Another Kindle review

Scobeleizer is a critical video review of the Kindle device (thanks for the link, Ianus). Some interesting comments:

• Do not position it as pure reading device, but more as a way of organizing and sharing book content.
• Enable sharing of content with friends and family
• Preload the device with interesing content such as travel books (as it will be used by people who travel a lot)
• Add notes and annotation (highlighting) functionality. 
• Redesign the device, in particular get rid off the menus and reposition the ‘next page’ buttons

Amazon Kindle (update)

This video gives a closer look at the device. A few things that caught my attention:

• For selection, the Kindle uses a wheel in combination with a seperate (very narrow) display to indicate the ‘cursor’. Since the current E Ink displays have a relative slow refresh rate, showing a moving cursor on it does not work…
• It seems that the service side of the offering is more mature compared to the existing Libre and Iliad e-readers. For instance, what’s nice is the ablility to buy content directly from the device (using a cell phone type connection), so no need to connect to a PC first. Also, there are several newspaper subscritions available.
• I still do not like the device design, it is not appealing at all. For instance, the ‘page turing bar’ of the Iliad reader is so much more elegant than the standard buttons on Kindle. Regardless, I understand that the device is already sold-out!

Amazon’s eReader: coming out Nov 19

 

Finally, Amazon is going to launch their much anticipated ebook reader in the US. The first photos and specs show a device that looks like a calculator from the 80’s! If this going to be the final design, this thing is a non-starter even before it hits the market. It will be interesting to see if Amazon can motivate publishers to start selling their content online and how to deal with DRM issues. There seem to be deals with NewYork Times and WSJ. Amazon will be competing with Sony’s Libre and Irex’s Iliad. This last company has the advantage of a more sophisticated display, since they are developing their own display electronics (all of the devices are based on the same E Ink material). Irex is planning a larger version and updated design by the second half of 2008.