Kindle DX for AUSTRALIA

Kindle DX Wireless Reading Device (9.7" Display, Global Wireless, Latest Generation)

Finally purchased the international version of Kindle for use in Australia. Without having the ability to see-feel'n'smell it before I purchased it was a risky USD489 (AUD$600) purchase. Spending almost A$900 with accessories, goodies and shipping was a "gulp" risk. Being in Australia and so remote was a concern but communication with Amazon is good with the free Amazon telephone call back option however returns to Amazon has been very difficult (see my separate review of Kindle Cover) I bought Kindle the week Apple announced their iPad - whilst Apple makes wonderful products, I wasn't convinced of Apple content, functionality and applicability of iPad so I bought a dedicated reader instead. Kindle arrived was easy to set-up, install and get going. I was surprised at the e-ink capability and, true as they say, it's easy to read in all light conditions but night time with various ambient lights make it difficult but not impossible. I rate Kindle DX International AUSTRALIA 3 stars. They loose one star for limited charging solution and one star for lack of colour display/limited input options which I really expect for a device at this price.

PROS:

* Easy to read and increase text size - can read without the need of glasses

* Plug into your computer to see Kindle as a USB drive where you can drag'n'drop content to it

* Right size for a book alternative - fits briefcase, travel satchel, handbag etc

* Easily fits the separate Kindle DX cover (a must have option BTW)

* Books actually download fast (even with dodgy Australian telco providers)

* Big WOW factor - be prepared for lots of stares and questions on the train, plane etc!

CONS:

* No international power plug. Big drawback - it only comes with a special Kindle USB cable. You really need a high power USB port on your computer to charge it. Will not charge from an Apple USB wall charger!

* Surprisingly we found the back catalog of books quite limited - new titles only - forget buying textbooks yet (unless they're black and white)

* Grey scale screen is nice but they need a colour version asap - hopefully with iPad and others around I expect to see an enhanced Kindle DX very soon

* Reading PDF files is limited - difficult to zoom and read

* Technical performance of the device was slow and unresponsive - press a button and it takes time to respond. This was surprising but understandable to save battery life and you get used to it

* Keyboard is so small - need magnifying glasses to see the keys and rather useless but needed.

By Matthew Holden

Kindle DX - An Introduction

Kindle DX - An Introduction
The Amazon Kindle DX is the latest addition to the Kindle series of e-book readers. It is much larger than the other models as it is targeted at a different niche in the market (newspaper and textbook readings). This new model has a 9.7inch display, which is great for reading newspaper articles, magazines and textbooks.
The screen quality is similar to the Kindle 2, having a paper-like feel that is very easy to read without much strain on the eyes. In fact the layout and position of the keypad and buttons are almost identical to the Kindle 2. This new model is very thin with rounded corners and a matte metal/aluminum panel on the back. It measures at 10.4 x 7.2 x 0.38 inches and weights at just 18.9 ouches. It also has tiny speakers at the bottom of the unit.
One of the new features found on the Kindle DX is the ability to rotate the display. You can choose to read the content in portrait or landscape by just rotating the reader to the side, very much like the iPhone or the iPod touch.
If you plan to get an e-book reader to read mainly newspapers or magazines, the Kindle DX will prove to be a better choice over the older models. The bigger screen makes it much easier to read long articles and view pictures without the need to constantly scroll the screen. It also comes with 3.3GBs for storage that is more than enough for most of us. With the wireless feature turned off, you can use the Kindle DX for up to 2 weeks on a single charge.
For more real reviews and product information, visit Amazon Kindle DX.

