could be great for news paper crossover - Ryan Gerritsen

Interesting. Thanks for sharing! I'd still really like to see full color and flashy page flip with touch screen! - Matthew Ray

I just got my sci-fi on Kindle today - Tell No Lies But Keep Secrets - $3.19 - http://www.amazon.com/dp... - Monique

This is actually starting to register on the DO WANT scale... - matthew john ernisse

yeah, interesting. NYT usually isn't *totally* full of crap on this stuff :-D so i'm hoping there's something to this. starting to worry about Plastic Logic's big screen device, which looked so great at DEMO last fall, and originally due early 2009. it looks like that slipped to trials in late 2009 and "due in the market in early 2010." giving Amazon time enough to beat them to the punch, possibly. - Karim

EEE!! I just decided to hold out for the mystery Apple Touch/Kindle crossover ...but ...maybe I will just get the Kindle after all! - ursi

srsly? - j1m

They need to put WiFi on this. And unlocked HSDPA. And a wacom style stylus touchscreen. Otherwise again, Amazon will miss the correct mark to start making revolutionary amounts of sales on this worldwide. I guess, perhaps Amazon is not interested in selling many Kindles? - Charbax

Don't think this will save newspapers. Updates once a day? Monochrome? No good for Web browsing? - Dave Gilbert

@Charbax, they can't do either. Amazon's not primarily in hardware development/ deployment business, but in the content distribution business, however one sees it. Subsequently, they can not extend the scope of Kindle's functionality if it means you'll be using it for something else than as wireless front-end to their ordering system (and perusal of so bought e-books). - ianf ⌘

This bit was intriguing: "[...] If you're seriously able to handle yet another twist in this madness, WSJ also points out that "people familiar with the matter" have stated that Apple is "readying a device that may make it easier to read digital books and periodicals," but it's hard to say if this is simply regurgitation of unfounded rumors already going around or something entirely more legitimate. [...]" (edit: regurgitation, definitely) <http://www.engadget.com/2009...> - ianf ⌘

@Dave Gilbert: no, of course this won't do. No special-purpose device, not even such of tabloid proportions needed (at least) to peruse newspages, will save them in their current form. For a while it looked like there could be some hope for a cellphone-sub-like scenario, where some major global newspaper cabal underwrites, i.e. sponsors subscribers with cheap newspage-sized thin terminals (as cell providers do with handsets), but large-enough e-ink technology isn't there yet, and so we're back to square one, or nil, or whatever one might call it. - ianf ⌘

Why would I want a device that would allow me to read articles updated only once per day, and when I read those articles I'd have to switch to another device to jump into the realtime conversation about them? - Dave Gilbert

I hope this comes and textbooks are replaced by it. I am sick and tired of paying for used books and buying new ones for three times the price. Not to mention, I wouldn't have to lug around bulky, heavy books again. - Brandon Titus

Dave, you don't have to convince me, even had it updated constantly (which it might given the nature of e-media) and allowed a degree of freedom in web exploration. But this is the least of my [presumptive] worries - instead, if such a device comes out too early for the public to embrace it, and flops badly, it will effectively shut down research in this direction for half a decade. - ianf ⌘

@ianf yes and consider that we are now communicating with a group of people realtime about an article published in the nation's flagship newspaper and linked-to in a blog. Wonder why NYTimes doesn't have a FF account? If you and I used a Kindle we'd have to read the article on that and then switch to another device to do this. - Dave Gilbert

I wonder if, in Walter Ong's terms, FF and realtime in general are "secondary orality" or something we might call "secondary literacy"? Anyway, NYTimes et al., on Kindle updated once per day are old wine in new wineskins--primary (old-school print) literacy with new-media veneer. - Dave Gilbert

I'm sure they do, have an account on all the biggest social media networks, but for monitoring them, not dissemination of content. That said, with the advances in LED pocket projectors, it isn't wholly inconceivable that a cell-sized pocket device projecting on any suitable surface could be the killer hardware for any OTA-newspage delivery in the near future. Jus' shooting the breeze, mind. - ianf ⌘

Dave, Kindleized NYT wouldn't be updated once per day, constantly more like it, but at a price. I agree on new-media veneer though. The problem is the newspaper/ publishing industry is in serious flux, nobody has any solutions, and it will take some time until the next "monetizable" model solidifies and becomes the new given. It won't be bloodless, and it won't be pretty, but it will come. Remember that newsrag business is big business, intricately tied to all kinds of other branches of the industry, which will also be affected – from trucking on downward to planting trees for newsprint 40-years hence, etc. - ianf ⌘

