Kindle / Sony Reader... expensive, slow, single-purpose device designed to simulate the advantages... and many of the disadvantages... of traditional books. Except... I can't flip through forty dog-eared pages in under a second. I can't rip out the blank pages and use them for notes in a pinch. I can't write in the margins (annotating with an on-screen keyboard doesn't cut it). I probably could hit annoying people over the head with it, but it's an expensive way to catch someone's attention.
The coolest part by far is the "whispernet". I really see this taking off: people already pay subscription prices for cell-phone data networks in order to gain the privilege of paying ridiculous prices for downloads - imagine an iPod/Zune device that let you buy and download songs from anywhere, at any time, without having to look for a wifi hotspot or attaching some gharish cell-wireless dongle and paying $40/month + taxes and misc. account fees for a wireless data plan...
Instant gratification wins every time. If anyone still remembers Kindle in a year's time, it'll be because of the whispernet thing.
paulmwatson
· 1 year ago
Yup, instant gratification. It is why the internet was invented.
As for notes in margins, I never do it and flipping through forty pages makes for an effective fan but not much else.
Shog9
· 1 year ago
I suspect you read more non-technical books than i do. ;)
Paul Watson
· 1 year ago
I suspect not. I haven't read a technical book cover-to-cover since 1997. I have used a few technical books since then as references but I find Google and the interwebs to be a lot quicker and better.
All Comments
The coolest part by far is the "whispernet". I really see this taking off: people already pay subscription prices for cell-phone data networks in order to gain the privilege of paying ridiculous prices for downloads - imagine an iPod/Zune device that let you buy and download songs from anywhere, at any time, without having to look for a wifi hotspot or attaching some gharish cell-wireless dongle and paying $40/month + taxes and misc. account fees for a wireless data plan...
Instant gratification wins every time. If anyone still remembers Kindle in a year's time, it'll be because of the whispernet thing.
As for notes in margins, I never do it and flipping through forty pages makes for an effective fan but not much else.