Amazon’s new “Kindle is the first e-book reader that allows you to select, buy and download titles directly to the device, instead of downloading them to a PC first and then transferring them over. Amazon is offering a large collection of digitized books — about 90,000 — compared with fewer than 25,000 for Sony. The Kindle also can download newspapers, magazines and blogs directly, and update them automatically. This is possible because the Kindle comes with free, built-in wireless Internet access, using a cellular data network,” Walter S. Mossberg reports for The Wall Street Journal.
“I’ve been testing the Kindle for about a week, and I love the shopping and downloading experience. But the Kindle device itself is just mediocre,” Mossberg reports. “While it has good readability, battery life and storage capacity, both its hardware design and its software user interface are marred by annoying flaw.”
“The device is poorly designed. It has huge buttons on both edges for turning pages forward or backward. They are way too easy to press accidentally, so my reading was constantly being interrupted by unwanted page turns. Plus, the buttons are confusing. One called ‘Back’ doesn’t actually move to the previous page, but supposedly to the prior function. I never could predict what it would do,” Mossberg reports.
“The software interface also is clumsy,” Mossberg reports. “Amazon has nailed the electronic-book shopping experience. But it has a lot to learn about designing electronic devices.”
Full article here.
How Microsoftian! A product that’s clumsy and poorly designed with badly-labeled, unpredictable buttons, which is adroit only at getting the suckers who bought into it to waste more of their money.
I didn’t need Mossberg to tell me that it was clumsy and poorly designed… But, it’s nice to have confirmation.
Oh yeah…
I love Amazon, but they are Seattle based, so maybe the massive sucking caused by all the black holes between Microsoft execs ears is affecting neighboring business?
well this product could become completely moot if we see a Mac Touch soon.
When I first saw the Kindle I thought “wow, that’s cute. But no thanks.”
What’s the point? You’ve got to put the thing on your lap after 10 minutes. What’s wrong with the laptop I already own?
Sitting on the toilet maybe… But iPhone works for those 3-5 fascinating minutes in the morning.
How about the “Kindle” 3rd party app for iPhone in Feb?
It’s a shame they blew the UI part, because the functionality looked interesting enough to me to warrant a second glance. I’ve never cared a whit for any of the other e-book readers out there.
Been to Seattle, Microsoft OWNS that city and ones around it, especially Redmond.
I rather like Portland myself, it’s green and growing, not ripe and rotting like Seattle. Lots of young upstarts are moving to Portland. Lots to do there, when it’s not raining of course.
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But the worst has to be Southern California, and yes sadly Cupertino is included. Why? All the smog, it’s terrible and the heat and the dryness and the traffic. That’s why I think Apple is looking to slide out to Austin Texas, take over Dell.
Anyway about the Kibble, it’s the book sellers way of saving books in general, and the huge prices they charge. If what happened to the music industry happens to electronic books…
I think I’m making my point. FIRE UP THE E-BOOK TORRENTS!!
Kibble, Kibble, Kibble. I’m getting hungry for Doggie Chow. “Do you like Doggie Chow? I like Doggie Chow” – from the movie “Showgirls”
I wish the Kibble would sell the movie “Spun” that was a hot movie.
books on the iphone…. that’s what i’m waiting for. its all there. kindle is in trouble already (like all other ebook reader…. after iphone its like: are you stupid????)
Why did Amazon have to tie it a cellular network instead of just adding a wi-fi chip like those in the iPod touch and iPhone. Could it be because they want users to pay for every kilobyte downloaded to the Kindle?
If I have to pay a download fee to read my files on Amazon’s device, then I’m not going to buy it.
Nice try Bezos. Kindle is a big pile of fail. The e-book concept patiently waits for a real champion to arrive.
3 – 5 minutes on the toilet? Improve your diet and save a few months of your life.
BTW sitting on the toilet is the wrong posture, crouching is the natural way and only way to evacuate the bowels properly. Maybe that’s why some people are so full of …..
I was thinking of Ballmer, it’s obvious he has no idea how to dispose of waste products.
