Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Kindle Two Arrives Today -- what it means to you

Amazon's new Kindle is launching today. The first model was a big success and the second model has been getting even better reviews.

It's $350 price is not so bad if one considers the lifetime wireless connection and the savings of e-books over paper books. The unit could pay for itself in less than a year. My hope is that Amazon can get the school textbook publishers to convert their text books to Kindle-ready formats. Not only would it save a huge amount of weight on our students' developing backs, but content could be updated on the fly. The Kindle and those that will follow will be our future. The only question is whether the publishers will participate fully or be dragged into the 21st century.

T

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

it seems like the Kindle is a practical step toward saving trees since it is so much more convenient to carry around than a stack of books.

Thane said...

That's a good point but it's not an obvious calculation. One has to consider the degree to which paper books are recycled and the life span of the Kindle. Computers have some nasty chemicals and heavy metals in them. While it's probably true that the Kindle will be environmentally friendly, it doesn't always work out that way.

T