, though.
Sorry if I sound extra negative on this, but I have been keeping up with ebook readers for a while now, waiting for the technology to mature enough that I want to use it, and then the whole blogosphere goes crazy over the Kindle like they’ve never heard of ebooks before. I’m not impressed with it.