A VC - Latest Comments in The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

jakemintz — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 10:19:31 -0000

I completely agree, they are my favorite to both love and hate. They do so much that is great and I hold them to such high expectations that when they do non-ideal stuff it is disappointing.

Back to the Kindle, it looks like apps are already getting developed for it without Kindle being an officially open platform. http://bit.ly/4DoF5

Time for another call to action like when you asked for a Blog Roll? I would for my book highlights to show up in my Tumblog as well.

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

fredwilson — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 08:46:11 -0000

Frankly it is amazing what apple has done with the iphone. I am vocal about a lot of thing I hate about apple. But you have to give them credit for showing the way forward for the next 10 years

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

jakemintz — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:04:47 -0000

Ah yes, I completely agree. I think they will get their eventually. Amazon seems to have had their hands full just manufacturing the Kindle. I bet in the next 18 months they will open the platform or at least have an API to access data on it. Like Fred, I would love to instantly reblog my highlights.

It takes a lot of time to develop a platform you can open up. The iPhone is buggy as hell, we had to rewrite a ton of simple stuff to keep our app from crashing. There are a bunch of bad bugs they haven't fixed (and who knows if they will). So, I don't hold it against Amazon that they are not there yet.

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

kidmercury — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 07:42:16 -0000

i was referring to how it is not open in the sense that software developers cannot build applications on top of it. like how software developers can build apps on top of the iphone that let you play games and do all sorts of stuff that the iphone makers probably never even thought of. i imagine kindle will eventually let software developers make apps that can run on the kindle, but they haven't done it yet.

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

fredwilson — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:46:14 -0000

I love the ability to hold in one hand and just hit next page, next page, next page

It totally works for me

I love it too

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

fredwilson — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:45:23 -0000

Great point

I have the email address to my dad's kindle and I email him stuff to read on it

That's a great feature

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

jakemintz — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:18:30 -0000

If you can find a source of non-DRMd ebooks, they will work on your Kindle. Just email them to youremail@free.kindle.com and Amazon will email you back converted versions (or youremail@kindle.com and pay ten cents to have them show up wirelessly) . I did this with a bunch of books from the Gutenberg project and it took seconds. Hopefully someone will make a conversion tool so we don't have to email Amazon. It shouldn't be too difficult, Amazon book format is based on the old Palm ebook format.

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

jakemintz — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:14:00 -0000

I bought a Kindle expecting not to like it. I read a ton and was worried that I would miss the physical experience of interacting with a book. Several times during my first book I tried to flip a page on my Kindle like it was a real book. It totally fooled me once I got in the zone. Plus there are several things I like better about reading on my Kindle such as handless reading (put it on the table and it doesn't close itself) and aggregation of highlights and notes. I am sure it is not for everyone, but everyone should give it a try. I was stunned.

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

jakemintz — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:10:39 -0000

What is closed about it? The first ten books on my Kindle 2 were from the Gutenberg project. Amazon will even send books to your Kindle you didn't buy from them wirelessly for ten cents. Most of the books I have just added over USB.

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

fredwilson — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 06:23:11 -0000

I read Andrew's book. Don't agree with it for all the reasons you articulate. But it's good that he put it out there.

Interesting that DRM is largely gone. If "nobody but copyleftists minded it" then why is it gone?

I think its because it caused people to buy less music.

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

Prokofy — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 19:24:13 -0000

Most people aren't ideological and copyleftist like you, Fred. They find it actually easier to buy i-tunes than sit and rip and fiddle with files. They don't have the hatred of DRM that you have because they probably *only* have an i-pod and nothing else, so there's no need to transfer files across all kinds of devices. You have to realize you are in a tiny, affluent, ideological minority with this thinking. Apple couldn't succeed as it does if everyone in fact behaved as you do, and as you think others do. And that's a good thing, because Apple needs to get paid, and so do artists, and putting up free stuff on Myspace doesn't get them paid, as Andrew Keen very methodically reports in "The Cult of the Amateur".

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

fredwilson — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:09:12 -0000

Well you make some good points prokofy but I've had an iPod for something like five or sox years now and have never bought a song from apple

I buy all my mp3s from places where there is no drm or I buy CDs and rip them

If there were an open kindle, I'd buy it for sure

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

Prokofy — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 22:09:36 -0000

What's great about your post here is your willingness to escape from the confines of conformity that so often is dicated by the tekkie tribe -- you have to be for ripping every device and freeing content or else die. I hate that sort of technocommunism, which is constantly trying to destroy value and property.

When vruz writes this, it's a kind of hysteria: "It's because of what it means to have a single point of failure concentrated in a single vendor that becomes the de-facto watcher for our cultural wealth. Of course it's great for Amazon and for Amazon stockholders, but it's a really fucked up thing for mankind as a whole. Really fucked up."

Breathtakingly sectarian and just plain *weird*. You would think that all the books had been confiscated yesterday and were being doled out now by amazon. In fact, there are plenty of ordinary old tree books everywhere. And Google has scanned into the Internet gadzillions of books if you want to sit and read a book online for free. And the same newspapers or services that Kindle has are online, too.

So there isn't any chokepoint of horror whatsoever. There won't even be in 5 years. Not with all the opensource fanboyz ripping at something like this like they rip at everything, for one, but more to the point, other readers will emerge -- in fact they already exist, didn't I just see a Microsoft reader in the book store?

