Looking for a great moment of traveler’s glory? Always forgetting your books at home? Look no further than Amazon’s Kindle, the new electronic book reader.
The good: Excellent high-contrast screen does a great job of simulating a printed page; large library of tens of thousands of e-books, newspapers, magazines, and blogs via Amazon’s familiar online store; built-in free wireless “Whispernet” data network–no PC needed; built-in keyboard for notes; SD card expansion slot; compatible with Windows and Mac machines.
- CNET.com Review
Now has come the days where technology might begin to actually save you time and money, instead of just claiming to do so. The Kindle is a one of a kind book reader that begins to have the consumer in mind. With access to web content and a selection of over 90,000 reasonably priced (less than most print copies) books and periodicals, it’s a device that has the ability to actually change the way we do things. Look at the review and you can purchase it here.
So where are gadgets now?
They are here to serve you, more than ever, but also here to serve the companies that make them as well. Herein lies the problem, corporate self-interest instead of corporate cooperation. It seems they often times ignore the very things that make their products popular; openness, ease of use, and social development. In an age of social networking, products sometimes emerge out of openness. Like the mp3 player and the ever popular iPod, which were forced to keep some part of their wares open to what made them big in the first place. Even so, the iTunes Store purposely holds your hand and requires certain things for certain content. This is a fine line and as I await my new Nokia N810 Internet Tablet, I hope the open-source software surrounding Linux leaves me free. I’m still stuck trying to re-manage the GPS as they try to lock me into a $130 subscription for full use of the service. It is though, my first big step in going Web 2.0. Goodbye locally based software! Woe is me. Woe is us.
The direction products move as we enter this age of Web 2.0 will be worth watching. 2008 is the year to watch. The Consumer Electronic Show (CES) upon us (coverage here), now is a better time than ever to begin this topic on JustinFenwick.Net
How are you interacting, making this technology yours? Do you think we will win or is it the companies’ game? In other words, are we going to feel stuck in Apple land, Amazon land, Google land, or Microsoft land instead of our own, a land of shared standards and content?
Turn your iPod into a book reader
1) iPod as ebook reader
2) Read Ebooks on Your iPod with Ebook to Images
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I feel like your dad should own this. It has to be better for his sci-fi reading than his palm pilot.