PRINTKindle starts a fire
Wireless digital reading becomes a portable reality with Amazon’s latest e-reader
Courtesy of Amazon.com
June 24, 2009 | 12:00 p.m. CST
The iPhone changed the way we use our cell phones, the Nintendo Wii took us into the future of simulated gaming, and now Amazon’s Kindle is poised to revolutionize reading.
Designed to evoke the sensation of a book, the first-generation Kindle was released on Amazon.com in 2008 and sold out within hours. Users feasted their eyes on an off-white, rectangular tablet with a six-inch display screen, full keyboard, scroll wheel and clickable side buttons that switched between “pages.” But Kindle customers were a tough sell and soon hit up Amazon with a barrage of suggestions for the revamping of successive versions.
As it turns out, Amazon paid attention, and if their current evolutionary pattern is any indication, the Kindle is set to monopolize the e-reader market.
In February, Kindle 2 hit markets with an improved battery life, 20 percent faster page refreshing capability and an overall reduction in thickness, not to mention a 2GB memory capable of storing up to 1,500 books.
“The Kindle 2 still has minor flaws,” says owner Michael Vanassche. “Some people don’t like that it doesn’t have a backlight and the keyboard makes it kinda hard to type. But I love my Kindle. I really wouldn’t change anything about it.”
Even before fans finished reading the e-version of Twilight: The Twilight Saga (book one available for $6.59), Amazon produced the Kindle Deluxe (DX), which hit stores June 10. The newest version is a sleeker magazine-sized model with a significantly bigger 9.7-inch screen and a shiny metal back. Also included is an auto-rotating screen, storage for up to 3,500 titles and even experimental use as an MP3 player, perhaps to justify the $489 price tag.
A built-in dictionary looks up definitions instantly, and there is a text-to-speech option (because really, who doesn’t like being read to?). Constant wireless access to Wikipedia means being able to look up the term “socialized medicine” as you read about health-care reform on the Huffington Post (for $1.99 per month).
While there are other e-readers on the market, notably Sony’s Reader, the Kindle has an advantage with its wireless downloading capabilities.
The Kindle utilizes Amazon’s Whispernet to provide U.S. wireless coverage via Sprint’s 3G high-speed data network. That’s right. Not Wi-Fi, but wireless, which means you can access Amazon’s Kindle Bookstore literally anywhere in the U.S. (admittedly, coverage gets sketchy outside big cities and sketchier still if you want to check your e-mail). You can also search for a specific title using the keyboard and download any of the more than 275,000 books or newspapers, magazines and blogs within 60 seconds.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos recently disclosed that he has no plans to keep Amazon’s vast e-bookstore exclusive to the Kindle and says all titles will be “available on the iPhone, mobile devices and other computing devices.” Can anyone say “friendly competition?”
It’s probably safe to say that Amazon is poised to change the way we shop for and read books. Although the Kindle might be a long way from text perfection, it’s not giving up without a fight.
“Within the next 18 months, we’ll probably see a color e-reader on the market, touch-screen soon enough, and in two or three years, we should see video added,” says Roger Fidler, the program director for digital publishing at MU’s Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute.
The Kindle DX has also attracted attention as a textbook substitute. Beginning in fall 2009, five universities, including Arizona State and Princeton University, will be participating in a pilot program that replaces traditional textbooks with the Kindle DX.
“Think of the Kindle as an investment,” Vanassche says. “You make a one-time purchase of the Kindle and just download e-textbooks each semester.” A recent MU graduate, Vanassche used his Kindle’s PDF formatting to read class notes.
You can purchase a Kindle online at Amazon.com. MU students, faculty and staff can drop by the journalism library and borrow one for a test drive.
“We have e-subscriptions to the Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times and Houston Chronicle,” says Karen Marshall, a journalism library assistant. “But we’ve only had our Kindle 2 checked out every few weeks. People don’t really know much about it yet.”
Certainly, the Kindle is riding high on hope right now. Pegged as everything from the savior of print journalism to an eco-friendly alternative to a textbook, Amazon’s e-reader has a lot to live up to.
Twitter
Facebook
