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Amazon.com, kindling the fires of change
Published: Tuesday, February 5, 2008 - 10:18pm
In today’s technologically advanced society, so many things have gone digital. From communication to entertainment, it’s hard to find an area that has remained untouched by technological innovation.
Books are among the last vestiges of analog, refusing after 500 years to give in and become digitized. All that might change with the introduction of the Amazon Kindle.
Having been first sold in November, the Kindle has sparked tremendous interest in the United States. Like the Nintendo Wii, Kindles cannot stay on shelves; even Amazon.com is currently out of stock.
So what makes the Kindle such a desirable gadget?
The technology behind the Kindle captures the typeface of books in ways that a small glowing screen on a pocket PC cannot. Like a book, the Kindle uses ink in the form of a recent technology called E Ink. By rearranging chemicals under the surface of the screen, letters can be made to look exactly like their printed counterparts.
This, combined with a 30-hour battery, will allow a reader to be just as engrossed in a text as if it were printed. The Kindle also allows you to change the font size, which is very convenient for older readers who rely on large-print books.
While the Kindle rivals the book in reader-friendly type, other impressive features might give it enough of an edge to replace the book. One problem with books is that you must buy giant tomes which take a lot of space on your shelf. The Kindle offers a free wireless Internet service called Whispernet, which allows you to access the Amazon store from anywhere and purchase and download books for $9.99. You can even subscribe to magazines and newspapers and have an issue “delivered” to you every morning.
The Kindle certainly has much potential and could greatly impact the realm of writing as well as reading. The Whispernet service allows for authors to fix errors, update, or even add to books they have previously published instead of publishing a new edition.
Whether the Kindle will truly revolutionize the way people read or merely provide an alternative to books remains to be seen. While it may not completely digitize books, it certainly is a first step.
Comments
No. I refuse. Why do we want
No. I refuse.
Why do we want to digitize books in the first place?
Reading a book on a little screen, no matter how "real" it may look, is not even kind of the same as actually holding the book in your hands. Printed books have made it this far, and I think they will still be around for a long time.
Do we want our entire world to be totally digital?
First of all, from what I've
First of all, from what I've heard, the Kindle is about the size of a paperback book so it isn't exactly a "little screen." And like I said, the Kindle could just provide an alternative to books for people that could benefit from digital stuff like families with vision impaired members that don't want to buy a large print edition of every book they own. People that travel a lot can benefit from carrying their entire library around with them. Books downloaded to the Kindle are also cheaper than traditional books.
That sounds so cool and
That sounds so cool and convenient! But Lauren, isn't it similar to the way we can access the Web on iPods and cell phones? And how we post news online in addition to newspapers?
Still, I agree that actually holding a book in my hands makes the story seem more real. But that's just personal sentiment. It gives me insight into those people who refuse to use computers. They're just not used to this new technology. Maybe in a few decades, kids our age will think we're stubborn old farts if we refuse to use the Kindle...
maybe. but at the moment,
maybe.
but at the moment, for people who are really into reading, this would really be more inconvenient than it is convenient. I own hundreds of books, many of which i read repeatedly. I'm not going to pay $9.99 for them all again just so I can read them on a screen.
Also, this thing is going to be putting lots of librarians and book store owners out of a job. You can't really sell virtual books in a store, can you?
I just really like real books.
Maybe it's just me.
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