Hae-Yu
11-21-2007, 11:25 AM
As I was reading this Newsweek article (http://www.newsweek.com/id/70983/page/1), I came to the same conclusion as the title - Amazon may have the 'iPod of reading". Essentially they have made a device, like the iPod, tied to the most extensive download service - Amazon's bookstore - of a particular product - books. Amazon also has all the major publishing houses on board.
I've read other reviews that say the formfactor may not be the best (ie: not better than a real book); however, it's the fact that it's tied to the largest collection of downloadable books over a free 3G connection that may make it successful. It offers the services of the Amazon book store: reader reviews, reviews, browsing, personalized recommendations, free previews of the 1st chapter and other pages, and one-touch purchasing. Additionally, it offers search capabilities, external memory slots for expansion, highlight and notetaking features, PC synching, basic web surfing, and subscription services. Subscribed publications like newspapers, magazines, and blogs are automatically downloaded.
From my experience, ebooks still have work to do. I've bought a couple and my school uses downloadable textbooks. My work computer - behind a strict firewall - blocks the authentication process and I can't access ANY of those books using Adobe's Digital Editions. Amazon gets around that by the dedicated, connected reader but transferring it to a different device may be problematic. The Newsweek article glosses over the digital rights management used.
Finally, the Newsweek article mentions the various efforts to digitize books from books.Google, to Amazon, to the Open Content Alliance. I personally love books.google.com but it is occasionally limited due to commercial concerns. Searching for Rousseaus's Emile lists only Limited Previews for the English translations (to encourage readers to buy the book), even though the copyright has long expired. Additionally, you can use it to find sellers for rare and out of print books, too.
I've read other reviews that say the formfactor may not be the best (ie: not better than a real book); however, it's the fact that it's tied to the largest collection of downloadable books over a free 3G connection that may make it successful. It offers the services of the Amazon book store: reader reviews, reviews, browsing, personalized recommendations, free previews of the 1st chapter and other pages, and one-touch purchasing. Additionally, it offers search capabilities, external memory slots for expansion, highlight and notetaking features, PC synching, basic web surfing, and subscription services. Subscribed publications like newspapers, magazines, and blogs are automatically downloaded.
From my experience, ebooks still have work to do. I've bought a couple and my school uses downloadable textbooks. My work computer - behind a strict firewall - blocks the authentication process and I can't access ANY of those books using Adobe's Digital Editions. Amazon gets around that by the dedicated, connected reader but transferring it to a different device may be problematic. The Newsweek article glosses over the digital rights management used.
Finally, the Newsweek article mentions the various efforts to digitize books from books.Google, to Amazon, to the Open Content Alliance. I personally love books.google.com but it is occasionally limited due to commercial concerns. Searching for Rousseaus's Emile lists only Limited Previews for the English translations (to encourage readers to buy the book), even though the copyright has long expired. Additionally, you can use it to find sellers for rare and out of print books, too.