By Tim Pecunia

he Kindle DX has better screen

Kindle DX : News
ts worth nothing that the Kindle DX has better screen contrast and handles PDFs well – technical documents look great. At the same time PDFs don’t have annotations, Text To Speech, etc. While a lot of owners love the larger size (think hardcover; size of kindle dx screen equal to full size of kindle 2) others think it kills portability and if you have weak hands it makes the Kindle DX too heavy.
Bottomline: At the moment the average rating across every Kindle DX review is 4.2 stars at Amazon and 4.5 stars across all kindle forums. Owners love the Kindle DX.
Kindle DX Review Stats – Blogs and Newspapers
Here’s what we have (only linking to a few) -
Steven Levy at Wired gives it 7/10.
Walt Mossberg thinks the Kindle DX is bigger, not better than the Kindle 2. The actual review is pretty balanced and tends towards a 7.
CNet gives it 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Boing Boing complain about the price and document conversion and seem to be tending towards an 8/10.
Gizmodo seem to be giving the Kindle DX a 7/10 and seem rather pessimistic about the future of eInk.
BusinessWeek are generally positive. 8/10.
SlashGear have an amazing number of photos and a video. They seem to be tending between 7 and 8.
Every single blog and news site seems to be saying -
Its good, its too expensive, it can never take on the iPhone, and it will fail. The consensus seems to be a 7 out of 10 rating.
Bottomline: Big blogs and news sites are lukewarm on the Kindle DX. They expect it to fail.
One key difference between reporters’ Kindle dx reviews and owners’ Kindle dx reviews is that the owners seem to understand that kindles are a work in progress.

Amazon Kindle DX: Official Info and Price

Amazon Kindle DX: Official Info and Price
The Kindle DX has appeared on Amazon’s website and we can now confirm the previously leaked specs: 9.7″ display (16 gray levels), auto portrait/landscape mode, PDF reader, wireless 3G, “days” of battery, text to speech.
The price is set at $489, which is not bad compared to the $359 6″ Kindle. We actually prefer this larger version by far. Amazon is taking orders of the Kindle DX, but there’s no estimated delivery date other than “this summer”.
Update: here’s a quick description of pro, cons and “may be”.
Pros
· A big screen is great
· No monthly fee
Cons
· No zoom, scroll or pan
· Books are not cheap compared to the paper version (especially used ones)
· The lack of PDF support for the Kindle 2 is painful. Some users were pissed this morning as they bought their Kindle 2 last month.
Price: Many were complaining about the pricing of the device ($450+). Yes, it is too expensive for mass acceptance, but there’s no real competitor on the market and it seems to sell well, so the price is certainly what the market can bear. Also, I’d like to point out that if you subscribe to many magazines and buy books and or send big files to your Kindle, the cost of the content adds up quickly. If you think that it is too expensive, just don’t buy it and wait…

Students Skeptical Kindle DX Can Replace Paper Chase
Students pointed out plenty of other issues about the Kindle DX to Wired.com. For instance, students often loan textbooks to one another, and currently that’s not practical with a Kindle, as you’d have to loan your entire reader and library. Also, the beauty of paper textbooks is the ability to highlight sentences, underline keywords and keep all of them open at once. While the Kindle does have highlight and notes tools, the reader is sluggish with performance, and the keyboard is unnatural and clunky to type on.
However, it’s too soon to say how Amazon Kindle DX will fare on campuses, as the students polled by Wired.com had mixed opinions. Overall, 19 students replied to our query via Twitter, five of whom said they would definitely purchase a Kindle DX, seven who said no and seven who said maybe.
“Law students are waiting for Kindle books!” said Twitter user “SoCaliana.” “We have so many books to carry around. I couldn’t find my texts on CD or anything!”
We can expect Amazon to cook up some interesting sales models after it completes Kindle DX pilot programs with Arizona State, Case Western Reserve, Princeton, the University of Virginia and Pace university. Meanwhile, let’s get the brainstorming started. What would you suggest for e-textbook sales strategies, readers? Here’s an idea: Selling e-textbooks by individual chapters as opposed to complete books, since most classes don’t read textbooks in entirety anyway. That would certainly cut costs.

