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about the amazon Kindle

Kindle Development Kit (KDK) on its way

posted Wednesday, January 20, 2010 11:34 PM by hussain


Kindle Development Kit for Active Content beta

Business Wire - Amazon Announces Kindle Development Kit - Software Developers Can Now Build Active Content for Kindle - January 21, 2010 12:00 AM Eastern Time

It's about time. First app I'd love to see: folders.

It seems like Amazon will be creating that one first. The revenue incentive and model for Kindle Apps is interesting - free, one time and subscription. The 100mb over the air limit as well as the "no voip" restrictions make for an interesting upcoming interaction between developer, reader and Amazon. A little bit of pruning by Amazon should ensure some standards a la Apple's App Store and be very different from the open Android Market.

Social apps for readers will be really interesting - recommendations, what your friends are reading now, with monetized buy now links? Nice.

"User revenue will be split 70% to the developer and 30% to Amazon net of delivery fees of $0.15 / MB." means that developers will have to eat the $0.15/MB transfer of the app, but can set pricing for the app however they want, including free (see below).

Revenue Share
User revenue will be split 70% to the developer and 30% to Amazon net of delivery fees of $0.15 / MB. Remember that unlike smart phones, the Kindle user does not pay a monthly wireless fee or enter into an annual wireless contract. Kindle active content must be priced to cover the costs of downloads and on-going usage.

Pricing Options
Active content will be available to customers in the Kindle Store later this year. Your active content can be priced three ways:

  • Free - Active content applications that are smaller than 1MB and use less than 100KB/user/month of wireless data may be offered at no charge to customers. Amazon will pay the wireless costs associated with delivery and maintenance.
  • One-time Purchase - Customers will be charged once when purchasing active content. Content must have nominal (less than 100KB/user/month) ongoing wireless usage.
  • Monthly Subscription - Customers will be charged once per month for active content.
Active content applications have an upper size limit of 100MB. Applications larger than 10MB will not be delivered wirelessly but can be downloaded from the Kindle Store to a computer and transferred to the user's Kindle via USB.

Developer Guidelines
Voice over IP functionality, advertising, offensive materials, collection of customer information without express customer knowledge and consent, or usage of the Amazon or Kindle brand in any way are not allowed. In addition, active content must meet all Amazon technical requirements, not be a generic reader, and not contain malicious code.

We will work to refine the above guidelines throughout the beta.

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Kindle for PC vs. Barnes and Noble eReader

posted Tuesday, November 10, 2009 11:22 AM by hussain

B&N eReader has over the Kindle for PC...
  • Ability to read in a two page layout, as if it were a book

Kindle for the PC is missing...
  • Search
  • Text-to-Speech

Kindle for the PC has, over the regular Kindle
  • Ability to see Notes and Marks at the same time as the text
  • Color thumbnail view of book covers
  • Buttons to easily sort by Most Recent, Title and Author
  • Buttons to easily switch between Home and Archived Items

Add your own converted content to the Kindle for PC documents directory, "My Kindle Content"
Kindle for PC documents are located (Vista/W7): C:\Users\you\Documents\My Kindle Content

Kindle for PC syncs only the Amazon-downloaded content between PCs.

Free Kindle books on Amazon: sorted by price and more free books

B&N eReader
Kindle for PC
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I still don't know Linux - Kindle update 2.0.3 (327610024)

posted Friday, April 24, 2009 6:55 AM by hussain

This morning I was alerted that there was a new rev of the Kindle firmware coming - 2.0.3. It was, of course, a post on the user community MobileRead that did it. It's a testament to the user community (and to the Kindle's popularity) that there're fans rabid enough to tell eachother when a new firmware is out. Amazon has typically been very cryptic about what's actually in the firmware - they don't post release notes - but also very forthcoming in what's in it by posting the sources used.

Now, these aren't the sources to the Kindle's proprietary software, just the underlying open source OS changes. Still, clues can be divined from this, even if it's tasseomancy-style.

Downloading the latest source code release from Amazon,

The gplresults.tar inside - this is the tarball for the release - was dated 4/14 for a drop downloaded this morning.

Initial cursory comparison shows the dates on 31 files changed from 03/06/2009 for the 2.0.2 (309510017) release vs the 04/14/2009 for the current. I'll get around to looking at the linux-2.6.22-lab126 changes in more depth, like I did last time in I don't know Linux - Kindle update 2.0.2 (309510017).

