CNet News
Amazon announced Thursday the release of a software development kit for its Kindle e-book reader, which will allow developers to build and eventually sell their own applications for the device.
There are only a few hints as to what we’ll actually be seeing: Electronic Arts is building some games, smaller game publisher Sonic Boom is creating word games and puzzles, and restaurant review company Zagat is releasing city guides. None of these developer-created apps will be available until later in the year, and the software developer kit is currently in limited beta.
Too little Too late
They have just realized what Apple is going to do and are scurrying.
#1 RLF
You’re probably right. That said with those slow monochrome e-ink displays its hard to see how they would compete – certainly if apples kit is priced right and has a good battery life.
Looks like the apple pad may be way overpriced – and therefore won’t matter too much. We’ll see.
I don’t understand it. Apple can send out a couple of hundred email invitation and gets millions of dollars worth of free publicity. Don’t take me wrong I have three running Macs, and one on the shelf. Even main steam media reports it. I have learned the hard way never to buy the first rev of any Apple product.
I have owned a Kindle Two since last March. It is fine for what it is designed to do: Easily obtain and read a book with no pictures. The newspapers and magazines are awful, and all of the books which do have drawings just don’t cut it. My other big complaint is the abridgment of so many books, and missing indexes, etc. Footnotes appear anywhere at all, since pages no longer exist due to the variable text size. Instead of page numbers, you get “locations”. Sucks.
So, if you want to read the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, as I currently am doing, it’s fine. If you want slick iPhone type stuff, forget it.
Since Christmas, when Amazon ran tv ads, lots of people ask me about it. I can’t give it a ten. I give it a seven. It is really good if you are reading a huge book, since it is light, unlike long, long volumes. And you can have lots of books on it. But I read one at a time, so that doesn’t matter to me.
The Kindle has opened up the possibilities of tablet style computers in a way that Microsoft never could. I think the Kindle sales will continue to grow, even with the upcoming Apple product release.
The Apple is _not_ going to hold a charge for days of use. That is what the “paper” is all about.
Ok, for the millionth time, E-ink is invaluable because it is not painful to look at. This is because it holds perfectly still. LCD screens moves 60x/a second, making them painful to look at for long with the same level of attention required for serious reading.
Looking at an e-ink screen is a fundamentally different experience. It is not about device size, weight, speed, battery life. It is about the sheer lack of pain involved in looking at the screen. No LCD screen will ever kill e-ink.