Putting the Kindle DX Through Its Paces

Putting the Kindle DX Through Its Paces
After a fair amount of hullabaloo surrounding its announcement in May, Amazon is now shipping its large-screen Kindle DX. I got to spend some time with the Kindle recently. Here’s how it shakes out.
Amazon.com Amazon’s Kindle DX.
As with previous versions of the e-reader, the Kindle DX’s $489 price tag includes a wireless connection, and books are still about $10 a pop. You can also read e-books you’ve bought for the Kindle on your iPhone. So what do you get for the higher price? For starters, it has a 9.7-inch diagonal electronic ink display (compared with the Kindle 2’s 6-inch diagonal screen), which increases its total footprint to 10.4 inches by 7.2 inches -– almost the size of a piece of paper.
You can also rotate the Kindle DX so text can be read in landscape mode. The auto-rotate feature seems somewhat unpredictable –- sometimes it would rotate at the slightest turn and other times it wouldn’t rotate at all. Turning the device off and then back on seemed to do the trick.
Amazon hopes its larger display will attract readers who want to read documents, newspapers, textbooks and other materials that would benefit from a larger screen. The company is working with textbook publishers and a handful of universities that will offer the Kindle DX to students. It also includes a built-in PDF reader, using Adobe’s mobile reader. For those who want — or need — to zoom in on a picture or a chart, the Kindle DX lets you do that, too.
The larger size also means a bigger keyboard. While its feedback is slightly better than the one on the Kindle 2, the wider Kindle DX e-reader makes typing a little awkward. Of course, keyboard feel is one of those things where everybody has their own opinion. All I’m saying is this: a) I have small hands and b) I’ve gotten used to typing with my thumbs on a BlackBerry, so the Kindle DX experience was not ideal for me.
There’s a new “experimental” tab on the main menu, which offers users a simple Web browser, the ability to play MP3 music files you’ve added to your Kindle from your computer and Amazon’s text-to-speech option.
Amazon labels its browser option “Basic Web,” which is fitting. It comes with preloaded bookmarks for pared-down versions of Web sites like Google, CNN and Yelp. I tried to get around the need to subscribe to the newspaper by going to nytimes.com, but quickly discovered that the browser doesn’t support the full version of the Web that we view on our computers (and now, some smartphones). Tricky.
I also tested the text-to-speech option, which you can access by pressing the “Aa” key on the keyboard (the font size, words per line and screen rotation can also be changed when you click that key). You can still find the text-to-speech feature under the main menu, but it’s been moved to the experimental tab. At the default speed, the voice reads a tad too fast, but at the slower speed, it’s in slow motion. Also, Amazon has some work to do to get the computer-generated voice to pronounce words like real humans.
When I reviewed the Kindle 2 in February, I wasn’t sure if I was ready to get on the e-book bandwagon. Still, I found it to be convenient and just the right size to fit in my handbag. It at least felt like a book. But after toting around the Amazon Kindle DX, it suddenly feels as if I am carrying a computer. Furthermore, its larger size means the DX is, while no heavyweight, still heavier than I think I’d want it to be. (One indication: eventual palm fatigue when holding the Kindle DX in one hand, as I would when riding the subway.)
For those of us who don’t need to read PDFs or, say, all 1,328 pages of “Constitutional Law: Principles and Policies,” the regular Kindle should suffice.

Amazon Kindle DX - Review

Amazon Kindle DX - Review

You can get the Kindle DX at Amazon for $489 (preorders – DX ships in the summer). Here’s my Kindle DX review based on information currently available. Do leave a comment if you have questions.

The Kindle DX is great if you’re -

1. In college – its perfect for textbooks and has in-built PDF support.
2. At school – again, DX is great for textbooks. Its light and you no longer have to carry a ton of books.
3. A frequent traveller and/or a daily commuter. Do note that the Kindle 2 is more compact, and consider the trade-off between larger screen, PDF support and better newspaper readability VS compact size and lower price.

The Kindle DX is a good choice for –

1. Reading newspapers.
2. A Professional who wants a way to carry around documents and books. No more printing sheets of paper and printing out emails.
3. Reading books. (If you prefer a compact screen, consider the Kindle 2).

The DX is just 0.38″ thin (which is a nice contrast to the 9.7″ screen) and looks good

Kindle DX with 9.7″ screen and PDF Support

The DX has a shiny metallic back (the lower 3/4ths).

Kindle DX Review – Top 5 Features

The 5 best features of the DX, in my opinion, are -

1. Large, Readable eInk Screen – The 9.7″ Kindle DX Screen is great for reading textbooks and newspapers. The eInk screen is easy on the eyes. Kindle DX’s Screen has 2.5 times the surface area of 6″ eReaders (Kindle 2, Sony Reader).
2. PDF Support – The first Kindle with official Adobe PDF support. Transfer your PDF documents via WhisperNet, synchronize between your Kindle DX and your iPhone/iTouch. Amazon has licensed Adobe technology and reflows PDFs – However, panning, zooming and scrolling are not supported.
3. Free Wireless Internet - Theres’ a browser and free Internet Access so you can use it for reference.
4. Cheap Textbooks Delivered Wirelessly in 60 seconds – There’ll be good prices (Amazon Kindle Editions of books usually are $9.99 instead of $24.99). Amazon is claiming 60% of textbooks will be covered initially.
5. Convenience – Carry as many texbooks as you like. Buy books and textbooks instantly, anytime. Changeable font sizes, changeable words per line, and more.

