It’s been all over the news this morning that the Amazon Kindle is finally being sold in Canada (and internationally) through the Amazon.com website. Book and gadget lovers rejoice as they will be able to covet this popular device. The heavenly bliss of carrying over 200 book titles on the go, and downloading books on demand with 3G mobile access, is what the market has been demanding.
Now, I’m all for the Kindle coming to town. It provides more competition in a market with growing demand and limited options. The Sony eReader has been available in Canada for some time now, but it never had the emotion connection that people have experience with the Kindle. Chapters’ introduction of their ShortCovers software (which allows you to buy and read books from your Blackberry, iPhone, or personal computer) is another option. Although ShortCovers is confined to small screens, or devices too heavy to really be conducive to pleasurable reading.
So what’s the big deal about Kindle coming to Canada? Well, it does provide more competition in the Canadian eBook market, but really it’s just Amazon stab at capturing the eBook market share before the big boys come out to play. Rumors are flying around the web of an Apple Tablet (think of it as a iPhone only bigger, at least based on speculation). Also, Microsoft’s Courier (their journal like mobile device) has been leaked and circulating the interwebs. These potential versatile devices could easily bring Apple and Microsoft into the eBook market out the gates, with the lack of eInk technology as their only downfall (well at least to avid readers). We already carry our cellphones, iPods, and laptops on the go, and Apple’s and Microsoft’s potential devices could lighten our load.
I think the Kindle is a great product, and in the meantime, I’ll probably pick one up. But, what I’m really waiting for, is a full colour portable device like the Microsoft Courier and Apple Tablet that could provide me with more than just a portable book library. It could provide me with a music/video/book library (not to mention electronic journal and mobile browser) on the go.
Category technology Tags ebook, ereader
Give me a multi-use tablet any day. I love the idea of the kindle, but after switching to smartphones from my old pda + feature phone combo, I hate single task machines. The kindle is slick, but I want more options (like real web browsing, or colour) on my ereader. All that said, I might just buy this too!
But hey amazon, how about supporting ePub like everyone else?
A Kindle NYT reviewer on NPR said that you cannot read as fast on the kindle because of the typeset that they use. Not only that, but the reviewer found that an amusing or humorous passage read in a book was not as humorous or funny when read on the Kindle. Odd.
And, in a different tangent, since Gladwell’s “Outliers” book was pictured, his new book, “What the Dog Saw” is now available. Let’s see if their as insightful when read on the Kindle vs in text in the New Yorker.