The Wall Street Journal reported on the blogosphere reaction to the Kindle. Apparently my quotable words were “same fugly hot mess we’ve been seeing for months”.
One of the blogosphere’s question is why Amazon is charging for blog content. I suspect it is because Amazon is not charging for the EVDO access and this is one way to recoup that money. If you look at the fine print, however, Amazon will charge for online access for anything that is not browsing the bookstore and purchasing books.
The Kindle has already received 103 reviews and counting (average 2.5 stars) with standard review nonsense since hardly anyone has the device. Most of the reviews are too pricey versus the five star “I’m writing this review to counteract all the negative reviews” review.
I’ve been having a blast marking some of the negative reviews as “helpful” to boost their placement on Amazon.
Amazon had YEARS to make a better, faster, cheaper product, and instead it’s as if they took all the worst features of other devices and merged them in the butt ugly Kindle. But of all of the weaknesses you’ve pointed out, the absolute CREEPIEST (in the way of ‘Ill never buy one of these’) is the fact that Amazon will be monitoring BOTH your content AND your comments. Ick and double ick.
I refuse to pay a monthly subscription fee for a blog when I can get the content delivered to my mobile phone for free. I’d be willing to pay for a program that I could install on the reader to facilitate reading the feeds, but not a monthly fee.
Wow, the WSJ quoted you and mentioned Dear Author! That’s so exciting! :)
DA mentioned in WSJ – yay.
First reaction to Kindle:
- In Jane’s words: Fugly
- Another DRM format.
- Supports HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, MOBI, PRC through conversion via email – I can’t believe there isn’t a conversion utility for the PC/MAC – bah humbug.
- Annotations, comments, bookmarks stored/tracked at Amazon – in Janet’s words – creepy.
- Not available in Canada – Hallelujah.
If the first Apple luggable and the Ford Bronco II are any indication, a rev. 2 Kindle–like the first PowerBooks and Ford Explorers–might be something cool compared to its fugly parent.
The good thing about the Kindle is it’s getting all sorts of media attention and giving a lot of focus to ereaders (something not many people know about. The more popular readers because, hopefully, the more user friendly, price friendly they’ll become.