[Update - click to pre-order one today]
Amazon has released a newer bigger Kindle. The talking points surrounding it make it a device that will save the faltering newspaper industry. But the only thing that will impact that debacle is the end of the recession and the accompanying revival of advertising.
After our initial euphoria, we found the Kindle 2 sadly lacking - and it reminds us of 1990-like crippled technology.
We tried sending a simple Hebrew file of the Megillah to our Kindle 2 but it displayed pages and pages of boxes. Enough. We don't need no retro-tech. (See the comments below regarding the hack that enables Hebrew - reminding me of 1984.)
But wait. Kindle DX has a native PDF reader. So does this change everything? We sure do hope so.
Some will say that... Kindle 2 and Big Kindle are just gadgets. (But those of us who spent the money have been too embarrassed to admit it.)
The new big one is $489. We just don't understand the business plan yet. Order one anyway!
Well, what can I say -- it is little fuss to enable Hebrew in the Kindle 2 -- one needs to enable unicode -- but it is certaily doable. For example, see the Unicode Fonts Hack.
ReplyDeleteI rather like my Kindle 2, and I think I'll buy the Kindle DX when it comes out too. See these real photos (not the one of the prototype of the competing product.
Thanks. Nicer pictures that don't suggest a touch screen. But the hack is exactly what takes me back 25 years - when we were excited by our publication - "Homebrew Hebrew: Using the Microcomputer from Right to Left," Collegiate Microcomputer, Vol. V, no. 1, February, 1987. [Based on a paper read at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, Chicago, December, 1984] - please give me a break.
ReplyDeleteFrom Richard:
ReplyDeleteHebrew font rendering notwithstanding (this is a minor detail that will be resolved - as Theophrastus correctly points out is a question of Unicode font support), the Kindle represents the future direction of readable print media. Paper and ink (especially newspapers) are a thing of the past. Very likely there will be second generation products similar to the Kindle that eventually end out replacing it, much in the same way that digital VCRs have supplanted the TIVO. Now the only question is what kinds of business models will surround this new media. (Accidentally rejected, but retrieved.)