Kindle DX Review – What DX Looks Like

Amazon Kindle DX product page has a good video. My DX should arrive in a couple months (they ship in summer) and I’ll add a Kindle DX video review. Here’s an image showing Kindle DX reading PDF -

Kindle DX with PDF support

Kindle DX Review – Pros

Top 11 Pros

1. PDF Support - Official Adobe PDF support so your PDF documents look great. You can get PDFs onto your DX wirelessly (15 cents per MB for wireless, or free from your computer).
2. Cheaper Textbooks. 60% of textbooks will be available as 3 of the large publishers are signed up.
3. Kindle for iPhone and WhisperSync – You can read a document or textbook across your Kindle DX, iPhone and iTouch. Your annotations, bookmarks and the page you’re on are synchronized wirelessly.
4. Large Screen – The 9.7″ screen is a great size for textbooks, newspapers, and even books. It roughly translates to a little smaller than A4 size.
5. eInk Screen - This is a very readable screen that causes next to zero eye strain. Much, much closer to reading a book than a computer screen.
6. Auto-rotate – looks to be a good, solid feature.
7. Read To Me - Provided publishers don’t turn it off for their books, books can be read out to you by the Kindle DX while you drive, cook, etc.
8. Change Font Sizes and change the number of words per line.
9. Long Battery Life – Kindle DX lasts 4 days with wireless on, and 2 weeks with wireless off.
10. Large Storage – The 3.3GB of available storage (out of 4 GB overall) gives you a lot of space. Amazon says 3,500 books.
11. Free Wireless Internet – WhisperNet is available wherever Sprint wireless coverage exists.

More Pros

1. In-Built Dictionary and Wikipedia access.
2. Light and Thin – The Kindle DX is just 0.38″ thick. Its also light at 18.9 ounces.
3. Cloud Storage – Any books you buy are stored in the Amazon cloud and you can download them anytime.
4. Good Screen Resolution – 1200 by 824 with 16 shades of grey.
5. Normal books are much cheaper in their Kindle Edition. Books usually retail for $9.99.
6. More than 275,000 books.
7. 60% coverage of textbooks as 3 of the big textbook publishers are on-board. Addison Wiley, Pearson, Prentice Hall, Longman and many more.

Kindle DX Review – Cons

1. Price – The price is definitely high and mostly a function of the fact that eInk technology is still evolving. If $489 is too high for you consider the Kindle 2which is $359. Do look at my post on Kindle 2 VS Kindle DX.
2. No Color – eInk will not have color technology till 2011. There might be other technologies that come out with a reading-friendly screen in color before that. DX definitely does not have color.
3. No TouchScreen.
4. Note-taking is going to be painful.
5. Lack of a full keyboard.
6. Screen Refresh Speed – Screen takes a fraction of a second to refresh. Do look at the Kindle 2 videos – screen technology is going to be the same i.e. how it looks, how it refreshes. Screen is 2.5 tims bigger though.
7. The user interface is not very refined. This is because eInk takes some time to refresh. This rules out video and quicker, faster user interfaces.
8. Only available in white.
9. Lack of Folders and a way to organize books and documents elegantly. Unless Amazon updates on this will assume it’s still missing.

Kindle DX Recommendation

The Kindle DX is a very good choice if you spend a lot of time reading textbooks, reading books or carrying around documents. The price of $489 is very reasonable for a 9.7″ screen (for comparison the iRex Illiad with a comparable screen retails for $859). With lower textbook and book prices you’ll make it back (figuratively, not literally) in 1.5 to 2 years.

1. My recommendation for you if you’re in school or college is to definitely get a Kindle DX if you can afford it.
2. If you’re a frequent traveller or commuter, again the DX is great – contrast withthe Kindle 2 and get the one that better suits your needs (its basically Kindle 2’s lower price, compactness Vs Kindle DX’s larger screen, PDF support, and auto-rotate).
3. If you’re looking for a Kindle DX for work, it’s really useful for carrying around documents. Getting it expensed would be cool too.
4. If you’re looking for a newspaper reader, I’d say Kindle DX is a good choice. The Kindle’s UI and general functionality is better suited to long form reading.

