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Apps for Kindle coming soon. Meh

Posted on | January 21, 2010 | 1 Comment

Maybe i’m the first to say it, but when it comes to apps on the Kindle,

M.E.H.

I totally understand it, Amazon is knee jerking because 1. the Nook has a touch screen that’s not eInk, so apps make sense (maybe?) and 2. we’re a week away from Apple’s “big announcement” that will surely be a Tablet, and surely not be a Kindle killer anymore than the iPhone or any netbook currently on the market is.

Here’s why I’m meh.

The Kindle has 1 screen, it’s eInk. For those that don’t know that means it’s digital paper. There’s no animation capability (well very very very little). EInk draws the screen, then stops, it doesn’t re-arrange the ink molecules/pixels until you tell it to, and when it does, there’s a flash of the screen as things shift. It’s not a blinding or anything, but it’s there and it pretty clearly means any app can’t be a fast screen drawing app.

Really do i want to tweet from a Kindle? I certainly don’t want to web browse. I can’t fathom an app that wouldn’t suck on the Kindle.

Here’s why I’m cautiously optimistic.

Maybe developers (assuming the API permits) can do what Amazon has failed for 3 years to do. Deliver a usable UI.

  • Tagging aka metadata
  • folders/sorting
  • something better than paging thru 6+ (in my case) pages of books in list format
  • Custom screensaver images WITHOUT a hack
  • Custom fonts WITHOUT a hack

To name just a few.

Category: Business, eBooks, I am a Consumer, iPhone, Kindle, Technology
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One Response to “Apps for Kindle coming soon. Meh”

  1. Tweets that mention Apps for Kindle coming soon. Meh | johnwilker.com -- Topsy.com
    January 21st, 2010 @ 10:51 am

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by John WIlker, HowDo.us. HowDo.us said: Apps for Kindle coming soon. Meh: Maybe i'm the first to say it, but when it comes to apps on the Kindle, M.E.H. I… http://bit.ly/4Nnyzg [...]

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