re-kindle your love of e-books

The Amazon Kindle has finally launched in the US (we need to wait a bit longer here in the UK), and I want one. See the BuzzFeed round up of blog postings for more detailed reviews.

I’m not convinced that this is yet the killer device to make e-books mainstream, as the iPod did for music – but it’s a big step along the way. There are also oddities like having to pay to access RSS feeds (free on any other device).

But the most exciting thing is its wireless connectivity. You can download books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, without having to plug anything in. I can see newspapers being at a major advantage here – definitely a step towards the Minority Report Moment.

There are plenty of video demos on the Amazon site, and an increasing number of video reviews on YouTube. Thanks to Jeff Gomez for flagging up this one:


I’ll have to wait a bit longer to get my hands on one. Meanwhile, if anyone is actually using the Kindle, please let us know what you think.

About Jon Reed

Jon Reed is a writer, lecturer and social media consultant. He is the author of Get Up to Speed With Online Marketing (FT Prentice Hall, 2010) and runs the social media consultancy Reed Media, providing training and workshops on social media marketing. He previously worked in publishing for 10 years, including as publishing director for McGraw-Hill. He launched Publishing Talk in 2007. More about Publishing Talk...

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One Response to re-kindle your love of e-books

  1. Lisa says:

    I definitely want one- when they hit Australia. I’m really curious to see how they work the wireless connectivity here, i.e. who they will connect with and how it will affect the price. I’m a big believer in the idea that e-books won’t kill print books, but I think the Kindle will help promote reading in general – and that’s a good thing.

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