Kindle Watch: Jarvis Fumes, Authors Complain, Open Source Fans Fret
A few eye-catching items from the tsunami of post-shipping Kindle 2 coverage:
– What would Kindle do?: Not all K2s work out of the box and it’s Amazon’s bad fortune that the device sent to author/blogger/consumer advocate/Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) shareholder Jeff Jarvis turned out to be one of them. Jeff tried to download his own book, What Would *Google* Do, Whispernet failed to deliver and let’s say that nothing irks an author more than not being able to get his own book on a device that just cost him $369. Customer service is sending a second Kindle 2 for him to try but a lot of damage is already done via Twitter, with Jeff insisting that the K2 is a “P.O.S.”, that “in the John Henry fight of Kindle v. paper, paper wins! Kindle sucks.” and more. I hate that Jeff had a rotten out-of-box experience but his instant assertion that because it didn’t work for him, it’s crap, is off base. If problems persist, ok then. (I’m tracking some glitches.) If it turns out that there are mass failures, ok. But so far, a lot of others are getting what they want out of the device. [Update: Since I wrote this, Jeff has managed a download and thinks the initial problem is more with Sprint (NYSE: S) as the Whispernet provider, than Kindle.]
More after the jump…
– Authors Guild and audio rights: Roy Blount, Jr., president of the Authors Guild, got some prime real estate in the New York Times (NYSE: NYT), the best-selling Kindle newspaper, to explain why authors oppose Text-to-Speech. The experimental feature allows users to switch on an automated voice that reads text out loud — and Amazon isn’t paying for audio rights. Blount admits software already exists that can do that but argues that this is different: “Kindle 2 is being sold specifically as a new, improved, multimedia version of books
AT the O'Reilly ToC Conference (http://toccon.com) a number of publishers and authors explicitly said that it is not up to the publishers to decide on DRM on the Kindle or not., but it is mandatory by Amazon
Cory Doctorow's whole keynote was more a less a rant about this fact. See e.g. http://toc.oreilly.com/2009/02/at-toc-cory-doctorow-to-publis.html
My biggest concern about the Kindle, aside from it’s weird, book-buring-esque name, is that it compromises the integrity of the written word. A printed book may be unwieldy, but you know that once it’s on your shelf, not one letter is going to change. Can’t say the same for the Kindle: http://urbzen.com/2009/02/09/amazon-kindle-privacy-fail/
Also, when I spill coffee all over a book, I’ve only ruined that particular book :)
The Kindle 2 isn't a P.O.S. because of the Sprint service. It's a P.O.S. because of the DRM.