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  #1  
Old 05-14-2009, 01:53 PM
DaemonSeid DaemonSeid is offline
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The Kindle and the future of newspapers and textbooks




I have been listening to a lot of talk lately and there is a debate raging about whether the Kindle (an e book sold thru Amazon, reader for those that don't know) may be the device that ends newspapers and textbooks as we know it.

The issue at hand is whether or not the price of the units, the functions (and lack thereof) justify the cost.

For instance, the New York Times would still charge a subscription but at a reduced rate


I have also heard that a few colleges and universities may experiment with e textbooks come this fall and while it may save students in the long run, the cost may still be up there...altho you have a $500 unit, just imagine your textbooks downloaded for 1/4 of what you would pay for them brand new.

For those of you in school now as well as anyone here that owns one or have seen them, what are your thoughts on the Kindle device and the possibility of it or future devices rendering print media obsolete?


There are a few other debates that i have links do on this subject but I will wait til later to post them.
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Last edited by DaemonSeid; 05-14-2009 at 02:20 PM.
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  #2  
Old 05-14-2009, 01:55 PM
AOII Angel AOII Angel is offline
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You don't have to buy a kindle unit to get kindle books. Kindle is a free app for iPhone.
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  #3  
Old 05-14-2009, 01:56 PM
Kevin Kevin is offline
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If Thomson West would make things like annotated statute books available via Kindle, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

In fact, for the legal profession, the Kindle could be an amazing tool if publishers would just catch up with technology. I'm sure they're pretty worried about DRM though.
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  #4  
Old 05-14-2009, 01:58 PM
DaemonSeid DaemonSeid is offline
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True, but what about those that domt own an iphone or dont want to use a small device to read text?

What you pointed out has also come up in some these debates also.
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  #5  
Old 05-14-2009, 02:00 PM
AOII Angel AOII Angel is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DaemonSeid View Post
True, but what about those that domt own an iphone or dont want to use a small device to read text?

What you pointed out has also come up in some these debates also.
They should make it available as a computer program as well. My husband has read at least 10 books on his iPhone. You can change the text size to whatever is comfortable for your eyes. He makes his as small as possible so he doesn't have to change pages as often.
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  #6  
Old 05-14-2009, 02:01 PM
agzg agzg is offline
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I like e-books OK but there's something about holding a book that I don't know if I could ever give up. I've never used a Kindle before but I'm sure while there are some similarities to holding a book there are also a lot of differences.

I do read my papers online though. The only one in print that I bother picking up now is the Sunday NY Times.
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  #7  
Old 05-14-2009, 02:02 PM
Little32 Little32 is offline
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@agzg. I have heard many similar arguments about "book reading" as experience.

I, for one, am interested in the studies that look at reading comprehension with print versus electronic media. Apparently, reading comprehension decreases significantly with the use of electronic forms. That concerns me when we start talking about print materials becoming obsolete.
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Last edited by Little32; 05-14-2009 at 02:10 PM.
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  #8  
Old 05-14-2009, 02:13 PM
Kevin Kevin is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Little32 View Post
I, for one, am interested in the studies that look at reading comprehension with print versus electronic media. Apparently, reading comprehension decreases significantly with the use of electronic forms. That concerns me when we start talking about print materials becoming obsolete.
I think the electronic medium really matters here. When I'm doing research on Westlaw, if I want to really get my arms around a particular case, I have to print it, write on it, highlight things, etc. (I have this semi-intricate 8-highlighter system I developed in law school, for some reason a holding just isn't a holding unless it's colored orange).

While I've never even seen a Kindle, I understand the technology it uses is e-paper, meaning that it looks more like paper than it looks like a computer screen. Also, gone are the distractions on your other monitor, all the buttons you can click, solitaire, etc. It's just a reading device. While it'd be difficult to replace actual print on paper (because you can write all over it, etc.), I think the Kindle gets awfully close.

If the technology could ever incorporate my highlighter system and the aforementioned professional materials, I'd be 100% sold.
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  #9  
Old 05-14-2009, 02:15 PM
DaemonSeid DaemonSeid is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Little32 View Post
@agzg.
You twitter don't you? LOL



Here is a portion of an article I was looking at last week:

Anyone who has even remotely followed the trends in textbook publishing will be intimately familiar with the cries of wolf that have periodically promised that the moment is here (or just around the corner) for the transformative shift from paper to pixels. "E-textbooks have been 'this year's breakthrough' for the last 10 years," said Richard F. Bellaver, associate director of Ball State University's Center for Information and Communications Sciences, who has studied e-book technology.

Some of Amazon's partners in the Kindle project, like Adrian Sannier, chief technology officer at Arizona State University and a self-professed "big Kindle fan," are extremely bullish that Amazon's gambit could be "one of the two or three major events that cause the digital textbook revolution to really happen," as he put it Wednesday. That is less because of the textbook-friendly improvements in Kindle technology, Sannier said (though he praised that, too), than because of what he described as Amazon's singular ability to create a supportive "ecosystem" for electronic publishing based on the company's unmatchable distribution model.

