Just a quick note for Kindle owners: You can now get dotCULT updates on your kindle. Amazon charges $1.99, but it sounds like they’ll push blog updates right to your device. You can subscribe at the following link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002AKKDGO.
I don’t currently own a Kindle, but if you do and choose to subscribe, let me know how it works.
I really don’t see the point of the Kindle. It’s the same size as a book, weighs the same as a book, but costs £200. What’s wrong with actual books? They’re useless for study texts and reference as well. I just don’t get it. It’s a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.
Comment by Alexander — May 28, 2009 @ 5:43 am
You’re right, it is the same size and weight of one book. The significance is that it holds the content of hundreds or thousands of books, and still only weighs and measures the same as one book. I agree that a traditional hard-copy book is useful in many situations, but there are also many situations in which being able to pop out your Kindle and read whatever you like would be very nice.
Comment by Isaac — May 28, 2009 @ 8:06 pm
It’s the fact that it stores hundreds of thousands of books that makes it so pointless. Think about it – how many books do you read at the same time? Maybe 2 or 3 maximum, or things get confusing. It’s attempting to treat books like mp3s, but they’re totally different media. It takes days or weeks to read a book from cover to cover, and you’re not guaranteed to want to read it again any time soon. You’re not going to stick your Kindle on “shuffle” and read an odd chapter from any one of your hundreds of thousands of books on a whim are you?
Plus, ebooks have been around for years and haven’t exactly made the paper book redundant. Before the Kindle came along there was nothing stopping you from buying ebooks of your book collection and carrying them around in your laptop, but nobody does that.
I just think it’s a kneejerk attempt to digitize something that really doesn’t benefit from it.
Comment by Alexander — May 29, 2009 @ 2:26 am