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229 Comments
- valleyvideo, on 03/09/2008, -9/+124Has anyone ever even seen one in the wild? I sure haven't.
- inactive, on 03/09/2008, -11/+110I think the problem is that for $399.99 I could get a Stereo System, TV, 360, PS3, Computer, 30 new books, or 80 used books.
And if I really needed to read my books on a digital format, I'd spend that $400 on a PDA that'll do 100 more things than a Kindle could. - TotalHalibut, on 03/09/2008, -7/+84While an interesting conspiracy theory, this blog's complete lack of evidence makes it about as worthless as the vague statements of 'runaway success' that it seeks to debunk.
- DolphinGL, on 03/09/2008, -4/+51So many people, like you, just don't get this. The whole appeal of these ebook readers is the e-ink displays. Reading a book on a pda sucks and it's hard on the eyes. The e-ink displays use a real, physical image instead of an LCD. It's not backlit, it takes zero power to run until you turn a page, and the displays are larger. If you've ever seen one, it's quite close to reading text on paper. Whether it's this or the sony reader, I fully intended to own one of these devices soon.
- OaklandNative, on 03/09/2008, -7/+45Dude, please stop signing all your comments. It's really annoying. We know who you are.
-oaklandnative - theragu40, on 03/09/2008, -1/+28Well to be fair - Amazon.com is the only place to buy the Kindle. I strongly doubt that every ipod and camera you see on the street was purchased at Amazon.com. I mean...Kmart sells ipods and cameras.
- doctornkul, on 03/09/2008, -0/+24He said "or". That means that he could get any one of those items.
- ubuntu710, on 03/09/2008, -14/+38i thought it was a failure, anyone else get disappointed? i wouldnt buy one.
- mbmatt, on 03/09/2008, -1/+25Just saw one on a commuter train this past week... Of course, since the woman using it was an Amazon employee who works on the Kindle, I guess that doesn't really count.
- theragu40, on 03/09/2008, -2/+26I can't comment on whether or not it's a failure (and obviously no one really can except Amazon itself), but I will say that when I saw it at it's unveiling, the first thing I thought was "why"? The idea of an e-book reader has been around for a long time, and it has never *really* taken off. I'm continually puzzled by why Amazon thought the Kindle would be any different. Sure, there will be a niche market for a product like this. For some people, perhaps it fills a gap that another device could not. But as far as broad appeal - I can't see a 400 dollar book reading device every becoming popular or even remotely mainstream.
- amsoell, on 04/20/2009, -0/+22I don't think "vaporware" means what you think it means.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/vaporware - jasonsalas, on 03/09/2008, -1/+23i can't say whether the Kindle's a hit or a miss, but good corporate mistake management is not to admit to the masses that you've made a mistake.
- Dakk, on 03/09/2008, -0/+20My boss got one for himself at Christmas. He let me use it. I was VERY impressed with the legibility of the eInk display. It almost looks like one of those fake screens you see on dummy electronics in a store. It's really hard to believe the Kindle's display is not a sticker until you flip the page. Only thing I didn't care for was the Internet browsing capability. Really slow and most sites were horribly horribly rendered.
- inactive, on 03/09/2008, -1/+21I own one also. I happen to love it.
The guy that wrote this article also believes that we never landed on the moon. He tends to find conspiracy in everything. His next article will be about the chinese gnomes that secretly come in and magically restock the shelves at Walmart every night at exactly 3:61am.
as for noahhoward's comment about considering a laptop, a laptop uses much more battery power and is more bulky than I need to carry. - EvilDr.X, on 03/09/2008, -1/+19Bah. The headline made me expect a CoS story. Something along the lines of "What are your crimes, Amazon? What are you hiding? Is it murder? Are you a pedophile, Amazon?"
- vhold, on 03/09/2008, -1/+17This has been my thought for quite awhile as well. I live and work in the Bay Area, practically the most gadget concentrated place in America and I have yet to see one or know of a single person that really wants one.
