dvandom: (iCon)
dvandom ([personal profile] dvandom) wrote2009-05-06 01:41 pm
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2012 edges closer....

Super-Kindle to be tested at CWRU, aimed at replacing textbooks. We may actually get to the "eTexts outnumber hardcopy" goal by 2012 like that one textbook publisher predicted a few years ago at an AAPT meeting.

[identity profile] sweh.livejournal.com 2009-05-06 07:03 pm (UTC)(link)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/06/kindle_dx/
ext_26697: (pic#)

[identity profile] brainiacfive.livejournal.com 2009-05-06 08:08 pm (UTC)(link)
I've just been salivating over reports. I wasn't too interested in the kindle-only format, but a larger screen, with native pdf support, and a limited web-browser? Yowser!

I had been waiting for one of the overseas larger display units to be more readily available (or at all) here, so maybe this will help accelerate that trend. Probably still too expensive for me, but I love the idea of carrying all of my game books on a device I can refer to easily.

[identity profile] foomf.livejournal.com 2009-05-06 08:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Three things required before I will touch a Kindle:

1 - They have to put back the ability to add SD or other memory cards.
2 - They have to provide complete backward compatibility and a more reasonable set of formats than the "amazon only" one they use.
3 - They have to open their service to other platforms via api and registration so they have competition. It would be nice if they opened the kindle for other content providers as well.

Also would be nice: color. wi-fi support. better user interface for sorting books by category. smarter download rather than the one-at-a-time click-to-confirm-each interface they now have.

OH! I forgot a fourth mandatory.
They MUST provide a way to back up the book to a user's own repository (disk drive, computer, whatever) because they cannot guarantee that they are always going to be there, hell, the Kindle 1 people who upgraded to the Kindle 2 are already being hosed by having to RE PURCHASE things that got "lost".

[identity profile] finback.livejournal.com 2009-05-07 12:43 am (UTC)(link)
Colour would pretty much be mandatory if getting into textbook areas. Otherwise, I pretty much second everything you said.

[identity profile] loki-liesmith.livejournal.com 2009-05-07 03:52 am (UTC)(link)
1-3 I agree on, Color would be nice, but I think we're still a ways off from that. As for four, can't you already do that via usb? I pulled everything off of my Kindle 1 to my hard drive to transfer to my kindle 2.

[identity profile] foomf.livejournal.com 2009-05-07 05:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Kindle 2, according to multiple feedback on amazon.com, does not support usb up or download. If this is a mistake on the part of the feedbackers, that's fine.

Your kindle 1 books will probably not play on your kindle 2 in a friendly fashion, given that Amazon has made it impossible to download kindle 1 books onto the kindle 2 unless you want to re-purchase one where only the front page has been modified by retitling it.

[identity profile] grant-p.livejournal.com 2009-05-06 09:40 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't know. I use my N800 for lots of e-book reading, but while the kindle could easily be the 'super PDA', it seems limited. Not to mention, if your battery dies, you are out of luck.