Comments on: You don’t know what you’re talking about, Scoble

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 17:18:23 +0000

Scoble’s comments about kindle make clear that it is possible to be too close to the gadget universe in which he circulates. In the same way that those in the DC beltway often don’t understand that the rest of us don’t care about the insider games that play out in the national political scene, he doesn’t seem to understand that insider-techie notions, and desires, should not be universally applied to their understanding of every device that comes to market.

Social networking is everything right now (sigh-are we all 15 years old?), but expecting SN on the kindle adds undue complexity and unwanted noise to a device that ought to enhance one’s ability to quietly become immersed in reading. Do I want to be notified of *anything* about *anyone else* while I’m reading? Nope. Scoble, this is a book reader. Why demand it do so much more?

Touch screen? Because iphone does it? WTF kind of logic is that? Doing away with menus because that’s the techie trend right now? Now seriously, in a device that uses current eInk, without a touchscreen, how would that be implemented? Is it really fair, in the context of a review, to hoist your insider expectations about convergence on this device?

The legitimate complaints you made were (1) the page turning buttons, and (2) flexibility in ordering goods from the device. Regarding the buttons, many actual users have noted on amazon.com that the page buttons could be better, but don’t seem vociferous in their comments about them. Future iterations of the device will have to address this area. Regarding the ability to do things like order paper copies and the ability to gift kindle books, why can’t you use the free browser to log into your amazon account to order physical items? I would guess that if there is enough demand for these mods, more flexible gifting and ordering options will be added via software upgrades.

In general, Scoble’s rant about the kindle, and his overly cozy insider “interview” with Arrington add almost nothing to potential users’ understanding of the kindle. You guys can do better.

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 16:51:24 +0000

Scoble’s comments about kindle make clear that it is possible to be too close to the gadget universe in which he exists. In the same way that those in the DC beltway often don’t understand that the rest of us don’t care about the insider games that play out in the national political scene, he doesn’t seem to understand that insider tech trends should not/cannot be universally applied to every device that comes to market.

Social networking is everything right now, but expecting SN on the kindle adds undue complexity and unwanted *noise* to a device that ought to enhance one’s ability to quietly become immersed in reading. Do I want to be notified of *anything* about *anyone else* while I’m reading? No.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 21:40:11 +0000

John Said
Scoble don’t need to know what Scoble is talking about.

He’s Mother-Effing Scoble.

(sorry, can you tell I really don’t like him?)

John, you don’t like Scoble? Like, have you ever met him? I haven’t. Maybe you just disagree with him? I mean, it’s pretty hard to dislike someone you’ve never met. Sure, you can disagree with him but…. let’s get over ourselves people. Disagreement and dislike shouldn’t be the same thing.

Ok, sorry. Rant over.

By: davidphile

davidphile — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 21:20:48 +0000

Maybe it’s just me that sees this and I’m a crackpot, but people who read books are used to cheap entertainment. For $400 I could easily pick up 100 used books without DRM that I can share/trade/resell and probably get at least another 50 books that I never have to think twice about bringing somewhere. Which is, in fact, exactly how I consume books.

By: Partners in Grime

Partners in Grime — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 03:16:01 +0000

I think something has happened to Robert’s cornflakes lately.

By: Peter Ha

Peter Ha — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 02:21:42 +0000

@David

Yes, I know everything is backed up on a Kindle server, but I just don’t see the point. I don’t feel the need for any social networking on an e-book. That’s pretty much it. It’s an e-book and you’re meant to read books on it.

By: David Mackey

David Mackey — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 23:42:51 +0000

Peter, I think you are on except for your disagreement with Scoble’s request for gifting. Gifting is a great idea, and by the way, Amazon holds the books on their servers, so you could have it so that you didn;’t have to download gifts.

By: Robert Scoble

Robert Scoble — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 09:02:51 +0000

tony: I’m keeping my Kindle. Even with all of its faults it still is better than a Sony Reader or an iRex iLiad.

But notice that neither of those have burned up the sales charts in the gadget world either, so I don’t think such a comparison is really all that useful to Amazon.

By: tony

tony — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 08:30:15 +0000

Mr. Scoble should return his Kindle for lack of the all the features he mentioned.
It doesn’t have bluetooth, GPS, HDMI connections, solar arrays nor run Silverlight.

Touch screen? Seriously unless you want to pay for the fine iRex iLiad at $699 with the Wacom overlay atop v1 e-ink, visiplex v2 e-ink is the best out there.

Kill Menus? Apple’s Leopard has menus, therefore it has bad UI.

Sounds like Mr. Scoble would be better off with a cybook Bokeen, Sony Reader or iRex iLiad they in dire need of more of his whining rants for public relations.

By: Robert Scoble

Robert Scoble — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 07:29:16 +0000

What’s funny is that Mike Arrington panned the UI of the Kindle first and I tried to actually say exactly what you did above — later after actually using the device for a while I changed my mind. Here’s what he said: http://www.kyte.tv/channels/view.html?uri=channels/6118/75154

You do work for Mike, right? Heh!

By: Brian Boru

Brian Boru — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 07:10:35 +0000

“You can’t have touch capabilities on e-ink.” — what does the display have to do with touchscreen? CRTs, LCDs have for years the ability to overlay a touchscreen on top of of the display. Is the reviewer retarded or just infatuated?

By: Peter Ha

Peter Ha — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 06:03:21 +0000

@RMeyer
We’re talking about *gasp* iPhone-like touch capabilities.

By: RMeyer

RMeyer — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 01:33:13 +0000

“You can’t have touch capabilities on e-ink.” - check out the iLiad from iRex http://www.irextechnologies.com/ - it uses a stylus, but is a touchscreen nonetheless

By: Brent

Brent — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 01:17:39 +0000

Totally agree with the social networking thing. I know soc-net is hot right now, but seriously, in about 2 years (or 2 months, depending on how long you’ve been networking), people are going to realize it’s not always necessary for everyone you know to know everything you do.

By: verena

verena — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:40:44 +0000

I agree with every point you made. People seem to have this strange idea that new devices need to be everything for everyone. No one is putting a gun to anybody’s head to buy this thing.

By: Peter Ha

Peter Ha — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:01:10 +0000

@Sabas
Huh?

By: John

John — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 23:34:59 +0000

Scoble don’t need to know what Scoble is talking about.

He’s Mother-Effing Scoble.

(sorry, can you tell I really don’t like him?)

Tho I will agree with him on #4. I mean, I can buy a book for a friend. Why can’t I buy a softcopy for a friend where it just gives me a code I can give them and they can get the book?

By: Sabas

Sabas — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 23:01:24 +0000

So uh, how much money are you guys getting over Scoble?