Other than the date, + indicates increase in filesize from 2.0.2, - decrease in filesize: + alsa-lib-1.0.13_patch.tar.gz, - alsa-utils-1.0.13_patch.tar.gz, - busybox-1.7.2.tar.bz2, - dosfstools-2.11.tar.bz2, - e2fsprogs-1.38_patch.tar.gz, - klibc-1.5.tar.bz2, - linux-2.6.22-lab126.tar.bz2, - procps-3.2.7_patch.tar.gz, - taglib-1.5.tar.bz2, + uboot-1.3.0-rc3.tar.bz2, - udev-112.tar.bz2,

202 - 203 Comparison Report
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A Savory Hack

posted Wednesday, April 08, 2009 7:13 AM by hussain

Jesse Vincent over at Massively Parallel Procrastination has done something very impressive - conversion of pdfs and epubs directly on the Kindle2 via his program Savory

The modification uses igorsk's update maker modification and a modified version of Calibre to do the changes.

I can't wait to try it out and see how it goes!

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Kindle, USGovt, Afghanistan

posted Friday, March 20, 2009 11:33 AM by hussain

As I was getting ready for work today, I had the Kindle read to me the top article in today's WSJ, "U.S. Courts Former Warlords in Its Bid for Afghan Stability". I had also been contemplating also writing another "Six Degrees of Bin Laden" with the Haqqanni movement as that's making some news and it's a game I invented but then I heard Kindle robot TTS voice read this quote* and it struck me.

"Every politician in Afghanistan is a thief, but our governor doesn't take all the money for himself. He is building our city," says Shafeeq Azizi, a 37-year-old shop owner in Jalalabad. "Why does it trouble me if he gets rich?"

Mr. Azizi was lounging with friends in one of the Jalalabad parks restored by Mr. Shirzai's administration. Across the street is a park Mr. Shirzai built for women. A few miles away stands Shirzai Stadium. There's a new mall, new stoplights and refurbished mosques in many neighborhoods.

Critics say the governor's strengths and weaknesses are often one and the same. "He wants something and he says, 'Build it.' There is no plan," said Haji Wahid, who owns a construction company. He says he sees no long-term vision behind Mr. Shirzai's rebuilding efforts.

Parts of the US Government are tribal.

And not in any good connotation. Particularly our government's IT divisions. They're not just protected, entitled fiefdoms, an analogy whose European roots softens the devastation and criticism that it should bring, but actual tribal land grabs by people who have no idea what effective IT means but think they do because they can use a Blackberry like Obama or love their iPhone.

Here's how it should run. And by "it" I mean the Afghan situation and not our government IT's situation, since that's well in hand by people who think they know what they're doing, puls Web 2.0 ftw, data transparency and Vivek Kundra's back on the job. (Petty "warlords" watch out.)

When analysing situations like this a review of history's always helpful. Here's one slice of history that looks like it might be applicable: The aftermath of the British Raj and the subsequent upheaval in India and Pakistan eventually leading to an India where large wealthy families (Tata, etc) control multiple industries in a monopoly grip. The latter half of that statement resembles the US with our monopoly-families, too, which should give some indication where I'm going here. Granted, in both Iraq and Afghanistan (and most elsewhere), we - America - are not colonialists like the Brits, French, Germans, Dutch, etc and I'd argue our methods are less damaging, but that's another debate and another post.

The process at hand is this:

Tribal succession -> Tribally appointed, Elections -> Elections where Tribal relationships may still have sway -> "Free and Fair" Elections.

In the western world we may think we're so far advanced that we don't deal with fiefdoms anymore - we're beyond that process and that management style is retrograde or deprecated. It's not, we (westerners) just don't do it any more nor do we do it well. They (middleasternerners) do. There may be a value judgment in saying one style is better than another and I'll leave that up to someone's masters/phd thesis, but one fact is true: "Democracy" and "tribal consensus rule" don't interface well at an economic point. It's much better to have two democracies (or political structures loosely framed around democratic principles) interacting than disparate political systems (china-us, etc.). To this point, if we or for that matter Afghanistan, themselves, want to get to a more "democratic" style of political system, they'll have to go through the above transitional phases and we'll have to honor and recognize that those phases will happen. Whining (from western governments and western NGO "democracy watch dogs") does not and will not help phase transitioning, it'll just be annoying.

