Amazon Kindle Gearing Up To Take On IPad?

I am starting to hear that Amazon is gearing up to take on the IPad. The talk is of an "Amazon Tablet." Now that has my attention. In comparing the "readability" between Kindle and IPad the Kindle wins hands down. For me, the possible purchase of an IPad, was to read my Logos books. But the reading quality on the IPad was a real turn off. If Kindle comes through and we could run Logos on it I would be a REAL happy camper. (A guy can dream can't he?)

Below is part of the article from Gizmodo.com

Nick Bilton flags a surge
of job openings at Amazon, all for the Kindle team. Word is that
Amazon's working on a touchscreen color Kindle, and if anything, this
hiring spree shows that they're not screwing around: They're gathering
software engineers, new QA staff and apparently talking to game
publishers about games for the platform. This wouldn't be a Kindle 3, it'd be a Kindle tablet.

An interesting omission from the listings is hardware engineers,
which, along with the nature of the software hires (lots of testing
staff) faintly suggests that the project might be further along than
most people had thought. In other words, the first direct challenge to
the iPad might not come from Microsoft or Google, but Amazon

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Comments

Steve Hultquist

I admit that I prefer reading on my iPad to reading on my Kindle 2.

I also think that there is far too little understood about platform, ecosystems, application development, and so on. The iPad had instant access to over 150,000 applications and a core of application developers who were (and are) eager to produce impressive applications for it. Even the Blackberry (with a larger installed base across too wide a variety of interfaces for any reasonable application to be built) and the Android (with 3 versions already, no cohesive platform, and a very weak "store") are struggling to get traction. I just don't see how a reading platform from Amazon can compete.

However, if Amazon teamed with another major player like HP, Microsoft, or even Apple, there could be some interesting things in the future.

I'm grateful for the iPad and the Apple ecosystem if for no other reason that it's gotten the technology mindset out of the doldrums and into finding innovative ways to allow humans to interact with technologies... instead of turning humans into "users" who have to conform to the technology. And think where we'd be in terms of systems if the iPhone and iPad had never seen the light of day!

Garrett Ho

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/130144#Comment_130144

It is a matter of preference, but I simply cannot stand the refresh on the current e-ink screens. If they had sped it up, I would have purchased a Kindle by now.

If the Kindle "tablet" is e-ink, then it would be a huge feat to increase refresh, have color, and incorporate a quality touchscreen. That certainly would be a worthy competitor. We'll see. In the end, competition is great for the consumer!

Steven Maunder

I don't agree that the Kindle is more readable. Its all in the iPad settings. Besides you need light to read Kindle, right? iPad is perfect for low light reading. If Kindle come out with something that will actually compete with iPad, it will probably read like iPad, but with a different O.S.

John A. Murphy, Jr.

Not only do I have LOGOS on my iPad, but I also have Amazon's Kindle Reader on my iPad. I admit, I prefer Amazon's Kindle reader to iBooks, and because of it's ability to highlight AND take notes AND bookmark, I prefer it to LOGOS reading. But the ability to have my iBooks, my Kindle books, and LOGOS books all in one place makes the iPad win palms down. [;)]

Steve Hultquist

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/139288#Comment_139288

Not only do I have LOGOS on my iPad, but I also have Amazon's Kindle Reader on my iPad. I admit, I prefer Amazon's Kindle reader to iBooks, and because of it's ability to highlight AND take notes AND bookmark, I prefer it to LOGOS reading. But the ability to have my iBooks, my Kindle books, and LOGOS books all in one place makes the iPad win palms down.

I agree 100%. I also put the B&N reader on my iPad, primarily because it allows loaning books. I use the Kindle reader on my iPad a lot, and love the notes and highlighting. Although I am hoping that Logos implements notes and highlighting in a way that makes it more streamlined for use from the platform (with notes the jumping off point for the process rather than the books being the primary path).

Joel J.

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/140001#Comment_140001

Has Amazon said anything about a new Kindle?

joel