Kindles!

[selenay]

I'm pretty sure that I have a cold. It's fairly mild, but after eighteen months of having no infections of any kind (yay over-active immune system) this sucks a lot. Blergh.

So, let us discuss Kindles!


My lovely Kindle does not need replacing, so any lust that I feel for the new Touch 3G is rather pointless. Actually, while the new Touch models are gorgeous I have no actual urge to buy one. If I had to replace mine then I'd go for the Touch 3G without ads, though.

I like that Amazon now has a large range of price-points including the super-cheap entry level model. That's smart marketing and I suspect that the $79 model will be what pushes a lot of people to go e-reader or to buy their kids e-readers if they already have Kindles.

I've been very impressed by Mum's Kobo Touch and it sounds like the Kindle Touch models will be equally lovely. If the screen is as responsive as Mum's then they'll do very well indeed. It looks like the on-screen keyboard is suspiciously familiar to any iPhone/iPad users so it will be an easy thing to use and it continues the K3 tradition of not needing to be hooked up to a computer to set up.

In fact, my one big criticism is that Amazon appears to have stopped providing the AC Power Adaptor. You can buy it separately for $10 US, but for a machine that never needs to be attached to a computer (mine never has), only providing a USB cable without an adaptor seems like a major omission.

I'm surprised that they're keeping the keyboard Kindles going, but also happy because I'm rather fond of the interface on mine and like knowing that it's an option (for now) if mine died.

One of the best parts of all this is that they're maintaining and developing the dedicated e-reader line, which was my biggest fear. Having a dedicated e-reader is important to me and, I suspect, to many people and I'd been half-afraid that the Kindle in the form that I love would be killed. Not so. Phew!

Of course, the news on the e-reader Kindles has been rather overshadowed by the tablet Kindle Fire.

Firstly, I should say that I've looked hard at the specs and so on and I'll still be buying myself an iPad2. This is mainly due to the small on-board storage and the lack of 3G on the Fire. Having a decent amount of storage (so that I can take some movies and TV shows with me on my next plane flight or hospital admission) is one of the reasons that I'm looking at the 32GB or 64GB iPad. Having Internet connectivity when the power goes out or when my local airport's wifi is down is also important to me. As is the ability to buy a single-use SIM for 3G when I'm in England.

This morning someone pointed out that the Fire has no microphone or camera, so no Skype, which is another negative for me in what I'm looking for. So it's still one of the higher-end, 3G iPad2's for me.

However, as an entry level device for a lot of people I can see the Fire being great. Consuming books and movies and doing the odd bit of web browsing, playing a few games and generally keeping amused seems like exactly what it is intended for. I'm pretty sure that it won't have Apple trembling in their boots, though, unless the rumoured 10" version has the extra bells and whistles like 3G, camera and microphone.

To be honest, I think that the Fire will appeal most to people who would have been looking at the lowest-end iPad and who don't use things like Skype. People who want something to stream movies, read books in colour or use the magazine and comic apps that have started to do so well. It will, I suspect, do particularly well for people who can't justify the cost of the lowest-end iPads and are looking for a media consumption device.

My suspicion is that it won't impact hugely on iPad sales, but it will fall nicely into the lower-end niche that iPads don't cater to and other tablets haven't been able to market to. It has the good price-point and it is integrated with a service that a lot of people already use, which is one of the reasons that iPads have done so well.

People who plan to do any kind of productivity will still go for iPads. I suspect it's the Nook Colour that will be impacted far more than the iPad.

It will be interesting to see how all of these models do when they actually start shipping.


Downton Abbey is awesome. Totally brilliant. I adore Anna, Sybil and the grandmother. I loathe Thomas and O'Brian. Hopefully over the weekend I'll finish it and get started on the new season. Love, love, love it.

Also, I am reading a lovely long plotty NCIS/Stargate cross-over. It's from the perspective of NCIS and the author is doing a good job of keeping their knowledge minimal while cluing the reader in if they're familiar with SG. Very enjoyable.

I've really got to go into Netflix and re-watch the whole of Stargate, including the final three seasons that I lost interest in.

Comments

[bouldergirl]

I feel pretty much the same way about the fire. I would still go for an iPad but I can see the appeal of a tablet in the $200 market. For what we want to do though an iPad just makes more sense.

[selenay]

I think there will be a big market for something like the Fire so Anazon will do well with it. However, I don't think it will appeal to many people who are planning on iPads because it's missing too much. Amazon seems to be targeting the sub-iPad crowd rather than chasing Apple and I think that's a good strategy.

