http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/ Engadget Comments for http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/
nuf said.]]>Sep 28th 2009 1:47PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 28th 2009 1:57PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 28th 2009 2:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/
I don't think the Kindle is to blame for this poor kid's lack of an understanding of prepositions. ]]>Sep 28th 2009 2:11PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/
Kindle = Money Pit;

Princeton = Money Pit;

Therefore...

Princeton = Kindle;

(I thought they'd be smart enough at Princeton to see the reflective insult)]]>Sep 28th 2009 3:25PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Well worth the cash, unless you want to do English lit, although if you rub elbows with the right people even an English lit degree could be pretty lucrative.]]>Sep 28th 2009 5:20PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 28th 2009 1:50PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 28th 2009 9:08PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 28th 2009 1:51PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/
But aren't page numbers also meaningless for anybody working from a *different edition* of the same book? I would just consider this a different edition. ]]>Sep 28th 2009 1:51PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/
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BTW, the iphone app doesn't get newspaper or periodical subscriptions.]]>Sep 28th 2009 2:55PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 28th 2009 3:02PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/
The same angst happened when the web came around and people wanted to cite URLs. The academics were insistent that it was not possible to cite something without page numbers. Eventually citation rules were updated to provide a format for doing so. (not getting into a discussion about whether citing a website is a good thing, just that it can be done).

After the initial hand wringing, academic organizations will likely find that they really can access Kindle locations in a citation, too.]]>Sep 28th 2009 11:05PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 28th 2009 1:51PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 29th 2009 12:35PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 28th 2009 1:53PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 28th 2009 1:53PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 28th 2009 1:53PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 28th 2009 1:55PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 28th 2009 2:36PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 28th 2009 2:48PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 28th 2009 4:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/
Why don't you just write your equations and notes on a notepad?]]>Sep 29th 2009 11:09AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 28th 2009 1:55PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 28th 2009 1:56PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 28th 2009 2:03PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 28th 2009 2:05PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 28th 2009 2:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/
The problem is that some seem to want it to be a universal replacement for all books.

It's not.

Amazon would love it if they could get in on the ground floor with universities before the others, but not a chance. Anybody who has used a reader for more than a few minutes can tell that it is not the right tool for this task. This is a hardware shortcoming. No amount of software or UI tweaking will fix it. I could write out a list of problems that they can not solve right now. And I'm not even at university.]]>Sep 28th 2009 5:32PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/]]>Sep 28th 2009 7:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/
Even my laptop, with multiple .doc's open, is a pain to alt+tab/(cmd+`) through.

Probably one day when E-books are cheap enough to just throw around and have them loads of them with different materials showing at the same time, but then again... isn't that what the Kindle's selling point is trying to prevent?

However, for note taking, the Microsoft Courier comes very close (at least in concept) to what I'd pick up the moment it's launched, if they can replicate the feel of pen against paper.


Sorry. Ranting.]]>Sep 28th 2009 8:27PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 28th 2009 2:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/
ctrl+f = easy studying/hw]]>Sep 28th 2009 2:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 28th 2009 2:15PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 28th 2009 2:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 28th 2009 2:49PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/> "E-readers all attempt to "reflow" the PDF pages to something that will fit on their device but it is an exercise in futility."

I've never seen a PDF on a DX so forgive me...

Why does it need to reflow anything? Why can't it just display it like normal, and allow zooming and scrolling? When I look at a PDF on my computer screen... it zooms to fit. And I can zoom and scroll as needed.

I can look at full web pages with the Bolt browser on my Blackberry... and it renders the page like normal. But I can scroll around to see everything. It doesn't attempt to mash everything together to fit a tiny screen.

Or does the Kindle not have some sort of navigation arrows?]]>Sep 28th 2009 3:46PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 28th 2009 9:08PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/
On a large fast screen like a computer, you can zoom in and out and quickly pan back and forth. It is a pain to do so but it is feasible. An e-ink screen is not yet fast enough to make the zooms and pans a palatable process. The Kindle displays the PDF full page on the screen, if the original font is small or the original sheet size is large, it will be hard to read. I would imagine that their next software version will provide some kind of zoom/pan, but it is not in this initial version.
]]>Sep 28th 2009 11:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 28th 2009 2:20PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 28th 2009 2:20PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/
What it needs
- fast book-like navigation
- a stylus/highlighter
- speed (it's way to slow for anything but, again, a page turner)]]>Sep 28th 2009 2:23PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/Sep 28th 2009 2:48PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/
Now, if anyone saw him on these posts...
GPU on Netbook = new iPhone???
http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/gpu-accelerated-720p-flash-video-gets-demoed-on-a-netbook-smoot/
iPhone over BL20's huge 21:9 screen????
http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/lgs-bl20-chocolate-gets-official-with-269-price-tag/

I am very sick of these posts, sometimes I just wonder are Apple fanboys on engadget are all Microsoft employees for the sake of making Apple look bad.

]]>Sep 28th 2009 2:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/
With that said, I don't think it is anywhere close to a replacement for a newspaper. And I don't think it is anywhere close to a replacement for a text book. Both need a larger format, both need color these days and both need the ability to quickly skim through and flip pages. ]]>Sep 28th 2009 2:35PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/
Anyway still better since it has a REAL keypad.]]>Sep 28th 2009 2:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/28/kindle-dx-called-poor-excuse-of-an-academic-tool-in-princeton/
seriously Sony has already roll out several generation, and it's getting better and better....]]>Sep 28th 2009 2:40PM