Amazon Kindle gutted for your viewing pleasure

What is it with this sick pleasure we derive from watching beloved devices torn to pieces by ruthless uber-nerds? Who knows, but it certainly isn't getting old just yet. Amazon's Kindle got just such treatment at the hands of RapidRepair, and if you're one of those doubters that was never quite sold on the Kindle's quirky 90's aesthetic, maybe this will change your mind. Or not.

[Via The Raw Feed]

[dataminer49er @ Nov 30th 2007 2:33PM]

When I was a kid I loved to take stuff apart. The hard part was putting the stuff back together.

[Chris @ Nov 30th 2007 4:53PM]

I don't it... which part holds my 400 dollars?

[Standingfast @ Nov 30th 2007 2:36PM]

WOW! That's a LOT of components for a seemingly simple device! ^_^

[Jon @ Nov 30th 2007 2:42PM]

Agree. Seems too complex for a simple e-book reader. Also agree with Dataminder. I love opening up my gadgets.

[Pete @ Nov 30th 2007 3:41PM]

That's actually pretty simple for what it does (remembering that it includes EVDO, two displays, etc).

[vert @ Nov 30th 2007 2:53PM]

I think.... i think i just had an orgasm....

[paul34 @ Nov 30th 2007 2:54PM]

I think Amazon.com has a deal on boxes of Kleenex right now.

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Nov 30th 2007 4:08PM]

I just visited chinatown and they were selling tissues called orgasm-away....
I also saw a guy selling a beat up gameboy that was claiming it was a kindle.

[oGMo @ Nov 30th 2007 3:06PM]

Heh, "the electronic paper LCD screen". E-paper has nothing to do with liquid crystal display. ;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_paper

[zer0her0 @ Nov 30th 2007 3:23PM]

What I wanna know is the software that runs on it. I haven't seen any info on that yet, anyone happen to have seen any?

[ethana2 @ Nov 30th 2007 7:24PM]

I wonder how hard it would be to get DSL or some such distro running on it...

With finch and elinks. ...oh yeah.

[Brian S. @ Nov 30th 2007 3:24PM]

It's great to see Kindle being ripped apart. It's another attempt by non gadget makers to pillage consumers through convenience. My vote is for the "Swindle" e-book reader. At least the name doesn't try to hide the intention. I would like to see a side-by-side comparison with Swindle and kindle. http://www.iphonesavior.com/2007/11/say-hello-to-sw.html

[Jim Treacher @ Nov 30th 2007 3:52PM]

"Pillage consumers through convenience." I think you just described capitalism, dude.

[Kevin @ Dec 1st 2007 4:04PM]

If you don't want it, don't buy it. Do you somehow fail to grasp that concept?

[Jim Treacher @ Nov 30th 2007 3:48PM]

Where are all the words?

[Mike Matthews @ Nov 30th 2007 3:48PM]

Well let's see how it holds up to a regular "book" book. I can drop a real book and it won't break no matter how high I drop it. I can turn the page on a real book much easier. I can put a real book on my shelf and come back in 40-100yrs and it will still have my bookmark right where I left it. I don't have to buy batteries for it. I can wait a few weeks, months and find whatever current overpriced book or periodical I want at pennies on the dollar at a used book store. No DRM to deal with. When I'm done I can pass it to a friend without some lawyer looking over my shoulder with a writ in his hand. (though I'm sure they would if they could) I can see my whole library at a glance and take the book I want right off the shelf without a Dewey decimal system or it's equivalent to have to scroll through.
Until "E" books can produce this kind of reliability, ease of use and transparency I can't see myself buying one. It's clearly a method to be used in the continuing centralization of media and info, with access allowed on a strictly metered "you will pay what we tell you pay" basis. And don't even think about giving this material to anyone else when you are done with it unless you pay for it again and again and again and again......... And if anyone wants to save trees get on "Opt Out" and stem the uninterrupted flow of junk mail. I used to get about an encyclopedias worth every week.(I do not exaggerate) I have many books on my shelf that I acquired when I was a child, and all the way up through becoming an adult. They are among my most prized possessions. At the present development level and distribution of media method eBooks are less than useless. They are offensive. I don't have to ask how stupid the creators of these devices think we are. If they can see us through the dollar signs in front of their eyes at all.