Currently tribal succession is in play. We'll have to let it happen. For example, the Jamal Baba Construction Co., part owned by Mr. Shirzai's son, Jaan Agh mentioned in the article will have to undergo economic pressure and engagement to become a company that has influence in the region. That'll allow external democratic organizations (whether external to Kandahar and Nangahar provinces or external to Afghanistan) exert some influence. The influence could be democratic-leaning or possibly Talib-leaning. That pressure, if properly exercised, will lead to another political round wherein the region'll be able to assess the benefits of a more open economic and political model and then continue down the tribal-democratic spectrum. Note India's example - Tata, Mittal, etc are all still in place, mostly unregulated from a monopoly stance - India's still not at "free and fair." One could also argue that Japan's kiretsus haven't reached the fullness of the "democratic" spectrum yet, either, after their rebuilding. Some countries don't want to go all the way and we should recognize and accept that. Will we, though?

* Here's the quote (wav format) using my Say This app.

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Sony & Google Team up for Public Domain books

posted Friday, March 20, 2009 6:53 AM by hussain

There're sources for public domain books out there - Project Gutenberg and Manybooks, the latter of which supplies them in many formats - but no one's as large as Google, period. Now, as many outlets have reported, Sony & Google have teamed up to release public domain e-books in the ePub format from http://books.google.com/ (Google Blog Post).

This is a huge win for all readers, including the Kindle, even though it might not seem so right away. Granted, the ePub format isn't supported directly by the Kindle. That can be corrected by a future software push if Amazon wishes, but until then there are free software alternatives to convert ePub to the Kindle's mobi format. Software like Calibre, a pretty full featured ebook manager/converter will do, although I prefer my own Kindle Converter which sits on top of the mobigen command-line converter.

http://books.google.com/books?q=subject:"+Science+Fiction+"&rview=1&as_brr=1
That as_brr=1 is "Full View Only" in a search and that indicates public domain books.

The big difference between Project Gutenberg and Google (apart from Google's ~500k scans vs. PG's ~100k) is that Project Gutenbergs's have been proofread. Google's docs have typos!

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I don't know Linux - Kindle update 2.0.2 (309510017)

posted Tuesday, March 17, 2009 9:20 PM by hussain
Although I'm still waiting to get pushed the 2.0.2 update, I thought I'd take a look at the linux sources.

Looking at the published gnu linux kernel sources provided by Amazon, only 4 files are different:

arch/arm/mach-mx3/dvfs_v2.c
arch/arm/plat-mxc/isp1504xc.c
arch/arm/plat-mxc/wdog.c
sound/arm/mxc-alsa-pmic.c

These are the kernel (2.6.22) mods from the last Kindle version, 2.0.1 (303870012).

Until Amazon posts release notes, we won't really know what was different in the functioning of the Kindle software, but the kernel changes look like adding in a counter to reboot (6 times) and setting the minimal soundchannels to 2.

Most of my software life I've tried to avoid linux or, rather, learning too much about it.  So, when I say I don't know Linux, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

This is the contents of the Kindle src 2.0.2 309510017 release.

alsa - Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
 alsa lib 1.0.13
 alsa lib 1.0.13 patch
 alsa utils 1.0.13
 alsa utils 1.0.13 patch
 base files 3.0.14.ipk
 base passwd 3.5.9
 binutils 2.17.50.0.5
bonnie++ - benchmark uitility, storage
 bonnie++ 1.03c
bootchart - a tool for performance analysis and visualization of the GNU/Linux boot process
 bootchart 0.9
busybox - size optimized common unix utilities
 busybox 1.7.2
 dosfstools 2.11 - Utilities to create and check MS-DOS FAT filesystems
e2fsprogs - filesystem utilities for use with the ext2 filesystem. It also supports the ext3 filesystem with journaling support
 e2fsprogs 1.38
 e2fsprogs 1.38 patch
 fuse 2.7.1
 fuse 2.7.1 link.tar
 gcc 4.1.2
 glib 2.12.9
 glibc 2.5
 gst plugins base 0.10.17
 gst plugins base 0.10.6
 gstreamer 0.10.17
 hotplug 2004 09 20
 ifupdown 0.6.8
 iptables 1.3.3
 klibc 1.5
 libol 0.3.18
 linux 2.6.22 lab126
lrzsz - a unix communication package providing the XMODEM, YMODEM ZMODEM file transfer protocols
 lrzsz 0.12.20
 lzo 1.08
 module init tools 3.2.2
 module init tools 3.2.2 patch
 monit 4.9
 mtd utils 1.0.0
picocom - a minimal dumb-terminal emulation program
 picocom 1.4
powertop - a Linux tool that helps you find those programs that are misbehaving while your computer is idle
 powertop 1.10
 procps 3.2.7
 procps 3.2.7 patch
 readline 4.3
 syslog ng 1.6.11
 sysvinit 2.86
 taglib 1.5
 uboot 1.3.0 rc3
 udev 112
 util linux 2.12r

