When the Kindle (a wireless reading device sold by Amazon.com) first came out last November, I wasn't that impressed with the whole idea. Just another gadget I thought. But that was before I got an iPod for Christmas.
You know what one of my favorite things is about the iPod? It reduces clutter in my life. I don't have to keep track of hundreds of CDs, or buy an entire CD just to get one song I like.
It is so portable. No matter what kind of mood I'm in, I can have a different playlist at my fingertips, at home, at work, in the car or while I'm running. Makes me think I might someday adapt to that same compact enormity of what the Kindle can hold.
Guess some other people think so too. This article on TechCrunch.com says that 240,000 Kindles have been shipped since November.
"Doing a little back of the envelope math, that brings total sales of the device so far to between $86 million and $96 million (the price of the device was reduced to $360 from $400 last May). Then add the amounts spent on digital books, newspapers, and blogs purchased to read on the device, and you get a business that has easily brought in above $100 million so far."
Unlike the iPhone, I don't know of anyone personally who owns a Kindle. I'm not rushing out (yet) to buy one of these, but it's definitely a technology to watch. Especially if Amazon delves into the $5.5 billion college textbook market, like it's talking about doing. Can you even imagine how that would change things for students?
This independent thinker can imagine the changes. The students shall become
ever greater experts in clicking buttons and what have you. And using the
gray mass between the ears less and less for retentive, diagnostic and
individualistic thinking shall eventually result in less artistic creativity.
"The nightmare of total organization which I had situated in the seventh century After Ford, has emerged from the safe, remote future and now is awaiting us around the next corner." ("BRAVE NEW WORD REVISITED" Aldous Huxley circa 1958)
My friend, Wendy, has a new Kindle and she loves hers. We had brunch the other day and she was so excited to show it to us. It seems pretty great. When traveling, for example, you don't have to schlep a big book around. Your Kindle holds 200 books. I cannot wait to get one -- I love the idea. And textbooks for kids, wouldn't that be awesome not to be lugging around 40 pounds of books in your backpack? Brilliant.
The textbook aspect does sound seductive. One can spend a lot of money for text book in just one year.
I always bought new ones. I dislike textbooks with highlighted pages, or have been written on. The Kennel
Bookstore at FSU made boku money on me.
Time magazine's Josh Quittner has a column about his love/hate relationship with the Kindle in a recent edition. It's called "Warming to the Kindle: How I learned to love Amazon's digital book-reading device despite its imperfections." Here's the link: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1823955,00.html
It seems like a cool concept, but the $360 is a bit out of my price range. It would be nice to try one first, too. Are they only sold online?