I like the idea of ubiquitous delivery, but $400 for pure DRM lockdown is ridiculous. I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if it is an artificially inflated price so that as they start dropping it, it creates the impression of a good deal, despite the real value never actually being above $100. - saxreturns, on 03/09/2008, -1/+16Kindly return to whatever other retarded website forum you came from.
- johnhummel, on 03/09/2008, -3/+18If the thing was $99, maybe even $150, I'd consider it. Maybe if it was like an iPod - eReader and music player in one, then I could almost consider it. But $399 as it is?
Nah. I'll pass. - mikegre, on 03/09/2008, -3/+18I have one and I love it. Period.
On another point, has anyone noticed how many lunatics there are out there? Conspiracy nuts, paranoid freakazoids and envious know-nothings. I think the net has facilitated the ability for all these misfits to aggregate and develop a sense of community where they can all feel normal. Interesting cultural phenomenon. - akatsuki, on 03/09/2008, -7/+21Ugly, closed format, expensive, over-engineered, soon to be outdated with a better display... What is there to really like? One friend of mine bought one and he admits that it is purely cause he is impatient to purchase books and always forgets to before boarding a plane.
eInk is just not there yet. And there is no way I want a dedicated device just for reading books anyway, I have enough crap to carry around as is. - amsoell, on 04/20/2009, -2/+16"OR". Not "and". You should read before you reply.
- vibrokatana, on 03/09/2008, -1/+14He used "or". Isn't grammar wonderful?
- RemyLogan, on 03/09/2008, -0/+13The difference between the Wii and Kindle is that Nintendo has released sales numbers and those numbers are verifiable by 3rd parties who are in the business of reporting how much stuff has been sold. Amazon hasn't said squat about actual Kindle numbers. I'd love to have an ebook reader, but I don't want to get stuck with something that proves to be unpopular and discontinued. Lately, tech companies have a very poor history of pulling the plug on DRM content and leaving users with nothing.
- inactive, on 03/09/2008, -0/+13Exactly, there's a niche market, I'm a prospective buyer but the $400 price tag is a deal breaker.
- Cache22, on 03/09/2008, -0/+12The point of the Kindle is not as a general purpose computer, it is for reading. Sure, it can do a few other things such as basic web browsing, but the reason to get a Kindle (or any other e-ink device) is not for mobile computing. I have good eyesight, but if I tried to read 300 pages in one sitting on a laptop or any other mobile device i would get serious eyes strain, however reading 300 pages in one sitting on the kindle is just as easy on the eyes as reading a real printed book.
There are plenty of things to debate about the Kindle, the button placement, size, responsiveness, DRM (if you use the Kindle store for your books), and so no ... but regardless the primary point of using an e-ink device is to make it easy to read large amounts of content with ease, and no laptop, mobile phone, or PDA can come close to matching the Kindle in that regard. - samirss, on 03/09/2008, -0/+11And why is that? Is the next version of ipod touch, dumping its current display and moving to e-ink?
- Acewrap, on 03/09/2008, -1/+12Your comparison makes no sense. Kindles were made to be carried.
- fuzzypuppy, on 03/09/2008, -0/+11You've hit it. The bestseller list is an amazon web page where you can put number you want on it.
Even if Nintendo didn't release exact numbers until a few months ago (according to TFA), with the wii, you could see the people swarming the poor clerks when they opened the pallet. You could talk to the stores and find out how many they sold and get a decent idea of the volume in your area.
Amazon just has a number on a web page and no way to verify things firsthand . - djepik, on 03/09/2008, -0/+9I'm not sure if he said 'or' or if he said 'and' could somebody please clarify this?
- lukeduff, on 03/09/2008, -2/+11I hope it's doing well. I have one and I really like it.
I'm sure the later hardware generations will address shortcomings, but for a device that's completely focused on reading books, it's pretty good. - schemp98, on 03/09/2008, -1/+9I thought the whole point of the article was that Amazon did not give any evidence to it's Kindle sales numbers...
