Would you buy a Kindle?

The "ebook" idea has been kicked around for a while now. There have been some feeble attempts to get a viable ebook mass produced and adopted for popular use, but none have caught on in a big way... yet. But perhaps that's about to change. Have a look at this offering from Amazon.com:

Kindle: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device

Product Overview

Revolutionary electronic-paper display provides a sharp, high-resolution screen that looks and reads like real paper.

Simple to use: no computer, no cables, no syncing.

Wireless connectivity enables you to shop the Kindle Store directly from your Kindle—whether you’re in the back of a taxi, at the airport, or in bed.

Buy a book and it is auto-delivered wirelessly in less than one minute.

More than 90,000 books available, including more than 90 of 112 current New York Times® Best Sellers.

New York Times® Best Sellers and all New Releases $9.99, unless marked otherwise.

Free book samples. Download and read first chapters for free before you decide to buy.

Top U.S. newspapers including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post; top magazines including TIME, Atlantic Monthly, and Forbes—all auto-delivered wirelessly.

Top international newspapers from France, Germany, and Ireland; Le Monde, Frankfurter Allgemeine, and The Irish Times—all auto-delivered wirelessly.

More than 250 top blogs from the worlds of business, technology, sports, entertainment, and politics, including BoingBoing, Slashdot, TechCrunch, ESPN's Bill Simmons, The Onion, Michelle Malkin, and The Huffington Post—all updated wirelessly throughout the day.

Lighter and thinner than a typical paperback; weighs only 10.3 ounces.

Holds over 200 titles.

Long battery life. Leave wireless on and recharge approximately every other day. Turn wireless off and read for a week or more before recharging. Fully recharges in 2 hours.

Unlike WiFi, Kindle utilizes the same high-speed data network (EVDO) as advanced cell phones—so you never have to locate a hotspot.

No monthly wireless bills, service plans, or commitments—we take care of the wireless delivery so you can simply click, buy, and read.

Includes free wireless access to the planet's most exhaustive and up-to-date encyclopedia—Wikipedia.org.

Email your Word documents and pictures (.JPG, .GIF, .BMP, .PNG) to Kindle for easy on-the-go viewing.

Included in the box: Kindle wireless reader, Book cover, Power adapter, USB 2.0 cable.

Now that's just a list of the devices functions. Follow the link above to see a full description, more photos, and a video by Amazon about the device.

It looks really nice, but at $399.00, it's too pricey for me. Yet I expect that the price will come down, if sales catch on, production of the units increases, and it starts to be used widely.

It's screen looks good, easy on the eyes, and it's wireless connectivity abilities also present multiple possibilities...


Amazon itself seems to be backing this financially, which is interesting seeing as they are in the book business, and this device could ultimately displace paper books, magazines and newspapers. I think we will be seeing more of the Kindle, and possibly other devices like it.


Related Link:

School textbooks: no more dead trees versions?
     

School textbooks: no more dead trees versions?

School textbooks could be going the way of the dinosaurs, as technology makes other options possible:

Free Online Materials Could Save Schools Billions

By Greg Toppo
USA Today
11/07/07 11:37 AM PT

Could Free-Reading offer a glimpse of the future, when big, bulky -- and expensive -- textbooks go the way of the film strip? Adam Newman of Eduventures, an education research and consulting firm in Boston, thinks so. "This is a shot across the bow for a lot of people," he says.

Since March, Dixon Deutsch and his students have been quietly experimenting with a little Web site that could one day rock the foundation of how schools do business.

A K-2 teacher at Achievement First Bushwick Elementary Charter School in Brooklyn, N.Y., Deutsch, 28, has been using Free-Reading.net, a reading instruction program that allows him to download, copy and share lessons with colleagues.

He can visit the Web site and comment on what works and what doesn't. He can modify lessons to suit his students' needs and post the modifications online: Think of a cross between a first-grade reading workbook and Wikipedia Latest News about Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia written and edited by users.
More Teacher-Friendly

If Deutsch wants to see a lesson taught by someone who already has mastered it, he clicks on a YouTube Latest News about YouTube video linked to the site and sees a short demo. "I find it's more teacher-friendly than a textbook," he says.

Oh, and it's free. [...]

The article goes on to give some examples where this is being implemented, and what it could mean for the education industry.


Related Link:

www.eduventures.com

Would you buy a $50 eBook Reader?
     

Would you buy a $50 eBook Reader?

Landscape eBook mode
I think this idea is really excellent. It could save a bundle on textbook costs:

Coming To You Now: The Fifty Dollar eBook Reader

[...] The buttons at either side of the screen -- whichever way up the latter is orientated, I should add -- are used to turn one page forward or back. The button at the foot takes you to the contents list (and any other menus which the book may need, such as an index) and the top one is an on-off switch.

The pages themselves, as you can see, are in colour or black-and-white and can contain text in any language or font size. I've included one 'plain text' page -- it's from a short story of mine -- purely to show that in this mode (novel, textbook, article) a page will hold around twenty-five lines and (say) 250 words.

Again, this is pretty much like a paperback. As shown here and in a CAD picture, the text itself doubtless appears too small to be readable, but I have tested it upon a group of several elderly ladies whose most frequent (and gratifying) comment has been "It's lovely, I can read it without my glasses . . ." [...]

See the full article for more details and pictures. The device's designer, Martin Woodhouse, seems to be looking for investors to make the device a reality. He contacted the OLPC project, but they were not interested. I'm not surprised. They have their own financial problems, and their device promises to be an eBook reader and much more. OLPC would probably see the Woodhouse eBook as competing for the same market share. OLPC is also pursuing a vision of transforming education and learning for children worldwide; that vision, whether you agree with it or not, requires more than an eBook reader alone can offer.

For situations where children already know how to read, I think the Woodhouse eBook could be a great replacement for paper textbooks, which are expensive and can quickly become outdated.

I think the day is coming when most books are going to be available on digital eBook readers, rather than the dead trees version. I'd love to have one, as long as the screen was easy on the eyes. Think of all the shelf space you would save! You could also just download your books on-line; no waiting for boxes to be shipped - and no shipping charges. Woodhouse points out that the eBook reader could even be used for paperless newspapers and magazines.

Since it's such a good idea, why haven't we seen this adopted on a large scale already? One reason is, the technology. The screens and needed memory chips have been improving and becoming cheaper recently, so perhaps we shall see more eBooks in our future. But there are issues to be sorted out; if a book becomes a computer file, how do you keep if from being pirated? What about conflicting formats? Would there be a universal format that all eBook devices could share? Until these issues are resolved, many authors may be reluctant to have their books distributed as computer files.

eBook reader text mode
Another factor is books versus the internet. Wouldn't eBooks necessarily attract people who like to read books? In our modern age, so many people seem to have given up books in favor of movie and video media. An eBook reader, no matter how good, won't let you watch streaming video of the latest antics of Paris Lohan, Brittney Hilton, Lindsey Spears and other assorted Celebutards. An eBook reader that was also an internet device WOULD let you do those things, and thus would likely be more popular.

I like internet devices, but I also like books, and Woodhouse's eBook reader sounds like just the thing to have. I don't want to read whole books while sitting at my computer; it would be great to have a small, simple and inexpensive eBook device that I could treat like a book, and take just about anywhere. I would love to download my books, and have more space on my shelves! I look forward to that day, which hopefully will come sooner rather than later.


Related Link:

Here is a compilation of my posts about the OLPC project, a topic I'm watching with great interest.