4 ms·

It costs 359 dollars, which is insane for something which has capabilities somewhat short of the 386 laptop I bought many years ago for 40 dollars. Yet...print

It costs 359 dollars, which is insane for something which has capabilities somewhat short of the 386 laptop I bought many years ago for 40 dollars. Yet...print is dead. I've come to this conclusion as a long-time book-reader and semi-ludite. There's just no reason to haul around wood pulp at a storage efficiency 1/1,000,000,000th of the state of the art. So, I guess things are bound to change. But 359 dollars? Cripe.

mechanical_fish 18y ago
It sounds expensive until you try to estimate the cost of my book collection. Double cripe. The number of O'Reilly books that can be bought for $359 is depressingly small. If and when O'Reilly fully supports Kindle (and vice versa) Kindles will really start flying off the shelves: http://toc.oreilly.com/2008/06/select-oreilly-books-soon-on-kindle-and-as-drm-free-digital-bundle.html http://toc.oreilly.com/2008/06/select-oreilly-books-soon-on-... UPDATE: Of course, some of the book pricing is going to need a reality adjustment. $10 more than a used paper copy is too much. And the catalog could use some proofreading too: did you know that Don Roberts wrote "Refactoring"? http://www.amazon.com/Refactoring-Improving-Design-Existing-Code/dp/B000OZ0N4Y/ref=pd_sim_kinc_2 http://www.amazon.com/Refactoring-Improving-Design-Existing-...
- Tichy 18y ago
  Also, the ebooks are just as expensive as the paper books, which just doesn't seem fair. Especially since I can sell my paper books, but not the ebooks (I presume).
  - derefr 18y ago
    You could probably just sell the Kindle itself, with the books embedded, as long as you close your credit account afterwards. ;)
cmos 18y ago
Let's not underestimate the cost of always being online + ready to download/buy. Amazon made a huge step in selling a consumer electronics device that is always 'on'-line. There really isn't anything comparable. And what is so impressive is that they realized that the 'reader' needs content on demand to be a viable product beyond us geeks. (ok, Us non-wealthy geeks, of which I am a member, would like to join you in the campfire song: I like to read digit-a-lly, but the kindle sells so expensiv-e-ly) (it has a country twang to it)

mechanical_fish 18y ago

It sounds expensive until you try to estimate the cost of my book collection. Double cripe. The number of O'Reilly books that can be bought for $359 is depressingly small. If and when O'Reilly fully supports Kindle (and vice versa) Kindles will really start flying off the shelves: http://toc.oreilly.com/2008/06/select-oreilly-books-soon-on-kindle-and-as-drm-free-digital-bundle.html http://toc.oreilly.com/2008/06/select-oreilly-books-soon-on-... UPDATE: Of course, some of the book pricing is going to need a reality adjustment. $10 more than a used paper copy is too much. And the catalog could use some proofreading too: did you know that Don Roberts wrote "Refactoring"? http://www.amazon.com/Refactoring-Improving-Design-Existing-Code/dp/B000OZ0N4Y/ref=pd_sim_kinc_2 http://www.amazon.com/Refactoring-Improving-Design-Existing-...

Tichy 18y ago
Also, the ebooks are just as expensive as the paper books, which just doesn't seem fair. Especially since I can sell my paper books, but not the ebooks (I presume).
- derefr 18y ago
  You could probably just sell the Kindle itself, with the books embedded, as long as you close your credit account afterwards. ;)

cmos 18y ago

Let's not underestimate the cost of always being online + ready to download/buy. Amazon made a huge step in selling a consumer electronics device that is always 'on'-line. There really isn't anything comparable. And what is so impressive is that they realized that the 'reader' needs content on demand to be a viable product beyond us geeks. (ok, Us non-wealthy geeks, of which I am a member, would like to join you in the campfire song: I like to read digit-a-lly, but the kindle sells so expensiv-e-ly) (it has a country twang to it)