[Dan @ Nov 30th 2007 3:55PM]

Agreed. Not to mention the fact that it's nice to get AWAY from technology every once in a while and get back to a medium that has been been around for hundreds of years with little to no revisions.

[Jim Treacher @ Nov 30th 2007 4:00PM]

On the other hand, I've been searching used bookstores, real and online, for some out-of-print Donald Westlake novels for months. I just found a Bittorrent with most of the ones I was looking for, which normally wouldn't do me much good because I can't read a whole novel on a screen that's beaming light into my eyes. But with something like the Kindle, it sounds like I'd be able to read them like a real book. (Of course, I'd be happy to pay for the same books if and when they become available as ebooks. That's one potential benefit of the Kindle, making out-of-print books profitable enough to release again.)

Or, you could be right and it's the end of the world.

[T-Bone @ Nov 30th 2007 4:36PM]

You can turn pages on a book easier? I can't imagine anything easier than pushing a button except for mind control. I always end up putting a tear in the bottom of at least one page.

[xccv @ Nov 30th 2007 9:48PM]

Yes, I too appreciate a genuine book, but that's not to say that digital is a bad thing. Books can be lost or destroyed, but it's extremely hard (dare I say, impossible) to truly erase something digital once it's been properly circulated. Not to mention the ease of circulation and the stock available in the palm of one's hand. On a more practical note, can you carry 200 books in your pocket? I think not.

[Guttenberg is my hero (...steve) @ Nov 30th 2007 10:00PM]

Let me adjust your post:

"Well let's see... I can't see myself buying one. ..."

Congratulations, you are not the target audience. Thanks for listing all the differences between analog and digital tech', though. Hopefully, nobody will take your examples and apply them to the differences between cars and horses or vhs players and home media servers. You may end up looking like a cranky, old, luddite.

[roger.books @ Dec 3rd 2007 11:31PM]

I don't know about anyone else, but I have a shelf full of O'Reilly books. I would dearly love to have them at home and work (I'm a Unix Sysadmin). I'd be willing to pay $400 for this widget and re-buy many of my O'Reilly books for just this purpose.

However, it's too big to fit in a pocket, so my cell of choice, which covers the browser, is an iPhone.

[randomblink @ Feb 18th 2008 5:35PM]

Mike Matthews...
Let's take a look at your comments again and add a few of my own opinions.

> I can drop a real book and it won't break no matter how high I drop it.
- Got it. That's important, and Real Book wins.
- (Score: Real Book [1] / Kindle [0])

> I can turn the page on a real book much easier.
- I disagree. I press a button less than a quarter of an inch from my finger and my page is turned.
- (Score: Real Book [1] / Kindle [1])

> I can put a real book on my shelf and come back in 40-100yrs and it will still have my bookmark right where I left it.
- Sure. Book wins.
- (Score: Real Book [2] / Kindle [1])

> I don't have to buy batteries for it.
- Granted. Score another one for real books.
- (Score: Real Book [3] / Kindle [1])

> I can wait a few weeks, months and find whatever current overpriced book or periodical I want at pennies on the dollar at a used book store.
- Whatever! I can torrent and have thousands of books available at quasi-legal prices (free), and I don't even have to wait a few weeks. Especially with sites like BAEN.com where I can get ahold of free books BEFORE they are printed. Sorry, but that gives Kindle the point.
- (Score: Real Book [3] / Kindle [2])


> No DRM to deal with.
- None here either? They already have that crap hacked. No winner there.
- (Score: Real Book [3] / Kindle [2])

> When I'm done I can pass it to a friend without some lawyer looking over my shoulder with a writ in his hand. (though I'm sure they would if they could)
- Before I am done, I can e-mail my entire friends and family list a copy, if I trust them not to rat me out to the authorities.
- (Score: Real Book [3] / Kindle [3])

