Kindle Edition e-books appear on Amazon -- reader launch imminent

Here you go, the first honest to goodness proof that Amazon is prepped to launch their Kindle e-book reader. You know, that EV-DO packing device we extracted from the beige soiled bowels of the FCC filing last year. But seriously Amazon, $54 for an electronic book... are you kidding us? Anyway, the launch rumored for October 15th certainly looks imminent.

Update: As pointed out in the comments, an Amazon search of "Kindle Edition" responds with 631 books of which a couple dozen can be "auto-delivered wirelessly to Kindle." Alrighty then.

[Thanks, Serkan C. and Ed]

[paul34 @ Oct 3rd 2007 4:44PM]

My dream has been to have a more advanced e-book reader ... one which can take written notes and annotations just like a pencil/pen, do highlights, etc. It would cost maybe $100-$200, so that every student or individual could own one.

Then, textbooks would be distributed for $5-$15. I think everyone should have access to improving themselves - if they want it.

Lab manuals and such would then be able to be distributed for free, and then campus bookstores wouldn't be able to rip kids off anymore on items like that.

A secure system could be made to allow kids to use "electronic" scantron sheets for small quizzes or classes that utilize the system, thus saving a LOT of expenses in ridiculous bubble-sheet costs.

Paper use would be significantly reduced, students could learn much better (the reader would also have a PHYSICALLY REMOVABLE wi-fi module which would allow for the free sharing of knowledge among students, and also the disabling function ensures no one could ever do an "e-burning" of books by going through and deleting certain "banned" literature).

Anyway, though, my dream of a free society in which education is not shunned or reserved only for those willing to submit to the rather ridiculous financial economics involved in the textbook industry, and where free expression cannot be suppressed.

[Jared @ Oct 3rd 2007 4:51PM]

As a college student, this is a rip off. Buy and own the book, sell it on half.com afterwards. At least with the book you have an asset you can sell after the class is done, instead of some drm book

[Negotiator @ Oct 3rd 2007 5:01PM]

$60 for a $100+ college text book sounds like a steal to me.

As a college student, this is a rip off. Buy and own the book, sell it on half.com afterwards. At least with the book you have an asset you can sell after the class is done, instead of some drm book

Yeah, but you're going to take a huge loss on that book, especially if they change editions. Also, you can't use a search feature on a book.

[Micah Neumark @ Oct 3rd 2007 5:10PM]

First of, its $58, but thats the price of the real book too. You don't expect the publisher to NOT price gouge, do you? Its how they make their money. If students didn't buy used books, then they could charge less. Not that I'm advocating students not to sell back books. In fact, this is how many college bookstores survive.

On that note, eBooks should be lower in price since sellbacks are not possible. Oh well, one day the publishing companies will get it. In the meantime, lets go cut down a couple more forests!

[paul34 @ Oct 3rd 2007 5:15PM]

Well, see, publishing companies are smarter than us. While we think we're being smart by selling our books after we're done with them, they simple create another edition with NOTHING different except different grahpics, and the fact that the problems are completely changed with number and order - thus meaning you must get it.

Add to this the completely unexplainable behavior of colleges who constantly switch to the newer editions even though there's nothing (well, as nothing wrong as you can get with textbooks...) wrong with the existing one.

There must be some type of "extra" benefits from the publishing company for the guy in charge of switching to newer editions. Perhaps they share the same bed?

[jmattick @ Oct 3rd 2007 5:15PM]

I'd have a better chance of paying a premium to get a copy of the textbook AND the e-book.

If that's what they want for only the e-book, I can already say I'm not interested.

[Emre Aydinceren @ Oct 3rd 2007 5:15PM]

This smells CHANNEL CONFLICT all over...

Paper or Digital... Although book publishers would love to sell digital versions of the books,
(no material , no inventory, no distribution, no storage, no production cost) they cannot afford pissing of the retailers.. I bet retailers are already pissy but they may boycott publishers if they feel bypassed - threatened .

[Ed @ Oct 3rd 2007 5:42PM]

I went to Amazon.com and I searched on "Kindle Edition" and it gave me a list of 631 books that also included the phrase "Auto-delivered wirelessly to Kindle". Very interesting....

Ed

[Paul @ Oct 3rd 2007 6:33PM]

I only have a passing affiliation with this, but the Global Text Project (http://www.globaltext.org) is aiming to use what amounts to advanced Wiki technology to provide 100% free textbooks in multiple languages. Time will tell how well it turns out, but minimally it is a good start to relieve the burden of textbook costs on students. It is also not the only source for free textbooks or the only project hoping to create and provide them (though it is a good model since it addresses much of the incentive problem associated with their creation). Take a look and tell your professors to look as well, either to contribute or to adopt when the library becomes more mature. (to keep this post somewhat on topic, getting the books into a form readable by an ebook reader requires little more than a custom CSS page, so someone here could certainly volunteer to donate such...)

[david @ Oct 3rd 2007 9:27PM]

@Ed

Um, I could be wrong on this, but I don't think all those results you saw were Kindle editions. I did the same search, got about the same number of hits, and checked some out. Many simply include those two words someplace in their text. As an example, "man kicked in a newspaper stand and used the street editions to kindle a fire beneath a tree near the City Hall front".

Just sayin'. Amazon might not have really started a fire under the kindle just yet. Ouch.

[ns @ Oct 3rd 2007 10:48PM]

only if it weren't so ugly, the kindle. ;_;

[PJK @ Oct 4th 2007 4:36AM]

The only thing I want to know is, will it make it over here to Europe and is it still the fuck ugly design you showed us before?

[James @ Oct 4th 2007 8:55PM]

Hrm, save 4 dollars by getting the e-book? Looks like I'll be buying ("illegal") International Editions of any other textbooks I may need. It was bad enough when all my undergrad books were $50-70, but for grad school, almost every single book was $100 or more (MSRP). So I went online, and bought the Indian version or whatever, which is *exactly the same*, down to the page numbers, except with a soft cover and black-and-white illustrations. Published by the same people, they just recognize that people in the 3rd world still want textbooks, but can't pay the extortionate rates they've somehow convinced our students are appropriate.

Frankly, I hope that "open source textbook" project linked to above takes off, and puts all the big-name publishers out of business. Normally, I'm a big proponent of capitalism and charging what the market will bear, but the textbook business is a seedy, corrupt affair and we'd be better off without them. Money-grubbing fuckers.