Space for Books in AS

[fr8tshaker]

anyone checked out the new Kindle from Amazon? I am on the waiting list. Can't wait. No more lively discussions with DH over all the books I love to pack around. It is spendy, but worth the peace at our house. 'shaker

[ArtStream]

Hey Michelle,

I have been thinking of it myself.
Looking forward to your review!

Michael

[fr8tshaker]

I have had my Kindle for about a week and absolutely love it. The user reviews at Amazon are accurate. It is lightweight and very user friendly. It does not require an internet connection to shop and download books. That alone probably makes it worth the purchase price over the long term. The downloads are fast and the book prices are lower than the printed versions. The device has the ability to highlight and bookmark passages. Remarks can also be typed in and saved by using the thumb keyboard at the bottom. It has no backlight. The print on the screen appears very close to a printed book in appearance. It does not give me the eye fatigue that my PDA or laptop does. The device will hold aprox. 200 books. A smart card can be added for more storage. The users personal library is kept at Amazon and the books can be downloaded unlimited times to your device. Some mags and newspaper subscriptions are also available. More will probably become available in the future.
It is easy to accidentally hit the next page button on the right edge. I have found that leaving it in the cover and holding it as if it were a book eliminates this problem for me. That's the only problem I have had so far. 'shaker

[Fiamma]

I absolutely plan on getting one of these--one of my worries about fulltiming was "how do I bring all my books"??? I haven't heard a single bad thing about the Kindle, except a few people who say wait for the 2.0 versions to come out in a year or two, where they will have ironed out a few minor bugs with the interface, etc, and the price may well go down as competitors start coming out. As time goes on, more and more books are added to the Kindle list.

From a crunchy granola environmental standpoint, this is a fabulous device. Saves trees, saves gas on shipping, saves space...hardback books cost less than they would on paper, you can get the Washington Post daily in the middle of Utah without it having to be driven or flown there.

Bravo to Amazon for coming up with this! Between my laptop, mp3 device, USB drive, cell phone and Kindle, I plan to be well supplied with ultra-lightweight media when I hit the road.

[Fiamma]

Here is a copy of Jeff Bezos' letter to the Amazon shareholders this month, all about the Kindle. No, I'm not a shareholder--wish I were!--but the letter does a good job explaining the concept and function of the device. It's spendy right now, but that's because it's new and revolutionary with no competition. Give it a few years (like the iPod) and there will be clones abounding and prices becoming more reasonable.

Warning, LONG post! Most pertinent paragraph has been italicized.

To our shareowners:

November 19, 2007, was a special day. After three years of work, we introduced Amazon Kindle to our
customers.

Many of you may already know something of Kindle—we’re fortunate (and grateful) that it has been broadly
written and talked about. Briefly, Kindle is a purpose-built reading device with wireless access to more than
110,000 books, blogs, magazines, and newspapers. The wireless connectivity isn’t WiFi—instead it uses the
same wireless network as advanced cell phones, which means it works when you’re at home in bed or out and
moving around. You can buy a book directly from the device, and the whole book will be downloaded wirelessly,
ready for reading, in less than 60 seconds. There is no “wireless plan,” no year-long contract you must commit to,
and no monthly service fee. It has a paper-like electronic-ink display that’s easy to read even in bright daylight.
Folks who see the display for the first time do a double-take. It’s thinner and lighter than a paperback, and can
hold 200 books. Take a look at the Kindle detail page on Amazon.com to see what customers think—Kindle has
already been reviewed more than 2,000 times.

As you might expect after three years of work, we had sincere hopes that Kindle would be well received, but we
did not expect the level of demand that actually materialized. We sold out in the first 51⁄2 hours, and our supply
chain and manufacturing teams have had to scramble to increase production capacity.

We started by setting ourselves the admittedly audacious goal of improving upon the physical book. We did not
choose that goal lightly. Anything that has persisted in roughly the same form and resisted change for 500 years
is unlikely to be improved easily. At the beginning of our design process, we identified what we believe is the
book’s most important feature. It disappears. When you read a book, you don’t notice the paper and the ink and
the glue and the stitching. All of that dissolves, and what remains is the author’s world.

We knew Kindle would have to get out of the way, just like a physical book, so readers could become engrossed
in the words and forget they’re reading on a device. We also knew we shouldn’t try to copy every last feature of a
book—we could never out-book the book. We’d have to add new capabilities—ones that could never be possible
with a traditional book.

The early days of Amazon.com provide an analog. It was tempting back then to believe that an online bookstore
should have all the features of a physical bookstore. I was asked about a particular feature dozens of times: “How
are you going to do electronic book signings?” Thirteen years later, we still haven’t figured that one out! Instead
of trying to duplicate physical bookstores, we’ve been inspired by them and worked to find things we could do in
the new medium that could never be done in the old one. We don’t have electronic book signings, and similarly
we can’t provide a comfortable spot to sip coffee and relax. However, we can offer literally millions of titles,
help with purchase decisions through customer reviews, and provide discovery features like “customers who
bought this item also bought.” The list of useful things that can be done only in the new medium is a long one.

I’ll highlight a few of the useful features we built into Kindle that go beyond what you could ever do with a
physical book. If you come across a word you don’t recognize, you can look it up easily. You can search your
books. Your margin notes and underlinings are stored on the server-side in the “cloud,” where they can’t be lost.
Kindle keeps your place in each of the books you’re reading, automatically. If your eyes are tired, you can
change the font size. Most important is the seamless, simple ability to find a book and have it in 60 seconds.
When I’ve watched people do this for the first time, it’s clear the capability has a profound effect on them. Our
vision for Kindle is every book ever printed in any language, all available in less than 60 seconds.

