Technology we don't need: Video telephones. Yeah, yeah, I know phones have cameras these days, but I'm talking about the telephones from The Jetsons cartoon ... the ones that show the person you are talking to, transforming a phone conversation into a duo-sensory experience.

The technology for these has certainly existed for quite some time. So why don't we all have telephones that allow the caller to see us?

ANSWER: Because we don't want to. And why don't we? I'm guessing it's because we are weary of a world that judges us by our appearance 24-7, and our home is the last bastion of privacy ... where we don't have to look all perfect, and we can run around in our underwear ... or whatever.

So ... another gadget that I'm wondering about: The Kindle. This is amazon.com's version of the e-book. It was supposed to be better than previous e-book incarnations because it shows the page as it appears in print. (Three of my books are available in Kindle, and I had nothing to do with this. They just popped up one day on amazon.) Apparently the Kindle is also special because it can download newspapers and magazines.

But there is a problem here ... I have not seen EVEN ONE OF THEM. Not anywhere! Nada.

Are people using them in secret? Or has amazon.com sold only fourteen of them worldwide?

Really ... does anyone know anyone out there who has a Kindle? And what do they think of it? Curious minds want to know.

Will e-books ever replace real books? The current model is hard to beat: cheap, portable, and you can pass it along.

2 Comments:

 Anonymous said...

Oprah just gave the Kindle away on her show last week as her new favorite gadget! Expect to see them explode now.

November 3, 2008 2:08 PM  

 waverly3 said...

That Oprah segment referenced by anonymous touted Kindle for students because you can download a gazillion books. I would love to get one for Chris to use at UF, but I, too, await reports from others.

November 9, 2008 12:01 PM  

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