"Fiona" is still around, albeit in legacy code.  In include\linux\platform_lab126.h there's a comment stating that this rev is code named Mario (2.6.22), whereas Fiona was (2.6.10).
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Amazon, DMCA, DRM and Mobileread

posted Monday, March 16, 2009 12:22 PM by hussain

Mobileread, a user-driven site that assists e-book enthusiasts access to public-domain knowledge around existing ebooks and ebook reader community support, has a series of wiki pages that describe how to use all sorts of devices and user-supplied support programs.

There are many sources for e-books and many formats. One of the most popular, and the one relevant to this article, is the Mobipocket format. Mobipocket is a format of e-book produced by the Mobipocket company, now owned by Amazon. E-book providers, other than Amazon, use the Mobipocket format, notably OverDrive, a large technology supplier for public libraries around the country. Some public libraries that use the Mobipocket OverDrive DRM (OD) allow their users to "check out" e-books and read them, typically with Mobipocket desktop software.

One of the support utilities described on the Mobileread site was called kindlepid.py, a Python-language script that displayed an e-book reader's device Personal ID (PID) created by Igor Skochinsky in 2007 when the Kindle version 1 was released. This PID is used to encode DRM-secured e-books from other vendors, whether it's OverDrive-enabled libraries or other public sellers. Amazon Kindle users who want to view DRM-protected e-books from these vendors can use their Kindle's PID to "fix" e-books so that they're able to be read on the Kindle (or, for that matter, their iPhone/iPod Touch with the Amazon Kindle app).

Mobileread, the user-driven site, had step-by-step instructions on how to download, install and use kindlepid.py to obtain a device PID. This script does not break, hack, crack, or remove the DRM from an e-book in any way but obtains the PID that's on the device. It enables legally purchased e-books to be read these e-books on legally purchased e-book readers.

The "fixing" part is enabled by another, separate, software script that was also described on the Mobileread site which utilizes the PID, kindlefix.py. This shifts the location of the PID in the DRM'd e-book file so that the Kindle (or iPhone Kindle app) can find it.

Amazon seems to have an issue with the kindlepid.py script and sent the owners of Mobileread.com a Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) "take-down" notice: asking Mobileread.com to remove references to kindlepid.py from their site, but not specifically with the kindlefix.py script.

Individuals posting on the Mobileread forms about this topic suggest that, since the kindlepid.py script has been around since 2007, Amazon is noticing this script now due to their release of the Apple iPhone/iPod Touch version of their Kindle reader. Additionaly, Amazon has removed "My Serial Number" which displayed a user's Kindle serial number from the "Manage My Kindle" page on their site around the same time that the iPhone/iPod Touch app was released. Posters also suggest that it's evidence that Amazon wants to control the origin of purchase and that this restriction of control may constitute a monopoly by preventing competition in the distribution channel. It was pointed out that Amazon's actions aren't restricting the publishing (that's already been covered by Amazon's assumed agreements with the publishers to DRM publisher's works and distribute them), but only where you obtain e-books from - only Amazon, not libraries or other vendors, such as BooksOnBoard and others.

Other posters take the angle that Amazon is attempting to preserve their relationship with publishers now that a Kindle app for the iPhone exists - preventing iPod owners who aren't entitled to buy from the Amazon store from using the app to read OverDrive or other vendor's DRM books. (#156, #158, #159) In light of the Author's Guild's issues with TTS and other e-book advocates' calls for support of formats other than Mobipocket, such as ePub, this line of thinking also seems logical.

