WWVPD?
Or, What Would Virginia Postrel Do? Inspired by Crooked Timber et al, I clicked through to Amazon’s Kindle page. It looks like the kid you lock in the basement tried to design his own Speak-n-Spell from memory.
Yuck!
Contrariwise, the Sony Digital Reader looks pretty sweet!
Admittedly, reviews are mixed. And the Kindle seems to have it all over Sony when it comes to connectivity.
UPDATE: A fair argument has been made in comments that comparing a picture of a Sony eReader to a picture of a cake shaped like a Kindle is cheating. So you can also see a real Kindle picture.
Comment by d'Herblay —
March 22, 2008 @ 11:59 am
I love my Sony eReader, and I have the earlier version with the poorer, darker screen. But forget connectivity: the Kindle’s advantage is selection.
Comment by Tim —
March 22, 2008 @ 12:07 pm
You did notice that the picture was a Kindle cake. Or am I snark-impaired?
Comment by Azael —
March 22, 2008 @ 12:09 pm
I’ve got both and the Kindle beats Sony hands down.
Comment by Maria —
March 22, 2008 @ 12:16 pm
Just to second Tim – we’re both snark impaired apparently
The actual Kindle is not breathtakingly beautiful but it’s not that ugly either.
Comment by The Modesto Kid —
March 22, 2008 @ 1:52 pm
Wow, so does the Sony also come in an edible version? That alone would seem to put the Kindle head and shoulders above its competition.
Comment by Avram —
March 22, 2008 @ 3:22 pm
Yeah, one of my main objections to the Kindle is how butt-ugly it is. I’m hoping they hire some real designers for the second generation device.
I’m holding off till the screens get better, anyway.
Comment by Barry —
March 22, 2008 @ 5:12 pm
“A fair argument has been made in comments that comparing a picture of a Sony eReader to a picture of a cake shaped like a Kindle is cheating.”
I *thought* it looked sorta lopsided and slightly melted.
Comment by Diana —
March 22, 2008 @ 7:02 pm
personally I think the Macbook Air is the real kindle
Comment by Justin Slotman —
March 22, 2008 @ 7:22 pm
And I think the Asus eee is the real Macbook Air!
Comment by Neel Krishnaswami —
March 22, 2008 @ 7:33 pm
I’m holding for a non-crippleware version. I don’t care how ugly it is, because if it lets me stop owning tons of physical books then it’s a win. But DRM is a showstopper, since if I replace a physical book with an ebook I want to continue owning it beyond the lifespan of the device.
Comment by TGGP —
March 22, 2008 @ 8:55 pm
What Would Virginia Postrel Do? Advocate the invasion of Iraq. Take that, orangebeltwaycosmotarianlifestyleinterventionist!
Comment by Avram —
March 22, 2008 @ 10:36 pm
Yeah, what Neel said about DRM. Amazon isn’t gonna be around forever, and you don’t want to convert your whole library over to etexts and then find yourself in the same position as the people who bought official videos from Major League Baseball.
Comment by The Modesto Kid —
March 22, 2008 @ 10:36 pm
I want to continue owning it beyond the lifespan of the device
Weelll… If your house burns down you no longer own the books in your library, right? (Such of them as have fed the flames anyway). So if your Digital Reading Device crashes is that equivalent to your book-containing house having burnt down? (Obviously not — you still have a place to sleep — but I’m just talking about specifically as it affects your book-ownership.)
Comment by The Modesto Kid —
March 22, 2008 @ 10:39 pm
(Sorta puts the notion of an edible Digital Reader Device, which seemed so attractive, into perspective — that would be like building your house out of gingerbread. Perhaps you could seduce and capture a couple of chubby youngsters but at the end of the day your house and/or DRD is perishable.)
Comment by Mona —
March 22, 2008 @ 11:49 pm
Remember Beta v. VHS? — on “professional” advice I bought a Beta. I want this device Jim writes of, too, but am waiting to see who wins(and the price will at some point then go down).
Comment by Neel Krishnaswami —
March 23, 2008 @ 8:17 pm
Modesto Kid: to use a physical analogy, a DRM-locked book is like buying a physical book that comes with a security guard.
This guard works for and is paid by the the bookseller, and his job is to keep you from taking the book out of the house. He is very strict about the rules, and won’t let you take it with you when you go the beach, or to the park, or anywhere outside your house — he will even try to stop you if your house catches on fire and you try to carry a beloved book out. He’s also not very bright, and if you buy a new house, he won’t believe you and won’t let you move your book to the new house. It’s also common for the guard to report to the bookseller what you read and when, so that they can design more effective junk mail to send you. Finally, if the bookseller fires him or goes out of business, he’ll take the book with him when he leaves, just to make sure that you never take the book out of the house.
So who really owns the book? You, or the guard’s employer?
Comment by Barry —
March 24, 2008 @ 11:00 am
Neel: “I want to continue owning it beyond the lifespan of the device”
Comment by The Modesto Kid —
“Weelll… If your house burns down you no longer own the books in your library, right? (Such of them as have fed the flames anyway). So if your Digital Reading Device crashes is that equivalent to your book-containing house having burnt down? (Obviously not — you still have a place to sleep — but I’m just talking about specifically as it affects ”
I don’t know about you, but I see far, far, far, far, far, far, far more turnover in electronics than I see house fires. The odds favor having a system go out of production and being unsupported decades before losing a house in a fire.
Comment by The Modesto Kid —
March 24, 2008 @ 12:56 pm
Neel, Barry: Yeah, just kiddin’ around. Available evidence suggests that I was at least mildly intoxicated at 10:30 Saturday evening.
Comment by Kip W —
March 27, 2008 @ 5:44 pm
Someone left the Kindle in the rain
And I’m worried that might kill it,
Cause it took so long to fill it
And I’ll have to pay for everything again!
Oh nooo!