MetaChat - Amazon will soon release an e-book reader.

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19 April 2007

Amazon will soon release an e-book reader. →[More:]

The screen quality is reportedly as sharp as Sony['s reader], but the Amazon device has better functionality, and, as should be expected from the e-tailer, a first rate e-commerce option. Amazon is expected to release the reader this spring, although the exact timing may depend on how fast it can develop a critical mass of titles.

Better functionality? An e-book reader that doesn't require another device (like a PC) to acquire texts for it would be very cool. I want to be able to impulse-download texts directly to the reader.

At $400 (the speculated price) maybe they'll manage that. Then I'd consider buying it.

post by: Prospero at: 07:21 | 5 comments

Books cost under $20, and never break.

posted by matildaben 19 April | 07:30

I like books printed on paper quite a bit, but the existence of an e-reader doesn't preclude the existence of books printed on paper--they both have their uses.

There are a number of books (Penguin paperbacks of copyrighted translations of Aristotle, e.g.) for which I don't care about their design, and for which I'd like easy search capability without having to deal with a PC. I'd much prefer an electronic reader for those, assuming the display quality makes it worthwhile.

posted by Prospero 19 April | 07:44

Nothing personal against the e-book, but at what point will the reality catch up with the hype?

(Also, books break all the time--I've got coworkers who spend half their day fixing books. If you ever get a chance to learn how to do it, you probably should--it continually threatens to be one of those lost arts, like pop-top weaving, or rhetoric.)

Doesn't require another device? At what point does that e-book reader become a full-fledged palmtop/laptop/pda/whathaveyou? And will that first-rate e-commerce option include free public-domain texts?

posted by box 19 April | 08:11

Googling turned up an Engadget post with images of a (very ugly) prototype. Apparently it'll have EVDO capability.

posted by Prospero 19 April | 08:31

If Amazon were really smart about this, they'd emulate cell-phone companies and give you a reader in exchange for a two-year contract to buy X amount of e-books per month. Of course, for this to really work, I'd want to be able to buy a lot of stuff that's never been nor will be best-sellers, but they're supposedly scanning everything for searchability, right?

posted by PaxDigita 19 April | 08:35

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