- imikedaman, on 03/09/2008, -1/+9Ha, you think valid evidence is a requirement for shaping the opinions of the masses on digg? You're silly.
- DifferentAngle, on 03/09/2008, -0/+7I thought the novelty is the screen - isnt it supposed to look like paper (that is, no backlight)?
- TotalHalibut, on 03/09/2008, -3/+10While I won't dispute the quality of the display, I do dispute the need to carry so many damn books with me at any given time when I could just carry around a paperback that is an actual, physical item, and does not restrict me on what I can actually do with it.
- inactive, on 03/09/2008, -0/+7I don't own a Kindle and have no plans to get one, but think about textbooks in backpacks. Also, think about the ability to search.
- xOKxWhy, on 03/09/2008, -1/+8What are your crimes, Amazon? I bet you made the Kindle!
- childprey, on 03/09/2008, -1/+8Fallacy ad hominem. Just because his other arguments are stupid does not mean you can immediately make this argument irrelevant.
- 5Twelve, on 03/09/2008, -1/+8For a guy that seems to think the Kindle is a BS marketing ploy he's sure taken the time to write about it a lot. He has like 4 blog posts about the damn thing.
Personally, I think it's way overpriced. Amazon should be selling these things to get the people in the door for the downloading service, instead of ripping people a new one for what looks like a beta product at best. If it was 99 bucks I could see myself buying one but for $400 I'll be buying an Eeepc and get a lot more done with it. - vw195, on 03/09/2008, -1/+7Sounds like a Digg post to me
- signal15, on 03/09/2008, -0/+6Yeah, that would be great.... Until you realize that because of the DRM, you can't turn around and sell that $200 chemistry book when you're done with it. The kindle would be a great way for college bookstores to screw the students even more.
- devolved, on 03/09/2008, -0/+6I've got one (yay wife's foresight at Christmas!) and love it. I'm an avid book collector and this will certainly let me maintain 'reading copies' electronically, cutting down on shelf usage. Plus, every time I travel I usually pack 5-10 books to read, and this is lots better. It does real good at book-like things and not so well at computer-like things, but at least you can check email and stuff for free, albeit slowly. Also, the UI for organizing content looks like a programmer wrote it rather than a human factors person.
Amazon actually did a piss-poor job advertising this thing's capabilities, and I don't know why. For example, you can put pretty much any text-y format thing on it (for free over USB, for 0.10 by wireless) like .pdf, .doc, and even .html. You can read blogs and web pages and stuff on it for free (but the pay versions are much more device-friendly). It's a Java based device so it's only a matter of time before the API gets opened up (with or without Amazon's consent). It plays audiobooks and mp3s. And shows photos (in b&w). And plays Minesweeper. - mradules, on 03/09/2008, -1/+7Exactly. The whole idea behind the Kindle baffles me. You can understand someone wanting to bring all their music with them, as a given album takes less than an hour to listen to, but does anyone really need more than one or two books on them at once?
- Dakk, on 03/09/2008, -0/+6Actually, it can play MP3s and Audiobooks too.
- TotalHalibut, on 03/09/2008, -0/+5Welcome to the Digg generation... of idiots.
- AmusedToDeath, on 03/09/2008, -0/+5Or you could just get a library card and have thousands of books at your disposal for - wait for it ... FREE!
- Myonosken, on 03/09/2008, -0/+5*bleurgh*
- jdeuel, on 03/09/2008, -0/+5"How to drive up page hits" or "Accuse Accuse Accuse"
- theragu40, on 03/09/2008, -0/+5"Reading is a failure"?
Fail. - ch33sehead, on 03/09/2008, -0/+5Hey come on you could get a pretty decent stereo for $400. Other than that though, yes I agree.
- inactive, on 03/09/2008, -0/+5Most intelligent thing I've heard on Digg all day.
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