We’ve got a free 30-day trial to the Kindle Ebook Reader! Amazon has lots of details on how it works on their site. The cost for the Kindle is currently $349, plus costs for content.
It’s pretty small and lightweight, about the size of a book. The black and white display is really nice, without any glare, and is reminiscent of a newspaper’s text. It’s easy to add content, to change the text size and to turn the page. I think the scroll wheel is a little annoying, but I can’t really think of a better way to address the problem that it solves, off hand.
The Kindle can read content from ebooks, magazines, newspapers, and blogs, each associated with their own cost. The blogs & newspaper content is usually more recent (and free) on the internet, but ebooks and magazines make a lot of sense for the Kindle.
Here are some reviews (and a short annotated review list at a Kindle blog). Drexel library staff will soon have a chance to take a look at it yourselves! Leave a comment, and let me know what you think about it.
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Long-time reader, first-time commenter. Great blog!
The iPhone/iPod touch has some applications with good alternatives to the scroll wheel–sliding your finger down the screen, or moving it in any direction if the display is smaller than the content being viewed. Also, the Stanza software allows for tapping on the left or right side of the display, but this is much like the Kindle’s next/previous page bars.
Comment by JW — October 9, 2008 @ 11:31 am
We’ve also got an Ipod touch, generally in Rebekah’s hands, which now has Stanza & BookZFree loaded up for your interface testing pleasure.
Comment by Peter — October 9, 2008 @ 12:29 pm
Beth also sent me a link to this short article in the Chronicle about Stanza and the iPhone.
Comment by Rebekah — October 10, 2008 @ 9:18 am