I buy books on my Kindle (or just drop the public domain ones on it for free), and still sometimes buy regular books. I like both.
Amazon Kindle anyone?
- Thread starter Kirby
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Maybe I'll get one for Christmas. *Crosses fingers*
I simply can't understand the price of the thing. $300 for a black and white screen that displays text? I paid under that for both my DS and PSP. You can even buy laptops for little more than $300. I read the description on Wikipedia and I still can't figure out any reason for it to be more than $29.99 with a mandatory memory card purchase.
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Amaris
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^ Exactly. I want a Kindle, as I'm an avid reader, but $300!? No way. Not for a text e-reader. My little Acer netbook cost less than that and it can do so much more.
J.
J.
Sony Reader here and loving it. I got it for substantially less than a Kindle. Actually substantially less than the regular retail for the Sony; paid only $169. Took a survey for using the Sony.com website and they gave me $100 off my next Sony purchase. Anyway I agree with a lot of what's been said. Publishers are going to have to wise up and lower prices to reasonable ranges. $10 for an ebook is not reasonable. I've expanded my Reader's capacity to 8 GB. Means I should pretty much never run out of "shelf space" for my books. I love the portability of it.
i was thinking of getting one until that news that they have access to your library and can do with it as they please. i'll stick to real books for now thanks. that's like apple having remote access to my ipod and doing with it as they pleased. though if apple is able to do that, they haven't done it yet, so kudos for them. lol
Is Kindle (or Sony Reader) as kind on the eyes as advertised? Has it really eliminated the kind of eyestrain that sustained reading from a screen typically produces?
From what I've heard, yes. A lot of people who used to read books on PDAs and Pocket PCs complained about eye strain. I never had that problem when using a Pocket PC. But those who did have said eInk devices like the Kindle and Reader solved the problem. Using an eInk device is very much like looking at a printed page. In fact, in low light conditions, you'll have trouble reading just like you would a regular book.
Anyone else think it's funny the book Amazon chose to delete was 1984? 
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Amaris
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I noticed but didn't say anything.
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I'd like one ... mostly for newspapers and magazines, since I, too, prefer real books ... but I think I am going to hold out for this: http://www.macrumors.com/2009/07/13/apple-touchscreen-netbook-to-launch-in-october-at-800/
Color, and it'll play other media. And I imagine that it'll access Amazon's e-book selection, since the iPhone does.
Color, and it'll play other media. And I imagine that it'll access Amazon's e-book selection, since the iPhone does.
Yeah. It doesn't really even look like a screen, really. It's like a slightly glossy paper or plastic. You can read it just fine in daylight--in fact, daylight is best.
Some people have said they'd prefer it with a backlight, but I imagine that'd make my eyes bleed after a while. You can clip a book light onto the cover, and that works perfectly.
The 1984 thing was screwy, but Amazon already said they won't be doing that again.
The Kindle's screen isn't the same type of LCD as the DS or PSP, it's an e-paper screen. Basically when an image is displayed on an e-paper screen it doesn't require any electricity to continue displaying the image, only when changing the image. I would imagine an e-paper screen costs more then a traditional LCD screen.
Alright, so I thought I'd do some looking into this. I came up with this PC World article that states The Amazon Kindle costs $185.49 to manufacture and the display runs $60. That does drive costs up, but it's still a pretty large profit margin.
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Amaris
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When those prices are finally cut in half, I would gladly get one.
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J.
Thanks for the replies regarding the quality of the paper-like screen. I knew they promising that it would be as easy on the eyes as paper, but it's always good to have feedback from people who have actually used the product to see that the promise has been made good.
My eyes generally hold up fine with reading while browsing, but I've downloaded public domain books to read on my PC and my eyes can't take that kind of sustained reading on an LCD flat screen for long.
I'm definitely interested in getting one of the electronic readers when the price comes down. I'll still buy a lot of books in physical form, but an electronic reader would be handy for the thousands of public domain e-books available and for catching up with a lot of the old pulps, like Doc Savage and The Shadow.
My eyes generally hold up fine with reading while browsing, but I've downloaded public domain books to read on my PC and my eyes can't take that kind of sustained reading on an LCD flat screen for long.
I'm definitely interested in getting one of the electronic readers when the price comes down. I'll still buy a lot of books in physical form, but an electronic reader would be handy for the thousands of public domain e-books available and for catching up with a lot of the old pulps, like Doc Savage and The Shadow.
I like the concept, but I don't like the price - of the devise or the books.
I'd love to bring along tons of books when I travel, and so I'd be up for purchasing one. Just not at the prices they are at now.
I'd love to bring along tons of books when I travel, and so I'd be up for purchasing one. Just not at the prices they are at now.
Having about 30% of the price as a profit margin isn't necessarily that high, I'm sure Nintendo's profit margin on the DS is way higher then that.
Having a profit margin that large is good for Amazon, if the Kindle doesn't sell well they have room to drop the price and still make money.
Anyone else think it's funny the book Amazon chose to delete was 1984?
No, I didn't think it was funny, because the only freaking reason we found out about it was because it WAS 1984 and the news outlets could make a big joke a out how ironic it was. It turns out they had done they had deleted books before and word hadn't gotten out.
I'm annoyed I was actually researching getting one when they dropped the price when this happened. I'll stick to books.
And to the people who say the books are a lot cheaper, maybe for hardbacks, but if it's out in paperback it seems to be either the same price or up to a buck and a half cheaper. That's a couple hundred books before you break even. Unless they decide to delete your book. Pass...
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