Technology is constantly evolving…every single day. Do you even remember a CD, or a tape, or a record! Well, it depends on your generation, but these old technologies are slowly beginning to fade. How many times do you find yourself going to the store and buying a CD? It’s the nature of our materialistic, technological world of today. What new technology will completely revolutionize the world tomorrow? Who knows, but in my opinion the Amazon Kindle is NOT the next miracle device to pull an Apple Ipod.
I constantly frequent the website www.Engadget.com and that is where I first saw the Amazon Kindle. Now I’m not really one for beautiful gadgets (I own the chunky phone that is the HTC TyTn), but I personally don’t think the Kindle is the most beautiful gadget out there. Amazon could have at least tried a little harder to make the Kindle look a little more…non-generic. There are no highlighting lines. I just don’t find it that aesthetically pleasing. It sort of just blends in with the number of devices out there. Now, I’ve never actually seen one of these devices on person, but from the pictures the screen looks pretty dull, just adding to the overall blandness of the device.
There are a few things about the Kindle that I DO think are very cool. I have to say the E-ink “electronic paper” that the Kindle is sporting is pretty darn cool. I have never actually seen it in real life, but it appears to be fairly crisp. To receive the papers automatically all the time for free is also a very cool feature. What disappoints me is the $0.99 a month fee for automatically getting to read blogs and the like, but at $12.00 a year, that’s not all that bad. I would maybe even consider buying one of these if it weren’t for the $400 price tag. There are a few more things I think could be cool about the Kindle, but I’d have to see it in real life to actually judge whether or not I like or don’t like it.
What really bothers me about Amazon’s new device is the pricing and how poorly executed their entrance into the e-book world was. For $399.99, the Kindle is anything but cheap and I just can’t see myself spending $400 for something I could almost get for free at the nearest public library. I am a gadget geek and I do appreciate gadgets that supposedly make our lives easier, but I don’t think the Kindle is worth $400 for half the functions my phone can do. Why spend $400 dollars for something that you can buy for only $270, the Sony e-reader. Now I have to say Sony’s e-reader does lack some of the sparkle that the kindle has, but I do not think that that sparkle is worth $130 more. More so even if you wanted one, you wouldn’t even be able to get one. Amazon has done an extremely poor job in stocking their shelves with the device. People have waited up to six weeks for one. And overall do I really think it was worth their wait…no…I don’t.
