David Gifford - Comments

The day is coming when the number of devices I have to carry to run my personal and professional lives will number one - the smartphone. The Kindle experience is awesome. Buy a book and bam it's on your Kindle in seconds. But now that the app for the iPhone and iPod Touch (I have both) is more than suitable, I find myself leaving the Kindle at home even on multiple trips to Europe. The smartphone is where it's at. - Steve Rubel

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interesting. i feel just the opposite. the other day i was reading a book and ran out of power. since the charger was at the office, i found myself switching to the iphone and basically gave it up after 10 pages or so. however, im still not sold on the form factor of either device for reading books. - Chad Stoller

I love reading on the iPhone, too, but to me Kindle's killer feature is the New York Times and the Atlantic. - Mike Elgan

In this middle of this article (link below) is where I predict this exact thing last August. http://futureperfectpublishing.com/2008... - Mark Jeffrey

I can't say I agree...yet. I'd like to be down to one device too, but the Kindle still has value for me. - Nitin Badjatia

But don't you find the iPhone screen too small? I love Instapaper on the iPhone to read webpages on the go. But for me that only works with short texts. I don't see me reading a whole book on a smartphone like device. So I think it's too bad that Amazon is stil not selling the Kindle over here in Germany... - Bjoern - Hamburg, Germany

If you sell the Kindle, Steve, will you still be able to get books delivered to the iPhone? I also use the iPhone a good bit for reading portions of my Kindle purchases, although it strains the eyes after a while. But, I have been under the impression that I could not have books available on the iPhone unless they were first sent to the Kindle. ??? - Bruce Keener

Eventually I don't think it will matter which wireless-connected portable computer you'll use to read books and make phone calls. - Luca Fabbri

For a few pages the iPhone works great, but any sort of extended reading is difficult. Maybe 2 devices - Kindle and iPhone for me. - Jack Baty

I'm waiting for a pen-enabled Kindle to be my note taking device. - Rodfather

iPhone > Kindle - Louis Gray

@Bjoern, I read on the iPhone constantly - no issues. But wait 10 years! - Steve Rubel

@Bruce, yes, you can order books and the iPhone/iPod app will download them. - Steve Rubel

I thought you were just going to say DRM - Geoff Schultz

@Geoff no. I still buy ebooks from Amazon, but where I read them has moved. - Steve Rubel

Absolutely agree we want ONE device. But iPhone screen is 2 small & Kindle is 2 bulky and ultimately fragile. Implant? Headset-glasses-thing? I say I want a Dick Tracy wristwatch, but it's the same search for one ring to bind them all. Phone, camera, video, recorder, internet, text reading... are we likely to find a solution? I trust engineering to develop the answer. Old enough to recall 10 years of the computer world saying THIS is the year of graphics... until it finally WAS. - Mary Cole

@Mary, eventually the Apple netbook (aka a big iPod Touch) - Steve Rubel

Maybe you can wait a while and get a brand new iPhone,app store does sell ebooks as well - Steve Chou

The iPhone is fine for me, especially with the latest app upgrade. And I do like the backlight. - Mike Beck

I have and use both. But I can see your point about lugging one device during extensive travel. It'd be nice if the iPhone Kindle app let you read your subscriptions as well as your books. - Tom Landini

Tommy in due time I bet it will - Steve Rubel from IM

@Steve Thanks for clearing me up on that. This has been a very interesting and useful thread. Appreciate you starting the conversation. - Bruce Keener

I actually prefer Stanza over the Kindle app for the iPhone - Brian Appleby

I'm waiting until all of you to decide so I don't end up with a toxic waste dump of useless gadgets in my basement. Don't get me wrong. I appreciate all of you for figuring this out for me. Whatever we're excited about today will absolutely suck tomorrow. Gadgetophelia is a cruel mistress. - Jack Humphrey

When it comes to size of screen I wonder if people have finished reading one good book. I tell you, you fall through the pages just like with a regular book. I've been reading on handhelds since 2001. The same book magic is there -- and the screen was 2nd "nature" within a week or two. - Ruud Hein

