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Daddy, what is paper?

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Danny Gorog20 November 2007, 11:34 AM

Amazon.com launches its Kindle e-Book reader and the whole world wonders whether books will be around in the future.

The last bastion of analogue started to crumble today with the launch of Amazon's much-anticipated e-Book reader called Kindle (US$399).

The Kindle device, in development for three years, weighs just under 300 grams and introduces what Amazon is classifying as a 'convenient, portable reading device with the ability to wirelessly download books, blogs, magazines and newspapers.'

The Kindle isn't the first mass e-Reader product on the market. That credit goes to the Sony PRS-500 Portable Reader System. Both devices use technology called Electronic Paper Display (EPD), which according to eInk 'possesses a paper-like high contrast appearance, ultra-low power consumption, and a thin, light form, giving viewers the experience of reading from paper, while having the power of updatable information.

The Kindle is smaller than a book, and certainly much lighter than the 200 hundred books it can hold

But where Sony had a great device, Amazon has a huge number of relationships with book publishers, and it is this that has allowed it to add the other piece of the eBook puzzle: availability of books.

Amazon has partnered with most major publishers and has over 88,000 books available, including 100 of the current 112 New York Times bestsellers.

According to Amazon, Kindle has been designed to operate without a computer. Instead, Kindle relies on the Sprint EV-DO network to gain access to the web, and importantly, Amazon.com, where you'll buy most of the content for your Kindle.

Australia has an EV-DO network run by Telstra, however it will be shut down early next year, to be superceded by Telstra's Next G 3G HSDPA network.

Amazon has also partnered with top international newspapers and magazines like The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Time and Forbes, and has also made 250 top blogs available under a subscription model as well.

With convenient buttons for back and forward, and a qwerty keyboard for input, the Kindle looks comfortable to hold and use.

Content for the Kindle is reasonably priced with bestsellers and new releases starting at $9.99, while other books can be more or less expensive.

Books that are purchased come with proprietary Amazon DRM and can't be shared between Kindle users (unless the Kindle devices share an Amazon.com account) or printed.

The files can, however, be backed up. All Kindle users are assigned an email address, where for a small fee they can transfer their own files (Word and picture files) to their Kindle, and the Kindle can hold approximately 200 titles internally with SD card support for expansion.

The Kindle is already being touted as the 'iPod' of books however that metaphor doesn't quite hold.

True, the only place to get DRMed music for your iPod is iTunes, though iPods also play non-DRMed music that is freely importable through iTunes.

According to Gizmodo, the Kindle only supports books in its new '.azw' format, and the only files you can transfer on without getting 'taxed' (Amazon charges 10c per email attachment) are image files.

Sadly, I can't see Kindle coming to Australian shores anytime soon. So, for more information, and to find out what we are missing check out the Amazon.com information page. What do you think? Will Kindle be a hit or is paper still king?

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Tim:

Looks good but it's nobbled :(

'for a small fee they can transfer their own files (Word and picture files)...'

So, you pay $US400 for a reader, pay $9 (give or take) per book and then pay for the privilege of adding your own content to a device you've already purchased?

Sorry, but that doesn't add up. With the enormous number of titles easily available on the web (Gutenberg.org for example) it simply doesn't make sense to make owners pay to add their own documents. I can add docs to my Palm free of charge.

So many documents come as PDFs these days its a real shame the device won't support them. Imagine a handheld book stuffed full of component datasheets, or PDF books, or a library of user-generated PDFs (I'm making them all the time and it'd be great to have them instantly accessible).

It looks to me as if the device has been designed specifically as a recurring revenue generator for Amazon. That's fine, but maybe they should be giving them away on a plan like telcos do with mobile phones (oh, but even with mobile phones users don't have to pay 10c to add their own content).

Next iteration maybe.

29 February 2008, 8:32 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

bergersau:

It may be nobbled initially - but..

It's linux based and Amazon are making the source code available as a downloadable tarball.

Thus it's only a matter of time before Free Software hackers start opening up this device to be more useful and less locked down.

29 February 2008, 8:49 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

old_misery:

I've only briefly skimmed the article and whole deal, but I'd be more likely to compare this to the Zune than the iPod for the following reasons:

- No PDF support!!
- Lots of DRM.
- Recurring fees.
- Kinda expensive.

I wonder what fine, white crystals they were snorting when they decided to exclude support for PDF.

If I was going to buy an ePaper device, it would be Sony's PRS-505.

29 February 2008, 8:32 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Slippery Jim DiGriz:

It could be a great hit if only it had the words "Don't Panic!" in large friendly letters on the case!

29 February 2008, 8:32 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

dragonmeister:

This is a bold prediction.
This fad will end up in the same bin as digital photo albums and online grocery shopping. Humans are a tactile creature and we all need to get a hands on approach when it comes to our leisurely needs. That's why we still print out hardcopies of our digital photos .. That's why we still need to touch and smell our fruit and vege .. That's why we will still need to feel and touch the pages of a book when we read it. And to prove my point, I travel on a train for over an hour to work and home everyday and have noticed NO ONE reading from an eBook on their laptop/PDA (they mostly play games and watch DVD's on these devices). All pull out their dog-eared paperbacks and begin a special journey into their respective fantasies. I am not a techophobe, far from it. But it's great to see some traditions will be carried into the next millenium just because it still feels good, irrespective of technology for technology's sake.
I'll go back to my dog-eared edition of "To Kill A Mockingbird" now. Cheers :)

29 February 2008, 8:32 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

John B:

There's one person on the train who reads his PRS 500 every day and that's me! I love it but I had to go to a lot of trouble to get it and Sony sure does make it hard for you to purchase books if you do not live inside the USA.

