amazon

I got my Kindle ebook reader from Amazon yesterday. It was very attractively packaged, and I've been looking for an excuse to do a traditional unboxing blog post, so here we go.

[Later update: my Kindle review is online now.]

When I opened the outer box the Kindle was shipped in, I found a second folded-cardboard sleeve inside protecting the product.

Inside that was the packaging for the product itself, a book-like box held shut by an elastic band around a post recessed into the "cover". This box would look reasonably attractive on a bookshelf, helping to reinforce Kindle's place in one's library.

… Read more

Steven Levy's Newsweek cover story The Future of Reading was so unabashedly reverential toward the new Kindle reader that I had to check twice to make sure the article wasn't a paid product placement. Though the official product review only took up three-quarters of a page, there's no mistaking the impression that the seven-page spread is about Amazon's Kindle and its potential as the electronic device that will "leapfrog over previous attempts at e-readers and become the turning point in a transformation toward Book 2.0. That's shorthand for a revolution (already in progress) that will change the way readers read, writers writer, and publishers publish." Other devices such as the Sony Reader and One Laptop Per Child XO laptop receive very brief mentions.… Read more

Despite much skepticism--and some downright harsh criticism--on the part of observers about the looks and marketability of Amazon's Kindle electronic book reader, consumers seem to be giving it the thumbs up.

The device, which the retailer started selling Monday for $399, quickly sold out, "due to heavy customer demand," according to Amazon. It will be in stock on December 7, and customers are instructed to order now "to reserve your place in line."

(Thanks to Engadget for bringing the sellout to our attention, and further noting that it's still unknown just how … Read more

With Amazon's decision to become a hardware company and release an e-book reader, for some odd reason, the Internet has been abuzz discussing the possibilities of this "grand device."

In fact, a number of people are already calling it the future of book publishing and they expect it to supplant ink and paper.

Sure. Keep telling yourself that.… Read more

Amazon has released Kindle, its new e-book reader.

[Later update: my Kindle review is online now.]

Newsweek has published a lengthy article about it. CNET's coverage includes a review, a photo gallery, a Crave blog, and a News.com blog. That's plenty of factual coverage.

I won't rehash the basic features of Kindle, but I will try to compare it with the Sony Reader--now in its second generation and Kindle's primary competition. I will also talk about what I see as the strong and weak points of the Kindle design.

Disclaimer: This is all based on … Read more

Amazon has announced its entry into the eBook reader category with Kindle.

It's not in many people's hands yet or mine (CNET's reviewers have some first impressions), so these will have to be preliminary remarks. But I can say that I find it a schizophrenic device and hard to understand what it is trying to accomplish in its current form. It's easy enough to see where it's going, but ambition seems to have got ahead of what Amazon could actually deliver in the near term, and the ambition was not updated for reality. As a … Read more

Amazon's Kindle, the new electronic book reader (hands-on first look), is not just a device for reading paperless books and newspapers. It's also an ecosystem for writers who want to publish their works without dealing with publishers or vanity presses or other middlemen.

Publishing doesn't look too difficult--providing your book is formatted for the Kindle device. The Kindle Digital Text Platform (DTP) works best with simple HTML code--no CSS style sheets, please. Kindle will also display other formats, like Word .Doc files, straight text and PDF, but Amazon recommends you do the conversion on your end … Read more

The slow drip of rumors and leaks about the Amazon Kindle e-book reader exploded into a full-blown flood over the weekend, once it was revealed as this week's Newsweek cover story. Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos filled in all of the remaining blanks (or most of them, anyway) at this morning's New York press conference that officially introduced the product to the world. Some relevant details, finally confirmed: