Amazon’s new Kindle book reader has some interesting appeal. I haven’t actually touched one yet so this is some pretty half-assed commentary, but that doesn’t stop me. I jotted down notes on a long flight, of things that I would want the Kindle to do, but in my interminable smugness was sure that it didn’t have. The list that follows has my ideas, and then the reality of the features existance – for which I’m purely relying on Amazons description and video:
- one-click dictionary lookup: yes, has dictionary, not one-click
- footnote links: yes, enabled for web search
- embeded multimedia: possibly, does appear to have an audio output
- email of quotes: yes, think I saw this
- highlight and capture of notes: yes
- integration of reader reviews and ability to add a review: sort of, can read reviews, not sure if you can add one from Kindle
- Download a book from a store: yes
- Download a book from a wireless access point: yes, “Kindle Store” (why didn’t they just call it Amazon: Kindle)
- How about interviews with the author, book reviews, awards & accoladedes: no, but you can search for this stuff
In short I was a little surprised that the software went further than my expectations, though my expectations were kind of low. So while the device is pretty cool it seems to not be quite on the “wow, omg, I have to have this thing” area that it will need to be to gain mass appeal. Part of that lies in the hardware. On first blush it’s not that attractive and has what seems to be at least one major annoyance. Turning pages is done with these large buttons on the side of the device, right where you would hold it. You would think that it makes logical sense to put them there, right? I can just imagine accidently hitting those things all the time. And even if I didn’t advance the page I don’t want to feel them wiggling underneath my fingertips.
On the whole my feeling is that this is a nice first step by Amazon. But I’ll shut up now until I can actually touch the device.
