Last night I met Cathy Brooks. She’s helping plan the LeWeb3 conference. I trust her opinion and she’s whip smart.
I showed her the Amazon Kindle device and asked her which book should be my first book I read on it. She recommended “Basic Black” by Cathie Black. She has been on the executive teams for a lot of publishing efforts from USA Today to Oprah’s new, and highly successful, “O” magazine.
I did something that I’ve never been able to do before. I bought the book right in front of her.
When I got home I started reading — I got about halfway through the book. I can see why Cathy recommended this book. Lots of great lessons about business and stories about the publishing industry, something I’m interested in.
Anyway, this morning I did a little video comparison to “real” books. I compared it to Blue Planet Run, a photo book that Rick Smolan just sent me (he’s a famous photographer who we’ll have on Photowalking someday if we can match our schedules up).
Hopefully this will be the last of my Kindle posts. Onto other things.
Scobleizer 
Where is the social networking aspect?
Amazon was the first Web 2.0 company, so how do I know which books my friends enjoyed?
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Where is the social networking aspect?
Amazon was the first Web 2.0 company, so how do I know which books my friends enjoyed?
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Where is the “loan from a library” and “buy for $1 from a used book store” aspect?
If Kindle can’t compete with that, and doesn’t work in statecode:FN, then why the hell should anyone care?
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Where is the “loan from a library” and “buy for $1 from a used book store” aspect?
If Kindle can’t compete with that, and doesn’t work in statecode:FN, then why the hell should anyone care?
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ummm I think the doodad has a browser
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ummm I think the doodad has a browser
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For the coffee table picture book there may be a different technology, e.g., a lcd photo frame lying on a coffee table.
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For the coffee table picture book there may be a different technology, e.g., a lcd photo frame lying on a coffee table.
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Robert, don’t stop talking about the Kindle!
12 years ago – before the first eBook reader, I spent several thousand dollars trying to find someone to make an electronic book device I’d conceived (it’s working name was the el-bo). It all came to nought and then about 12 months later the first eBook readers appeared on the market.
So anyway, despite missing the boat, I still have a big interest in these devices and still see them as being wildly revolutionary. However, nowadays I can’t see them succeeding if they’re not a multi-functional device.
It doesn’t sound like the Kindle is “there” yet; sounds like it needs the Apple treatment. But I do want to keep hearing about it and how (if) it’s changing the way you read and other long held behaviours and attitudes.
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Robert, don’t stop talking about the Kindle!
12 years ago – before the first eBook reader, I spent several thousand dollars trying to find someone to make an electronic book device I’d conceived (it’s working name was the el-bo). It all came to nought and then about 12 months later the first eBook readers appeared on the market.
So anyway, despite missing the boat, I still have a big interest in these devices and still see them as being wildly revolutionary. However, nowadays I can’t see them succeeding if they’re not a multi-functional device.
It doesn’t sound like the Kindle is “there” yet; sounds like it needs the Apple treatment. But I do want to keep hearing about it and how (if) it’s changing the way you read and other long held behaviours and attitudes.
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Hi Robert,
As someone who loves reading and also loves technology (especially wireless technology), I find your videos about Kindle very valuable and enjoyable. I especially liked this one, where you discussed typography and reading faster on a paper book.
I expect I’ll get a Kindle ( I already have lots of books and short stories on my Tablet PC and multiple cellular phones), although I don’t know whether to wait for the second version. Some people (such as James Kendrick of jkOnTheRun) have been mentioning that the “forward” and “previous” bars are too big taking up much of the left and right sides of the device and, as a result, too easy to accidentally hit.
But electronic books are the future of reading. I love paper books, but in 20, 30, 40 years I think it’s likely that buying many types of paper books will be considered as “quaint” as buying CDs rather than audio files.
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Hi Robert,
As someone who loves reading and also loves technology (especially wireless technology), I find your videos about Kindle very valuable and enjoyable. I especially liked this one, where you discussed typography and reading faster on a paper book.
I expect I’ll get a Kindle ( I already have lots of books and short stories on my Tablet PC and multiple cellular phones), although I don’t know whether to wait for the second version. Some people (such as James Kendrick of jkOnTheRun) have been mentioning that the “forward” and “previous” bars are too big taking up much of the left and right sides of the device and, as a result, too easy to accidentally hit.
But electronic books are the future of reading. I love paper books, but in 20, 30, 40 years I think it’s likely that buying many types of paper books will be considered as “quaint” as buying CDs rather than audio files.
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Robert, what is the resolution? Does it show pictures/diagrams etc in full detail? I review a lot of scientific papers, I take them with me on my notebook? Is it possible to take them on Kindle?
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Robert, what is the resolution? Does it show pictures/diagrams etc in full detail? I review a lot of scientific papers, I take them with me on my notebook? Is it possible to take them on Kindle?
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Hey, maybe you’ve heard of a new technology that came out in the early 20th Century: mass-market paperbacks.
They’re small, light, cheap, and can be held and page-turned with one hand. And despite that, they have 600+ dpi typography.
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Hey, maybe you’ve heard of a new technology that came out in the early 20th Century: mass-market paperbacks.
They’re small, light, cheap, and can be held and page-turned with one hand. And despite that, they have 600+ dpi typography.
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Would it work well for someone who can’t see particularly well? For instance, can the font size be increased as opposed to reading a book with a magnifying lens? I don’t mean a drastic magnification, just a nice subtle difference.
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Would it work well for someone who can’t see particularly well? For instance, can the font size be increased as opposed to reading a book with a magnifying lens? I don’t mean a drastic magnification, just a nice subtle difference.
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it appears your readers haven’t heard of the new revolution taking place where you can replace most of your library of crappy paperbacks that are rotting on the shelves and giving them a new electronic life that live forever as an ‘ebook’. The sony reader is by far the best bet, I am getting one for christmas, the amazon one is not there yet. I highly recommend you at least check out the sony reader:
http://products.sel.sony.com/pa/prs/index.html?DCMP=reader&HQS=showcase_reader
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it appears your readers haven’t heard of the new revolution taking place where you can replace most of your library of crappy paperbacks that are rotting on the shelves and giving them a new electronic life that live forever as an ‘ebook’. The sony reader is by far the best bet, I am getting one for christmas, the amazon one is not there yet. I highly recommend you at least check out the sony reader:
http://products.sel.sony.com/pa/prs/index.html?DCMP=reader&HQS=showcase_reader
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