3 – 5 usually because I’m reading something… This website and looking at AAPL on the stocks widget, on my iPhone.
@ Eric
I can confirm the sucking sound. Seattle has been sucking pretty badly for a decade. But that’s the Seattle Spirit™. We deal with sucking in delightfully creative ways.
A wise man once said of the people who built Seattle:
“That they built a city in the process was purely coincidental. If they could have made more money by not building a city, then that is what they would have done.” <I>-Bill Speidel
And it’s true to this day. Microsoft, perhaps, *could* make better software. But evidently there’s just not much money in it.
-c
Pete, are you high? Cupertino is in SoCal? Do you even know where Silicon Valley is? Oh and if the thought of Apple “sliding out” of Silicon Valley for Austin, TX wasn’t ridiculous enough on it’s own, Apple is building a new campus in Cupertino so I’m pretty sure they are staying put. Thanks for the well informed insight though.
@pete
“But the worst has to be Southern California, and yes sadly Cupertino is included. Why? All the smog, it’s terrible and the heat and the dryness and the traffic. That’s why I think Apple is looking to slide out to Austin Texas, take over Dell.”
You need to look at a map before you make up things.
word of the day: adroit
Best thing-EVDO wireless connection, if it only did color.
Why subscribe to magazines without being able to view photos, why look at the web without color graphics?
Should be a decent device by revision 3 or 4.
The biggest problem with the Kindle is this:
It’s about s sexy as a breaker-panel. I mean come ON… personal electronics, even those designed for modest, booky, indoor-type people, should have some level of an organic quality. Anything you hold in your hand should have some sort of complimentary shape or texture or something. I’ve not held a Kindle, but there’s just nothing… dashing about it. Ya know? Like the way you kind of want to have sex with a sport bike. Or is that just me?
Maybe I just read the wrong kinda books.
I really don’t know if I could stand to read a book on that thing.
When I visited Seattle for SuperComputing, it rocked. Top Pot Donuts rewl!!!
The Kindle lacks something important…..good PDF support.
Just my $0.02
Don’t know why people are knocking Seattle. Just spend a week there, and found the city wonderfully refreshing, cosmopolitan, beautiful and clean. It may not be a perfect place (but what is?), but compared to most American cities of that size, it’s a gem.
Get over yourselves… Redmond is located in one of the far suburbs. You could live your whole life there without ever driving near it.
I like paperbacks. It’s easy to quickly scan the covers for scantily clad women. Those are the only kind I buy. I don’t care about all of that writing stuff inside.
@ MikeK
Will you shut up? We don’t tell people that.
Forget it, folks, Mike’s crazy. It rains all the time and everyone commits suicide. Better not even risk the trip.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, why do we need yet another proprietary eBook reader. Why can’t we have a dedicated reader that reads all eBooks. For readability and user interface the Sony is still the best IMO, but I won’t have anything to do with it because I can only use it to read ebooks that are authored specifically for it. Forget it.
I’ve had the Kindle for a little over a week and I LOVE IT!!! Mossberg must be really uncoordinated or he has really big fat hands! For the 1st Gen, just like the 1st Gen iPhone it’s amazing. Of course the iPhone can be improved, just like the Kindle, but it’s a big leap forward in eBooks! You don’t even need a PC or MAC to use it! And the downloading is always FREE! Plus the books are cheaper! I paid .99 cent for a book last night!
It is the ipod of Books and it is the future. I wish that Apple had their own version. I wish I had one of these when I was in High School and College so I wouldn’t have to lug around 25 pounds worth of text books with me wherever I went!
Hi Mr Peabody,
Are you saying there are other ebook readers? I thought this was a world first ? (and am surprised Apple didn’t include something like this on the iPhone/Pod touch. I assume you could read reasonably well in sideways view).
What exactly is an ebook anyway. I always thought an ebook was txt, pdf, doc, etc… Anybook that is, you know, a digital. Something I can open and read on screen.
Oh and here’s a Kindle question. Can it display images? I thought it might be good for children helping reading. Can it play sound? i.e read a book to you? Still can’t beat an all in one machine (laptop).