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Amazon’s Kindle Tablet Is Very Real. I’ve Seen It, Played With It.

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Re: Amazon’s Kindle Tablet Is Very Real. I’ve Seen It, Played With It.

#21

Post by rryan »

ugh wrote: post #15
sodiumjoe wrote: post #2

In certain ways, this "post-PC" era that Apple's brought us into with the iPad seems like a step backward. We're going back to something more like the broadcast television model, where a more or less centralized authority produces the content for passive users to consume. These tablets just keep getting more and more optimized for that. I suppose it's somewhat natural, given the way the market works, but it seems our…

Whut? I just happily browsed the web, listened to podcasts, checked my RSS feeds and flicked through my Twitter stream for six hours during a train ride on my iPad. All tasks for which the iPad – or more general the tablet form factor – is ideal. I think your argument is incoherent.

You seem to have misunderstood. joebadmo was saying that the post-PC era seems to be more about content consumption than content production. You responded in the negative by saying you spent 6 hours consuming content, which doesn't make much sense because that would be anecdotal evidence in favor of joebadmo's argument.

Re: Amazon’s Kindle Tablet Is Very Real. I’ve Seen It, Played With It.

#22

Post by sandGorgon »

ajg1977 wrote: post #10

If there's one thing they need to nail on this device (beyond the Kindle app) it's web browsing. a $250 7" tablet with a top class browser is a hugely compelling product all by itself.

There have been several white-label 8'' multitouch tablets for a long time.

http://www.androidtabletspcs.com/8-Inch-Android-2-3-Tablet-P...

For example - the tablet above has A8 Cortex, gingerbread and dual-cameras.

Re: Amazon’s Kindle Tablet Is Very Real. I’ve Seen It, Played With It.

#23

Post by joebadmo »

ugh wrote: post #15
sodiumjoe wrote: post #2

In certain ways, this "post-PC" era that Apple's brought us into with the iPad seems like a step backward. We're going back to something more like the broadcast television model, where a more or less centralized authority produces the content for passive users to consume. These tablets just keep getting more and more optimized for that. I suppose it's somewhat natural, given the way the market works, but it seems our…

Whut? I just happily browsed the web, listened to podcasts, checked my RSS feeds and flicked through my Twitter stream for six hours during a train ride on my iPad. All tasks for which the iPad – or more general the tablet form factor – is ideal. I think your argument is incoherent.

You just listed four activites that are consumptive in nature. What was the last thing you produced on your iPad? Not just that, but even the way you use it is not the optimized-for case, I think. Apple wants to optimize you buying music, movies, books, etc. through iTunes and iBooks. Amazon is continuing this trend. Yes, the post-PC devices will continue to allow you to participate in the Web, necessarily, but they will privilege consumption over production, and centralized broadcast models over decentralized peer-to-peer ones. Because that's where the money is.

In contrast, the native Web on PCs is more read-write by nature. And Web technologies are making production increasingly easier.

Re: Amazon’s Kindle Tablet Is Very Real. I’ve Seen It, Played With It.

#24

Post by peterbraden »

ugh wrote: post #15
sodiumjoe wrote: post #2

In certain ways, this "post-PC" era that Apple's brought us into with the iPad seems like a step backward. We're going back to something more like the broadcast television model, where a more or less centralized authority produces the content for passive users to consume. These tablets just keep getting more and more optimized for that. I suppose it's somewhat natural, given the way the market works, but it seems our…

Whut? I just happily browsed the web, listened to podcasts, checked my RSS feeds and flicked through my Twitter stream for six hours during a train ride on my iPad. All tasks for which the iPad – or more general the tablet form factor – is ideal. I think your argument is incoherent.

I think your reply exemplifies his argument - you used an ipod to 'consume' media for si hours, rather than creating, which older computers may have been better suited for.

Re: Amazon’s Kindle Tablet Is Very Real. I’ve Seen It, Played With It.

