Amazon Kindle DX: The Solution to a problem that doesn't exist
Some Excerpts from the Full Article:
Simply, the Kindle DX is far from being an optimal format for a magazine. Not only does the Kindle DX’s monochrome screen sap all the life away from the art department of every publication, but it also removes the “two-page” magazine feel: A picture or design element that spans two pages, which is presented more often than you think in glossies. By only viewing a magazine one page at a time, you’re reading a stunted publication — even if the PDF support makes it easy to get a magazine on the device in the first place.
But it simply isn’t quite there as a substitute for the real thing. Is anyone complaining about how hard it is to get the news? Or how heavy a newspaper is? Is anyone complaining about anything but the price of textbooks?
But it in no way makes me any more likely to ditch my habitual reading of NYTimes.com each morning, or my subscription to GQ, or the occasional newsstand purchase I may make. And as a student, I simply couldn’t see fronting that kind of cash for a device whose features significantly overlap with a required laptop, which allows me to read my course readings and news and write a paper about it.
It’s hard not to like the Kindle, mainly because it aims to revolutionize a task anyone reading this article is fond of: reading. But until Amazon reproduces that experience in a more complete fashion and makes reading as inexpensive a habit as it currently is, it will remain out of reach for most consumers and out of touch with most publishers.
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