Publishers—including all the major publishers—have embraced Kindle, and we’re thankful for that. From a
publisher’s point of view, there are a lot of advantages to Kindle. Books never go out of print, and they never go
out of stock. Nor is there ever waste from over-printing. Most important, Kindle makes it more convenient for
readers to buy more books. Anytime you make something simpler and lower friction, you get more of it.

We humans co-evolve with our tools. We change our tools, and then our tools change us. Writing, invented
thousands of years ago, is a grand whopper of a tool, and I have no doubt that it changed us dramatically. Five
hundred years ago, Gutenberg’s invention led to a significant step-change in the cost of books. Physical books
ushered in a new way of collaborating and learning. Lately, networked tools such as desktop computers, laptops,
cell phones and PDAs have changed us too. They’ve shifted us more toward information snacking, and I would
argue toward shorter attention spans. I value my BlackBerry—I’m convinced it makes me more productive—but
I don’t want to read a three-hundred-page document on it. Nor do I want to read something hundreds of pages
long on my desktop computer or my laptop. As I’ve already mentioned in this letter, people do more of what’s
convenient and friction-free. If our tools make information snacking easier, we’ll shift more toward information
snacking and away from long-form reading. Kindle is purpose-built for long-form reading. We hope Kindle and
its successors may gradually and incrementally move us over years into a world with longer spans of attention,
providing a counterbalance to the recent proliferation of info-snacking tools. I realize my tone here tends toward
the missionary, and I can assure you it’s heartfelt. It’s also not unique to me but is shared by a large group of
folks here. I’m glad about that because missionaries build better products. I’ll also point out that, while I’m
convinced books are on the verge of being improved upon, Amazon has no sinecure as that agent. It will happen,
but if we don’t execute well, it will be done by others.

Your team of missionaries here is fervent about driving free cash flow per share and returns on capital. We know
we can do that by putting customers first. I guarantee you there is more innovation ahead of us than behind us,
and we do not expect the road to be an easy one. We’re hopeful, and I’d even say optimistic, that Kindle, true to
its name, will “start a fire” and improve the world of reading.

As always, I attach our 1997 letter to shareholders. You’ll see that Kindle exemplifies our philosophy and longterm
investment approach as discussed in that letter. Happy reading and many thanks!
Jeffrey P. Bezos
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Amazon.com, Inc.
April 2008

[jcanavera]

My wife just got hers a couple of days ago. I sent a preview of a technical book to it just to see how it does. Just on the surface it eliminates the bulk of multiple books that we would bring with us on a trip.

So far from what I can see you can subscribe to some magazines, newspapers in addition to the books. It has 180 meg of memory, plus an SD card slot. It supports up to an 8 gig SD card. Supposedly the 180 meg will support 200 books. You own anything you buy and if for some reason you lose the book, Amazon keeps track of your purchase and will reload it for you. Operating system updates are done over the network. For all intents you do not have to own a PC in conjunction with this unit.

From what I've been able to determine, version 2.0 of this hardware is a long time in the future. For now all enhancements will be in the operating system software. The last software update through their network was done in February. I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for a hardware update.

Jack

[knunut]

Got a Kindle for my wife,as she loves to read. There is good info. here and on the Amazon site. Very fair reviews. Thing's i like are : Easy to Read and you can change font size if you like. The Down load system uses Cell phone tech.and the process is free and fast. Book price seems OK. Can get free sample of Books. Magazines available. Don't need a computer. Kindle lays 'Flat' vs book. Can Bookmark. Only about 10 oz. There are so many more features,check out the video demo at Amazon.
It answers the question "Where do i keep my book"s in the Airstrem ?

[Roamin Cat]

as we discuss and hopefully move towards fulltiming, is how to do without our rooms full of books! We are avid readers, including rereading favorites and regular use of our many faith based and other reference books.

Thanks very much for the info and reviews of Kindle, you just moved us much closer to eventually realizing my dream of fulltiming

Got the HD truck, now I gotta keep my eye out for the 34' dream capsule

[Fiamma]

After coveting one for months, I just broke down and bought a Kindle (it wasn't in the budget at this point), and I LOVE it. It's phenomenal, even better than I thought it would be, and from my posts above you see that I had pretty high expectations. I figure by the time I'm ready for fulltiming, I'll have quite the electronic library built up. I highly recommend it.

[urbanfood]

isn't the kindle the same as looking at a computer screen? i have enough of that at work i can't imagine having to read a book like that. my eyes would be toast. how do you guys deal with that issue?

[Roamin Cat]

So happy to know you love your new Kindle, Fiamma!
Good for you

Thanks for the update

[Fiamma]

Originally Posted by urbanfood

isn't the kindle the same as looking at a computer screen? i have enough of that at work i can't imagine having to read a book like that. my eyes would be toast. how do you guys deal with that issue?

It's not a computer screen, and is not backlit in any way. The screen looks just like a paper page, and you need light to read it. You can also read it in bright sunlight, and overall it causes no more eye fatigue that reading a regular book would. Even better, as you can adjust the print size whenever you like, changing it from small to regular, all the way up to large print. The screen automatically adjusts the text to accomodate. In this way, it's even easier on the eyes than a regular book.

[knunut]

As Fiamma say's it's not a computer screen.It look's like your looking at paper.Very neat technology.Were also looking at the web for weather and google search's via the "experimental" section on the kindle.
View the video Demo at Amazon in the Kindle Section.It provides a good view of what it looks like.