Amazon’s Kindle? In one word: Meh. And from my oh-so-casual research, that seems to be the general feeling around the internets.
In more words, I gotta agree with Scalzi:
It looks like a nice toy. But I look at it this way: I can pay $400 for an e-book reader, and then pay $7.99 for an electronic copy of a book, or I can just pay $7.99 for the actual book, which requires no expensive intermediary equipment to enjoy, and use that extra $400 to buy 50 more books. Seems pretty straightforward to me.
Sorry, Newsweek, the iPod it isn’t. (Hey, does the iPhone have a PDF reader? Because that might be occasionally useful. Emphasis on occasionally.)
More linkage
- Roundup of Gizmodo’s coverage
- First impressions and a review on BoingBoing Gadgets.