I’m sold, I just bought some more stuff from Amazon. A bought a couple of battery chargers for my iPhone, and case and holster for my wife’s enV Touch, a couple of mp3s and two books.

HondaV65 on July 25, 2009 at 10:31 AM

What’s the screen resolution like on your laptop? Backlit? Comfortable to read for 2-hour-long stretches? Battery life measured in days instead of hours? Portability? What’s the E-Book selection like on that laptop? Can I get Mark Levin’s new book?

The Kindle is specifically sold as an E-reader, not a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none device. Honestly, the theory here is that convergence devices lose out big time when compared to an elegant, simple device. Consumers are also getting tired of having to push five different buttons on three remote in order to watch the news. Kindle is better at being an E-Reader than any convergence device will be, and that’s how it’s being marketed.

As for what *else* one can do with that $300 (the actual price point of the Kindle…the more expensive one has a larger screen and is targeted for a different market than the standard Kindle), well, you can make that argument with just about anything For instance, for $300 I could enjoy a great meal at Citronelle. So what?

Greg Q on July 25, 2009 at 5:29 PM

You don’t need a script to transfer the .AZW files from the Kindle to your computer. I do it all the time. There’s no “copy protection” on .AZW files that prevents this. What the applicable DRM *does* prevent is copying the .AZW file from one Kindle and transferring it to another via this method, but then pirating a book in this fashion isn’t what’s at issue here.

Frankly, if one is *really* worried about this, one can simply turn off the wireless and Amazon has no access to the Kindle. If you buy Kindle books through Amazon you can download them through your computer and upload them to the Kindle via USB. Kindle owners certainly have the ability to make local backups of their Amazon Kindle purchases.

There are scripts that exist that will break to “copy protection” on Kindle books, and you can upload them to your computer via the USB cable. So every once in a while you upload all the books you’ve bought for your Kindle to your computer, and save the files in a directory. If Amazon wipes one of the, you run the script to unencrypt the file, change it’s title, and re-download it to your Kindle.

Email me if you want all the details.

The Kindle is still WAY TOO EXPENSIVE for what it does. I’m typing this comment on a Samsung N120 which has a 10.1 inch display and a near full-size keyboard. Total Price? $400 dollars. Paying almost $500 for a niche product like Kindle is still not going to move this product with the Walmart folks. That’s where the money is.

Seriously people, When you purchase some hardware that you have no real control over, don’t be surprised when the company you “bought” it from uses their control over it to steal from you.

–wearyman

I just had a chill–your comment reminded me of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and something about not trusting a book when you don’t know how it thinks.

Seriously people, When you purchase some hardware that you have no real control over, don’t be surprised when the company you “bought” it from uses their control over it to steal from you.

This is why if I download an e-book a movie or an MP3 I IMMEDIATELY use DRM stripping software to cleanse my property of the evil DRM possessing it. Then I make backup copies of it and store them so that I know no matter what I will be able to keep what I paid for.

And, the “apology” is hollow until Amazon does two things:

1) Refunds the money paid for the e-books to all people that purchased them.

2) Pushes down a patch that cripples their ability to delete e-books from Kindles. Amazon needs to surrender this ability, they have shown they can’t be trusted with it.

To do anything less than the above is to prove they aren’t serious and the apology is worthless.

1. The man/woman who ordered the delete needs to be fired, hopefully the CEO is just being responsible and taking the blame like a good executive.

2. Amazon needs to include a patch and promise that no deletes will ever occur again. They need to make it physically impossible in new versions.

If they don’t do this they should be sued for burglary.

Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t buy one, I can see some benefit, but the price has to come waaayyy down first.

The kindle is very sensitive to handling issues…..read the comments on amazon and other sites. Be careful and don’t drop it.
scruplesrx on July 24, 2009 at 9:58 PM

I’ve dropped mine several times and never had a problem. Then again I guess it all depends on what a person means by drop.

inviolet on July 24, 2009 at 10:46 PM

If they IRS really wants your bank account number they will get it. With or without your help.

Gotta have books. Can you imagine politicians having their photo taken with a Kindle as a backdrop instead of a wall of books?

Okay, a phony wall of books, but you get my point.

pugwriter on July 24, 2009 at 11:09 PM

——————————————————–
NO because “cool” is your iPOD playlist will now become what is on your Kindle PlasticLogic library.

Okay, a phony wall of books, but you get my point.

Plastic Logic

Check this out.
Due out in early 2010

scruplesrx

I’m up for this one, because it seems to be more about selling the device than selling the content. B&N and AT&T can do what they want with the content, PL just want to sell readers. Plus it’s big and light. I like it.

Ozwitch on July 24, 2009 at 8:40 PM

All too plausible. But there’s a small chance he just maybe might mean it, and more to the point it’s a fantastic apology, plus we want to believe it like the battered woman wants to believe the apology the drunk-the-night-before boyfriend gives her when he shows up with flowers the next day.

I’ll never give the IRS my bank account number (i.e e-file)…
Caper29 on July 24, 2009 at 9:53 PM

Thank you! Have thought for years that efile was a scam to get their long fingers access into our accounts. “Not permitted, f******!”

Will they send an e-mail or some message to the kindle itself if able that as soon as it is turned on it goes to a new welcome screen of something like “publisher was not authorized to offer a Kindle version of this book.. and as a result we request that you click here to activate a delete function from our end to confirm that it has been deleted…we will fully credit all accounts and hope you would buy a hard copy of the book that at present does not have an approved kindle version. click link to book page…”