Comments on: Designing the Kindle 2

In an interview, Kindle unit head Ian Freed talks about the trade-offs Amazon considered in deciding what would go in the new Kindle, which started shipping on Monday.

[arshield]

The cell phone thing is a good idea, but it will lock you into purchasing your content from Amazon (which is good for Amazon, but might not always be good for the consumer.) I get free books directly from a publisher, then I won't be able to read those books jointly on a cell phone and Kindle.

In spite of that problem, that is the feature I am most looking forward to. I have been reading on my phone/PDA for a decade and only recently upgraded to a kindle. The kindle is way better than the Phone/PDA but I alway have the phone/PDA with me and catching those five minutes of reading while standing in the line at the grocery store is important.

[-fjtorres-]

The cellular network is not what locks you into Kindle, but rather the DRM.
As is, you *can* buy books for other publishers who don't believe in DRM (Baen, among others) and copy the books unto the KIndle2 with minimal effort through the USB cable or by emailing them to the Kindle's free e-mail conduit. It was even easier with the original KIndle, since that one has an SD card slot. And Kindles do support the multi-vendor Mobipocket format. It just doesn't support DRM'ed Mobipocket.
There are very few things wrong with Kindle2 at this point that ditching DRM wouldn't fix.

[masterblair]

Well I don't see how you are locked into not reading those 'free' books form other publishers.
You can use both the program you currently use to read those books and the iPhone Kindle program / Kindle for the books you didn't get free but you bought from Amazon. I think you worry for not.

[Ryansway]

What a load of hogwash, the Kindle is the most ridiculous and worthless piece of deprecated junk ever conceived. Its the "Edsel" of LapNetNote Books, the people are laughing, does baldness affect your hearing too Jeff?

Amazon can throw endless amounts of money trying to hype up publicity to spin that ugly "contraption" into something it isn't .. a book replacement!! But its still a dog, with fleas, running a race no one else would be stupid enough to enter.

Stop trying to force feed this silly over-priced monstrosity down the throats of book readers Amazon, its 2009... not 1979, we're all sick of reading about your Kindle, the name compels one to light a match, and set fire to it!

[mp lee]

i have found that those who deprecate the kindle the most are those who have not tried it. i was skeptical, too, until i started paying attention to a long list of readers who almost always began 'i love reading books and i thought i'd never give that up.' if you love reading you'll love the kindle since it as easily, or more so, immerses you into the reading experience. it is NOT like reading text on a computer screen. i find, like many others, that it makes reading far more pleasant in all sorts of ways than traditional books. if you truly love reading then you owe it to yourself to seek out a kindle and see for yourself.

[xcal78]

Ryansway:

Looks like you signed up just to trash the Kindle. I'd suggest therapy for that. Go look up the 'Pet Rock' then get back to us on the Kindle.

[Pishkado]

You're telling us a lot more about yourself than about the Kindle. Why not just say "Personally, I don't like it?"

[psuser]

Why so agitated? I don't see anyone forcing this on you or other consumers. It's just another option for people who like to read. Did you get this shaken up over the iPod? If so, I suppose that might explain your melt-down here.

Anyway, I've owned Kindle 1 for about a year now and really enjoy it. I love being able to go on a business or leisure trip and have a full library of reading with me. It really makes reading more convenient for me.

[jonathan0766]

Ryansway, you obviously protest too much, and in doing so reveal nothing but a bad bias. Particularly given your estimation that it's just a "ridiculous and worthless piece of deprecated junk." If it's so bad, why would you waste your time berating it in such an ad hominem manner? It's nothing but a piece of electronics, yet it fired you up so. Comedy.

Amazon has every right to continue to push the Kindle. And you of course have every right to continue to rant while having zero actual capacity to stop them from pushing the Kindle. You rant and it changes nothing. Isn't that awesome?

[drfrost]

Apparently he doesn't even like the idea. Let's explore that. What would the perfect "kindle" be like (I'm trying to make it just as good as a book here but not necessarily better):

1) It would be touch sensitive. I could flip pages, zoom, etc. by just touch. No need to waste room on buttons, the whole front of the device (minus a small border) should be screen.
2) Very resistant to being dropped, squashed, etc. Your typical "made from paper" book is pretty hardy.
3) Light.
4) Very easy on the eyes.
5) Extremely long battery life.
6) Color display.
7) Memory large enough to hold a large book with many illustrations (think college physics book).

