This is Signal vs. Noise, a weblog by 37signals about design, business, experience, simplicity, the web, culture, and more. Established 1999 in Chicago. Follow us on Twitter for more information on our products.

Mind. Blown. I never thought of this.

The “ruggedized” Kindle – but I’m guessing the ad for it (in a bath tub) wouldn’t be using the construction worker.

I read the entire interview. They said they edited. Bezos seems a little bit rude. Probably it’s because the interview was edited by a newspaper editor.

Eh? With a book, you don’t need the bad, and you can turn the pages.

Obviously this only works with trashy paperbacks that you don’t want to keep looking nice, but that’s exactly what I’d want to read in the bath (not a glossy book on photography, or a programming reference manual).

Amazingly useful and nontrivial idea :)

@Phil McThomas: I read trashy programming reference books in the bath ALL the time!

At least when you buy a physical book, you own it.

You can highlight it, scan it, rip out pages and make them into a collage or even burn it if you want to, and nobody can take it away from you.

Not so with a “book” you’re leasing from the cloud.

Where is the disclaimer saying that Bezos is one of your investors?

Why would I want a Kindle? So Amazon can delete books and charge me AGAIN for them? Forget it. I use an old Palm. Cost me 35 bucks on ebay. When it breaks (and everything electronic does occasionally), I send it to a guy in Minnesota who repairs it for a few bucks. I buy only e-books that are pdf’s and only DRM free. There are enough freeware programs out there to convert e-books into text or Word; there are plenty of free programs to read text or Word files on the Palm.

So Amazon can delete books and charge me AGAIN for them?

Huh?

Very witty and clever.

I love my kindle and get so much usage out of it. The amount of money that i’ve saved on books has paid for the kindle 5 x over.

37 Signals just jumped the shark.

it only takes a little water to ruin a kindle. books can take quite a bit.

Reminds me of that quote from Steve Jobs about the Zune’s sharing features:

I’ve seen the demonstrations on the Internet about how you can find another person using a Zune and give them a song they can play three times. It takes forever. By the time you’ve gone through all that, the girl’s got up and left! You’re much better off to take one of your earbuds out and put it in her ear. Then you’re connected with about two feet of headphone cable.

Thanks for that amazing insight from a completely unbiased source!

“Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought…”

If a book falls in the tub, just dry it out and everything is as usable as before. I would be interested in seeing if Kindle has the same functionality.

This argument kind of reminds me of the quote:

A GPS with a bullet hole in it is a paperweight. A paper map with a bullet hole in it is a paper map with a bullet hole in it. (attributed to the US Marine Corps)

“This one goes to 11”