The Kindle is a piece of technology from Amazon.com that could be so much more than a new, electronic way to read. As it is now, the Kindle is a lightweight – 10.3 oz. – thin eBook reader. For the best reading available, it uses eInk, the magnetic buckey-balls that align bits of black or white. The importance of this kind of screen is that instead of it emitting light to you, it merely reflects the light in a room, just like reading a normal book.
The physical specifications and the magnetic pigments are not all that make the Kindle special. It also comes equipped with a "super cell phone" wireless card that allows you to download a book in less than a minute, almost anywhere in the world. Now, while these aspects of the Kindle are certainly far ahead of its eReader predecessors, it doesn’t quite shake up the book world so much as quiver it a little.
The problem it seems is that while the Kindle improves some aspects of books, it doesn’t go as far as it should. Seth Grodin of Seth’s blog points out a few areas where the Kindle needs improvement if it is to be a contender to replace a paper bound book.
It really comes down to not how much the Kindle is like a book, but how it is NOT like a book. Once identified, those differences -- which are inherent in a wireless, electronic piece of equipment -- need to be enhanced and exploited. For example, Seth proposes that with each book, you should be able to make and read comments, digg.com style, in the margins. Also, you should be able to highlight – and see highlights from others – to call attention to and share important parts. Hyperlinks should be allowed throughout, and not just to other parts of the book, but to other books and websites too.
Just these three things are something that the Kindle could do with ease, but which are impossible with normal books. If they were integrated, it would take the Kindle from a quasi-okay book replacement, to a legitimate and essential tool for our modern lives.
