Opinion: What Amazon Kindle needs is… interactive book groups

kindle-column.jpgSo, Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader is finally on sale, and although there’s been a mixed reaction from journalists and users alike, Amazon has still won plaudits for the focused way it’s entered the market.

The key thing to remember is that Kindle is a first-generation device, so there’s scope for firmware updates to bring new features, as well as future models that’ll solve the flaws and introduce new functionality.

Bright Blind is a fake window for basement-dwellers

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Basement flats suck. They’re dark, dank, and you’re never more than 13 centimetres away from a rat. A couple of years living one, and you turn into a squinty nocturnal freak with Gollum-size eyes and ghostly white skin. So I’ve heard, anyway. But help is at hand. Bright Blind is the work of Japanese design collective Studio Mongoose, and is a fake window blind that’s backlit by electroluminescent sheets to give the appearance of a real window…