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The Kindle Should Burn

Thursday, November 29, 2007 10:09 PM

Tom Wolf writes:

Ok, I try really hard not to get worked up about these sorts of things, but in the end I just can't seem to put it out of my mind. A week or two ago now, Amazon released the Kindle, an ebook device. It's been talked about to death all over the web, one reason why I didn't want to write this, but I still can't stop getting involved in conversations when it comes up. Joey, my assistant, has had to listen to several rants about it after I've read something online. After the jump are my thoughts on the device in no particular order (they are not original or even remotely interesting and I'm so sick of reading about it I didn't bother looking up anything, so it's all from memory).

• Who in the world would actually want an ebook in the first place?
• Well maybe it would be good for all my manuals. Mac OS Server
references are hundreds of pages.
• Maybe I can get WOW to pay for one?
• $0.10 to get a PDF on this thing?
• Ambiguous wireless, for free, but you surf in B&W.
• It's really fucking ugly.
• Why are the keys tilted, but not the type?
• Typography, it's more important than Amazon thinks.
• Why can't that little scroller thing adjust the font size?
• 30 hours of battery life isn't bad, but do I have to have yet
another power cable, or does it use USB?
• $2 a month to read TechCrunch? I'll pass.
• Finally a good excuse to stop lending out my book collection.
• It's really fucking ugly.

– Tom Wolf