amazon.com: kindle 3g wireless reading device, free 3g + wi-fi

So why doesn't Amazon give me access to the entire fucking web ???

If they did, i would have purchased it to-fucking-day ... instead i'll just wait until some outfit that doesn't want to just manipulate my purchases gives me something that works just as well at a lower price !!!

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Alternatively this is the way to sell eBooks

source: mashable
Google has launched its long-awaited e-bookstore, Google E-books, bringing more than 3 million books " many of them free " to any device with a web browser in the U.S.

The initiative, previously known as Google Editions, offers an alternative sales model from the dominant players in the space, such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple.

Instead of purchasing e-books through a single online store to read only on compatible software (i.e. books bought from the Kindle Store can only be read on Kindle apps), Google lets consumers buy books either from its store or any other online vendor that sells books in EPUB and PDF formats, and read them on any device with a web browser.

Way to go Google

... now i am truly motivated to get a eReader and start catching up on my reading

Should this be the one ?

POCKETBOOK Freedom of e-reading...

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hmmm ... maybe what i want is a IPod touch ... it's gonna have wifi ... can i type on it comfortably? ... can i buy books from Amazon, from Google? can i comfortable read pdf's i find on the web ... HTML pages? will i be comfortable reading on it?

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2/24/2011 Now there is another contender The Motorola XOOM

Here is a review by Scoble, the master iPod Fan

................

My only problem with it is that it can't go in my pocket. But it would be better for when i'm in the bed.

Now when is some smart markerter going to find a way to bundel a pod with a pad ... and while there into it bundel and integrate it with a desktop and a TV screen.

Comments

Seth says

M 2010-09-09 07:54:36 14283

Can you read whole books on your i-phone? Can you get the whole Internet on your i-pod? Why ask for all that on a book reader? Maybe you want an i-pad.

Yes you can read whole books on an iPhone, yes you can get whole Internet on your Ipod. I do want an iPad ... no problem with buying one ... i just don't want to pay the monthly bill for the service ... ~ $80/month ... notice the month part! Now go back and look at the advertisement that i depicted in the body of this item. Free WiFi!

What they've done is made their reading devise a special purpose thingey ... like a kitchen utensil that the only thing it does well is to mince garlic. I want a general purpose reader ... that i can read anything with ... that i don't have to purchase what i read from Amazon. It's a simple idea ... don't over complicate it.

Seth says

M 2010-09-09 09:21:19 14283

seth 2010-09-09 08:38:41 14283

M 2010-09-09 08:25:35 14283

Yeah, the Kindle replaces the special purpose thingy called a BOOK! I think the prices to download the Kindle formatted books are cheaper than buying the books. My comment was simply why complain that a book isn't a telephone or a TV set? But, .... maybe you are not complaining.

Well, yes i am complaining. A book is not special purpose in the same sense as the Kindle. You can buy it anywhere ... anyone can publish one. Buying downloaded books from Amazon might just be great and even cheep ... but, NO, i am not ready to grant them a "single source" on my reading habits. A Kindle is not a book ... it is a book you must buy from Amazon.

Actually, a Kindle or any other such device saves trees, printing & someday time waiting for publishing. There are others who will compete. The issues of copyright & format will be decided by evolution out in the marketplace. My answer to all of this is continue to practice selective spending!

Well yes certainly that is what i am doing ... practicing selective spending. Thing is i like the Kindle ... and i like the idea of perhaps having a portable reading surface ... and i like the idea of the way it talks ... and i like the way they are providing free WiFi for it. That's why i was so disappointed that they thought they had to go and limit it for their business plan to work ... and i will bet that they would actually have gotten more business if they had of just opened it up.

Seth says

Interesting how one of my favorite thinkers sees this the same way ...

source: John F Sowa

IBM (and other monopolists) usually destroy their own monopolies
by protective measures that stunt their natural growth.    (05)

I won't go through the many ways IBM strangled their natural growth
path, but every other business does the same.  Xerox PARC had an
outstanding computer design, which the copier executives didn't
understand.  But Steve Jobs did, and it became the Macintosh.    (06)

Bill Gates wanted to license the Mac interface to run on DOS,
but Steve refused.  So Bill had his friends design a cheaper
version called Windows -- and almost killed Apple.    (07)

Sony had an outstanding line of products in consumer electronics.
But they frittered away their dominant position by ignoring the
competition, starting with the Betamax.  Then they invented the
Walkman, but they lost the market to the iPod.    (08)

Steve keeps coming up with new innovations based on clever user
interfaces, but he has a tendency to strangle his own designs
by keeping them proprietary.

...

Mark de LA says

In a critique I read the other day on Kindle one comment suggested that the Kindle is wonderful with it's voice/sound capability but it requires a sighted person to get it started. Lawsuits have been settled.

Mark de LA says

BTW, BofNK has a Kindle edition for $9.99 - the neat thing about it is that Kindle provides a search capability. The book itself doesn't have an index.

C says

Why the sting? It takes a lot of capital to bring to market a successful product, including advertizing. As far as I know the Kindle was the first successful ebook reader for mass markets decreasing the time a book gets published & in the hands of the user in a portable way; paving the way for others to copy-cat the business model. Even saving paper & shipping costs. It's like the iPod became for the distribution of music & video (NetFlix as well). Give thanks for innovation. Come up with something on your own & see if you can be as big a success.

