Switched On: Rainforest fire (Part 1)

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.

Naming a product "Kindle" might be a bit unusual for a company named after a giant waterway. Did Amazon have visions of Fahrenheit 451 for its electronic book reader? Perhaps, at $399, the product is aimed at those who have the kind of paper to burn that is legal tender for all debts, public or private and not involving iPhones.

Regardless, Kindle is far from the epilogue for paper-based books and won't materially alter the course of Amazon's river of reading revenue for some time. On the other hand, the grapheme-strewn box of Kindle notes the word can also mean to "inspire" or "stir up." And the oddly-shaped tablet's wireless commerce capabilities herald big changes for several related industries.

Kindle, as Sony recording artist and pop chart fugitive Billy Joel might have said in 1989, didn't start the fire. Amazon has become the second player to enter the embryonic electronic ink-based book reader market in the U.S. after Sony's introduction of its Switchie award-winning Reader. Both products offer excellent readability using electronic ink display technology and are tied to stores controlled by their manufacturers.

Reading a book on Kindle is very much like the good experience of reading one on the Sony Reader. There are some trade-offs with each device, though. The Kindle's user interface puts more operations within the context of the current page through use of a Blackberry-style popup navigated by a novel reflective LCD strip. In general, this creates a more fluid interaction than on the Sony Reader. However, one area where the Sony Reader beats Kindle is in accessing endnotes, which requires two scrolls and two clicks with the Kindle. There should be a way to simply enter the footnote number given that Kindle's handy keyboard includes numbers (or Amazon should at least make the endnote the default choice on lines that include them).

The Kindle does a better job of providing a sense of where you are in a book's progress, but the Reader's page count is less abstract and easier to remember (if less precise) than the Kindle's "Location" number. Paradoxically, Amazon has stressed the importance of having the device "disappear" when you read but has emphasized how it must try to add value in different ways than the resilient book does. As such, it has integrated a number of useful features such as annotation, clipping, and dictionary lookup. It's time for the Sony Reader to add these features, at least some of which were part of its Japanese predecessor, the Librie.

Charitable critics have offered that Kindle is not as ugly as it looks in pictures. This is true, but Kindle's unusual angles cause problems with its included cover, which does not seem designed to be used while reading as the Sony Reader's is. Doing so does not allow the cover to be folded flatly behind the book and does not prevent the Kindle from slipping out. Moreover, the oversized page forward button on the device's right edge, while more faithful to the location of page edges in a paper book, lends itself to too many accidental pressings. Once the book is on the device, the Kindle has more features and a better user interface, while the latest Sony Reader has a better form factor and ergonomics.

Sony and Amazon both use proprietary formats for their purchased books today, and one of the most frustrating limitations is that neither offers a way to scale illustrations, leaving bit-mapped graphics and charts often unreadable. Far from the exclusive province of dry textbooks, examples of these have showed up in two popular comedic books -- John Hodgman's The Areas of My Expertise and Stephen Colbert's I Am America (And So Can You). Not being able to read them on the devices simply steals some of the enjoyment of the book.

Next week's column will delve into how Kindle changes the book-buying process, and its impact on the wireless and consumer electronics industries in light of Verizon Wireless's announcement that it will allow consumers to use their own devices on its wireless network..
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Ross Rubin is director of industry analysis for consumer technology at market research and analysis firm The NPD Group,. His blog can be read at http://www.rossrubin.com/outofthebox. Views expressed in Switched On are his own.

[Ipaq3115 @ Nov 27th 2007 3:05PM]

Man I could really use one of those...

As soon as they put firefox on it...

y'know, to take advantage of that free wireless..

[michael @ Nov 27th 2007 4:59PM]

But then it wouldn't just be an eBook reader.

Plus, I don't think it would be a good idea to put "Firefox" as a browser on a device. I find that it takes up a lot of resources on a computer sometimes, and putting that on a device wouldn't be a good idea.

If there were to be a browser, it would be a better idea to put a more lightweight browser, like Opera or IE7. I find them both to be pretty efficient.