But that's ok because I'm reading lots of classic stuff via project gutenberg.

The biggest drawback is that airlines make you switch off all electronic devices for takeoff and landing.

Just finished some of Banjo Patterson's works. Maybe I'll read "To Kill and Mockingbird" next!!

29 February 2008, 8:49 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

dragonmeister:

Anyway you can get humanity to read "To Kill A Mockingbird" has to be a good thing.
Enjoy :)

29 February 2008, 8:49 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Kelvin:

Durability never seems to come up when devices such as these are introduced. The nice thing about a book is that it still works when you drop it, or have it rattle in the bottom of a backpack for days.

Look at the iPod and the endless range aftermarket cases / socks / pouches etc.

Books also have the benefit of still working when you stick it on a shelf for 30 years and forget about it. Will '.azw' format files still be readable then?

29 February 2008, 8:32 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

dragonmeister:

Good point Kelvin, here's another ....
I have a treasured copy of "Moby Dick" handed down from my grandmother and it has great sentimental value.
I'm not too sure I'd feel the same with a 'kindle'

29 February 2008, 8:49 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Anon:

Great technology however somewhat poorly written article imo; more so than APC usually produce. (Danny Goron?) First there is a statement about the last bastion of paper. Then there is the statement about "giving the readers the experience of reading from paper". Is this just an advertisement or what? Whoever wrote this may well have only studied up to Yr12 because they certianly are missing the picture.
Reading from digital and analgoue - two different wave sources. Digital requires up to 10times more energy from our body to be processed. This is a scientific fact. This is why 99% of us prefer to read from a book.
The last bastion of paper? That would mean all reading material is stored on a HDD somewhere and there are no more books. What a stupid thing to assert in a serious professional IT magazine. The population will never get rid of paper books as the possibility of corrupting the information on the HDDs is too high. Why remove all legit info only to have it reviewed, deleted and edited by those wealthy enough to call those shots.
Good one Danny or whoever; but try harder please - this is the space age and we are already waiting for people like you to catch up for a while now.

29 February 2008, 8:32 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

paul:

When the things start looking (and feeling?) like a book, paper's in trouble, but not just yet.
It still has that computer/brick look about it. In fact, it reminds me of something I saw in Star Wars, but maybe I'm due for my medication.
Then again, the way kids and teenagers use phones for texting, it could be its market is still too young, or uninterested, at present.

29 February 2008, 8:32 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Michael Guy:

if you look at other ebook readers, i.e. the hanlin reader (sold from china), the sony prs-505 reader (not sold outside the US, ebay doesnt care though), the bookeen cybook gen 3 (sold in europe), and others in development and in usage, the market is pretty good now for riding the coat-tails of the kindle revolution.

considering most are in the $400-$600 range, as were the early mp3 players and ipods, early adoption might be a hassle, but it's still pretty good tech. i think star trek would be the motif, most scifi is living the paperless lifestlye, supposedly.

in general, it's still exceptionally decent tech. with regular use, you can get a week between recharges. and like a lot of technology, you have to see it in operation to appreciate the harsh reality of the screen's grey on grey. i.e. the ars technica review of the sony reader prs-505 hits the highlights of the technology pretty well.

with the kindle, the significant difference is the wireless EVDO/CDMA reception, receiving emailed PDF/DOC/HTML/TXT files will cost you a lot in the US. outside of the US, you have to rely on your PC to transfer the books onto the kindle. however you can easily get books from non-amazon.com sources too, so it's not all that bad a product.

plus, most all run linux, leading to a pretty useful series of hacks to get ebook software cross-compatible, a current problem in the market. they have already started to make resized/greyscaled PDF's, RSS readers, converters for the smaller screen of the kindle/sony/cybook readers, which is very handy for users coming into the fashion of using ebooks.

as far as the price goes, if you buy 8 hardcover books at a retail store, you've bought an ebook reader. if you get your books from a site like fictionwise and buy one book a month, you will have recovered most of the cost quickly (arguably you'll be reading more, so the cost will probably go up rather than down). sure, you can't trade ebooks or rent them easily, but that will happen quickly.

considering that dymocks is now selling the iRex iLiad (a hybrid eBook / PDA) for $899, the Kindle's pricetag sorta looks cheap.

i can't recommend the iLiad because it's much larger, heavier and far more expensive than a book, or any other ebook reader. with a battery life of 8-10 hours and the concept of a stylus to draw on a display that's not built to refresh all that fast, generally makes it suck. if you do read a lot of PDF files to use the larger screen, don't mind that the note taking ability is mind-numbingly slow to use in real life, it's a good buy.

29 February 2008, 8:49 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend