Amazon may not be rolling out its
Kindle 2.5 update until later this month, but the folks at
Ars Technica have already managed to get their hands on it, and they've kindly shared a few impressions. While the added social networking capabilities may be the most standout feature,
Ars found the new "Collections" feature to be the most substantive part of the update, as it finally gives you a way to manage all your books into groups that are more easily browsed than one big list. Those social networking features do seem to welcome additions as well, however, albeit with a few limitations -- while you can easily share a passage from a book with your Twitter or Facebook friends, it's delivered in the form of a link rather than an actual quote. Other new features like password protection also work just as you'd expect, and there's a number of more minor but pleasant surprises -- like being able to pan and zoom in PDF files. Hit up the source link below for a closer look.
posted May 7th 2010 1:07PM
kinda pointless
@thisisit
Pointless? I've got a friend who swears by kindle. I'm pretty sure he'd love these additions. Especially the collections feature.
by pointless i mean is the implementation of the social networking feature. why put a link while you can just put the quote.
@thisisit
Word. I agree with you. I would much rather share a passage, but then amazon woulnt be able to fill a landing page up with a bunch of useless marketing..
A link to a quote? Link to where? Why couldn't they just include the actual quote in your message?
@TheTabe
From Ars...
"The link takes you to Amazon's website, which shows the title of the book (along with cover art) and the passage you highlighted. There are upsides and downsides to this approach: on Facebook, we think it would be nice if the actual passage was displayed in the wall post along with a picture of the book itself, and perhaps a link to the book on Amazon if friends want to buy it. In the case of Twitter though, it's important to minimize the number of characters, so we can understand why Amazon would want to tweet a minimal amount of information along with the link."
@who said what Thanks! I didn't visit the source link... Kind of makes sense, although I would think if they really wanted to they could make it so it sends the actual passage and thumbnail to FB while sending only a link to Twitter...
@who said what
I'm sure it would have been terribly complex for them to limit the number of characters you could tweet from you kindle, say like how twitter already does. I'm sure that the fact that this turns every kindle owning twitterer into an advertisement for amazon never occurred to them. And as an added bonus, amazon won't have to pay referral links fees, like they do for bloggers.
On top of that they've managed to expose their customers to even more phishing attempts by using shortened obfuscated URLS.
Double Win!
I didn't think histrionic teenagers read books.
@agahnim
But book-lovers do have facebook/twitter account.
@agahnim Don't be so racist. Mexicans can read, even teenage ones.
No. this static, monochrome user interface just doesn't do it for me, it looks like I'm back in the 80's, using Windows 3.11. No e-ink in the world that can make up for that.
@drange How flashy do you need an ebook reader to be? Would you prefer to navigate the 3D OS from Hackers to get to the next page?
@Khav
Well, in fact, that would be kind of cool.
@drange
Acid burn! Crash override! Lord Nikon! The Plague! ahhhhhh!
But seriously. The ui sucks because e-ink sucks. The general public will not truly start to adopt dedicated ereaders until they're either able to display color and not take 3 seconds to change pages, or until they're so cheap that the one trick functionality doesn't matter. Most people seem to have no problem reading on an ipad/iPhone screen for an hour or so, which is about all it really needs to be comfortable for because no one is going to read for 10 hours at a time.
@TheKingOfHyrule I read for 6 hours last Sunday on my Kindle. I'd rather hold a 10-ounce e-ink screen outside on a sunny day than have to prop up a pound and a half under enough shade to allow me to see the LCD. And be able to do that several days in a row without charging. And not have to pay more than I spent for my fully functional laptop. So we do exist.
@myopiczeal
Do you have an iPad as well? Or are you just guessing that it would not be a good experience?
Wow...looks...kinda...like...kaka?
The Kindle is not dead yet?? 1,000,000 iPad sold in the first month which does eBooks social neworking and much much much much more and a color display! Remind me again....why is the kindle still alive??