I have been traveling to 4 european cities last week and I enjoyed taking it with me everywhere, along with my iphone and mac. Different purpose and worth the additional weight I think. - Loic Le Meur

Yes, I know that I’ve never used a Kindle- so what gives me the right to hate it? Plenty. I think it started off as a great idea. If it requires me to actually try it to believe it’s a great device- their marketing team has lots of work to do. E-readers seem like a great idea, but I don’t think Amazon/Kindle is making enough of a case for itself to justify I really NEED this device... more... - Ramsey Mohsen

Smartphones provide more than enough display area to read most ebooks comfortably (but not most textbooks). - Sean McBride

There is no question that the Kindle is still at Version .90 - reminds me of my first Tivo, into which I eventually hacked a network card and upgraded drives. Core paradigm great, needs a couple of hard ware revs to make beautiful - but the habit change engendered by Tivo (Episodic stories! Can follow a sports team with ease!) that resulted in better media engagement has its parallel on... more... - David Gifford

For me, I will will stick with the dedicated reader. I have tried reading on PDA's and phones before and it is just not as nice as reading on the Kindle, the screen is just not big enough. The only thing I dislike about reading on the Kindle, especially blogs and newspapers, is that I cannot share/save the articles I like. I really wish there was some social network type integration. Even if it was just a simple bookmarklet type function so that I could share on Twitter/FF or save to my Diigo account. - Sean Brady

@Ramsey your arguments are interesting until one bumps into ipod worshipping. total turn off :((( - A.T.

@David there is *one little hiccup* with Kindle - you need it to read ebooks from amazon. with books from shop you need only your eyes and some basic light. you are going into kind of dependency which you do not understand for 100%. What if tomorrow Amazon decides to raise prices (because almost all bookprinting went busted)? What if their service hacked, goes berserk and crashes your copies in Kindle? what if Sprint decides introduce their own *tax* on you? - A.T.

I really need the battery life of my phone... I don't think its worth it to drain my battery on the go so I can read, I would rather have a Kindle and not have to worry that I'm going to be left drained. - Frankie Warren

I can read news and short pieces just fine on my mobile phone. I read a LOT of books, though. I think I average nearly 4 or 5 books a month, sometimes more. Trying to read a book on a mobile phone is just not a pleasant experience. The eyestrain alone is too much for me. You won't hear about me selling my Kindle 2 anytime soon. :) - George A. Roberts IV

George -- I read about 10 books a month, and I find the eyestrain on a smartphone usually to be less than with hardcopy books. The text is crisp and clear; I can set the font to whatever size I like; the text is backlit to whatever setting I choose. And a smartphone is much easier to hold than many of the 800-page bricks that are published these days. Wherein precisely does the eyestrain reside? - Sean McBride

I've read four 500+ page fiction novels via the iPod/iPhone Kindle app this year. No complaints here! For news I've got the iPhone optimized versions of Google Reader and Friendfeed. - Daniel J. Pritchett

That´s exactly my main argument against the Kindle as well. It only does one thing very well and doesn´t replace anything. I´ll rather have a tablet with a screen compromise. - Thomas Bøhm

i disagree about the one device. when companies try to come up with the one device, it usually fails. the device does many things half as good. i know that is a standard argument, but for me one device is a pie in the sky dream. i have an iphone, and it does a lot of stuff well, but the kindle app is fine for short bursts of reading. overall, i find it limiting -- and the rub for the... more... - Daniel Langendorf

i was trying to go to one device with my blackberry or treo but seem to be drifting back to mulitple devices. I have a kindle that I love and think from a reading perspective is better than any other device. - Ted Kinzer

Could this be the answer to all? http://www.pcworld.com/article... - Jorge Escobar

After seeing the Kindle app for iPhone & iPod Touch, there is no way a Kindle is seriously considered as a purchase if they ever were. - Roney Smith

I like the Kindle reader on my iPod Touch, and have read a fair bit on that device. However, the experience of reading on the Kindle 2 itself is still much better. The screen is much larger and easier to read for extended periods of time. And the battery life is FAR superior. Reading on the iPod Touch will kill the battery within a couple of hours -- not enough to come anywhere close to... more... - Christopher A. Wichura

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