[cobrabay.livejournal.com]

My own ereader has just died, it was a cheap Hanvon e-ink reader that was only usable because I replaced the original terrible operating system with Open Inkpot. So I was quite tempted by the new Kindles, the e-ink ones, I have no need of a low end tablet (I agree with your assessment). The Touch isn't available for pre-order in the UK, not entirely sure why, but I'm happy to go with the non-touch, 5 button version. It's a bit lighter and smaller and I want a dedicated reading device, so I'm pretty sure I'll manage without being able to fondle it's front. Plus, cheaper. Though not as cheap as I expected. I knew it would be a bit more as the UK version is not advertising supported like the US/Canada versions, but a straight $/£ conversion, plus VAT would be £60. They are charging £89 in the UK. I'd be surprised if they thought they were getting £30 worth of ad revenue per person. However, even though it feels a bit of a rip-off, only a minor one, and so I have given in to temptation and pre-ordered one. I shall have to set Calibre to the task of converting my library of EPUB files to the .MOBI format.

[selenay]

Apparently the Touch is only available in North America for now. Hopefully they'll roll it out in the UK fairly soon, though.

The new entry-level model is rather nice-looking and touch-screen is definitely not a must-have in an ereader, I agree. So far, I've played with a couple of different ereaders and still love my Kindle much more, mainly for how easy it is to set up and use compared to everything else. It's worth the money, although the price difference between here and the UK is insane!

I'm now hoping my local library adds Kindle borrowing to their catalogue. From everything that I'm hearing, the borrowing on Kindles is as seamless (and wireless) as I'd hoped and thus I'm excited.

[paranoidangel]

If I had to replace mine then I'd go for the Touch 3G without ads, though

Kindles have adverts? I never knew that.

[selenay]

There is an option for Kindles to have adverts in the US and, possibly, Canada. It's an option that came out after I bought my Kindle and apparently the ads are at the bottom of the home page and on the screen saver, none in the books.

Basically, it gives a cheaper Kindle option if you're OK with the odd ad on the screen saver.

[fyrdrakken]

One reason I've been holding off on getting myself a Kindle was expecting another price drop to arrive before I get my birthday money to play with, and I see I was right. Now I'm just debating whether I want the mid-range (with the 3G and no ads) or am going to splurge on the iPad knockoff Fire version. (Most of what the Fire doesn't do I can do with my netbook, so. And you're absolutely right that I might could use a handy portable device for streaming movies but don't even have a Skype account, though I keep thinking I should set one up.)

Regarding the adaptors, I thing I noticed in the last year or so is that the USB connection is so standard with so many devices that I suspect some device manufacturers may be assuming that the typical user already has at least one on hand, if not several, and is no longer giving out a new one with every phone, MP3 player, and e-reader. (What with the chargers generally outlasting the device they were purchased with by a number of years, and it being so easy and cheap to buy yourself extras separately, including versions to use in your car or on a plane.)

Ooh, what's this NCIS/SG crossover?

[selenay]

some device manufacturers may be assuming that the typical user already has at least one on hand

I hadn't even thought of that and you're right. I've got two or three chargers around from different things. My brain is still stuck in the mode that everything has different power requirements and needs its own charger. Thank goodness manufacturers are standardising on that. I wish cellphone makers would get there...

The cross-over was this one: http://archiveofourown.org/works/245813

Although I've nearly finished this one (NCIS/Atlantis) that's quite different and also rather good: http://archiveofourown.org/works/164584

[fyrdrakken]

I was overjoyed when I got my current MP3 player (which came with no power cord) because I could use my Blackberry's USB power cord to charge it and only carry one charger around in my backpack and also use my car phone charger on my MP3 player the next time I found myself making an 8-12 hour drive with the player hooked to the car's iPod jack. (This coming after the two-week vacation in which I'd had a different charger for every damned device I had with me taking up too much room in my luggage -- MP3 player, PDA, Blackberry, camera -- and the old MP3 player's charger had been huge.)

And then some months after that I upgraded to my current Blackberry, and was annoyed that it came with a micro-USB connection instead. (And came with a packaged charger, further supporting evidence for the premise that it's because the USB connection is so ubiquitous that manufacturers expect you to have power cords already on hand.) But I dropped a few bucks on a micro-to-regular-USB connection converter -- and now the phone's charger lives at my bedside for overnight charging while the old USB charger lives in my backpack for using on my MP3 player. But I can use the converter and charge my phone with the old charger or the old car charger if necessary. Not bad.

Thanks for the links -- though it turns out I've already read both of them.

There has been interesting discussion over at seperis's journal(s) regarding the target market for the Kindle Fire. She was suggesting that it's a stealthy appeal to the users like her mother who would be delighted by a good e-reader that also happens to stream movies, and then perhaps be seduced into the apps market that she hasn't wanted anything to do with up to this point. And some commenters have gotten the ad-supported Kindle and reported that it's not only fairly non-intrusive but has a very good hit rate in terms of presenting items they'd actually want to buy -- notifying of Amazon's latest e-book sales, for example -- and making them easy to purchase. Though I'd still just as soon drop an extra $30 on my Kindle and avoid the ads. (I get enough of those e-mailed from Amazon. Some are indeed useful.)