#25

Post by m0nastic »

ipsin wrote: post #13

I'm not interested unless it's: 1) easily flashable with an actual Android ROM (a la Nook/cyanogen) 2) got a 3G data connection, similar to the current 3G kindle If both are true, it's a really compelling device.

It sounds like you want a Galaxy Tab 7 for $250.

I'd actually be surprised if Amazon allows it to be reflashed (insofar as you can actually restrict it). That would eliminate their entire point in selling it (their ecosystem of content).

Re: Amazon’s Kindle Tablet Is Very Real. I’ve Seen It, Played With It.

#26

Post by rryan »

wccrawford wrote: post #6
Lewisham wrote: post #3

If Amazon are going to maintain an Android fork, I wonder how well Android apps will be able to play with it. It would be a huge disappointment if 2.2+ apps were unavailable (or installing Google Market for that matter). I can see why Amazon has gone down this path, but I do wonder if it's the right thing, rather than doing everyone's favorite/most hated carrier-specific bolt-ons instead. I also hope that Amazon does…

The article says there's no Google Market. Only Amazon's. As for forking, I'm guessing it's not really a fork. It's just got their own UI on top, but they'll continue to get the rest of the updates from Google.

In that sense of a fork, all manufacturers of Android have forked it. I assume if they (or the person who showed it to MG) called it a fork that would be more significant than just a custom UI (which Android is designed to facilitate).

Re: Amazon’s Kindle Tablet Is Very Real. I’ve Seen It, Played With It.

#27

Post by Anti-Ratfish »

ipsin wrote: post #13

I'm not interested unless it's: 1) easily flashable with an actual Android ROM (a la Nook/cyanogen) 2) got a 3G data connection, similar to the current 3G kindle If both are true, it's a really compelling device.

Try a different route. How about getting amazon android (what do you call it?) running on a touchpad. Damn knows how you would do it. Would be a lot cheaper than buying the colour kindle though and the touchpad includes a few of those features you want (but probably no software to run them). If the story is correct and colour kindle does look like a playbook then I'd argue that the touchpad looks better too.

Re: Amazon’s Kindle Tablet Is Very Real. I’ve Seen It, Played With It.

#29

Post by joebadmo »

chc wrote: post #20
sodiumjoe wrote: post #2

In certain ways, this "post-PC" era that Apple's brought us into with the iPad seems like a step backward. We're going back to something more like the broadcast television model, where a more or less centralized authority produces the content for passive users to consume. These tablets just keep getting more and more optimized for that. I suppose it's somewhat natural, given the way the market works, but it seems our…

Can you explain how a tablet-form Kindle is more centralized and passive than one with physical keys? I don't follow.

Not more than the old kindle, but more than the old model of computing, PCs with dedicated input.

Re: Amazon’s Kindle Tablet Is Very Real. I’ve Seen It, Played With It.

#30

Post by ugh »

abstractbill wrote: post #19
ugh wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whut? I just happily browsed the web, listened to podcasts, checked my RSS feeds and flicked through my Twitter stream for six hours during a train ride on my iPad. All tasks for which the iPad – or more general the tablet form factor – is ideal. I think your argument is incoherent.

All the things you just listed are forms of consumption, not production. The argument seems coherent enough to me. I'm not entirely convinced about the "centralized authority" part, but the "tools for consumption advancing faster than tools for production" seems true (and inevitable).

Improving consumption doesn’t imply much about creation.

So what if consumption is easier? Does that mean less people will create something? Why? Creating something doesn’t get harder because consumption gets easier. I don’t see the causal connection.

(That central authority bullshit is just patent nonsense.)

Oh, and our tools for creation still are rapidly improving. Prices for computers have gone nothing but down. People are today able to buy a great PC and a tablet for the same price of a PC ten years ago. Software has become hugely more accessible, hardware has become so much more capable. Creating stuff was never – never – as easy as it is today.

We are living in a golden age of content creation and in a golden of content consumption. Tablets will help with that, not hinder.

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