Amazon Unveils Kindle 2, eBooks for the iPhone?
The big non-Apple tech news yesterday was Amazon's announcement of the Kindle 2. The Kindle was Amazon's first entry into the gadget market with an electronic book reader that was described as "the iPod of reading". The original Kindle offered sales of eBooks over the air through a wireless EVDO connection without a monthly contract.
The new Kindle has made a number of steady improvements over the original design. Features include:
- Thinner. 0.36 inches thick.
- 3G wireless, no monthly fees
- Improved 16 grey-shade display
- 25% longer battery life. "read for days"
- Faster page turns
- More storage (Up to 1500 books)
- Instant dictionary lookup
- Text-to-Speech
The new Kindle will cost $359 and ship on February 24th with pre-orders starting now.
With the introduction of the original Kindle, some Apple customers have hoped that Apple might also enter the eBook market. Jobs dismissed that possibility in early 2008 when asked about the Kindle:
"It doesn't matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people dont read anymore," he said. "Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people dont read anymore."
Meanwhile, the iPhone may have inadvertently become the largest eBook reader with the introduction of various eBook apps through the iTunes App Store.The main issue with these free iPhone readers, however, has been the lack of premium content (new releases) that is found on the Kindle. In the future, there may be more synergy between the technolgies as Amazon also announced last week that they would be working to make Kindle books available "on a range of mobile phones", leading some to believe that the iPhone could someday gain access to Amazon's digital library.
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39 months ago
i guess i will have to buy my ebooks from amazon? Can i use any pdf i made by my own or a professor sent?
EDIT: You can email your pdfs to kindle2 and amazon will sort it out for you. (i dont know how).
EDIT: You can email your pdfs to kindle2 and amazon will sort it out for you. (i dont know how).
39 months ago
It still looks like an R&D project that not finished to me. When these things are available with colour touchscreens then they will have a chance of replacing printed media. For now it looks like an expensive toy to me.
39 months ago
really, once you can buy premium book content on your iPhone, then the kindle becomes pointless. It's a specialty device whose functionality will be absorbed by smartphones.
The trick is getting that premium content accessible on the iPhone.
arn
The trick is getting that premium content accessible on the iPhone.
arn
39 months ago
Well, premium book content isn't all it cracks up to be.
The main problem is that 'premium' bit. I am at a loss to understand why an ebook costs more than a paperback, in fact I would think a couple of dollars at the most would be a fair price. Anyway, Stanza can upload all kinds of things, and the 'premium' issue completely goes away..:)
The main problem is that 'premium' bit. I am at a loss to understand why an ebook costs more than a paperback, in fact I would think a couple of dollars at the most would be a fair price. Anyway, Stanza can upload all kinds of things, and the 'premium' issue completely goes away..:)
39 months ago
Won't Amazon just kill themselves if they sell eBooks on the iPhone? It has all the advantages over the Kindle! Smaller, Higher capacity, colour display, larger market, etc.
Ams.
Ams.
39 months ago
Only problem with the iPhone is that the screen is a lot smaller than a book. Perhaps the oft rumoured Apple tablet would be the perfect device for reading.
39 months ago
really, once you can buy premium book content on your iPhone, then the kindle becomes pointless. It's a specialty device whose functionality will be absorbed by smartphones.
Partly yes, but the larger screensize (+long battery life) is something smartphones will not offer. I agree that a dedicated eBook reader is as pointless as an iPod, except that there are price and size niches which a one-size-fits-all smartphone might not cover.The conflict between fitting into your pocket and readability will always exist. As nice as the iPhone is, I don't like reading on it for long.
39 months ago
Worst part about the kindle for me is the fact that it relies on Sprint's 3G coverage to deliver content. My wife would love one of these, but unfortunately, we live in an area where Sprint coverage is poor.
Is it that hard to add wi-fi to this? or do they have some agreement with Sprint that would prevent it?
Is it that hard to add wi-fi to this? or do they have some agreement with Sprint that would prevent it?
39 months ago
The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore
It's strange to hear that from a person who back in the days had to promote a computer for personal use, even when "no people would be interested in such a product".If you limit the statistics to fiction books, I'm one of those "one book a year people". I can think of two reasons why:
1) Media overload. It's not that there isn't enough time to read books, it's that my everyday life is overloaded with information through different media. It's not that it's impractical to read (for some it is, and they simply use audio books) - it's that there are too many stimuli throughout the day. In the old days, people had to escape from their everyday physical work routines by consuming culture. Today, many people escape from the stress of culture consumption by doing physical activities (exercise, traveling, sports...)
2) The book medium is changing, as is our way of reading. We're waiting for something as different from books as Project Xanadu, but we're not sure exactly what would work. I can only hope that this is what Apple means by their statement on eBooks, but judging by the wording in their statement, it doesn't look like it.
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