Information technology not only adds innovative solutions to our life, but also replaces traditional ones, that we accustomed to use for centuries. One that was and is the hardest to crack is… book. There were many competitors of books so far. But books still alive and people continue buying and reading them. Radio did not replace books (although there are audio books now, they do not replace traditional ones). Television did not replace books. And even personal computers did not do that, though there are so many great features that computers add and the size of today's computers is about a book size.
Amazon recently made their attempt to provide alternative to traditional newspapers and books. They announced their brand new device, called "Kindle", that was specially designed for reading. So, what is Kindle?
- It has size of a book weight as little as 10.3 Ounces
- Made in ergonomic case with the large buttons to "turn over" pages
- Has QWERTY keyboard
- Equipped with monochrome screen especially designed for reading. Technology behind this screen is called e-paper that has no backlight, does not reflect and consumes less electricity than ordinary LCD displays
- It also has EVDO (fast wireless network standard) on the board. It does not need PC at all.
- And it is coupled with Amazon's data service. So they even say "This isn't a device, it's a service."
Strong features of this device are unbeatable:
- You can search in a book and make bookmarks. I always miss CTRL-F when reading books.
- You can scale fonts. It is so annoying if a book has too small or too large font…
- You have rich and recent info in a form of newspapers, blogs and books. There is also access to Wikipedia and it includes The New Oxford American Dictionary.
- You can have one Kindle instead of entire bookshelf.
What would stop me from buying Kindle?
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Design. For me, it looks like old-fashioned calculator.
And why it is made white? It makes it looking as kitchen appliance.
- Monochrome screen. Hey, its 21th century, why should we read from monochrome screens. It looks like step back.
- Coupling with Amazon data service. I guess I never will be able to buy and use it here, in Russia J
It is also not clear what platform Kindle is based on and if it is possible to extend it with own software or not.
If you want more info, there was a good comparison review of Kindle with Sony's Reader, and there is a long article about it in Newsweek.