More Kindling

As a few of you might not have known what I was talking about last night, here's the wikipedia page for the Amazon Kindle. Interestingly, this page has information that I hadn't found or heard anywhere yesterday, including an apparent ability to download plaintext and a few other formats, though most have to be converted using an e-mail service offered by Amazon. (I'd have to assume that wouldn't be free, though there's no specific mention.) There's also a brief note that you can download Audiobook content via a USB connection, which implies the, well, possibility of a USB connection, or through a SD card. This is all good news and goes a bit towards what I talked about needing for an ideal eReader in my last post. There is, however, still no mention of off-site (so to speak) storage, which would definitely be a dealbreaker for me. If I'm going to buy ebooks, I want someplace to "put" them when my reader is full. Either as files or in some kind of iTunes application, though the latter is pretty unlikely; the fact that the thing runs on Linux speaks volumes for how much Amazon didn't want to deal with MS or Apple--as I guessed yesterday.

So, it's possible that the Kindle is almost there, if they could get a somewhat better delivery system and a storage system going. And a better price--$399 is a bit steep for something Amazon would obviously like to see become ubiquitous. I'd say that I'm looking forward to seeing Kindle 2.0, but I'm afraid Amazon will go the way everything seems to be going these days--take a device made for a specific purpose and add a million things to it that have little to do with that purpose. (Full internet capabilities, a phone, a full-scale mp3 player, video player, a breadmaker, you know the drill.) As I've said before, if I want to read a book, I want to read a book, and I'd rather not have system resources eaten up by all that chaff. Still, this Kindle might be slightly more encouraging than I thought....

[UPDATE] Here's a nice video review of the Kindle. Looking at it, I guess my fears about storage are not as dire, although to plunk your book files onto a hard drive would require buying a card reader in addition to the device which is not ideal. But really, it's down to the limitation of file types/delivery system and the quite high price. I guess I'll actually have to see one of these things. I'm not sure I agree with the CNet guy that the Kindle represents "the future of books," but I'm also an old fogey. (And I mean that in a purely metaphorical sense. I guess I'm not that old. Hmm. Does that mean I'm just a fogey?)