December 25, 2007

Ok so its Christmas day and we should all be spending time with our loved ones, but your not! seeing as your here reading this blog on Christmas day!

So Merry Christmas to you and here is something fun for you to watch!

Source: Cracked.com

Amazon’s Digital Text Platform (DTP) allows you, yes YOU!, to publish anything you want and put it up for sale in the Kindle Store. How cool is that?

Do you have an old novel that you wrote in college? or are you trying to find a publisher for your next best seller? Then Amazon’s Digital Text Platform is for you. So what is Digital Text Platform I hear you ask;

Digital Text Platform is a fast and easy self-publishing tool that lets you upload and format your books for sale in the Kindle Store.

You can read the FAQ which will guide you through setting up an account, formatting your document and how to uploading your content to the Kindle store. There is also a very active user forum for Kindle publishers to discuss the platform.

Now I think this is a very smart move by Amazon to offer this service even though we know there are a limited number of Kindles out there. Amazon is keeping tight lipped about the number of devices it has sold.

As more people get the Kindle in 2008, I think we are going to see an increase in the number of people, and companies, who decide to publish content through DTP. I don’t think its going to be just authors who use this service, its only a matter of time before blogs and print media truly jump onto the Kindle bandwagon and offer Kindle exclusive content, which I think is what Amazon wants them to do instead of just re-publishing their content in Kindle format. Think about it, soon we will be begin to see Kindle exclusive newsletters , novels, blogs entries and newspaper articles. DTP for me is what Kindle is all about, its going to give the power back to the writers. No longer is the publishing house going to decide whether you’re good enough to get published.

What do you think?

Kindle has made it as one of the Top 10 Gadgets of the Year according to Wired.com. It makes it to Number 7 on the list, not bad for a gadget that was released just last month!

Other gadgets that make it on the list include the Optimus Maximus Keyboard, the HP Blackbird 002, Microsoft Zune 2 and the Apple iPhone. It’s nice to see that Kindle is getting the recognition it deserves for being one of the best gadgets in 2007.

Interestingly enough, the Kindle also makes it into Wired.com Top 10 Heartbreaking Gadgets of 2007 stating;

No native PDF support. Costs as much as a low-end laptop. “Klugey” keyboard. Clumsy, extortionate e-mail conversion process for adding your own files. And the web browser? Crippled.

I think you either love Kindle or you hate it and in Wired’s place, you love and hate it at the same time!

Link: Wired Top 10 Gadgets of they Year
Link: Wired Top 10 Heartbreaking Gadgets of 2007

The guys over at Macworld.com have reviewed the Kindle and they deliver a shocking verdict… it is revolutionary!

For those out there who are lucky enough to own a Kindle, it’s not really that surprising of a conclusion. It has literally changed the way we will consume our content in the future. All you have to do is read the many hundreds of blog posts about Kindle praising it and commenting on how it is the future, yet it has consistently been shunned by the main stream media as a gimmick or just an expensive toy. That is until someone actually goes out and review the thing and find out it is pretty darn good!

So lets just skim over some of the points made in the Macworld article on why Amazon’s Kindle will be a success.

1. Some Kindle owners will buy one to replace their paper books and magazines.
2. Fast, free broadly distributed wireless.
3. No PC required.
4. Option to sync up to a PC and manage your books from anywhere in the world.
5. $9.99 price tag for e-books which means you can buy more books.
6. Access Amazon.com and the Web to search Wikipedia via it’s free wireless connection.
7. Access to an experimental and free service called Kindle NowNow
8. Subscribe to RSS feeds.
9. Morning papers delivered before to your Kindle you wake up
10. Free PDF-to-Word converter.

If you want to read the full article then you can head over to Macworld.com and have a read.

Lets face it, we all want to see what this little baby look like on the inside. Rapidrepair.com were one of the lucky few who were able to get their paws on a Kindle before it sold out. Being the geeks that they are, they decided to dissect it.

I must warn you that its not pretty! She may look sleek, slender and understated on the outside, she is anything but that on the inside.

I’m no hardware engineer, so I can not tell you exactly what each component does or how it was assembled, but it looks like there are an awful lot of gadgets in there, Kindle is essentially a mobile phone/PDA with a fancy e-ink screen, the thing that makes Kindle unique is the software. So if there is anyone out there who knows what each component does then don’t hesitate to leave a comment.

Enjoy!

Source: Rapid Repair - Amazon Kindle Take-Apart