Who needs a Kindle?
Fri 29 Feb 2008, 11:50 am
CC student Joey Glick was curled up in a chair reading on the first floor of the library near the reference desk. I walked past him several times before realizing that he wasn’t reading from a book or a notebook. Instead, he had taken his laptop and rotated it–and the onscreen document he was reading– 90 degrees so he could hold it like a book.
I’m hesitant to draw too many conclusions from this. After all, I took the photo and am posting it here because it is a novelty. I have never seen anyone do that before. But with smaller, lighter laptops being a trend (either wacky full-featured ones like the MacBook Air or stripped-down Eees and CloudBooks and XOs) I think we might see more people get more serious about using the laptop as an ebook/document reader.
- License:
- File under: Books and reading
- Comments? 8
Next time you see Mr. Glick, I’d be curious to know what sort of document he was reading. Public domain pdf? I’m afraid my lappy, at 5+ lbs and a dismal battery life of 2 or fewer hours is no match for Kindle. Thanks for posting, though!
Comment by rochelle — February 29, 2008 @ 1:04 pm
was it one of the microsoft tablet pcs that have been around a few years and that automatically rotate the screen?
Comment by caleb — February 29, 2008 @ 2:29 pm
Nah. You can see in the other photo I took that it’s a Toshiba. I don’t think it was all that fancy, he just rotated the image 90 degrees.
And Rochelle, it looked like a PDF from one of our databases or electronic reserves or something.
Comment by Steve Lawson — February 29, 2008 @ 3:09 pm
It’s all about the free wireless access. As a comparison, here’s what it’d cost to get a laptop on “anywhere” wireless access: Going 3g with a card from Verizon looks to be ~$60 to start and $60/mo, so not even half a year for $400. Sprint (which is reportedly what the Kindle uses) has a web special right now where the card and signup are free, and unlimited data is $60/mo, so you get almost 7 months for your $400.
Comment by Chris Weiss — February 29, 2008 @ 11:29 pm
I suppose I meant the title of the post to be rhetorical, rather than to get into talking about the Kindle (which I haven’t used, or even seen in person). But it’s always nice to have people take my ideas seriously.
So let’s talk wireless. If I’m reading the Amazon info correctly, all you can actually do with that ubiquitous wireless access is buy more books from Amazon. And surf Wikipedia. I’d think that wireless access is much more important on the laptop than on the ebook reader. Remember also, that at the small private residental college where I work, that student already has wireless access where he works, lives, and eats, so in our bubble, the advantages of the Kindle may be less compelling.
I’d also think that most of us are used to assembling our reading material before leaving the house, and don’t need instant access to the new James Patterson novel at 64% off. But it is entirely possible that Kindle-style wireless access is the kind of thing you can’t really appreciate until you have used it, and it is certainly true that I am not part of the target market for the Kindle.
Comment by Steve Lawson — March 1, 2008 @ 7:42 am
Actually, there is a browser in the Kindle, it’s not the greatest user-experience and doesn’t support flash or any other web goodies, but you can do the basics (the Google web apps fall back to “mobile” mode). Alas, you can’t do “on the fly” conversion of, say PDF or Word files if you found something on a web page. But I’m under the impression you can download .PRC and .AZW files directly from the browser and there’s always regular viewing of text and html.
Comment by Chris Weiss — March 1, 2008 @ 8:01 pm
Oh, thanks, Chris. I was going off the main Amazon page which doesn’t seem to mention the browser.
Comment by Steve Lawson — March 1, 2008 @ 9:14 pm
The idea of kindle would be great if it were 1991 or so ? why even use an e-reader? there are many freeware ereader programs out there that one can put on their laptop- and the g-uttenberg project i belive has thousands of r=free e-books available for download, not to mention many local libraries. also most libraries and Panera bread have FREE unlimited web access… just a few thoughts before people get into the time machine and use kindle.
Comment by dave — February 14, 2009 @ 8:27 am