Kindle Roundup
November 29th, 2007 (11:00am) Mike Gunderloy 12 Comments
Now that Amazon’s Kindle e-book device has started to move out of the headlines and into the hands of actual users, we’re starting to see some consumer feedback on it. (Actually, there was feedback the moment it was announced - there are nearly 800 consumer reviews on the product page as I write this - but as much of the early feedback was from people who hadn’t actually used one, it’s not worth much). For many web workers, the notion of a universal portable library, if only as a way to cart around endless reams of technical reference material in a briefcase, is an attractive one. So how’s the device doing on that front?
Not all that well, apparently. Here are some highlight - and lowlights - from the early Kindle reportage that’s crossed our path.
- Perennial early adopter Robert Scoble gives the device a big thumbs-down after a week of use, based largely on usability issues. “Whoever designed this should be fired and the team should start over.” Ouch.
- The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg, another cutting-edge user, likes Kindle for buying but not for reading. That’s a problem in something intended to be a book replacement.
- Larry O’Brien, former editor of Software Development, liked the device’s usability, but found that technical titles were lacking. Based on that, web workers may want to hold off until technical publishers start to issue titles for the Kindle. On the plus side, Larry poked around some, and says the format is hackable with free tools.
- Publisher Tim O’Reilly says the reason they don’t have titles available for the Kindle is that they don’t see the payback right now for supporting another proprietary format. That’s one big set of important titles we won’t be seeing on the device soon.
- SmugMug CEO confirms that the reading experience is good and the title selection is poor.
Now, bear in mind that this is hardly a scientific survey of all Kindle users, and that I haven’t used one myself. But in a lot of reading, I’m not finding anyone saying that the Kindle is a home run, or any web workers or technical users saying that it works as a portable technical library. So based on the early returns, a Kindle isn’t on my Christmas list. If you think it ought to be, tell us why!
12 Comments Post your own comment
Jason says: November 29th, 2007 1:05pm
I agree tha the Kindle is not without its flaws. The question will be whether these flaws are fatal or not. I still see this being a useful device especially in the education realm. This is very much a first gen product, but Amazon has the resources to make improvements if they want. Some are flippin’ out complaining about this thing, but you can’t have a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th gen product without that 1st gen version. This idea may have been mentioned somewhere, but I think it would be cool if future versions of this thing could take the ebook file and convert it to an audiobook. Then you could read or listen to your book. Text-to-speech tech has a ways to go before this will really be feasible, but I’d love a portable device that does this. I think the Kindle is a good first effort that missed the mark a little. I hope Amazon keeps trying though.
Brian Carnell says: November 29th, 2007 1:17pm
I’ve had my Kindle since the day after they went on sale. The basic summary is this — it is the best ebook reader released yet. On the other hand, that’s not necessarily saying a lot.
I love it. But then I know enough to buy book in .LIT format, remove the DRM, convert to non-DRM mobipocket and then transfer to the Kindle.
One thing that the Kindle really gets right is search. Very nice to plug a search term in and see which of the books out of the hundreds I’ve got on there contains the search term, then click a title from there and see all the hits in context. That is something you just can’t do on the Sony Reader which is the Kindle’s main competition at this point.
Brian Carnell says: November 29th, 2007 1:19pm
“This idea may have been mentioned somewhere, but I think it would be cool if future versions of this thing could take the ebook file and convert it to an audiobook.”
Well, Amazon intentionally nerfed the MP3 playing ability (you can play MP3s, but they are played *randomly*) specifically to prevent people from using the device as a generic audiobook player. If you want to listen to an audiobook on the device you *have* to buy it from Audible.
So I don’t think they’d go the route you suggest simply for economic reasons.
Jo says: November 29th, 2007 2:17pm
Like the new vehicle I drive, I didn’t buy this model until it had been on the road a few years. Same goes for this. I’ll wait a few years and see how improved it gets. But for someone who has 100s of books in her home, the space saved in future purchases boggles the mind!
Evan says: November 29th, 2007 4:23pm
“Well, Amazon intentionally nerfed the MP3 playing ability”
Amazing! The deliberately hobbled the device and people still buy it. Until I can find a decent portable reader that will handle text, PDF and HTML at a minimum, it’s not worth my time.
Jack Baty says: November 29th, 2007 6:18pm
“…it’s not worth my time.”
90,000 or so books within one minute’s reach means I will run out of time long before I run out of uses for the Kindle. And leave your MP3s out of my books, kthx.
Evan says: November 29th, 2007 6:30pm
Yeah, but there’s such a huge amount of material in electronic format that I want to read, or have to read, like web-pages and technical documents, that if my reader device can’t make it possible to load up and comfortably read it without sitting in front of a computer, then it’s not worth it for me.
In short, I already have heaps to read without 90,000 books being within one minute’s reach - so no hobbled, cup-half-full reader wanted here.
Jack Baty says: November 29th, 2007 8:56pm
Fair enough point about multiple formats, Evan. I do think that getting many of them onto the Kindle will be possible, but not as convenient as it should be, by converting them to the .mobi or other compatible formats. And it *does* have a basic web browser. Guess many of us may still need 2 readers, and my take is that Kindle does well over half of what I need quite well as one of them. I say this even though mine hasn’t even shipped yet :)
Dustin Brewer says: November 30th, 2007 5:02am
I think that for the Kindle to be worth my time to buy it needs to be a full reader, supporting PDF, HTML, RSS and TXT. Not any Amazon proprietary format.
I want it to have wifi and be able to be used around the house or office to read my RSS feeds, browse the web (read articles- maybe write articles too) and read PDFs.
I like the screen technology though, I almost bought the Sony Reader when it came out but changed my mind based on the horrible reviews it got and its lack of features.
Eric says: November 30th, 2007 5:26am
Like I’m going to spend thousands of dollars buying books in a proprietary Amazon format that I won’t be able to read in 10 years. :-(
I’m perfectly happy to buy and use an eBook reader, and I already buy quite a few books electronically (mostly tech books).
But my basic requirements are simple: HTML or PDF, and no lousy DRM.
That way, I can read the books anywhere, on any device, and will still able to do so in 10-30 years’ time.
Michael R. Bernstein says: November 30th, 2007 8:47am
Note that the ‘free toolchain’ is only free-as-in-beer, and for that matter is windows-only (though apparently the command-line mobigen utility can at least be run under Wine).
Given that Amazon owns mobipocket, one of two things needs to happen: Either Amazon frees the format (by releasing the .azw/.mobi/.prc format specs or just opening the source on the existing SW tools), or they need to add support for an open ebook format already supported by Free-as-in-Speech software.
Meanwhile, Amazon also needs to reconsider the idea of taking over 7k free public domain works (from the Gutenberg Project via mobipocket) and selling them for 99 cents each for the privilege of having them wrapped with device-locking DRM.
Joe Sharp says: November 30th, 2007 9:04am
The page turning, search and purchase are superb. The present book choice is useful for popular books, but not CS technical ones. I have added a handy Velcro back to better attach to the cover. I also wish the controls and connections were attached to the top edge(like the EEE) (not to the bottom edge) so the Tingle could still be connected while standing in a book stand.