"What we've been looking for is the third party, the 'iTunes' in this crowd who can find a way to break the logjam" between textbook publishers and would-be buyers, Sannier said. "With the Kindle, from your bed, you can buy the book and 60 seconds later, you're reading it. With three major publishers joining with them, all the machinery exists to take their content and turn it into Amazon content very quickly. This could be the confluence, not only of a device but of an ecosystem for the device, along with the cooperation of leading publishers, that allows it all to come together."

The president of one of the other universities in the Kindle project seemed far less certain she was participating in a breakthrough moment. Speaking from a taxi on her way to LaGuardia airport after speaking at the Amazon event, Case Western Reserve University's Barbara Snyder said that she, like Sannier, is "personally a big Kindle fan," and that Case was excited that its faculty members and students, through their experimentation with and use of Kindle, would provide feedback to help improve it.

But Snyder also described herself as someone who "likes my old newspapers and books, too," and pointed out that even as digital books have emerged, "the fact that Kindle is out there doesn't mean nobody is buying books. ... It's great to have choice," she said, "and it will probably be about choice for a long time, and I think that's great."


Kindle in higher education

Also we aren't too far off from color devices and apps as they are already available in Asia (naturally!). I am also curious as to what will happen when more and more magazines become available fully to read online.

Like for instance, being able to download Time or SI or whatever you want to read. If this really starts catching on, I wonder how publishers will have to adjust to cutting back to everyone else down the line that gets paid like the printers, delivery people, newspapermen and so forth....I don't think this marks the absolute end of print media because not everyone will have one of these devices but once newer devices are introduced with better capabilties, those changes will be felt. Look how long the mobile phone was around before the near extinction of the phone booth (they still exist but are damn near hard to find!) it's been barely 20 years and now we are saturated but a landline is still needed.

@ Kevin (lol) Kindle device


And what you just said about highlighting....heard that one too...LOL
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Last edited by DaemonSeid; 05-14-2009 at 02:18 PM.
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  #10  
Old 05-23-2009, 07:21 PM
sjsoffer sjsoffer is offline
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I'm a senior in college, I own a Kindle, and I've bought books I needed for classes on it. I love it! Only problem is, as Kevin mentioned, is the lack of highlighting options. When I'm reading something I need to use as a source, I underline, highlight, circle...can't do those things so effectively on the Kindle!
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  #11  
Old 05-24-2009, 02:45 PM
gee_ess gee_ess is offline
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As an avid reader, I am very interested in the Kindle but am holding back from buying one for many reasons.
1. cost
2. I like to share books with others and something about not being able to do this kind of bugs me. Also, if a textbook is available, then it would be nice to print certain pages for study, research, highlighting, etc.
3. I have read some pretty disturbing complaints about amazon regarding customers who have had their amazon.com accounts closed and are no longer able to access their kindle library or buy other e-books. Basically, they have a device that they can no longer use because amazon got unhappy with them.

I am hoping that the technology becomes more user friendly (and affordable) because I know I will still want hardcopies of some of my reading materials. And this would probably supplement my library not take the place of it...
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  #12  
Old 05-24-2009, 03:09 PM
MysticCat MysticCat is offline
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I have absolutely no interest in Kindles or any other e-books. I just simply couldn't give up real books. I'll read a newspaper or magazine online (although I'd rather have the real thing in my hands) and I'll do legal research online, but e-books? It just ain't gonna happen with me unless they stop publishing real books altogether.

This = me:

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  #13  
Old 05-24-2009, 04:28 PM
RU OX Alum RU OX Alum is offline
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I think staring at a tiny screen like that for as long as it takes to study and go back over things for class, that your eyes would be under quite a strain.

Also, how would you highlight?
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Last edited by RU OX Alum; 05-24-2009 at 04:29 PM. Reason: pronoun
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  #14  
Old 05-24-2009, 04:56 PM
PhiSigmaRho PhiSigmaRho is offline
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E-books will become the norm once they are used in elementary and high school - probably less than a decade. Just look at how children are using ipods, cell phones, computers, and games like the DS and Wii. During last Christmas, the younger cousins in my family were sitting on the couch text messaging each other on their DS. These children are 4-7 years old!
Kids are also being conditioned in school to recycle and be environmentally friendly. E-books could easily be seen as good for the environment and paper books as bad for the environment. So it is only a matter of time that we will become the old generation that still reads paper books!
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  #15  
Old 05-25-2009, 01:31 AM
sjsoffer sjsoffer is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RU OX Alum View Post
I think staring at a tiny screen like that for as long as it takes to study and go back over things for class, that your eyes would be under quite a strain.

Also, how would you highlight?
you can set the print to different sizes. To me, it's the exact same as reading a paperback book without the annoyance of having to fold half the book back to see the whole page.
I believe the Kindle does have a highlight/underline feature, but I've never really used it. I just use the bookmarking feature.
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