Comments on: Is the Kindle Ugly?

by: Douglas Moran

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 23:56:46 +0000

The world does *not* need yet another gadget with a teeny weeny keyboard. Treos, Blackberrys, and various and sundry cell phones have them; another one is not going to make an impact simply because it’s from Amazon and you can read books on it.

Ditch the keyboard, add a touchscreen, and you may have something (if you can overcome the e-ink page-turn delay, which–unlike Steve– I find fantastically annoying, not “revolutionary”). In the meantime, at a price of 4 c-notes, it just ain’t gonna sell. The RocketBook didn’t (and it was better designed!), the Sony Reader hasn’t, Panasonic’s product hasn’t even been released in the U.S.

I think this is Newsweek’s version of Wired’s “Here Come the Zippies!”

by: Kontra

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 02:15:54 +0000

While “the iPod of …” has become a cliché to describe any product with a semblance of distilled design sensibilities emanating from Cupertino, there is one fundamental strategic reason why Kindle won’t be like the iPod: content. The iPod had it, Kindle doesn’t. Read why here:

“Why is the new Kindle eBook reader from Amazon and not Apple?”
http://counternotions.com/2007/11/19/kindle-vs-iphone/

by: hatu

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:58:39 +0000

Is it possible to install books using the usb cable? I’m dying for a Kindle, but there are no Whispernet in my country

by: Pietro Watanabe

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 14:40:52 +0000

I wouldn’t call it ugly until I see it, but what concerns me is the keyboard. Described a s thumb board, I am concerned that it operation would be uncomfortable, because about 80% of the unsupported reader will exert quite a bit of torque to the hands,

Thus it would seem you would be constantly shifting a doubly firm grip from one hand to the other as the typing hand needs some freedom for keying and therefor loses it ability to counter this torque.

by: markp

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 12:21:51 +0000

*fugly* is the term I’ve seen bandied about, and I think is more fitting

by: Mike Cane

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:10:40 +0000

Points taken, Steven. But how are *holding* it? With the Sony Reader, there is plenty of space to hold it like a book (and that’s why the page turning button is in the lower left corner; you hold a book with one thumb that way). I don’t see the same free space on the face — or even the sides — of amazon’s device.

by: Paul Story

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 17:33:24 +0000

Good article (Newsweek). Amazon’s move is a smart one and you paint a compelling vision of the future of publishing. For the Kindle to become the iPod of books, however, the hardware will have to look and feel cool too. I have been following eink’s progress since before the company was formed and I am convinced that the ebook’s time is here. I do hope the Kindle is a thousand times better looking than the leaked photo or someone else will come along and steal Bezos’ lunch. I wish the venture luck.

One thing for a future article. Is the Kindle a Trojan Horse destined to take over the publishing industry? One has to ask what a book publisher will be for in a post-paper era. The important job of filtering the good from the bad is classic web 2.0 stuff and a successful Amazon will surely become more powerful than the publishers that currently feed it.

by: Paul Story

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 16:14:05 +0000

Thanks, Steven. At last a 1st hand and common sense answer to the fugly question. About to read your article and looking forward to it. Paul