Amazon Kindle (?)

Sometime about a year ago, Mary and I were reading in bed before going to sleep. I had a paperback with print slightly smaller than usual and realized that type size has gradually become the first factor in determining whether I read a book or not. This book seemed promising, but after a few minutes, I knew I wasn’t going to put myself through the squinting concentration required to read it.

I like to end my day with nice big letters and wonder if sometime in the near future I’ll be limited to Dr. Seuss.

I realized, and said so to Mary, that all the technology is already here to remedy this problem, and since we aging baby boomers pretty much rule the world anyway, I was surprised some kind of reading device aimed at us hadn’t hit the market. I had a vague notion that I should call somebody about this and maybe I could get in on some of the cash that would flow to the inventor.

Mary and I started talking about it and came up with a short list of features we’d like to see. The e reader should be about book size, obviously, though I leaned towards something a little larger, say 8 ½ by 11. It would be thin and lightweight, probably with a cover that folded open to protect the screen.

The most important feature would be that type size would be adjustable. I could read jumbo letters, and someone else could read the same book in smaller print at the push of a button.

The screen should have a paper look and feel to it rather than a screen feel. I was sure this was possible. It should be readable in any light, from full sun to darkened room. No reason I should have to turn a light on if Mary’s sleeping and I want to come up and read in bed.

Obviously, an e reader would need books, but I assumed it would be easy to create the text equivalent of music sites such as Napster. Publishers would be happy to let us access electronic versions of best sellers, as long as they got a fair purchase price. Also, I know that at least the Guttenberg Project is digitizing thousands of non-copyright protected books, available for easy download. If I ever decide to try reading Moby Dick again, I could carry it along with correspondingly cetacean-sized print. I might even finish it this time.

I had a few other ideas. Pages, of course, would be turned at the push of a button, but there should be a way to mark pages for easy retrieval. I was a Lit. major, after all. Ideally, there should even be a way to mark on pages, an electronic stylus of some kind that would allow underlining and short comments in the margin. And it goes without saying that a computer-based reader like this would be able to hold hundreds and even thousands of books, a whole library in a small, portable package.

Of course, it was only a short time later that Sony announced the release of its Sony Reader. I was clear that they had someone listening in our bedroom. I was a little annoyed that the product had come along so fast I didn’t get a chance to claim some kind of credit for it. On the plus side, it made for one of the few holidays when I felt confident of my present for Mary. I bought her the Sony Reader for Christmas, and she loves it.

You can read more here: http://www.learningcenter.sony.us/assets/itpd/reader/

Now, the competition has stepped in from an unexpected place. Amazon.com started off selling books online, though now it’s become so genericized that I rarely visit its site anymore. There’s something about even an online bookstore that doesn’t go well with laundry soap and pet supplies. But Amazon is now offering its own e reader, named the Kindle. Not a great name, but it has some nice features.

Foremost of which is free wireless access to the Amazon catalog. As I understand it, you can just jack in anytime, anyplace and buy a book. I don’t know if Amazon has its whole catalogue available or not, but it shouldn’t be too long. Plus, you can access major newspapers and magazines.

You can read about Kindle here: http://www.amazon.com/ Watch the little film that explains it.

This still isn’t perfect. For some reason, Kindle won’t read PDF files, and I’m guessing it won’t read plain text either. It seems clear that Kindle is going to be linked to the Amazon product line. That rules out Guttenberg and amounts to short-term thinking in my view. My ideal e reader is going to be able to store and retrieve anything I can find online, just like any laptop can do.

In fact, add a small keyboard and some PDA features like a calendar and address book, and the reader and laptop will merge and become as one, the only real difference being size and layout. A laptop is a work station. A reader is for recreation and comfort. When somebody brings out the perfect blend and drops the price a hundred dollars, I’ll buy one.

Throw in a cell phone, camera, and GPS. They could have this out in two weeks. I should get a cut.