Newsweek hearts Kindle

Steven Levy's Newsweek cover story The Future of Reading was so unabashedly reverential toward the new Kindle reader that I had to check twice to make sure the article wasn't a paid product placement. Though the official product review only took up three-quarters of a page, there's no mistaking the impression that the seven-page spread is about Amazon's Kindle and its potential as the electronic device that will "leapfrog over previous attempts at e-readers and become the turning point in a transformation toward Book 2.0. That's shorthand for a revolution (already in progress) that will change the way readers read, writers writer, and publishers publish." Other devices such as the Sony Reader and One Laptop Per Child XO laptop receive very brief mentions.

I have been interested in the concept of e-books for several years now, and it is interesting to see the proliferation of screened devices that could work as electronic readers. The iPod, iPhone, and laptops are all contenders. I can imagine that a superbly designed, dedicated e-reader would merit it's existence as a stand-alone device, but one that would branch out to include other functions.

It remains to be seen whether the Kindle will fit that bill. I suspect that it's asking too much for it to do so in its first generation. Amazon.com does have the credibility to back up Jeff Bezo's claim that the Kindle "isn't a device, it's a service," and I predict that an evolved Amazon-backed e-reader will provide the infrastructure needed to spur widespread acceptance.

In the meantime, it's still surprisingly hard to imagine what life with an e-reader would be like. I look forward to three major benefits: one, being able to check out books from the library via e-reader; two, the ability to consolidate a back-breaking load of textbooks into one small device; and three, since I have independently published two books, the possibility of doing so electronically is this small publisher's idea of a killer app. It's not only paper and production costs that eat into my already-slim profit margins, but the transportation costs of shipping books from the printer, to my warehouse, and then to customers. With gasoline and postage costs at all-time highs, I can't afford to compete with Amazon's free two-day shipping, even for my own books. While big-time authors and publishers may still have the luxury of scoffing at e-readers, the smaller outfits may want to get on board to promote digital delivery. If Kindle can connect me to my readers through online, wireless communication, I am all for it.

Amy Tiemann is a member of the CNET Blog Network. Her blog posts represent her personal opinions, and not necessarily CNET's.

[omaryak]

Hyperbole, anyone?

Just the cover made me cringe ? "500 years after Gutenberg"? The Kindle is pretty cool, but to imply it's the printing press's replacement is premature at best; probably sycophantic and, as your initial suspicion indicated, a paid advertisement at worst. Amazon's is not the first e-reader to exist (though admittedly it has greater mass-market potential), nor does it necessarily solve all the problems associated with existing electronic readers.

I can't be sure how the Kindle will fare, but my guess is that it will remain a niche product for the following reasons:

- One screen is not enough. You read a book two pages at a time; an electronic reader should have two screens (or at least a wide screen that folds in the middle) with opposing faces.

- It should be familiar. Open the cover of a Kindle, and it doesn't feel like a book. It feels like a PDA. People like the way the weight of a book feels in their hands. They like to take the book in their hands and flip through the pages. Until a reader mimics these existing ways of interacting with the medium, I don't think it will have mass appeal.

- Ditch the keyboard. Like Apple's brilliant stroke with the iPhone did to the cell phone market, an e-reader should not have a keyboard that distracts you when you're trying to focus on reading the screen. It should just be you and the words. And like the iPhone, it will require a touchscreen replacement (all the better to simulate flipping pages with?).

So maybe I should file a patent on these ideas. Maybe Amazon (or Sony) should hire me as a design consultant. But in the end I hope some eBook manufacturer takes my advice. At some point in the future there will be an eReader that does for books what the iPod did for music. But this isn't it.

[mojomom]

Possibilities: two pages and large type

I would also like to see two pages on an e-reader screen as a way to evoke the natural book feeling. I skim a lot of books pretty quickly and scanning two pages makes sense.

One feature that I haven't heard discussed much yet is that e-readers can be configured to function as large print editions while still looking like a cool gadget. I predict this may be the feature that motivates Baby Boomers to adopt e-reader technology over the next few years.

[geneven]

The future is now

I don't think two pages are necessary at all. One typically picks up a book and reads a page then turns one's eyes to the next page. So you aren't exactly reading two pages at once, you are reading one page at a time. On a small device, you are simply clicking a button to turn the page, which is easier and faster than turning your head or turning the paper page with your hand. By the way, you can use something like the FBreader (at download.com, among other places) to do that right now, on a laptop or on the Nokia N800. I am reading Westward Ho! and Decline and Fall etc. on my little computer. And sometimes I hold my laptop up something like a book, over my head, and read that way -- it works very well for my myopic eyes.

The book of the future will come in several forms, all in one package. It will be an audiobook as well as a text book. It will have multimedia features, too. This will all be taken for granted -- people will point out that it has been known for a long time that readers have different reading styles, and of course a book wants to appeal to as many readers as possible.

Text to speech with a computerized voice is getting better and better. I am looking forward to a device that scrolls the words to a book in front of my eyes while a computerized voice reads them. This is available to a certain extent now, in Windows XP the Rudenko Reader can do this, as can many other programs. But having it available on a portable device smaller than a laptop will be very convenient and fun.

[mojomom]

I do still like the ability to scan a two-page spread, especially for magazines and newspapers, but books too.

I keep wondering if someday soon we'll merge everything into one device that comes in pocket and desktop size. I guess I am there as soon as an iPhone can double as an e-book. We'll see what I am asking Santa for around Christmas 2009.