And additional point that has been made by Kindle/Amazon watchers is that Amazon has been following an Apple-like trajectory for their product: from the exclusivity of distribution channel (iTunes store) to the DRM issue. Now that Apple's making a DRM-free iTunes store, some are wondering when Amazon's going to catch up. Catch up, at least with e-books, since Amazon already offers DRM-free mp3's for sale. Similar to the cycle of iTunes updates that "broke" hacked ("jailbroken") iPhones and iPod Touches, will Amazon look at the contents of a user's Kindle and remove any shifted DRM e-books? Amazon's Terms of Use for the Kindle states that Amazon can look into any Kindle and with their Whispernet connectivity possibly even update the firmware on the device to use a different DRM scheme and replace the DRM on DRM-protected e-books.

Is Amazon wielding the DMCA in "bad faith" in this situation? Is it even a proper use of the DMCA? Since neither the site or the scripts don't actually violate the DMCA, what's Amazon doing throwing it around?

Many long time Kindle advocates that frequent the forums are getting very discouraged at the "take down" notice that Amazon presented to Mobileread and are beginning to lose their enthusiasm for the product that made Kindle owners some of the most fervent supporters and source of free marketing. Some have even gone so far as to say they're no longer supporting Amazon, itself, which speaks to the wider issue of loss of customer loyalty. On the forums, disappointment ranges from expressing the feeling of loss of rights (feeling criminalized by reading library books), Sony e-reader owners breathing a sigh of relief feeling like they've chosen the correct device, to people considering dumping/returning their Kindles and purchasing an iLiad or waiting for another e-reader device such as the Wizpac Txtr.

From my personal experience as a Kindle 1 and Kindle 2 owner, I've loved them both, not just because I had portable reading device and not just because the screen is clear, but because I could put my own personal documents and personally converted documents onto the Kindle and the access to the Amazon Kindle store. The combination of personal freedom and access to a large existing market is what makes this device special to me and special enough to show off to anyone who's asked.

There are now several articles on this issue as well as a blog started by a Mobileread user, Dear Jeff Bezos.

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App-a-Weekend: Kindle PID

posted Saturday, March 07, 2009 11:28 AM by hussain

In order to buy DRM'd ebooks from ebook retailers other than Amazon and load them onto your Kindle, the first thing you need to do is obtain your Kindle's Personal ID (PID).

Mobileread.com has a great wiki about all things Kindle including a walk-through of how to use Python and Igor Skochinsky's python scripts to obtain your Kindle PID, if you know you Kindle's serial number (obtained by looking at the side of the box). Here's their walkthrough wikipage (xp, vista).

This weekend, I made a quick Windows UI that executes Igor's python scripts:


The Kindle PID app, PID tab


The Kindle PID app, Fix tab


File > Preferences


Aboot dialog, showing that Python and scripts are available.



App example (dummy serial used)

Installation is as follows:
  1. Install Python 2.61 msi
  2. Download Igor's scripts, place them somewhere you can remember (I placed them in C:\Software\dev\igorsk)
  3. Download and run Kindle PID

The app is very simple (a zipped exe), no installer. Feedback is welcome! hussain at chinoy dot com

Edit:
1.0.2.1 03/09/2009
- Updated for v0.2 of igorsk's py scripts
1.0.2.0 03/09/2009
- Added PID generation for iPhone/iPod Touch
1.0.1.0 03/08/2008
- Added Kindle Fix utility

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App-A-Weekend: Say This

posted Sunday, February 22, 2009 6:03 PM by hussain

I'd previously read, on my Kindle, in the Wall Street Journal, about the Author's Guild's objections to the Kindle2's new text-to-speech feature which allows reading of books to the user.

"They don't have the right to read a book out loud," said Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild. "That's an audio right, which is derivative under copyright law."

My immediate thought was that moms and dads all over the world are flagrant abusers of copyright and I couldn't imagine an author objecting to someone reading their book, out loud, in private.

Lots of good arguments have been made about this, from audio book production being well worth paying for, and generated voices - advancing as they have been - are nothing like real voices, to Windows and Macs having this ability for decades and, of course, the existing software for disabled readers, so I need not repeat them. Here's my argument: it took me a few minutes to write this app.

Aiken quote, as read by Microsoft Anna via SayThis: SayThis_Aiken.wav

This was an unintended application created after reading New Kindle Audio Feature Causes a Stir, WSJ, 02/10/2009 and E-Book Rights Alert: Amazon's Kindle 2 Adds "Text to Speech" Function, Author's Guild Blog, 02/12/2009.

