Kindle catches fire and flak in the blogosphere

Now that the hype has subsided, what is Kindle? It's too expensive (Wall Street Journal). Yet it sold out immediately. No it didn't, it can't be selling well at all (Motley Fool) and the price will plummet. It's really ugly but it has a lot of potential (ZDNet). Hardly anyone has one yet but the consumer ratings on Amazon's own site say it sucks. It includes free, wireless, cellular broadband service (New York Times) and you can ... fill the Kindle with your own documents and photos – by e-mail. You, or your authorized minions, can e-mail Word, PDF, JPEG and text files directly to your Kindle's special address – including any of the 20,000 free, out-of-copyright e-books at Gutenberg.org. Amazon charges 10 cents for each e-mailed document; if even that's too rich for your blood, you can also transfer them free from a Mac or PC, over a U.S.B. cable. This feature means that you can look over documents, contracts and user guides while you're on the road – without a laptop. But the battery doesn't last long enough (Washington Post). Wait, no, yes it does (Gizmodo). You have to use a real computer to cancel RSS subscriptions (Wired). "It looks like a piece of medical equipment" (Journalism.co.uk). It's "#1 in Kindle store" (Atlantic)! It's not the next iPod (Times of London): Now, I might realise that every technological shift is met by people not understanding the point of it – who would need to carry their entire music library around with them on an iPod when they had a Walkman? And one day I may look back on my Luddite reaction to the Kindle with shame. But probably not. Because it was and is perfectly plausible to think you might be listening to, say, the Killers, and suddenly realise that actually you wanted to hear Jeff Beal's soundtrack to the television show Monk. A desire to hear something different is hard-wired into our brains: that's why, before the almighty iPod, there were jukeboxes. But who thinks: "Well, I'm certainly enjoying this murder mystery, and I can't wait to find out whodunnit, but I must just read some bits from another 200 books first. And, while I'm at it, I should go to Wikipedia and find out who composed the soundtrack to Monk"? No one, is who. Call me linear, but I want to start a book, read it, finish it, and then I'll read another book.