Just my .02.

[Ipaq3115 @ Nov 27th 2007 5:07PM]

Ok, I understand a more lightweight browser like Opera...

But IE7... you gotta be kiddin'

[michael @ Nov 27th 2007 5:19PM]

@Ipaq:

No, I'm not kidding. Really.

Have you even tried IE7? Not that it's important, but many people who use IE7 find it lightweight as well.

I'm not joking.

[Samsy @ Nov 27th 2007 5:28PM]

Yeah, IE7 is a pretty lightweight browser. Michael isn't wrong there.

I use it from time to time, and I have found myself to like it.

I love both IE7 and Opera, and I know for sure, that both are pretty lightweight and easy to use.

[Rajeev @ Nov 27th 2007 5:30PM]

If you really wanted a lightweight browser, you'd use something like K-Meleon. That's the kind of stuff that might work well on a small device like this. That said, Opera runs on the DS, so that'd probably possible.

[Ipaq3115 @ Nov 27th 2007 10:09PM]

Yea it looks like your right IE7 is more light weight, I looked at a few reviews, I guess I was just partial to Firefox.

[debugy2k @ Nov 27th 2007 3:20PM]

I still like my prs-505 sony reader. Works great.

[Guywb @ Nov 27th 2007 4:29PM]

I'll look seriously at them when they are able to read ALL ebook formats. Not just the ones the MFRs have tied to their stores.

[ethana2 @ Nov 27th 2007 4:59PM]

I just stick to public domain plaintext from Project Gutenberg.

There's a lot of culture there you know.. Then there are creative commons licensed works...

--so basically, I can put stuff into any format I choose on a whim.

[Naegling @ Nov 27th 2007 3:31PM]

for those of us with fairly young eye's I still read off my WM6 phone. yeah, it's small, but I always have it with me and I can use .pdf or MS Reader with no issues.

[SuckIt @ Nov 27th 2007 3:37PM]

I am sorry but this thing is gay, I don't know what all the fuss is about..you can get one of those ASUS eee notebook thingys for the same price and do more things with it..

[Alex Padilla @ Nov 27th 2007 3:58PM]

Yes, a technological device has the capability of having sexual activity with its own non-existent gender. Simply brilliant, dumbass.

And secondly, what about those who read books often (like myself), but don't want to carry around a few novels on a trip or to school? This saves place, could possibly save money (don't know the exact pricing of the book), and adds convenience.

(And for the record, I've played with the Sony Reader, and I do like it)

[LC @ Nov 27th 2007 5:52PM]

".you can get one of those ASUS eee notebook thingys for the same price and do more things with it.."

By golly you're right. Nothing can compare to the comfort of reading in bed with a sub-notebook. Hell, why would I even need an MP3 player when I can have an ASUS eee notebook that can play music and do so much more? I'll just need the right belt clip for when I go running.

[nathan.wong @ Nov 27th 2007 3:39PM]

And like what Suckit says, you can buy a frickin' computer for the price of the Kindle. ;-)

[Brad @ Nov 27th 2007 5:44PM]

Yes, but not one that size that's actually useful for reading books on. You could buy an iPhone, too (well, kinda), but it wouldn't be particularly useful for reading textbooks.

[Wilder.K.Wight @ Nov 27th 2007 3:51PM]

The retail book stores aren't afraid. I'm selling more books than ever, thanks in part to Jo Rowling and the inability of Hollywood to come up with any stories of their own. Everything is an adaption of a book these days, and people see these stories and wonder what else is out there from the original author. Before long, they're in my store looking for good old paper-and-ink books.

Amazon would have had a HUGE impact on the retail book business selling regular books if they had just priced the Kindle under $200 -- Ideally, they should have hit the market at around $99 for the thing. People would have risked it at that price. As it stands, the only people buying the Kindle are rich mf'ers who do a lot of flying, or just HAVE to have the latest gadget. Regular readers aren't interested in dropping $400 on a device that may not even be supported in ten years.