SayThis.zip (12kb)

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A New Kindle?

posted Tuesday, February 10, 2009 6:54 AM by hussain

Is it horrible that I want an 2nd Kindle now that they've announced a new, 2nd generation one?

Where's the replaceable battery and the SD expansion? I suspect with all the new features, those won't be missed:

  • Display: 6" diagonal E-Ink® electronic paper display, 600 x 800 pixel resolution at 167 ppi, 16-level gray scale.
  • Size (in inches): 8" x 5.3" x 0.36".
  • Weight: 10.2 ounces.
  • System requirements: None, because it doesn't require a computer.
  • Storage: 2GB internal (approximately 1.4GB available for user content).
  • Battery Life: Read on a single charge for up to 4 days with wireless on. Turn wireless off and read for up to two weeks. Battery life will vary based on wireless usage, such as shopping the Kindle Store and downloading content. In low coverage areas or in 1xRTT only coverage, wireless usage will consume battery power more quickly.
  • Charge Time: Fully charges in approximately 4 hours and supports charging from your computer via the included USB 2.0 cable.
  • Connectivity: EVDO modem with fallback to 1xRTT; utilizes Amazon Whispernet to provide U.S wireless coverage via Sprint's 3G high-speed data network (check wireless coverage). See Wireless Terms and Conditions.
  • USB Port: USB 2.0 (micro-B connector) for connection to the Kindle power adapter or optionally to connect to a PC or Macintosh computer.
  • Audio: 3.5mm stereo audio jack, rear-mounted stereo speakers.
  • Content Formats Supported: Kindle (AZW), TXT, Audible (formats 4, Audible Enhanced (AAX)), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; PDF, HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion.
  • Included Accessories: Power adapter, USB 2.0 cable, rechargeable battery. Book cover sold separately.

1 Comments

The Second Kindle Post

posted Saturday, December 27, 2008 10:21 PM by hussain

It's been slightly over a year since I got my Kindle and I've really had a great time with it - I pretty much carry it everywhere and I almost always have something to read. Almost. I do buy books from Amazon via their built-in whispernet service which downloads $10 ebooks in 20 or so seconds and I receive the Wall Street Journal daily (except Sundays).

I really like the fact that I can convert pdfs, html, txt, and even word docs to the Mobipocket format that the Amazon reader accepts via the Mobipocket Creator software. That takes time, though, to find and even format the documents into HTML (that's what the mobipocket "mobi" format is) that's readable and flows correctly. Sure, you can accept all the default settings and go, but PDFs tend to come out strangely. Lazy as I am, this leaves me with Amazon-sourced info.

Recently, I've wanted to have more than just the Amazon-offered publications. One of my favorites, Foreign Affairs, doesn't come in a digital format (I've asked), so I get my subscription bimonthly and carry it around for a while. Since most articles on the web (even this one) have a "print" format, I figured it's time to whip up a quick web page to prc (that's Amazon's synonym extension for "mobi") converter

It's a Windows UI ontop of Mobipocket's mobigen.exe (their command-line converter).

Once the mobigen.exe is downloaded and extracted, using KindleConverter is straightforward - set the mobigen.exe location in the preferences, point to a url, such as http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20070701faessay86401/barack-obama/renewing-american-leadership.html?mode=print, and convert.

KindleConverter.zip (Read Me)

As always, use with care and note the copyright usage of the sites whose articles you convert.

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The Kindle Post

posted Monday, December 24, 2007 10:11 PM by hussain

Yes, I bought an Amazon Kindle.  It arrived Friday, just as Heather was going in for a tonsilectomy.

Amazon's Kindle is an ebook reader device, not unlike the Sony Reader.  I decided on getting one after being intrigued with ebook readers ever since staying up all night reading Harry Potter 2 on my Handspring, but not feeling like there was any momentum behind the technology until Amazon's play.  The e-Ink technology does give a crisp view of text along the large screen size (it's the same screen size as the Sony Reader) and the EVDO "WhisperNet" that Amazon throws in boosts the device into a different class than the other ebook readers out there.  The Kindle's powered by a 400Mhz XScale-PXA255 [69052d06] revision 6 (ARMv5TE) and its backend and UI appear to be running Java ("booklets" anyone?).

I read the reviews on-line and took note of the extreme fanbois on the Amazon page as well as the haters - the device definitely attracts a lot of commentary. Despite all the controversy ("It's just another ebook reader") I figured I might as well try it out.

