Tech News : Verizon to aquire Alltel

In tech news, Alltel will be acquired by Verizon. Hopefully this will improve Verizon's service in general. I've been a Verizon user for years. When my parents and I moved back from Korea in 2002, the "everyone owns a cell phone" shift had just began. We initially started with Sprint but then switched to Verizon, which for the most part, was a good move. However, now that I am starting to desire data access on my cell phone and there are devices like the iPhone all around, I'm surprised Verizon has continued to stick with its VCast/browsing software. The software itself is poorly designed and severely lacking in features. I guess the web browsing promises of the iPhone and the email accessibility of the Blackberry have spoiled me when I consider standards of mobile data access. But is wanting a simple and reliable way of accessing the internet on my phone too much to ask?

In Related News:
I FINALLY saw a Kindle out in the wild today. All my previous notions of this waste of a product were right. The thing is THE MOST poorly designed, overrated, misplaced concept device I have ever seen. My main issues (mostly design related).


I'll make this short:

1. It's not symmetrical. The body of the Kindle is a mess of polygons gone wrong. It awkwardly fits into the cheap looking jacket it comes with. Oh, and Jeff Bezos, don't think I didn't notice the stolen strap design to hold the jacket closed...you Moleskin stealing ass. (I know I'm being mean and unprofessional, but the guy just annoys me!)

2. It's so BIG. Now, it could get away with being as big as it is, IF it had a good symmetrical design, but it doesn't. It is fairly thick too, I'd say about an inch at its thickest. If you read my earlier post about the Kindle, when it first came out, you'll know I don't even believe in its concept. However, if the market demands a portable e-book reader, then I at least want it to be stylish and slim. The Kindle fails at both.

3. Lacks two very important features, one of which is an industry standard in my opinion; color and touchscreen. I'll give the Kindle a pass on the touchscreen technology (even though Jeff Bezos claims the Kindle is "revolutionary", but when you're "revolutionary" it means you're at the top of the game, not meddling in the lukewarm waters of a SCROLL WHEEL!), because it isn't fully developed yet. But the Kindle not having color is unforgivable. How am I supposed to enjoy content without color? One of Kindle's main selling point, according to Amazon, is access to thousands of newspapers, magazines, and blogs. Let us go through these three media sources and weed out the ones that only use black and white text...hmm let me think here...carry the 2 and subtract 1...ummm oh that's right..ZERO! When the lady I saw using the Kindle paged up the entire screen inverted the black/white contrast and then loaded the next page, it looked so low-tech I couldn't believe anyone would ever spend $340 for it.

I know I'm being very critical here, and I know all you e-book lovers will defend the Kindle and e-publishing world in general. However, my essential beef with the Kindle is the way in which Jeff Bezos and Amazon have framed its creation, release, and marketing. They have framed it as "revolutionary". PROOF:



It is not revolutionary. Every feature claim is neither unique nor innovative.

NOT UNIQUE: Instant access to books, newspapers, blogs, and magazines = iPhone, MacBook Air, any device with Wi-Fi essentially. Portability = again, iPhone, MacBook Air, any device with Wi-Fi. Specific e-book reader = Sony's portable reader.

NOT INNOVATIVE: A scroll wheel (should be touchscreen). Black and white only (should be have color capability). Industrial design that looks like you bought it at the dollar store (should be symmetrical and thin).

The arrogance of Bezos is incredibly annoying. End rant.

One final note in this extra long tech entry. I bought it! Pictures of set up, soon to come! Dell told me in the email it is expected to arrive June 6th, i.e. TOMORROW, which I highly doubt. I'm more expecting Monday, but here's hoping!

Amazon's Kindle...3 years on THIS?!

Has the entire tech world gone mental? I was surfing the net just a few minutes ago and I came across a news story for Amazon.com's Kindle. It is a new electronic reading device that hopes to revolutionize the "book/print" market like the iPod did for music industry. However there is one slight problem Amazon...THE PRODUCT IS TOTAL CRAP!
I only spent around ten minutes reading articles/blogs about Kindle and I already know its not going to revolutionize anything and will probably be a let down for Amazon.
Not only does it look like Amazon tried to rip off Apple's patented style (which they failed at miserably, the thing is hideous), but you are limited by its lack of features. The screen is black and white (boring! Come on Amazon! Even the most insignificant small town newspaper has color features!) The scroll feature is controlled by a corny wheel! A WHEEL?! Did we go back to the 90s? What ever happened to the great advances in touchscreen technology? That stupid little scroll wheel is going to be a huge headache for Amazon's customer service line. The entire thing looks like a poor man's first generation Blackberry.
Furthermore, I don't get the concept of the product. Amazon's concept: people want their print media all in one device; just like having your music/video library in an iPod. Amazon claims:

"The Kindle represents a milestone in a time of transition, when a challenged publishing industry is competing with television, Guitar Hero and time burned on the BlackBerry; literary critics are bemoaning a possible demise of print culture, and Norman Mailer's recent death underlined the dearth of novelists who cast giant shadows. On the other hand, there are vibrant pockets of book lovers on the Internet who are waiting for a chance to refurbish the dusty halls of literacy." - Newsweek article http://www.newsweek.com/id/70983

But I don't think the print culture is going away any time soon. Sure children (and a lot of adults) don't read as much as they should because they're clocking hours playing Halo 3. But trying to make reading sexy and tech savvy by putting it on a poorly designed device isn't going to make them change their habits.
Sure it would be nice to have access to thousands of books all in the palm of my hand and I do feel like the e-book does have a market, but it is not widespread and it is not revolutionary. The two major markets I see the e-book taping are college students and commuters.

• College students because they can save space and money by having discounted e-books all in one device, but a student might run into the problem of needing to use multiple books at one time for a research product.
• Then there are commuters, its obvious that two hours on the train could go by a lot faster reading the new Mary Higgins Clark novel or browsing the pages of the your favorite blog.

But one stinging question comes to mind when Amazon claims the e-book is so convenient, and that is: "What about ultra-portable laptops and iPhones, don't they simplify our lives a lot better? "Apple's MacBook and various other Windows based laptops are able to receive high speed internet via WiFi. If I want to catch up on my RSS feeds from the web, I'd rather flip out my laptop, connect to the closest WiFi port and see in full color the rantings of my favorite author. What Amazon should be doing instead of spending three years on a poorly designed e-book, is creating software that enables customers to copy their print library into a program on their laptops. We don't need another device to carry around!
Futhermore, to drive my point home that this Kindle/e-book thing is not as great as Jeff Bezos claims, I believe there is something very romantic about books. The book was, arguably, humankind's greatest invention. It is..."light, portable, easy to share, no silly DRM problems, and it really isn’t that expensive given the value of entertainment a reader can wring out of it. The paper book is a good product." Book lovers will never give up their paper books for e-books, it just isn't the same. Real books carry with them individuality, character, and a sense of history. E-books carry with them nothing but the text of the book and the cold feel of an electronic device. I'm sorry Amazon, you don't have a winner here, stick to being a great bookseller.
One more thing: They're also trying to charge $400 for this thing?! I could go get a iPhone!
I believe the wave of the future is in simplifying our lives. Thats why the iPhone is such a great product, it lets me carry one device instead of three (iPod, phone, laptop). Kindle claims to simplify my life as well, but it just doesn't follow through.
In conclusion, the Kindle sucks, Jeff Bezos looks like a tool in most of his pictures, Apple rules, and I wish I had a iPhone...Thats just me though. :-)