Here’s something fun I saw on Twitter today, while I had a quick break from soothing Jay who had an earache.
Jess, tweeted to say “Knit and crochet patterns work on the Kindle!” She linked to a picture of her new Kindle 2
And look–the pattern she tried out first is the Cosmopolitan Cowl. I have been actively looking for reasons not to want to buy a Kindle. I feel like I already have too many little devices, phone, ipod, camera, etc. that I carry around when I travel. But the fact that it is a new pattern publishing medium isn’t helping. The pattern looks readable, and even the photo looks nice in greyscale. Not only that, the new Kindle2 will read to you and it will also play audio books. Not helping. The biggest thing stopping me now is the price.
The idea of a portable method of reading digital patterns is very appealing. As more and more patterns are offered in digital format it is becoming convenient to be able to access them from, say, your yarn store, or your knitting group. Of course, spilling a glass of wine on your Kindle is a bit more of a problem than spilling it on your paper pattern. I’m hoping that more devices like the iphone (which doesn’t handle pdfs very conveniently yet), Palm and Blackberry will allow for pdf viewing soon too–even if its not convenient to follow the pattern on a small screen, you could check gauge and yarn requirements. Connecting knitters and crocheters with their digital patterns when they are in stores buying yarn can only help yarn stores and shoppers.
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oh gosh… thats great.. I want ittttt♥
hmmm ….. what a great idea! i have an ancient (well 4 year old) Sony Clie which was pretty good at pdf's – wonder if it would display patterns for me when out and about crafting portably? hopefully i'll have time to investigate today and maybe blog it later
Wow. I have to admit, I have a Kindle 1 (LOVE IT) and never even thought about putting patterns on it! A whole new use…hmmmmm
OH, yes! Do let me know what you find out!
Super–I'd love to know how the kindle1 handles the patterns, since it's
(now) cheaper than the 2..
Hi Meta-Amy, on a copy of a picture of a Kindle displaying a picture of you!
Yeah, maybe I should take a screen shot of the blog post and upload *it* to
flickr!
If only the Kindle were available in the uk! <sigh>
Oh Cool! Since the Kindle 2 can talk I just may have to get one now.
It's true–publishers and Amazon are scuffling about the text-to-speech
feature, but as an author I certainly support it. Here's a piece about the
issue:
http://kpwerker.tumblr.com/post/82556720/we-str...
I want a Kindle, too. Several of my books are on their way to Kindle editions. It's just so cool. The price is not very reasonable though.
I want a Kindle, too. Several of my books are on their way to Kindle editions. It's just so cool. The price is not very reasonable though.