http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/05/06/amazons-new-kindle-e-reader-aims-to-shake-up-academia-and-journalism/ 80beats is DISCOVER's news aggregator, weaving together the choicest tidbits from the best articles covering the day\'s most compelling topics. Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:01:14 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/05/06/amazons-new-kindle-e-reader-aims-to-shake-up-academia-and-journalism/comment-page-1/#comment-26435 Terry S Thu, 07 May 2009 22:02:26 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/05/06/amazons-new-kindle-e-reader-aims-to-shake-up-academia-and-journalism/#comment-26435 I have reading a lot of press regarding e-books and ereaders. My feeling is that the new Kindle may help get books and publications to market, but will not help the reader. The obstacle is the price and the proprietary format (remember Betamax). The price is the similar to a low-end laptop or a new netbook laptop which already have wireless capability and a full keyboard. Yes, it is hard to read the screen, but it won't be long for Dell, Apple, HP, etc. to take the readable screen, add a CPU, memory, and FULL keyboard and sell it for less than the Kindle. Plus, computers accept a multiple of downloadable free e-book reader software. Most of the other online publishers are offering a range of formats including PDF, eReader(secure) , Mobipocket, Microsoft Reader, etc. Why should I be restricted to one or two formats and be stuck with downloading books only from Amazon? I have reading a lot of press regarding e-books and ereaders. My feeling is that the new Kindle may help get books and publications to market, but will not help the reader. The obstacle is the price and the proprietary format (remember Betamax).
The price is the similar to a low-end laptop or a new netbook laptop which already have wireless capability and a full keyboard. Yes, it is hard to read the screen, but it won’t be long for Dell, Apple, HP, etc. to take the readable screen, add a CPU, memory, and FULL keyboard and sell it for less than the Kindle. Plus, computers accept a multiple of downloadable free e-book reader software.
Most of the other online publishers are offering a range of formats including PDF, eReader(secure) , Mobipocket, Microsoft Reader, etc. Why should I be restricted to one or two formats and be stuck with downloading books only from Amazon?

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