Ego Libre

So the ugly cat is out of its Amazonian basket and after the exclusive Newsweek article, it attracts a lot of coverage. All deserved. And most of it negative.

Seth Godin provides some interesting insight into future Amazon strategies and it starts to seem that the Amazonian king is naked.

And Fake Steve nails it again. Apparently my initial reaction is not so uncommon around the World, but I am not so sure whether Apple is interested in this segment. Although heaving a reader device that would allow you to purchase books via iTunes, for example bundled with audiobooks… hmmm… maybe the rumoured tablet Mac might have features like that…. We will have to wait and see.

And until the killer gadget is revealed, I will go back to my drawing board. 

Maybe you have heard that Amazon (finally) revealed its e-book reader Amazon Kindle. Maybe some of you know that I have been talking about this idea for years, harping about the ridiculous readers of that time. One or two of you might know, that as a hobby and some kind of a mind training I have been designing plans for my own e-book reader and so naturally I was really excited to read the news about Amazon Kindle.

And I got terribly disappointed.

Of course I am student with no funding and hardware expertise. Of course the possibilities of me actually producing an e-book reader compared to Amazon whose future business depends on it are like 0.000001% (maybe even squared But still it does not mean that I can’t recognize a good design when I see it.

And from I can gather, Kindle is not it.

Jeff Bezos is simply not Steve Jobs and Amazon is not Apple. What does that mean? That Kindle is not an iPod as Bezos likes to call it and many will surely follow.
What made iPod special?

Its ease of use. Design excellence. Innovative user interface. Integration with iTunes.

What does Kindle seem to have?

Integration with Amazon. Fantastic. Unbeatable. (Unless Google really succeeds and wins the copyright haggle)

Ease of use? Who knows until it ships.

But the rest?

C’mon Jeff, you can’t be serious to ship a device in 2007 that looks like an extension to Commodore 64. Where is the tape drive? You want me to be seen with this in Starbucks? Are you serious? Just look at it! (via MacNN)

This is not an iPod for books. Because people WANTED to be seen with iPods. This is Rio Mp3 player for books. (Anybody remember that thing? I even wanted it when it came out, but then again I am a geek

And I am glad. iPod did not hit the market until almost everybody had their players out. The other created the market, Apple stole it for themselves.

Thank you Amazon and Sony for going out there and developing terrible looking products and creating the market. Thank you because in future there will come a true iPod for books, but I will eat my shoes if it will come from Amazon.

Until then, let’s support book digitalization and e-book sales, but please please please let’s get smart about the DRM. People listen, we really need to be aware of what these companies try to feed us. If the Amazon DRM scheme will be closed like the iTunes are, we are looking at a very bleak and dark future where we will miss the good old times, when borrowing a book from a friend was not a crime.