Say the Word and You're Free
Just like to point out that Baen Books is offering a whole pile of fine works of science fiction, fantasy and more in their Free Library. Just in case you think Amazon has invented the world of electronic books. (And while you're at it, surf past the media hype and also look at Project Gutenberg, Memoware, Manybooks and other folks who have been on the frontier far longer than the Amazon effort. Heck, I recall downloading Project Gutenberg works for my Apple Newton!)
(There's no reason, by the way, to spend several hundred dollars on a poorly designed, hard to hold comfortably, overpriced, DRM-crippled reader. Some smart shopping in second-hand outlets can get you a perfectly capable laptop, eBook reader or PDA for far less.)
Addendum (December 4, 2007): Charles Stross has some thoughts on the Kindle. I especially like this: We have a technical term for any business plan that relies on making life difficult for customers and easy for non-customers: we call it "circling the drain". Mark Pilgrim on the Kindle.
Posted by Fred Kiesche at November 26, 2007 11:27 AMI blogged on this topic already. Ya, for geeks like us, etext is old hat (I managed etext webrings for years). We are not the Kindle's target audience though. They are looking at folks who haven't used etext yet, and spend enough at Amazon where a $400 dedicated ebook reader will pay for itself inside a year. One reviewer (on NPR) said that he was dropping his $50 a month dead tree subscription to the New York Times in favor of $14 a month fee to have it automatically sent to his Kindle daily. That only recovers the price of the Kindle in the first year.
The device isn't going to make or break sales on this thing, it is the service.
Posted by: Mark at November 28, 2007 10:11 AM