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Kindle makes Wired’s list of ‘Top 10 Heartbreaking Gadgets of 2007′—and a more flattering list from the same people
December 24, 2007 | 2:07 pm
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By David Rothman
Wired item here (via MobileRead). The Kindle is number 10 on the list. Excerpt:
“It doesn’t seem quite right to call Amazon’s electronic-book tablet a letdown, as our expectations were tempered from the start. But the retailer not only managed to validate most of our original concerns but add a few new ones. You probably know the rap sheet by now: No native PDF support. Costs as much as a low-end laptop. ‘Klugey’ keyboard. Clumsy, extortionate e-mail conversion process for adding your own files. And the web browser? Crippled. But what really kills us? You have to pay to read a blog on this thing.”
But wait. The Kindle is also number 7 on Wired’s “Top 10 Gadgets of the Year.”
Someone trying to make a point? Meanwhile I wish Wired would get off its PDF fixation and start talking about .epub, the new industry standard—a better format for reading on small screens and large ones alike. Beyond .epub, the real format story for now is that Amazon won’t even let the Kindle read DRMed Mobipocket.
Technorati Tags: Mobipocket
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Comments:
Native PDF support: Sony Reader doesn’t have native PDF support either despite what people say. It automatically converts them when loading the device up. It’s not surprise that Kindle requires conversion as well.
Cost: Cheaper than iLiad. More expensive than Sony Reader. Partly offsetting the cost of EVDO.
Keyboard: Has one and has search. Something that most ebook readers don’t have.
Extortionate email service: This has been hashed over and over. You only pay the .10c if you want the file wirelessly delivered to the Kindle. If you are willing to download it to your computer it’s free. How hard is that anyways? You’re going to be at your computer anyways if your converting a file.
DRMed Mobipocket: There is already a hack that allows DRM mobipocket to be read on Kindle. Right here. http://igorsk.blogspot.com/2007/12/mobipocket-books-on-kindle.html
I consider it a feature that it doesn’t support DRMed Mobipocket (at least not natively, i.e., without hassles). The fact that it’s not completely DRM-free is a huge anti-feature. As long as devices support DRM stupid authors and publishers will use it.