Two things to keep in mind -

1. NYTimes, Boston Globe and Wahington Post will offer a lower price Kindle DX to people outside their delivery areas.
2. 6 universities, including Princeton, are going to run trials with Kindle DX in the Fall semster.

Finally, hope the Kindle DX review helped you – next up is a kindle dx review series looking at it from the perspectives of textbook reader, travel/commute gadget, book reader, business document reader, and newspaper reader. My gut tells me the DX will review well for the first three and so-so for the last 2.

Gadget Hot..! KindleDX By Amazon.

Gadget Hot..! Kindle DX By Amazon.
The Kindle DX from Amazon is the most recent addition to Amazon’s popular line of eBook Reader devices. Introduced in May 2009, the Kindle DX is the largest Kindle available with a screen size of 9.7″. Most of the technology in the Kindle DXis found in the previous Kindle 2 with the main differences coming in the size of the display, and the size of the internal memory clocking in at 4GB (3.3GB usable). Other differences include native PDF support (other Kindles require conversion) and auto-rotation from portrait to landscape. The Kindle DX retains the same WhisperNet wireless technology as the Kindle 2 offering free wireless access for book download.

The Kindle DX launch might have sparked a wave of hype about the next generation of newspapers, but not everyone’s so quick to agree: Dallas Morning News CEO James Moroney told a Senate subcommittee yesterday that the Amazon Kindle DX isn’t a “platform that’s going to save newspapers in the near term.” According to Moroney, Amazon demands 70 percent of subscription revenue from newspapers, and further requires content owners to grant Amazon the right to republish content to other devices — like, say, the iPhone. That’s a pretty inequitable split, and while we understand that Amazon has to pay for Whispernet somehow, it’s hard to imagine newspaper publishers lining up to wager 70 percent of their digital subscription revenues and a perpetual license to their content on devices that are far from proven. On the other hand, it’s innovate or die time for these guys, so we’ll see what happens — with all the competitors out there poisedto make a move, things are about to get interesting.
KindleDX college plans revealed: only 300 students total

We knew the Kindle DX pilot programs at Arizona State, Case Western Reserve, Princeton, Pace, Reed, and Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia would be limited in number, but it sounds like students at those schools will have be extremely lucky or well-connected to get their hands on Amazon’s latest — according to Pace reps at today’s launch event, each school will only receive around 50 KindleDX for the trial. That’s just about 300 total Kindles, and it makes Amazon’s crowing about revolutionizing education seem a little hasty. Not only that, but it’s not like the program is particularly ready to go, either: the schools still haven’t figured out which classes they’ll try and switch over to the Kindle DX , instructors have yet to be brought on board, and it’s still not clear whether Amazon or the schools themselves will pay for the Kindles, although students will definitely have to shell out for the books. That’s a lot of dealmaking to get done — looks like Amazon just gave itself some summer homework

New Amazon Kindle DX to Be Given to College Students for Textbooks Amazon is hosting a press event in New York City on Wednesday, which means there’s a newKindleDX on the way . Our colleagues over at Engadget dug up some spy photos and basic specs of the new device, which is being called the Kindle DX . Improvements over the current Kindle 2 include a larger, 9.7-inch display, a built-in PDF reader, and the ability to add annotations (as well as notes, as before). Word has it that the New York Times subscriptions will be $9.95 a month, compared to the current $13.99, and the Wall St. Journal is reporting that the new device will be distributed to students at Case Western Reserve in Ohio next fall — for textbooks (let’s hope that e-textbooks are a lot cheaper on the Amazon Kindle store than they are in real life at most college bookstores).
Kindle versus KindleDX
As Kindle was becoming more popular, now Amazon introduced KindleDX. So you may wonder what are the differences between Kindle and Kindle DX?
First of all, Kindle DX is much bigger in size: 10.4″ x 7.2″ x 0.38″ versus Kindle 8″ x 5.3″ x 0.36″. Bigger in storage too! KindleDX can store 2,500 books (4GB internal), but Kindle 1,500. Bigger Screen! Kindle DX has 9.7″ display size, but Kindle 6″. Also Kindle DX has extra Auto Rotating Display feature and Built-In PDF Reader, long battery life (Read on a single charge for up to 4 days with wireless on). However, Kindle DX and Kindle share the features like 3G Wireless downloading ( which allows only 60 second a book download), text-to-speech feature, Whispersync feature.
The Kindle Store has more than 275,000 books available, plus top newspapers, magazines, and blogs, that you can reach to with Kindle or Kindle DX !
With the purchase of a Kindle DX you get in the box: KindleDX electronic reader, Kindle DX power adapter, and USB 2.0 cable (for connection to the Kindle DX power adapter or optionally to connect to a PC or Macintosh computer).
Amazon Kindle DX Review
PDF compatibleEarlier Kindles required Adobe PDFs to go through a conversion process first, but the

