The revolution in task-centric, user-centric portable computing continues. From its early days, with the Toshiba T-1000 and Radio Shack Model 1000, coming into the modern time with the AlphaSmart Dana and Palm Foleo, finally blending subnotebook and PDA with the Asus Eee, now maturing for its latest plateau with the Amazon Kindle, portable computing has been a war between those who want portable computers and those who want portable computing devices optimized for information retrieval, perusal and authoring.
As we’re no strangers to the enjoyment of etexts around here, it’s hard not to be a little excited, even if the endless gadgetization of humanity is in itself a bad sign. I have no plans to run out and buy a Kindle, not in the least because I am aware that all of these gadgets just end up as landfill. Most of my resistance, however, is that I like printed books for their superior interface. There is no messing about with plastics, electricity and wireless internet. You can read a book anywhere, even after society’s apocalyptic end when we’ll all be hunkered down in radioactive caves trying to evade the mutant hybrid Wolf-Lizard people.
The name “Kindle” makes me thinking of someone lighting the kindling to burn all the books. Very Fahrenheit 451 and makes me want to hate it before I even see it. – A TechBlog reader in By the Bayou
[...] first place. Additionally, for the near term, eBook readers are still a work in progress, although Amazon’s Kindle is probably the best of breed so far. Books, like CDs, endure wherever we go and can always be [...]