@ianf yes much like music biz with its own industrial vertical subsuming a widget-producing -distributing apparatus. BTW, NYTimes is on Kindle already and it updates once per day for thirteen dollars per month. And why wouldn't I just want to use my iPhone or imminent iTablet to read the free version? NYTimes app on my iPhone already caches NYTimes so I can read it on a plane. I do it all the time. And it's in color; and as soon as I land I can refresh and read Twitter and FF posts about the articles. Who exactly wants to trade this UX for Kindle of any size? - Dave Gilbert

I hope it's NOT true. I don't own a Kindle, but the current (and 1st Gen) one look big enough as is. - Thunderwing from twhirl

The Kindle has been touted as a possible reader for eTextbooks. The only thing going for it is its portability. Pedagogically sound eTextbooks require color for visuals and the ability to embed interactive learning objects. The current Kindle is equipped for neither. - Michael Ritter

the current market for eTextbooks seems to be horrible -- i just did a quick search for eTextbooks on "algorithms" (http://i41.tinypic.com/30bfnua...) and 3 out of the top 4 books were MORE EXPENSIVE as DRM'ed digital textbooks than they were as non-searchable dead trees. What The Frak? All Amazon has to do is price their eTextbooks a little lower than the print versions and the Kindle could pay for itself in the first year of school. - Karim

and it's not just portability. it *really* makes a difference reading text on a portrait screen rather than one more suited to an aspect ratio for feature films. - Karim

@Dave, observe that you can read NYT on the iPhone ("freely") only as long as there is NYT to be had on the net. It's not entirely inconceivable that the era of big newspapers is largely over, and that, e.g., NYT will survive mainly as Manhattan-local rag of record for the chattering classes that can afford its future $20/day? cover price. We're not in a chicken-vs-egg situation here either, more like a chicken and toothless fox on a desert island. If Amazon comes out with a bigger Kindle and goes after college textbooks, all the more power to them. If/ once it becomes widely used, its DRM won't stand for very long, because students will hack around it to offload their not-inconsiderable investment in e-textbooks. Anyway, many of these Kindlean issues have masterly been dealt with by John Siracusa in February, so if you haven't read it yet, here are some topical comments of mine alongside the pointer: <http://friendfeed.com/search...> - ianf ⌘

oh snap. pictures. http://www.engadget.com/2009... :-D - Karim

no color, no deal. still fugly; i'll await Apple's mediapad. - Anthony Citrano

This needs to be pointed out in that Engadget preview: "[...] select students are being issued the new, larger screen Kindles (in the fall semester with pre-installed textbooks for chemistry, computer science and a freshman seminar. Five other universities [...] are also said to be signed up for the trial" – which tells us that THIS IS A TRIAL, folks, limited production run of these, couple of hundred units maybe, not any launch to general public. Amazon hasn't committed any great resources to this, and probably never will. It is more than certain that the universities themselves are footing the bill for these "selected" students (full-tuition ones? as enticement for enlisting? Unis are for-profit bodies). Stop hyperventilating. - ianf ⌘

ianf, you said, "THIS IS A TRIAL, folks, limited production run of these, couple hundred units maybe, not any launch to the general public." Amazon just announced it will ship this summer. it follows you must be hyperventilating by now. ;-) - Karim

Yes, I am, thank you, Karim, for pointing that out. Of course, "will ship" has been written on every headstone of vaporware dotcoms. I still maintain it is a trial, even if few containers' worth of these will end up in ordinary users' hands. - ianf ⌘

[doffs hat] glad i could help. :-D so you're saying we should re-open this thread when it ships, then? ;-) - Karim

I'm not saying anything of the sort. I stand by my earlier opinion of Amazon's Kindle-halfheartedness expressed a.o. here <http://tinyurl.com/kindlehalfh> but not solely there (earlier in that thread as well). Amazon's a global book pusher, why should they more than dabble in the dog-eat-shit hardware development business? - ianf ⌘

was just kidding about re-opening the thread, ian. :-) non-core items (laptops, cloud computing, cat food) make up at least a third of their revenues, so clearly they have branched out from books. for all i know, Kindle hardware might be a loss leader for them. in 2001, people were probably asking why Apple ("global computer pusher") would be interested in selling little music appliances. ;-) - Karim