KindleDX is said to support the format natively.
Kindle DX : The flip-sideWhile the backside of the KindleDX is as nondescript as that of an iPod, it masks the unit’s 4GB capacity (3.3GB usable). That’s twice as much as the Kindle 2, and enough to hold 3,500 books (according to Amazon).

KindleDX won’t let us wait too long.

Kindle DX won’t let us wait too long.
Ready to take order today, Kindle DX will ships this summer. Its price is $489. There, you know the reast already. KindleDX sport a 9.7 inch rotatable screen, 3.3GB internal memory and a PDF reader. Waiting for Kindle DX with a lower price ? Then you need a subsidized on-contract price from New York Times, Washington Post, and Boston Globe.

KindleDX
Display -9.7″ diagonal e-ink
Storage -3,500 books
PDF Support -native PDF reader
Rotating Display -Yes
3G Wireless -Yes
Books in Under 60 Seconds -Yes
Text-to-Speech -Yes
Whispersync -Yes
Size -10.4″ x 7.2″ x 0.38″


Kindle DX - Wireless Reading Device

Just over 1/3 of an inch, as thin as most magazines. Holds up to 3,500 books, periodicals, and documents.
Beautiful Large 9.7″ diagonal e-ink screen reads like real paper; boasts 16 shades of gray for clear text and sharp images
Built-In PDF Reader allows you to carry and read all of your personal and professional documents on the go
Blazing fast 3G wireless lets you download books right from your KindleDX, anytime, anywhere; no monthly fees, no annual contracts, and no hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots You get free wireless delivery of books in less than 60 seconds; no PC required.

Amazon KindleDX, the famous e-book reader from Amazon is expected to be available with a bigger screen. Its Kindle DX which will sport a 9.7 inch e-Ink display to make reading e-book more comfortable. More over, Kindle DX support .PDF files, a major upgrade I think. Still no words on release date yet.
Are the KindleDX and the iPad leading us to Legal Pad 2.0? On this edition of the Kennedy-Mighell Report, legal bloggers, Dennis Kennedy, Tom Mighell and Adriana Linares, will discuss how the new Kindle DX and the current Kindle might be used by lawyers and law students, explore related products like the iPad and question whether we are headed to an all electronic legal pad. Dennis, Tom and Adriana will also take questions from their growing audience and wrap up with Parting Shots, leaving you with lasting tips and observations. After you listen, be sure to check out Tom & Dennis’ co-blog and book by the same name, The Lawyers Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies.
In an earlier post I referred to a NYT article about the development of new gadgets, with screens roughly the size of a standard sheet of paper, that could present much of the editorial and advertising content of traditional periodicals in generally the same format as they appear in print.Today I read about Amazon’s announcement that they’re launching theirKindle DX (for deluxe), which has a screen two and a half times the size of those on the two older versions of the Kindle, which were aimed primarily at displaying book pages. (Seems the idea is now a reality, although not without a few teething problems - seems today’s launch had a glitch with the Kindle DX website not being ready for viewing. Ooops!)Also in my email inbox was a notification from Bill St Arnaud’s blog of a post in which he outlines the potential for devices such as the Kindle can help reduce CO2 at universities(and elsewhere). He concludes, “One Kindle can hold hundreds, if not thousands of textbooks and other documents – so the offset value of a single Kindle can be worth thousands of dollars!”Certainly seems to be more than just novelty value driving the development of these devices! I’d see this area of development as something that education could benefit significantly from - so keep watching this spaceWill consumers pay for both the KindleDX and monthly subscriptions to their favorite newspapers, magazines or blogs? The same content is available on laptops and cell phones, but it’s free