If I buy a book, it's in my library for decades-- maybe even a century-- before it goes to my family and becomes someone else's book. If I buy a digital book on the Kindle, it will not be readable in 30 years, and maybe even less than that.

`Too many flaws in this thing to charge that much. Customers aren't flocking to it. My job is secure for now.

[nathan.wong @ Nov 27th 2007 6:01PM]

"If I buy a book, it's in my library for decades-- maybe even a century"
Because you never know when you need to reference "see spot run" from that book you've had in your collection since you were two.

"before it goes to my family and becomes someone else's book."
Or it becomes someone else's problem or clutter. You best make sure that your family likes what you read or they'll be stuck with a bunch of books that they're not interested in reading or even worse stuck with a library that extends to the ceiling. Bonfire anyone?

[nathan.wong @ Nov 27th 2007 3:48PM]

I too like my prs-505. The Kindle has too many things that will distract you, such as newspapers, magazines, and an encyclopedia of sorts. When you're done reading all that will you still be awake or interested enough to read the a book? The Sony unit doesn't have the frivilous external distractions. If you want to read a book then just turn it on and start reading. If you want a distraction you can always get the Wall Street Journal, FREE OF CHARGE mind you, to read on the unit using libprs500. Both units are expensive for what they do, but for convenience sake they're fantastic reading units. Much better than reading on a computer LCD screen.

[Anthony @ Nov 27th 2007 4:25PM]

I love my Sony too. I wish there were more titles. I just read a great review of a new book & was disappointed to see Sony didn't carry it. However, neither did Amazon, so...

[Steve @ Nov 30th 2007 9:23AM]

Nathan--Can you point me to the script for pulling down the WSJ? I much prefer that over the NYT, but haven't found the scripting for it.

[Rick @ Nov 27th 2007 3:51PM]

" Doing so does not allow the cover to be folded behind the book "

Not true, it folds back just fine and makes it quite easy to hold.

[tonepome @ Nov 27th 2007 4:19PM]

I own the Sony Reader, like the screen just fine, but don't like the Sony "bookstore" at all, which I find hard to browse when I'm looking for something, or someone, new to read. So I've shelled out for the Kindle, in the hopes that the buying process will be better. I do realize that being able to fire the thing up anywhere to buy another book is going to cost me. (In Amazon's early days, I used to receive Christmas gifts from them every year.)

As for Wilder K. Wight's comment (Not to be impolite, but is that your real name or a nom de livre?)about having a book he's bought in his library for decades, I have the reverse problem: too many books that I've read once and don't want to add to my already groaning shelves. That's another reason why either device appeals to me.

[michael @ Nov 27th 2007 5:21PM]

WOW.

Is this the FIRST article where users could actually COMMENT on Ross Rubin's posts?

Because the other times, you could read them, but not comment.

I wonder what's changed.

[Samsy @ Nov 27th 2007 5:25PM]

Yeah, IE7 is a pretty lightweight browser. Michael isn't wrong there.

I use it from time to time, and I have found myself to like it.

I love both IE7 and Opera, and I know for sure, that both are pretty lightweight and easy to use.

[Brad @ Nov 27th 2007 5:46PM]

The thing that bothers me about this device is that you have to pay to load your OWN files onto it. Even if it's only 10 cents, it smacks of a bad choice. What if I want to load up 40 short stories from a website? 10 cents each?

[richard @ Nov 27th 2007 6:22PM]

Well guys and gals, I find this reader too thick and I would have no use for the keyboard !!!

I own a Cybook Gen 3 from Bookeen (www.bookeen.com) and I can tell you, it's a real pleasure to read in the metro here in Paris, all types of lighting and you can always read. I'm currently reading a PDF which on the screen is pretty small, but still readable. On top of that, the Cybook is real light and can be handled with only your right hand, so you can still hold on with your left hand.

I'm not sure the Kindle would be as good, on account of the thickness !!

Cheers,

Ritchie