Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Kindle Revisited

My less than positive views about Kindle's chance of success have been somewhat tempered after reading Guy Kawasaki's blog. What's interesting is that the $400 price tag gives you free lifetime connectivity via a cel-based EVDO network. This isn't direct access to the Internet but instead to a private network controlled by Amazon. However, within their domain you get unlimited free access to Wikipedia and perhaps some blogs and other material too. On top of that you can purchase books, newspapers, etc. Apparently you can also send Amazon your Word and Excel files and "for a small charge" get them converted for viewing on the device; I think the hassle & cost of doing this will make it a non-starter.

You can watch a promo video about Kindle and a tutorial video as well.

It'll be interesting to see in the coming months if some hackers find a way to modify the inner workings of the device to do something totally unexpected by Amazon!

1 comment:

cc said...

If I can stick it in my bag and take it to the beach or to Costa Rica on vacation then I'm in. It has to have a great screen to read from, be flexible so I can roll it up and read in any position, holding it easily with one hand. I read a lot, I shift positions either on my beach blanket, on my couch or in bed. Even better if it will let me download a new book after I finished my old one without having to hook it up to my computer :) THis thing looks a little clunky. I'll wait for technology to catch up with my expectations.