Kindle Cell Phone
Is the Future of Printed Books Numbered?
Was it not a sign of the times that Dan Brown’s latest bestseller The Lost Symbol sold more of the Kindle version in the first two days than the hardback version. Yes, the Kindle version was only $9.99 while the hardback book cost significantly more at $29.95. Yet this is still an expression of the significant shift from printed books to electronic books.
The Kindle, for those who don’t know, is an electronic device sold by Amazon that downloads a written copy of any book or magazine in its 350,000 volume library. Once downloaded, the reader owns that copy and can read it when they want, as many times as they want. The unit is not large, just five by eight inches, .3 inches thick, and with the ability to go days without a battery recharge.
The initial $400 price tag of the Kindle probably deterred some, yet Amazon predicts nearly 200,000 units will be sold by the end of the year. The price has now dropped 35% to $259, $279 for the international version. And for those concerned about the machine crashing and losing the books they have purchased, Amazon promises that the books are backed up on their servers.
Though the type size of the Kindle can be adjusted, Amazon has now come out with the Kindle 2, the larger version of the eBook reader. It has a 9.7 inch diagonal screen, close to the size of notebook paper. It too is but .3 inches think, has enough memory to store up to 3,500 books, and boasts an equally impressive battery life. The Kindle 2 sells for $489 at present. Both units have a read aloud feature though the voice is certainly inferior to the quality of a professionally done audiobook.
Both Kindles use a 3G network like a cell phone, and are therefore not dependent on being near a Wi-Fi network to have access to Amazon’s library. As their ad states, a reader can literally hear about a book and be reading it in less than a minute in 16 shapes of gray on the Kindle. The reader is able to get magazines or newspapers before they even arrive on the newsstands. A nifty feature is its access to an online dictionary. If you encounter an unfamiliar word in a text, you can use the scroll wheel to select the line in question and look up the meaning.
Apple has entered the competition with a free iPhone or Touch application called Stanza with which an owner has access to a number of book sources including both free books and best sellers. The Barnes & Noble eReader is similar, though, at last report, their e-Books are not priced competitively. Kindle for iPhone application is also available. The Touch and iPhone are not as large as even the smaller Kindle but the monitor is in color (which helps with pictures and some charts), the type size can also be adjusted, and, for about the same price, the Touch can do much more than just provide books.
As nice as all this is, eBook readers have certain disadvantages. For example, you paid for the book but you cannot share it with others as you could a hard copy. Though having so many books available at any time is great, you can’t write in their margins or give them as gifts with a thoughtful note in the front. You cannot be too far from an electrical power for when the battery dies, you can no longer read, and you lost far more than the cost of a book if it is stolen. You don’t need a large print version of anything, but neither do you have an heirloom to pass on to future generations. (Imagine the grandfather in Princess Bride reading from a Kindle!)
I predict that, though the printing of books may decline, purists will be slow to give up a book in hand or on the shelf. There’s just something special about the smell and feel of a book that Kindle can’t replace.
Still hanging on to those favorite old books? We understand. If you have a treasured volume that needs repair, consider the book rebinding services of Tightly Bound Books. They’re not only professional, but friendly, too. As their motto states, they provide “Custom book repair with personal care.”
HP webOS TouchPad running Citrix and Amazon Kindle applications.flv
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