@Moisture Because some people still read, and not just surf.
@Moisture Well, besides the Kindle costing over $200 less than the iPad... Not everyone wants/needs the extra features of the iPad. Heck, a lot of ebook readers won't even care about the social networking feature! They just want to read their books!
@Moisture
Some people just want to read books--and not all the other extraneous stuff the iPad does. Plus the iPad is considerably heavier and the Kindle gets much better battery life.
@Moisture As the posters above have said, the Kindle is cheaper and lighter than the iPad. Also, since it uses e-ink, it's easier to look at for longer periods of time than the iPad's LCD screen.
@Moisture Because as a pure e-reader, the kindle is better than the ipad in every conceivable way?
You all think 1.5lbs is heavy? Perhaps you should all put your books down for a bit and hit the gym!
Amazon, stop playing favorites and release it to the rest of us!
Will the quote be displayed in the link information?
And pan and zoom for PDF's. That is really the big feature of this release, which is what I have been waiting for. Off to craigslist I go!
@hated one A few of us have already disagreed with that notion... Read above...
The iPad has it's place in the technology world (obviously), but there is also still a place for ebook reader ONLY devices...
That's interesting. but I'm wondering what's going on with Kindle Appstore(for active content). Will Amazon launch it before next gen kindle comes out? or will it be only for next gens.
@hated one
I actually bought a kindle because of the iPad. The LCD screen just hurt my eyes too much for using it as an e-reader, while the e-ink to me is much more readable. iPad is a great device, it just didn't suit my needs as much as the kindle. I don't play many games need to watch videos on the run.
When it comes to reading, you cannot substitute the LCD backlit screen with e-ink, it just doesn't give you the same experience.
I have a Nook, and I absolutely love reading on it. I've tried my cousins iPad and couldn't read for long without my eyes going crazy.
@foofighting86 How is the Nook overall? I read a review that said there are a lot of bugs, especially with the LCD screen. Have they been quick to resolve bugs? I'm trying to figure out which reader to get for my father and am leaning towards the Nook...
It is astounding how many times this conversation has gone on as modern tech is provided to customers.
Seller: "There is enough memory to store hundreds of them, maybe thousands!"
Consumer: "Great ! Can I organize them so I can find what I want in all that mess?"
Seller: "What?"
iPad is where its at! Besides the kindle just looks and feels like an old piece of technology! Looks more like it should belong back in the 80's with the speak and spell!
@Moisture
You don't read much, do you.
@nbolmer Lol, yeah... Sounds like Moisture just likes whatever is the latest and greatest (regardless of whether its function fits the need or not), with pretty colors and moving pictures... ;)
@nbolmer I have bad eye site and the iPad is, by all means a great way to read books. Put people like this behind you, and the iPad is actually a great tool for reading. e-Ink is a luxury, not needed in the book reading world. I've read book up until the wee hours of the morning, and have not suffered any eyestrain. I urge you to reconsider your stationary thought that the iPad is only for people like moisture.
I guess there's just no getting through to some people... As demonstrated by Moisture...
I think it's great that Amazon is rolling out features like this, but they should handle it better. On Facebook or twitter it should just read the passage and the pic of the book (Facebook only). Then if someone should want more information, then they can click the link.
LoL who were the fools who bought this crap.
eReaders have no future.
I'd rather have a larger phone, a la Evo / Dell Streak.
@Johnny Rockets Yeah, that's what we've all been waiting for... larger phones.
Anyone who says that the reading experience on an iPad equals that of an e-reader. Plain and simple. You can argue to death about which device in general has more merit, and for tons and tons of people, the iPad comes out on top, but ask any die-hard reader to use both for a month and compare them, and I bet I know their answer. I definitely know mine. Take my music, movies, email, internet, and a million other features and put them in one device, but if you insist on taking my books off paper, then they better damn well be on e-ink because that is the true digital reading experience out there.