Hasta La Gadget!

Sorry, comics fans, the Kindle is not for you–not yet, at least. Those who harbor wild dreams of a color-screen e-book reader were no doubt let down when Amazon unveiled the second generation of its popular device yesterday. The reader had a number cool upgrades, to be sure, but a color screen wasn’t one of them–and unless color e-ink becomes a mass-produceable reality in the near future, we most likely won’t be seeing it in the Kindle 3.0, either.

I do wonder how much of a priority feature a color screen really is. After all, the majority of books sold through the service are pictureless, and while images certainly play an important role in the world of newspapers, they often aren’t necessary for consumption of articles. Then there’s the case of picture books. The publishing industry generally gears these toward kids, and it’s hard to imagine many parents plunking down $359 on a reading device for young children.