Why Kindle DX Won’t Save Newspapers

Review Kindle DX Review

With its large-format Kindle DX (being announced this morning), Amazon aims to reinvent newspapers for the modern age. (And for textbooks, for that matter, but that’s a separate commentary.) The popularity of the Internet, coupled with the current economic downturn, has left the newspaper industry in a shambles. The magazine industry is not too much better off. But I don’t see the Kindle DX and other such e-reader devices previously discussed by companies like Hearst and News Corp. as the salvation of newspapers.
Woebegone Print Days
All of that said, I remember my days as a railroad commuter, and can see the appeal of digital version of newspapers pushed to a device. After all, the Kindle-delivery of newspapers has its advantages such as no more newsprint bleeding onto my fingers, no more wrestling with a tabloid and broadsheet-sized newspapers (New York commuters have perfected the four-way fold for reading The New York Times), and no more paper to have to recycle.
But the danger for Kindle DX, and other Kindle-clone devices, is that the aforementioned advantages only apply to a dwindling subset of the population that still subscribe or buy newspapers. The rest of us will need more convincing to start paying again for news and for a hardware device.
Of course, if a publication wants to subsidize my device purchase, in exchange for a subscription commitment, that could sweeten the deal.
Maybe consumers that have given up on newspapers could be enticed if the device is heavily subsidized by publishers. But even that approach is fraught with caution: Acer’s Aspire One is not much of a bargain at $50, if you consider you’ll be committing to a 2-year AT&T Wireless data contract that will cost you $1440 to $2400 over the life of the contract.
Whether or not the Kindle 2 or Kindle DX will save newspaper is open to debate, however I find the more interesting question to be will the Kindle ever manage to save itself?
Instead of fixing conversion problems present in the Kindle 1 and 2 Amazon has produced a yet more expensive machine with a larger screen for “native” viewing. . . um, ok, but I just bought a Kindle 2 like five minutes ago, how about fixing the problem instead of simple producing an expensive stop gap?
Also what about increasing the ease with which notes can be written and highlighting accomplished. How about a touch screen so that I can actually write notes in my margins and have them instantly convert to typed text.
And really, doe the kindle NEED a knock-off accelerometer? That seems to be everyone’s pet add-on to every new technological device, but in this case, even when reading newspapers or viewing graphs with that ginormous screen I really don’t see the pay off, thin or not, wave goodbye to real portability, my kindle two fits in a coat pocket if need be, not so it’s gargantuan counterpart.
Unfortunately Amazon has circumvented rather than solved issues with the Kindle 2 and created an expensive giant that is scarcely different. Just look at their own side by side comparison chart.

Three differences
1) Kindle DX holds 3,000 instead of 1,500 books
2) Huge geriatric friendly screen.
3) Knock off Accelerometer
Worth the extra cost? I think not. Real solutions please!
Amazon Kindle DX Is Now Official

We have told already you pretty much everything that was needed to know about the new Amazon Kindle. The Kindle DX had all its details leaked a day before the official announcement and all we need now better pictures of the new device and the official price. The new ebook reader is about the size of a netbook and it will fit well with all your reading needs. The Kindle DX is now available for pre-order and the first devices will be ready to sheep this Summer. And you’ll need is $489 to get it.
Kindle DX Amazon releases a brand new
Amazon has released its brand new shiny toy today, the question is will it do everything they say it will do, and my question is why can’t we get an ebook reader in color?
The 489 dollar Kindle DX was showcased in New York this morning, and while I still want my tablet, ebook reader and still not getting it (come on someone), the Kindle DX is the next step forward, but it is still not color. I’ll hold out personally for the color edition of anything before I’ll buy black and white displays. In the mean time though what is interesting is that some people are calling it the Uber Device, the one device that solve textbook and the newspapers problems.
Probably not, while about a dozen schools are set up to use the device experimentally, newspapers are looking at this as a way to continue to deliver content to people without the costs associated of doing mass printing, the question remains, will you read your Sunday comics in black and white? I think the Achilles heel of this whole thing is that it is not in color, and we are by nature a group of people that want color output. While we dealt with monochrome screens in the 1980’s, no one would think of going back to the green monochrome screen for delivery of data anymore. Black and white is just as bad as green monochrome. While early adopters might pick this puppy up because it is a new shiny toy, the first one to market with a color ebook reader is going to win this game, and I am failing to understand why we are still working in black and white.
Needless to say, it will go over well, people will buy it, the text book test will most likely be successful (I know I would use it for some courses, but not for any of my web design courses where we need to see color pallets or photo color renditions), the news papers will probably see a spike in readership via the kindle because it makes sense (I know I would do this on a bus), but we are still back at the question of compelling value.
I just don’t see it with the Kindle DX, until it goes color.
Life is about colors, ebooks need to go in that direction to hit mass appeal and adoption. I will put money on this one, the first person with a color ebook display wins this one, and while we are distracted with kindle, Sony, and other black and white ebook readers, it still needs to be in color.