It's rather easy to navigate, with next page and previous page buttons along the side of the device and a scroll wheel for menu options, but with all the rage over the iPod Touch (and iPhone), not having a touch screen does seem less intuitive and a bit of a downer.  I read that it had a SD card interface, and I immediately stuck my 2 GB SanDisk into it, giving it more room for whatever I'd want to put on there.  The Kindle comes with 256mb in it (180mb avail). Then it struck me - I don't know what I'd put on it.

The device came with the Users Guide on it (as well as a letter from Jeff Bezos), but that was initially the only thing I could find to read on it until I found the "experimental" menu item.  The Experimental menu has three items in it: a web browser (user agent Mozilla/4.0+(compatible;+MSIE+6.0;+Windows+NT+4.0)+NetFront/3.3), "Ask Kindle NowNow" - ask a question and get three replies usually w/i 10 minutes (in theory, I asked a question and have yet to receive an answer - see Amazon's Mechanical Turk), and Play Music.  I've played with the web browser and it's not bad, though the keyboard leaves something to be desired.

Neat things in the reader - as I was reading the User Guide:

* Bookmarks - you can bookmark a page
* Notes - you can make a note on a line of page
* Look up - the built in dictionary can look up words on a line

The "space" bar is on the left hand side of the split keyboard and in the opposite place, on the right, is the search bar.  For me, at least, I had to consciously look and make sure I didn't accidentally hit "search" while I was making a note.

The screensavers are clever and remind me of old book etchings or Wall Street Journal pictures.  I'm not sure where they come from, but I'm hoping they're downloaded from Amazon's servers over their WhisperNet, which'd be really cool. The full page black and white images recall some great "ex libris" art and are a pleasure to look at.

The lack of content was pretty evident, although Amazon's twist on the ebook reader is to offer free cellular connectivity to their store, a discounted price on ebook versions of best sellers and subscriptions to newspapers and blogs.  Amazon's own Kindle content:  Books, haven't bought any, but you can get a free preview of 10 pages or so for each offering; Newspapers/Magazines, haven't tried any; and Blogs, not gonna do it - seems silly, at best. The last bit, blogs, got me, since those are almost always free and the Kindle has a web browser in it.

As other people have found out, the Kindle's experimental browser's javascript is lacking, so Google's Reader is out.  Bloglines works ok, sometimes. Ultimately, though, reading the web in text-only mode is a bit boring.  For a while, when cellphones didn't have Opera or some similar browser internally, WML and the "text web" was making somewhat of a push, but I haven't seen a lot of that lately.  Maybe the Kindle'll fire up people writing "text-only" sites, like the iPhone has launched "iPhone compatible" sites.

The next content was mine own - two categories: documents I have in digital form (technical documentation) and content I've written or friends have written.  Jack is writing book.  I make book go on Kindle. 

I also used Amazon's @free.kindle.com e-mail to mail Word docs (Microsoft CRM docs) and received them via e-mail converted to Amazon's AZW DRM protected ebook format for free.  (If I used the @kindle.com, Amazon would send the converted document directly to the Kindle for $0.10)  I can then USB up Kindle to computer and move over file.  Using Mobipocket's free content creator, I can convert pdf's, docs, and html to prc files and move those over (my preferred method) to the SD card.

Of course, the torrentsphere is rife with free ebooks and I've yet to look into converting those.  Vast quantity, questionable quality.

As a writer, there seems to be a whole series of support that Amazon's attempting to provide, from their Digital Text Platform, to the promotion of ebook reading.

Format wise, it's about the right size.  There're some quirks with the interaface (the major complaint - and I could see why within 5 minutes of using the device - is that the paging buttons are too easily accidentally pressed) but ultimately, it looks like it'll be pretty useful.  All I need to do is get more content onto it.  The allure of carrying all my technical books in one small form factor is very appealing.

It's just one more thing I'll have to carry around.  And I'm still working on integrating my iPod Touch into my digital life.

Negatives:

* Laggy UI
* Keyboard has a sticky phone keypad feel to it
* Some parts of the UI are non-intuitive (web browsing selecting, looking up a definition of a word (you have to look up the whole line))
* The paging buttons make it impossible to grab the device w/o turning a page, unless in sleep mode
* Come on guys, I know it's not an iPod, but at least a stylus or touch screen


Some great Kindle links
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