The latest technology toy here (and supposed moneysaver) is the Amazon Kindle 2. I unsubscribed from my dead-tree New York Times and signed up for the Kindle on-line NYT. I calculate that after 18 months or so, the savings will have paid for the Kindle. We'll see about that.
It has been an interesting experience reading the newspaper as if it was a book. I find I tend to get wrapped up in long stories much more easily than before, and I now appreciate some of the fine writing skills of those ink-stained wretches at the Gray Lady. If I let myself, I can spend hours more every day with the paper.
On the other hand, it would be nice if the Times were a little more careful and intentional about formatting itself for the Kindle. Navigation is not too hard, but many of the cues about which articles are more significant than others is lost. Letters to the editor loom as large at first blush as feature articles. (There is no word count provided, as there is for Newsweek.)
Today's bit of strangeness appears above. An obituary is published under the title "Do Not Publish". If that came out in the print edition, there would be hell to pay, but maybe quality control for the Kindle is an afterthought. I checked the online web edition, which has the correct title.
4 comments:
Hilarious! I read the San Francisco Chronicle and the Wall Street Journal on my Kindle. The Chron has bloopers all the time, such as filler text under photographs instead of a description. The WSJ is a lot more careful.
Nice catch, Martin! Makes me feel not so bad about some of the "infelicities" that have made it into Kindle Nation.
Cheers,
Windwalker
I read the Chicago Tribune on my Kindle and so far have not seen bloopers like that. However, sometimes articles appear twice, and sometimes they are in the wrong section. One gets used to that and just shrugs. I do enjoy having it on the Kindle and not having to recycle all that paper. I also subscribe to NY Times latest news which is considered a blog, as opposed to a newspaper, and updates a few times a day.
A few quirks notwithstanding, I still can't get over the novelty and convenience of having The Times delivered to my bedside table each morning. As the kids woud say, "way cool!"
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