> I can see my whole library at a glance and take the book I want right off the shelf without a Dewey decimal system or it's equivalent to have to scroll through.
- BUZZER SOUND! Sorry man, I can grab one of my 2-3 4GB HD cartridges and have THOUSANDS of books in my pocket with me. SO what if I have to scroll, my Kindle bookmarks the book and my place in it whenever I set it down. Kindle wins that one.
- (Score: Real Book [3] / Kindle [5])

> At the present development level and distribution of media method eBooks are less than useless.
- It sounds like you don't know HOW to use them then. I am a programmer, and being able to have all my reference books a fingertip away... and NOT weighing in at 10lbs per book? The Kindle is priceless, e-readers in general are. Plus, with my Kindle? I can browse the web, check my e-mail, whatever I want?! And I don't have to have a 30lb bag with a laptop in it, tethering me down... I don't have to sit at a desktop, or even be NEAR a powersupply (for at least a couple days). I have something that weighs less than a paperback novel that is nearly limitless in it's capacity to hold and allow me access to documents of almost any kind.

> They are offensive.
- I would rather say that you do not own one and are speaking from a purely uninformed opinion. That, in MY opinion, is offensive AND dangerous.


> I don't have to ask how stupid the creators of these devices think we are. If they can see us through the dollar signs in front of their eyes at all.


WELL. That... was a mouthful.
I should clarify my opinion and stance here.
I was in your exact shoes when I discovered the Kindle. However, I have tried (and hated) several other e-readers out there and never found anything that presents the book, in e-book.

You get more of a handheld gaming device that lets you view 2x2inch pictures of books? But no true book.

I am developing a book for a client, and they REALLY wanted to do a Kindle version. I was HIGHLY hesitant, because I had no hope for e-readers then (1 month ago). Well, the client offered to buy me a Kindle as part of my development costs, and I took him up on it.

Now? I am 5 days into owning one.
I am 4-1/2 days into loving it.

It sits in your hand like a book.
It's effortless to change pages.
I don't ACTUALLY have any memory cards (yet, but that's because I am shopping for the best deals) but I still have around 40 books on my system and there's still room.

Before having an opinion on something? Try researching things further first... it just makes sense!

[r0dney @ Nov 30th 2007 3:54PM]

Yeah, yeah thats all well and good, but the real question here is will it blend?

[ethana2 @ Nov 30th 2007 7:26PM]

It won't. No way that thing has OpenGL... and even if you only used it for the rendering, show me a guy doing ray tracing on a 200MHz (or whatever the heck this runs at) processor, and I'll show you a guy on the edge of sanity...

[General Grant @ Nov 30th 2007 4:08PM]

The crowd chants. Blend it! Blend it! Blend it!

[ethana2 @ Nov 30th 2007 7:28PM]

There's no way I'm going to try to blend something that complicated. I can barely make reflective liquid monkeys.

[joey @ Nov 30th 2007 4:19PM]

Yeah, but when will some one add a home brewed firefox web browser to it? (FREE INTERNET!!)

[Anthony @ Nov 30th 2007 4:44PM]

You would go co-co for cocoa puffs if you tried to browse the web on an e-ink screen.

[Eric @ Nov 30th 2007 4:49PM]

Screw that, I give it weeks before someone transplants the "free EvDO" into a laptop or a eeePC ;-)

[Serhei @ Nov 30th 2007 5:26PM]

Obligatory dig at the Kindle's hardware design:

Wow, the design actually looks *better* on the inside!

[Constable Odo @ Nov 30th 2007 6:05PM]

The MacBook Thin is supposed to do all that the Kindle can do and a lot more. Plus it comes with Leopard and Steve Jobs endorsement.

[ethana2 @ Nov 30th 2007 7:31PM]

meh

I've sworn not to give Apple a cent until they stop using Trusted Platform Modules in their products. Screw 'em.

[Jason @ Nov 30th 2007 8:13PM]

The MacBook Thin has been little more than a rumor for over a year now. If it comes out in the next six months at a price competitive to Kindle's, I'll consider it then, but not sooner.

