And what about the Big Brother Effect?
I will never buy an ebbok reader that gives someone else control on what I have loaded on it.
Amazon has revamped and repriced its Kindle DX e-reader, improving its display and dropping its price from $489 to $379. The upgraded 9.7-inch e-ink display on the new DX, big brother to the 6-inch original Kindle, is still monochrome. Color e-ink may be improving, but it's still not ready for prime time. But the new DX's 16- …
You can use a piece of software called Calibre to transfer books to the Kindle over USB. I use it with Stanza on the iPod Touch, and it's very nice, even downloads cover art once you give it the ISBN of the book.
It copes with most incoming text file formats and handles the conversion to the native format of the reader.
calibre-ebook.com is the site.
Considering that you can buy an EeePC or similar for the same price with the same size screen (but in colour) and it can do more then just read books, I still cannot understand why someone would buy one of these?
The small one has a purpose (although i still think its too expensive for that purpose), but this one at this price... Go buy an EeePC, its far more useful, just as easy to read off and only slightly heavier.
When this drops to $200 then maybe it will be better value then an EeePC, but until then...
It's because they replace a "book". When I pick up a book, I can't check my email on it, nor do I want to. Nor do I want it in colour. It's a "book" replacement. The e-ink technology is great and for somebody that reads a lot (me) and travels a fair bit too it's the best. Battery life is approx 7000 page turns since it uses no energy switched on.
Are you sure?
I have an EEEPC and I love it -- but as something to read a book from it sucks. However, the "electronic paper" devices I have played with have displays that look like paper, can be read from an angle, and don't emit light to dazzle tired eyes.
Is the Kindle worth more than $200? Not sure.
Is it better to red off than <insert laptop here>? Definitely, at least to my eyes.
It still has a non-replaceable battery that requires a mailback to Amazon in the US for replacement. People report the battery lasts about a year, then it's $80+freight to get it replaced. The Nook has a user-replaceable battery (about $6 I hear). I will never buy a gadget that requires me to spend a huge amount in international shipping to get the battery replaced, to say nothing of the outrageous profit Amazon is making from the battery itself. Epic fail.