I fail to see why each time some company adds value by making something that is proprietary and is useful to people, they have to subtract value by providing free fodder for legions of loafers who want stuff for free, and legions of widgeteers who think it is a God-given right to rip every service and hook their APIs into it they can sell then for a free or sell their consulting to marketers or companies. Seriously, this is whack, not Kindle making a buck.

I think it's a bit alarming that someone can get Fred Wilson to move off the usual opensource copyleftist dime just by giving him a free thing. But If that's what it takes to get you to see reason, fine! Amazon should be giving more of these things to all the Twittering copyleftist A-listers who are screeching about this horrid closed system.

It's extraordinary to me, again, that vruz could scream "fascism" about a company's simple wish to get paid and pay their workers by charing for their software-run device.

Where is vruz's grave concern about our cultural wealth tied up in Wikipedia and run by sectarian loons especially on the more controversial pages? Wher eis vruz's profound unrest about our cultural wealth tied up in Google search which most of the time turns up Wikipedia? No concerns about bottlenecks and chokeholds, there, hmm? Is it that some companies are more politically correct than others, so they can do no wrong?

Sure, the chokers of any cultural wealth are suspect, but I fail to see why Kindle is even close to doing such an evil thing, and I fail to see how vruz can be morally blind to Google and Wikipedia *already* being close to this, and not prompting a peep out of him.

It's as if private property itself is the crime, rather than the power that is in fact gaining power by destroying private property (which is what is happening with Google and newspapers).

Now, finish the job, Fred, and let them post your blog on Kindle, don't be ideological for no reason.

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

fredwilson — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:10:46 -0000

I totally agree colin

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

Colin Devroe — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 11:08:45 -0000

I'm just recently subscribed to your blog (love it, btw) and so I'm late to the discussion here. But I did want to quickly chime in and say that I think that having to pay to subscribe to blogs is ludicrous and something that I really, really dislike. Everything else about the Kindle is nothing short of a remarkable product/service. But paying for things that which the publisher themselves gives away for free is just dumb.

I hope this changes in the future.

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

jaredran — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 18:35:28 -0000

I love the idea of carrying around a small device rather than a clunky book, which makes the Kindle excellent for new books. But, what do I do with all of the clunky books I already have that I don't want to buy twice? It would be great if I could plug in serial numbers of books I already own and then the Kindle loads them all. This would create a habit of using the Kindle (that I would take into new book-buying) and break down a barrier for me buying the hardware. (The barrier is that I have a backlogged reading list of books I already own and don't want to ignore those books just so I can read on a Kindle.)

Man, would I love to digitize The Power Broker. I would've finished it months ago!

I would by a Kindle tonight if I could do this.

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

Jule — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:30:31 -0000

I love books, too. I love the feel of a new book, the weight of it, the smell of it. I think that books will stay around and the books that are the most tactile/visual/difficult to duplicate on a kindle will do well, but books that are easily translated to the kindle (e.g., Dummies books) will migrate to that platform. High tech and high touch will both survive but the stuff that falls in the middle (poor touch or lousy tech) will wither.

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

Jule — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:27:11 -0000

I didn't want a kindle when they first came out--for the reasons you gave and also, it was ugly. Saw the new one and had to have it. Not only do I read differently--I can have 100 books in my backpack!--my time expectation for when I can read something has dropped dramatically. I used to think 2nd day delivery was marvelous. Now I can have what I want in 50 seconds. PLUS they made the whole experience elegant--the box, the simple instructions right on the screen, the welcome letter from Bezos, the author photos that pop up when you power down. And I expect it will keep changing, keep getting better.

On a side note---hope you're getting everything you wanted out of being in NY. It must be an incredible experience.

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

Jay — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:59:22 -0000

No way! Most readers love books -- not just letters combined in a space that they scan with their eyes, but BOOKS. Having them, holding them, turning the pages.

I think there's a place for the Kindle, without a doubt, but physical books aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

Noah David Simon — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:52:54 -0000

"the Great Crash, 1929 is a book written by John Kenneth Galbraith and published in 1954; it is an economic history of the lead-up to the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The book argues that the 1929 stock market crash was precipitated by rampant speculation in the stock market, that the common denominator of all speculative episodes is the belief of participants that they can become rich without work[1] and that the tendency towards recurrent speculative orgy serves no useful purpose, but rather is deeply damaging to an economy. It was Galbraith's belief that a good knowledge of what happened in 1929 was the best safeguard against its recurrence" http://en.wikipedia.org/wik... I think I could probably read this for about two years. I don't read fast

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

fredwilson — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:15:22 -0000

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

fredwilson — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:04:20 -0000

Maybe

I love the super thin feel of the kindle. Being able to hold it in one hand and eat with the other is pure joy

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

JoeDuck — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:34:16 -0000

Interesing Bill, and again Bezos is really vague about what's going on. I suppose he could have strategic reasons for keeping things quiet but it seems far more likely that the success of the Kindle has been greatly exaggerated, helping to keep AMZN stock hot. while they hope for better numbers in the future. Hmm - sounds kind of like our US recovery plan?

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

JoeDuck — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:29:30 -0000

Fred I think you mean "Whoa Heaveho", which ironically sounds like the beginning of your upcoming cowboy ebook for the Kindle.

Re: The Book Market Stares At Ubiquity

BillSeitz — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 08:15:07 -0000

The few stats Amazon *has* released make me think that their main *unit sales* have been nearly-free public-domain titles.

http://webseitz.fluxent.com...