Seth says

C 2010-12-06 23:52:50 14283

Apparently Amazon wants to match Google feature for feature: http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/amazon-to-introduce-kindle-for-the-web/?news=123

Yep

. I am hoping that many of these artificial gotcha walls with which companies manipulate the telecommunications and information markets will start falling down.

C says

Kindle has a nice index feature. They have an online reader free for the desktops. Most, not all of their Kindle format books are cheaper than paper versions. Which books come in formats for google but not for kindle? If I were practicing selective spending in the matter, I would try to balance Google's vs Amazon's business practices & efficiencies & corporate cultures against eachother & make a choice. I know one person who has the Kindle WiFi version & likes it, but hasn't used it outside very much. Downloads are quite fast on WiFi which is surprising.

Seth says

seth 2010-12-11 09:19:48 14283

im gonna need to read this when i get a tuit "Google's Open Books Dont believe the rhetoric behind the search company's new Kindle rival." Thing is i'm about to get a Pocket Book for Christmas, Santa tells me ... but is that what i really want?

Ok i did read it ... his argument comes down to ...

source: Farhad Manjoo writing in slate
if you buy a book from Google, it will work just about everywhere except the Kindle. If you buy a book from Amazon, it will work just about everywhere, including the Kindle. What seems more open to you?

... but that, assuming it is even true - you should read the justification of his premises, does not address my big question of how many places i can i buy books. And then too, if i decide to get a android reader, why do i care if my books cannot be read on a Kindle.

But that aside, it might actually come down to who has the best reader. When Amazon opens their reader up to browse the entire web, they may well have the best reader ... hard to tell. The thing i'm thinking about is whether the added competition in an open market will eventually come up with the best reading devise. I mean $139 is not all that big of an investment. But if i start buying Amazon books, which i can't read on any thing buy a Kindle, my library might just end up on not the divise i really want.

So can you convince me to buy a Kindle and not a Android reader ?

Mark de LA says

Somebody will probably put a pager into the Kindle & i-pad eventually. It's LEC not LEH (;-)). 1000 books or the world's library at the fingertips creates ADHD. I like Nate's suggestion on facebook about notebooks if you want whole internet access. For some strange reason I don't like reading in bed cause I fall asleep. LILIPOH is one of the pdfs that is really hard to read on the computer in spite of the interest it has for me (RS showing up in the modern world).
I almost want to resubscribe to the print edition.

Seth says

source: M above
1000 books or the world's library at the fingertips creates ADHD

... not for me it doesn't. At any particular moment in any particular environment i can pick and choose where i put my attention ... well at least that is the ideal. If i have more choices in bed, or in the front room, or in the coffee house it will not necessarily mean that i won't be able to manage the attention. After all, unlike browsing, you can only read one thing at a time.

I also have problems with falling to sleep when reading in bed. But for me that is just grist for my plastic habit evolution ... not a preclusion to making that media environment more rich. The way things stand now, in my particular life, the choices are between reading, watching, and listening to what really interests me after i leave my desk, or watching reruns of law and order or caring who wins American Idol. That is really what all this is about, to be honest.

Seth says

C 2010-12-11 10:34:38 14283

You might also consider whether you really would like reading books on a device like an e-book reader. I find that I don't even like to read books in pdf format all that much on my desktop. Do you really want to run around with 1000 books to read in your pocket. The Kindle is small enough & flat enough to misplace in an untidy life & doesn't have a pager like a cell-phone to locate it that I know about.

Well yes i don't like to read long pdf materials at my desktop either ... and that is one of my biggest reasons for wanting a devise where i can read in bed or a coffee shop. The idea of me running around with the entire library of the world is a total turn on ... not a turn off. But you don't loose it, you might loose the devise, but your literature is either in the cloud or backed up by the cloud, isn't it?

Seth says

source: M asks
Which books come in formats for google but not for kindle?

Well, if you can take the Slate writer's uttering as true, probably none. if you are looking only at the major book and periodical publishers. But then i don't want my reading restricted to only the major book and periodical publishers. Google has a vast library of books that are out of copyright that they make available on the Adobe reader format (or at least that's what i suspect is true) ... i want to be able to read that stuff. Then too, Amazon's current reader does not give you access to the whole web yet ... we will need to wait for one that does. I want to be able to read any pdf file i can find on the web ... and any HTML file too, like for example your LEH reference.

Seth says

seth 2010-12-14 10:16:55 14283

Posted from iPod touch in text box

Ok ok ... the decision has been made ... Santa (denise) got me a iPod Touch at the Apple store in Tukwila Monday.

Seth says

Even though i've already shot my wad as it were and copped a iPad Touch, the tablet evolution and competition continues ...

Seth says

MR 2011-08-10 07:02:13 14283

Is this anything? http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20090531-93/kindle-cloud-reader-web-app-rebuffs-apple/

Yes it looks like, with this i might be able to read eBooks from Amazon which i haven't been able to do yet. It's not clear whether i can actually purchace a Amazon eBook with the app yet. I'll need to try it.

Mark de LA says

Is this anything? http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20090531-93/kindle-cloud-reader-web-app-rebuffs-apple/

amazon.com: kindle 3g wireless reading device, free 3g + wi-fi

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