Supersized Kindle DX Makes E-Reading

Supersized Kindle DX Makes E-Reading Easy for a Supersized Price

Size seems to matter to the folks at Amazon. While the Kindle 2 has a 6-inch (measured diagonally) e-ink screen — roughly the area of a mass-market paperback book — the DX’s 9.7-inch screen resembles a page from a typical hardback. Put another way, the DX flaunts 2.5 times more display space. More text on a page means more lines and, if you prefer, a bigger font, without having to turn the page as often. What does that mean for you? It’s easier to read via the Kindle DX.

Best of all, the Kindle DX was engineered not to feel big. Virtually the same thickness as the Kindle 2, the 19-ounce heft won’t tax your wrists. Its keyboard is actually a little smaller than the Kindle 2’s, so almost all of the DX’s front surface is covered by the screen. This feels less gadgety, more tablety. It’s very comfortable to hold, and as with the Kindle 2, the DX becomes invisible once you become entranced by an author’s spell.

The reader’s appearance is further streamlined by its absence of buttons on the left-hand side of the unit; the controls to turn pages have migrated exclusively to the right side. Even though I’m a righty, and do most of my page turning from that side, I do miss the Kindle 2’s Next page button on the left, which I use when reading in bed, head propped up by my right arm. With the DX, I find myself reaching across the page with my left hand to turn the screen, giving me a sense of the difficulties that southpaws may face with the Kindle DX. Amazon’s suggested fix is using the DX’s controls to invert the page image, and flipping the unit so the keyboard is on top. But that gives lefties an upside down QWERTY.

The DX’s other giant step forward is a built-in PDF reader. With previous Kindles, you cannot use many PDF files, including thethousands of tomes available on Google Books. Shortly after I got my DX, I downloaded the Google Books version of the public domainAutobiography of Benjamin Franklin and e-mailed the 9-megabtye file to my Kindle DX. Inside of 10 minutes, the document arrived via Whispernet (Kindle’s wireless service) and I was reading the scanned pages.

At last month’s announcement, Jeff Bezos made it clear thatthe Kindle DX was targeted largely to students requiring textbooks and professionals accessing business documents.

The textbooks haven’t arrived, but the DX crisply displays monochrome output of PDF or MS Office files. Workers who normally carry binders full of documents will greatly lessen their load by toting a Kindle DX, which has 3.3 gigs worth of usable storage. When you view those pages, it makes sense to use the Kindle’s sensors for the auto-rotation that orients the image between portrait and landscape mode. But just plain readers won’t appreciate the feature. People assume weird, tilted angles when they get comfy with books, and they’re bound to get upset when the text of the new Michael Connelly thriller goes sideways. Fortunately, by pulling up the control panel triggered by a special font key, it’s easy to turn off the pivot.

Another promise made at its coming out party was that the Kindle DX would usher in new business models and formatting for newspapers and magazines. We’ve yet to see the implementations, let alone the fine print on this, so as of now, subscribers to Kindle periodicals are stuck with a cumbersome interface that makes magazine articles readable but dull in appearance. Reading a long newspaper article on the Kindle DX can be daunting, as it appears like a dense block of text

Battery life is similar to Kindle 2. In line with Amazon’s claims, my test unit went four days with the wireless on before a warning message appeared. I assume that, as with the other model, you can go almost two weeks if you turn off the wireless.

The most glaring hindrance of the Kindle DX is its price. It costs $490 &mash; more than the original Kindle cost at its launch 19 months ago. Even Apple, which operates on a premium pricing philosophy, typically introduces its improved models at the cost of the previous one. You’d expect the Kindle DX to come in at $400, with the Kindle 2 tariff (which remains at $370) dropped to $300. That’s plenty for a device that sends you directly to the manufacturer to buy books.

By elegantly supersizing the Kindle — and ramping up its ability to read files — Amazon has improved the best all-around e-reader available. But the hefty price tag doesn’t fit Jeff Bezo’s stated philosophy of getting the best value for his customers