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Amazon's Kindle
A new player is entering the eBook market. Barnes & Noble is expected to have their Plastic Logic eReader on the market in early 2010. That device will be competing with Amazon’s Kindle and the Sony Reader. Barnes & Noble is also upgrading its eReader application, allowing it to support both wireless and wired access to the B&N eBookstore.
One hopes that the eReader phenomenon will soon result in lower device prices and better usability. As it stands now, both of the most recent models of the available devices are priced at around $299. The Kindle uses Sprint’s data network to search and download books, it is not yet Wi-Fi compatible and now comes with USB support. The Sony Reader connects via a USB port. The Kindle has a 2GB memory, enough for approximately 1,500 books, while the Sony comes with 512 MB standard (about 350 books) and supports Memory Stick expansion. The Sony Reader has touch screen display. The Kindle doesn’t have integrated PDF reading capability, so the reader has to send a PDF file to themselves to enable conversion for reading. Sony Reader trumps the Kindle with a backlit screen, allowing it to be read in dark places.
It is important to note that when buying a book to read on an eBook device, you are not buying the actual book; what you are buying is a license to read that book. You can’t lend a friend a book you bought for your eBook.
Amazon has recently come under fire over the disappearance of the George Orwell books, 1984 and Animal Farm that were downloaded to Kindle devices. It seems that the book was added to the Kindle store by a company that did not have rights to them, so Amazon zapped all copies from user Kindles, offering a credit for the books. Amazon has stated that they will not be taking that kind of action again, but there were prior reports of Harry Potter books and Ayn Rand being similarly removed without prior notice.
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Comments
That "Orwell Incident" on the Kindle stopped me from buying an electronic book reader, for now. Once I buy a book, it's mine to do with as I please. No back-door deletions and no download limits.
I think for the price charged and no manuafacture/printing costs, it seems that one should be able to own it and control use.
How can I get this on my Blackberry?
Hilly 8 - if you go to BN.com and click on eBooks, you should be able to find the free application for your blackberry.
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