It is certainly a groundbreaking device, and it's great that Amazon has finally paired a device with a store with lots of content. It's about time we are getting a reasonable piece of hardware to view our increasingly-electronic libraries with.
However, my biggest concern with the device is the apparent lack of open standards for the format of the books. A great deal of my digital content is in PDF format. They want me to upload each of those PDFs (possibly with confidential info in it) to Amazon, to transfer to their own format, so they can send it back over EVDO to me. That is ridiculous. Sony's e-book reader supports standard PDF viewing. Kindle has an SD slot, so it seems a bit short sighted to think they can keep all of the content on the device locked into their own format (they do support Word and image formats without reformatting). Personally I'll be waiting to purchase until a third-party hack that will either install a normal PDF viewer on the device appears, or a tool to auto-convert PDFs to their format on my PC so I can read them on the device without the upload. Another concern is longevity of their book format. What if we don't have devices that support this proprietary format in 10 years... are all of our books going to become inaccessible? -Jeff On Nov 19, 2007 9:32 AM, Mike Scarpiello <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > You will have a hard time getting me to give up books. There is a > good chance the batteries won't run out before I get to the end of a > chapter. > > On Nov 19, 2007 11:26 AM, Jack Moffett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Amazon has released the Kindle, their electronic book device. This is > > a very interesting product. My initial reactions: > > > > It's the right size/weight. I didn't like the industrial design of it > > at first (too antiseptic?), but it's growing on me. I can't imagine > > enjoying sitting down with it as much as I do a book made of paper, > > but then, once you get into the story, maybe the object you are > > holding doesn't matter so much. > > > > On the other hand, there are several things that really appeal to me, > > like the ability to search your content, the ability to annotate > > (without defacing the book), and bookmarking. > > > > They've done some really smart things, such as including the wireless > > service in the fee for the product, rather than requiring a separate, > > monthly fee or service contract. You can read the first chapter of any > > book for free before purchasing. It handles magazine and newspaper > > subscriptions. It also will display blog content, but is limited to > > some specific set of blogs, and this comes at an extra fee. They also > > charge a fee to put your own documents on the device (via email). > > > > As for the UI, call me spoiled, but their selection wheel with the > > separated selection indicator bar seems disconnected. Having had an > > iPhone for over a month now, I would want the ability to select things > > by tapping them on the screen. Even without a touchscreen, why can't > > the selection be shown within the content display, rather than in a > > separate display beside it. > > > > I like that they made the next/previous buttons available on both > > sides, but made the previous button significantly larger on the left, > > and the next button larger on the right. Still, I want to flip pages > > with a horizontal swipe of my finger. > > > > Using a grayscale display makes sense for reading books, but when it > > comes to magazines, blogs, and even newspapers, color would be > > desirable. > > > > > > What do you all think? > > > > > > Jack > > > > > > > > Jack L. Moffett > > Interaction Designer > > inmedius > > 412.459.0310 x219 > > http://www.inmedius.com > > > > I am in search of the > > simple elegant seductive > > maybe even obvious IDEA. > > With this in my pocket > > I cannot fail. > > > > - Tibor Kalman > > > > > > ________________________________________________________________ > > *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* > > February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA > > Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ > > > > ________________________________________________________________ > > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > > > ________________________________________________________________ > *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* > February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA > Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > -- Thanks, Jeff ________________________________________________________________________________ Jeff Axup, Ph.D. Principal Consultant, Mobile Community Design Consulting, San Diego Research: Mobile Group Research Methods, Social Networks, Group Usability E-mail: axup <at> userdesign.com Blog: http://mobilecommunitydesign.com Moblog: http://memeaddict.blogspot.com "Designers mine the raw bits of tomorrow. They shape them for the present day." - Bruce Sterling ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
