100 PERCENT DESIGN SHANGHAI
HAMBURG HARLEY DAYS 2008
BERLIN DESIGN FESTIVAL 2008
NEW YORK DESIGN WEEK 2008
MAKER FAIRE 2008
Today's the day Amazon starts selling its Kindle book reader, a 10.3 ounce tablet device that runs $399 and can hold about 200 books (each selling for roughly $9.99), expandable to 1,000 books. The kindle uses "electronic ink" technology, which is simple black text on a white background, with no backlighting. It also doesn't require a PC-hookup; the Kindle connects to the internet directly over EV-DO, and consumers can browse and download directly on the device.
Kindle will also feature access to Wikipedia and a dictionary. So, will the device take? Guy Kawasaki of Garage Technology Ventures has called it the "Blackberry for blogs." Time will tell if he's right, and one day they'll read about it in the history books. Or in the Kindles.
via cnet
Troika
Paul Budnitz from Kidrobot
Jason Bruges
Donald Norman
Comments
This is the ugliest design I have ever seen. I heard Robert Brunner did this.
ugly,ugly,ugly.
there's something so wrong about this, but I wouldn't expect anything less from Bezos.
Do we are back to the 70's? Horrible
This is a prime example of how marketing people are overly focused on the product feature set and are unable to objectively look at the product itself. It's as if the folks at Amazon have never seen or used a contemporary electronic product. Quick test; when you show the product to people without telling them what it is, do they go "Ooooh, I want one."? The Kindle looks like a cheap product from twenty years ago. And then there's the name. (How about a clever, literary-inspired name?)
The Kindle is likely to fail, mainly because of a lack of understanding of design. Bezos is certainly no Steve Jobs.
I've seen it in person - not quite so bad as it look in pictures, but still looks like a knockoff pocket organizer. Page turning is slooooow and flashes black at every turn.
Nice packaging though.
See this is the problem: On the one hand we hear it's too early to pass judgment on the thing, and then on the other, we hear it may well replace the book!
This is marketing, pure and simple.
Amazon said 'jump' and 'tech' writers from Newsweek and CNET said 'how high'?
A great article idea would be to examine how the tech journalism industry colluded in this scheme.