Now add on to this the obvious "easy" advantages of having a book in electronic form: searches, cut and paste capabilities when quoting sections, etc. and with the above features it would easily be worth $50.

Now add:

1) Large enough memory to hold many books.
2) Text to speech capabilities.
3) Foldable (yeah yeah... I'm dreaming here)
4) Wi-fi to download/share/etc.

Now it's becoming more valuable, but it's also becoming more like a netbook... and it's really not much of a jump to add the remaining features to make it a notebook type computer. But I'm not going to argue semantics here.

I do think the "future" of this product is an integration with netbooks, but we either need to further develop some ultra-lower power electronics or solve the "battery" problem betore we get there. Until then, I think there's a place for kindle.... though the price is going to have to drop further before it becomes widespread IMHO.

[Renegade Knight]

Perfect Kindle?

Easier to start with the perfect eBook. Works on any platform. I can resell it or give it away when I'm done.

From there you can work towards the perfect eBook platform.

[fleeb.fantastique]

I own a first generation Kindle, and rather enjoy it. I realize the device's price prohibits experimentation, however, one should try it before denigrating it.

Overall, the new Kindle, should it work as advertised, marks a serious improvement over the old one. My chief complaint about the original Kindle involves the buttons; one may too easily turn a page while intending to simply hold the device because of the size of the buttons, and their positioning along the sides of the device.

I look forward to the improved battery life, but I do not care about this as much as the reworked buttons.

Having used older e-book devices, I find the Kindle a well-designed device, and have enjoyed reading several books with it.

[critster]

I saw the Kindle 1 and after looking at it was not fully convinced it was for me. For a while now I the idea has been growing on me as I saw the opportunities to use one in my daily life. I have several friends with them and they love them. I am now ordering the Kindle 2.

[4dthinker]

I bought my wife a Kindle 1 when they first came out. She bought a new purse so she would always have it with her. It has generated far more book sales for Amazon and others than the ebooks she buys alone.

My Kindle 2 has been shipped and should arrive next week. I thought about making room for it in my brief case but then realized I could put every document that is in that breif case on my new Kindle. I'll be leaving the brief case at home. I'll give Amazon due credit for it's 4th dimension thinking.

[nomisxid]

I love my kindle1 as a device. As others have pointed out, there is a huge library of free content out there, and it's easy to load it in. My biggest complaint is the lack of basic wishlist support. According to amazon's own tech support, they would prefer I put the real book on my wishlist, let someone buy it, ship it to me, make me return it for credit, and then I can buy the kindle version of the book, weeks later. Seems like they could, I dunno, automate that process in-house with, wink, 1-click.

It's a strangely pathetic bug for them to be aware of, yet refuse to address. I find it hard to believe that publishers said "you can sell our book on the kindle, but people can't put it on their wishlists". Sounds more like a dev manager that decided to cut corners to get the project done on time, than a technical problem. Still very annoying. But hey, if they want to process a bunch of returns from me after every birthday and christmas, I guess they will.

[k9jdk]

You can check out and read more than you ever could in your lifetime at your local library. Cost = your taxes. For those not inclined for whatever reason, the Kindle may be a solution. Kindle or not - READ. Its good for you.

[bblande]

Any else think it's ironic that Ina Fried interviewed Ian Freed, her former identity?

My sister got in on the first batch and I believe it is due to arrive tonight or at least very soon. I plan on giving it a good test ride and if I like it, I will order my own. I just wish the Newspaper subscriptions were a bit cheaper as I would love to get something like USATODAY delivered electronically.

Update: It just came in. Make sure you are home as they won't leave them. UPS was walking away with the kindle as it took my sister a bit to get to the door. About to go check it out....

2nd Update:
Device is impressive. It was easy to use and the screen was nicer than I expected. The text to speech feature was also better than expected and should be fine for limited use. I tried out the web browser on my own weather site and it worked fine other than being slow. Kindle could become the Ipod of ebooks, but the prices of the subscriptions need to be lower. Still I liked it enough and went ahead and ordered my own.

[atomicbomb156]

Once the screens are flexible and can mimic some of the properties of paper then I'm in. Well, when it is affordable. I'm a heavy reader but I'm not willing to shell out $300+ on a weird looking device.

yep