Amazon just released the PC version of its Kindle reader. Of course, I downloaded it as soon as I saw the news and purchased three Kindle books (a couple mystery/thrillers that had been sitting on my wishlist for a few years as well as Ian Banks’ Transition). The software is still in beta, so it doesn’t have many frills. Text can be re-sized and navigation is pretty straightforward. If you made notes or highlighted passages on a Kindle device, those can be synched with the PC version. Unfortunately, you can’t highlight or annotate text in the PC version (although Amazon hints that might change in the near future).
I don’t plan to stop buying physical books and I’m still waiting for an accessible e-reader that won’t chain me to my desk, but I also like not having to wait for someone to turn the pages or having to flatten book bindings so I can read the margins. This will likely be a tide-me-over technology, but I’ll gladly take it.
The Kindle has a usb port. I would think it would be possibly for someone with some hacking and electronics skills to make a remote page turn switch. Or you could pull off one of the physical next page switches on the kindle and wire a remote switch to that maybe…
…where’s Macgyver when you need him?