[Wolfticket @ Nov 30th 2007 8:15PM]

E-ink, e-ink, e-ink!!!
If anyone compares an ebook reader directly with device that has an LCD display again I will bite their face off.

[Rick Saffery @ Nov 30th 2007 9:10PM]

I'd love to have a Kindle. I will when the price-point drops to $250 or less. Then again, I'd prefer a tiered subscription plan. Or better yet just lower prices for the e-books. When Amazon puts out $4 ebooks they will have a mega-hit on their hands. I gather they won't take that approach (yet) as it would cannabalize their paper-based book business.

Like the other's who commented here, I love the portability and durability of paper-based books. But to be candid, the paper form factor is long overdue for overhaul. The Kindle and the 'new & improved' widgets that follow in its wake will be the catalyst to make that happen.

Here's to progress and a brighter future!

[Mr. Yetti @ Nov 30th 2007 11:16PM]

How would it kill their real-books sales? These e-books have marginal overhead, in comparison, and no real shipping cost. Hosting out electronic copies of books as a (possible) major business segment should be giving them tingles. Think about it - one single copy of a book, sold MILLIONS of times. No shipping. No Handling. No storage. No purchasing the product from vendors. Except once. These books sold at a handful of dollars per could blow away their real-books sales in a few months, and - to them - IT WOULDN'T MATTER.

[Rick Saffery @ Dec 1st 2007 12:42PM]

Mr.Yetti,

You just supported my assertion with your comment. I believe we're in agreement regarding the orders of magnitude improvement ebook distribution would present over paper-based books. By logical extension Amazon's total revenue, marginal revenue and profit-per/book would sky-rocket. That's great for thier company, shareholders and consumers.

Having said that, the market of readers is finite. There's the potential for a substantial amount of their heritage customers to migrate to the new ebook format - eschewing paper, perhaps permanently; if ebooks gain momentum. There will always be a market for paper-based books. But, in time, this may become a niche-market similar in stature to say audiophiles who still cling to vinyl LPs. I don't know. But, it's exciting to imagine the possibilities here.

I haven't researched this, perhaps another may comment. But it would be great if Amazon granted license to the ebook purchaser such that they may sell or give away their single copy of a purchased ebook. This would parallel the model of a physical book and certainly no one in the physical-publishing realm is negatively impacted by this. I would hope we could all work on the honor system in that regard. Wishful thinking, perhaps? Clearly DRM schemes regardless of implementation are problematic.

I think Amazon has a home-run hit on their hands. Here's hoping they have the vision and the courage to drive a cultural change in our approach to 'long-read' books.

[Smacksmackums @ Nov 30th 2007 9:55PM]

Someone detail how to hack the thing to make its free EVDO browse the web - on it's own screen or transplanted into a different device (OLPC or EEEPC) and I'm sold.

[Bee Hatch @ Nov 30th 2007 10:07PM]

But will it play Doom?

[bt @ Nov 30th 2007 11:16PM]

That DTEV-DUAL EVDO module looks pretty friendly.

Scroll down at: http://www.anydata.com/modems.php

Straight to the datasheet at: http://www.anydata.com/pdf/dtev-dual.pdf

Of course it has probably been configured on the backend network to only connect to Amazon, so it may not do much web browsing once you extract it.

[fireball87 @ Dec 1st 2007 5:24AM]

It has the same 90s feel on the inside as it does on the outside...

[nathan @ Dec 3rd 2007 2:13PM]

Wow, you're going to read your books 40-100 years from now? Outstandingly crazy!

[Nion @ Jan 7th 2008 8:22AM]

Heh; I was actually shocked to find out that my totally non-tech-savvy mom really wants one of these, leading to my writing about it at http://www.thetechbrief.com/2007/11/30/amazon-kindle-helping-books-evolve/
. Heck; I love reading, but even I'd choose a book over an ebook reader on most days (although seeing it gutted does make it more tempting). But considering how many people want it, the device obviously makes sense.