Saturday, February 28, 2009

Totally Star Trek

Have you ever heard of a Kindle? I hadn't until about a week ago. My brother was telling me about it, and how it was being touted in the newspaper world as its possible savior. He said he was getting one for his wifey for her birthday. The very next day, I was asked about going in on one for Günter for his birthday, since he'd been drooling over it for months. Okay, sounds cool, count me in.

That was before I found out that they cost $359!! Anyhoo, Gary did indeed get one for Charlotte for her birthday— only to find out that it's affiliated with Sprint. Well, guess what? Sprint isn't available in Great Falls, MT. I looked on Amazon's site, and had a REALLY hard time finding out about that. I think that's terribly sneaky and totally sucks, and they're going to have to send it back. There's also something kind of creepy about Sprint knowing what a person is reading at any given time — I think you're connected the whole time the device is turned on. I wonder how that works on airplanes, which would be one of the most common uses for the device?

Then, last Monday, the head of Amazon was on the Daily Show talking about it. He didn't mention the Sprint deal either. Jon Stewart seemed rather unconvinced, too ( although he was alarmingly excited about the fact that you can hold it in one hand). The thing is, I think a lot of people (like Tom) are very tactile about reading books, and also rather technophobic and probably wouldn't be very excited about this device. Others (like me, for instance) love gadgets, do most of their reading in bed at night, and always lose their place by falling asleep in the middle of a paragraph. Not to mention the awkwardness of trying to hold a big ol' hard cover book while keeping your arms under the covers. So this dohickey might be just up my alley. They're just way too expensive!

Actually, I think the thing would be fabulous for newspapers and periodicals. We haven't had any magazine subscriptions for years (since the kids used to sell them for school fundraisers) — largely because they pile up and up and up and up . . . There is nothing to be done with a year's worth of Time magazine, and I shudder to think about all the trees that gave up their lives for those short-lived entertainments. I enjoy magazines, though, and would totally subscribe if I had one of these gadgets. I wouldn't spend the $359 for the gadget, though.

Bottom line — these things are really cool, and I want one. I also want everybody to have one. This is the coolest "green" technology I've seen in a really long time, but until that price comes down, I don't see it happening. I also think the semi-secret deal they have with Sprint is a crock.

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