548: Kindle
| Kindle |
 Title text: I'm happy with my Kindle 2 so far, but if they cut off the free Wikipedia browsing, I plan to show up drunk on Jeff Bezos's lawn and refuse to leave. |
Explanation
The Amazon Kindle is a device that allows people to read books via ebook format. The comic was published three weeks after Amazon released the Kindle 2, which included the ability to read Wikipedia articles via the 3G connection that was included with the device.
Cueball remarks that "ebooks are for chumps", but goes on to explain the real reason for purchasing a Kindle. Since it has free cellular web access, he could navigate through any city (presumably with 3G access), assisted by Wikipedia and Wikitravel.
Megan believes she has heard such a description of a device before and snatches the Kindle away from Cueball. When she scratches off the Amazon Kindle logo at the top of the device she reveals that the device is actually The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. This fictional electronic encyclopedia is described in the real-life franchise of the same name. Those works recount the tale of a travel editor who works for and owns a copy of the Guide, which provides travel tips throughout the galaxy, including an entry for Earth. The comic suggests that Amazon simply re-brands copies of the Guide as Kindles.
The title text refers to the great utility of having the ability to access Wikipedia for free on an easy-to-carry device. The speaker states that should this utility ever become disabled, he would stage a drunk protest on the lawn of Jeff Bezos, the CEO and founder of Amazon.com. This method of protest is used by the protagonist of the Hitchhiker's series, in the beginning of the first book, in an attempt to prevent his house from being demolished, by lying in front of the bulldozer (in vain).
Amazon warned customers using 1st and 2nd generation Kindles in 2021 that 3G connectivity will cease to work, because network operators are upgrading their networks from 3G to 4G. Since this is not Amazon's fault, a drunk protest doesn't seem appropriate.
Transcript
- [Cueball is looking at a tablet.]
- Megan: A kindle? Ebooks, huh?
- Cueball: Ebooks are for chumps.
- Megan: Why get a kindle, then?
- Cueball: One reason:
- [Text is above the frame in which Cueball wanders a city with the tablet and with small bubbles forming above his head to indicate him being intoxicated.]
- Cueball (narrating): Free cellular web access. Even if I spend months broke and drunk in a strange city, I'll still be able to use Wikipedia and Wikitravel to learn about anything I need.
- [Megan takes the tablet from Cueball.]
- Megan: Why does that sound familiar?
- Megan: Gimme that.
- [Zoom in on the top of the tablet where the name is written:]
- Amazon Kindle
- [Zoom out to Megan who scratches at the top of the tablet.]
- Scrape, scrape, scrape
- [Zoom back to the damaged top of the tablet where a layer has been scraped off. This partly reveals a new name, where the first and last two letters are only partly visible:]
- Hitchhiker's Guide
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I changed the explanation so that it refers to the device actually being the fictional, encyclopedic Guide, not the novel. For one thing, the novel describes the Guide as essentially an e-book (despite being published in 1979). Mainly, having the novel on hand while traveling would not be of much use in the ways described, while access to the fictional encyclopedia would match the description exactly, just as it is used in the fictional franchise. - jerodast (talk) 23:53, 3 December 2012 (UTC) Where is the transcript? 121.54.48.38 04:09, 12 May 2013 (UTC)
this was before. Wikipedia offline for android. 108.168.13.84 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
There's no transcript. Someone fix please? 108.162.216.45 04:50, 9 November 2013 (UTC)
The transcript is done. --Dgbrt (talk) 19:45, 9 November 2013 (UTC)
Alternative explanation: Cueball hid his copy of the Guide in a Kindle shell. 108.162.245.44 13:20, 12 November 2016 (UTC)
(Five years later) - The 3G network that the Whispernet relies on is being decommissioned in 2022. I wonder if Randall will show up drunk at Bezos or Jassys lawn... (cite) Popup (talk) 14:10, 5 July 2021 (UTC)
Fun fact! This comment is written on a Kindle Paperwhite (11th Generation), with a private home WiFi' though :(. Also, horrible interface. Atrocious lag and sizing. Would not recommend. 42.book.addict (talk) 07:21, 26 July 2024 (UTC)
