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Tuesday, December 04, 2007, 02:00 pm
High-quality unboxing photos of Amazon's Kindle eBook reader
Amazon's new Kindle device, dubbed by some as the 'iPod of reading,' has been shipping in limited quantities since its introduction a few weeks ago. AppleInsider is preparing a full review, and offers these quality unboxing photos in the meantime.Despite early criticisms of the device and its $400 price tag, the Kindle electronic eBook reader sold out in just over 5 hours following its debut on November 19th, a representative for Amazon told AppleInsider.
Since then, the device has taken a beating from the mainstream media. Early reviews have expressed general appreciation for Amazon's run at a fresh concept but fault the retailer's inexperience in developing consumer electronics for the device's clunky and cumbersome user experience.
Still, Amazon has managed to remain completely backlogged on new orders and is warning customers that they should not expect their Kindle in time for the holidays if they're just now placing orders.
"Due to heavy customer demand, Kindle is temporarily sold out," reads a message on the retailer's website. "Because we ship Kindles on a first-come, first-served basis, please ORDER NOW to reserve your place in line. Your Kindle will not arrive by December 25th."
Since Amazon's strategy with Kindle and its electronic eBook store mirrors that of Apple's iTunes+iPod ecosystem, AppleInsider plans a full review in the near future.
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Previous Comments View All
Looks pretty crap - and the b/w screen is soooo retro!
Call me old fashioned, but why not just buy the book instead?
I'm sure a real book is gonna be much more relaxing to read, and the UI is sooo intuitive.
sorry, but that thing is UGLY! and yeh, why wouldn't you just buy the book? the only reason i could think of is uni students/researchers and the like that need a lot of books with them all the time, but would rather just carry this ugly thing. id rather carry the books...
I like it because you can carry more than one book with you for the size of only one book. It isn't THAT ugly. I would still prefer to do it on an iPhone though.
I fail to see how this relates to Apple though.
And bringing up the "iPod of reading" is not enough. It's not the iPod of reading, not yet at least.
www.amazoninsider.com
Okay, in all honesty, it doesn't look THAT bad. I've seen better looking things... but I've also seen uglier...
Yeah yeah, cheap Zune shot, I know.
I do like that it's not symmetric over its yz-plane... probably to emulate the feel of holding the back half of the book folded backwards. Cool for reading, one-handed, left-handed. Crappy for typing two-handed. Plus if you're a right-hand book-holder, it might get kind of heavy, holding up all that mass placed so far away from the center of gravity.
Re-reading this post, I see that I'm a huge nerd. yz-plane. Center of gravity. Brown zune.
-Clive
Sony reader for the win!!!
There are a lot of intelligent reasons for the black-and-white, unlit screen. Battery life above all. It's an electronic replacement for black-and-white printed pages. The trouble is people expect it to be an iPhone/iPod touch web browser for this price.
It needs to go back to the drawing board until there's a touch-screen keyboard and no bulk besides the screen.
The Star Trek novel is a funny example because Kindle's industrial design looks like a 1980s idea of the future.
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I'm sorry but that thing is just plain U G L Y. If designs from 1992 are coming back, then great. However it reminds me of my old 1983 Osbourne portable computer - sure, it was portable but had no style.
I'd rather be seen carrying around the actual book than that thing.
Yes it sold out in 5 hours. I'm guessing to technology enthusiasts such as magazines and TV shows.