Kindle DX: Bigger and Better

I just finished my first session with the Kindle DX, and I am absolutely delighted. I have subscribed to the customer service blogs for the Kindle 2, and have watched “nit pick” after “nit pick” come cascading from people, who quite frankly, need to get a life. If you do not want a book for a penny more than $9.99, don’t buy it! If you are in the remote hills of Asia, and the product is wireless only in the USA, move home! And so on!
When you turn on your Kindle DX, you are now holding a perfectly sized book, substantailly heavier, but, oh, those large fonts. They are glorious. I am 55 years old and have had lasik surgery on one eye only. My vision corrects to 20-20 without glasses, but neither close-up nor far away feel absolutely perfect. That is the price I pay for not having to wear glasses.
With the Kindle DX, the font is perfect, using one of the two larger sizes. Compared to the Kindle 2, there is more content per page turn for the same size font, due obviously to the increased real estate on the screen.
Next, when I am wanting to find something, like for example a bible verse, I go to a smaller font, and get WAY MORE content. Once I am where I need to be, a quick pop to a larger font has me home free.
Of course, I want the backlight and the color, and would pay for them, but they will come in due course.
Do not subscribe to the USA today, unless you want a very watered down view of the paper. This device is not ready for a color newspaper. You would be much better served by subscribing on your PC, or reading the free USA today site on your iPhone or PC.
The iPhone integration continues to be superb, and if you want a quick bedtime read, it is backlit!
The downloading and upgrading remain remarkably easy.
Obviously, removing the left side buttons was a terrible mistake, and the cries of horrified anger will undoubtedly cause the problem to be solved on the next generation.
Will the next Kindle DX be better? Of course! Will the next iMac be better? Of course! Will the next generation Windows computer be better? Of course. Ditto for flat screen TV’s, cars, and telephones.
If you are a technology freak who has to get the latest and greatest immediately, you already have your DX. If you are almost that far towards the “bleeding edge” you should enthusiastically pony up for this baby, ’cause you are going to love it. You already know that you can sell your Kindle DX for about 70% of what you paid for it when the next one comes out. As a matter of fact, if the next one has color and/or backlighting, and you buy it the first day, you will get almost 90% if you sell quickly.
So, if you are a first time Kindl’r, it is time to get in the game. If you are an upgrade candidate, this is a clear buy if screen size and font size matter. When the backlit, color version hits, watch for my presale, I always keep my equipment in brand new condition!

By Richard Gruber

Confirming one of the worst-kept tech secrets in recent memory, Amazon today formally announced that it would be launching a large-screen Kindle this summer to further enhance its position in the surprisingly popular ebook reader market.

Amazon Introduces Large Screen Kindle DX

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) introduced Amazon Kindle DX, the new purpose-built reading device that offers Kindle’s wireless delivery and selection of content with a large 9.7-inch electronic paper display, built-in PDF reader, auto-rotate capability, and storage for up to 3,500 books. Kindle DX’s display has 2.5 times the surface area of Kindle’s 6-inch display. The larger electronic paper display with 16 shades of gray has more area for graphic-rich content such as professional and personal documents, newspapers and magazines, and textbooks. Kindle reads like printed words on paper because the screen works using real ink and doesn’t use a backlight, helping to eliminate the eyestrain and glare associated with other electronic displays. Kindle DX features a built-in PDF reader using Adobe Reader Mobile technology for reading professional and personal documents. Like other types of documents on Kindle, customers simply email their PDF format documents to their Kindle email address or move them over using a USB connection. With a larger display and built-in PDF reader, Kindle DX customers can read professional and personal documents with more complex layouts without scrolling, panning, or zooming, and without re-flowing, which destroys the original structure of the document. Everything from annual reports with graphs to flight manuals with maps to musical scores can be viewed on a single, crisp screen with Kindle DX. Kindle DX’s display content auto-rotates so users can read in portrait or landscape mode, or flip the device to read with either hand. Simply turn Kindle DX and immediately see full-width landscape views of maps, graphs, tables, images, and Web pages.

New Built-In PDF Reader

Kindle DX features a built-in PDF reader using Adobe Reader Mobile technology for reading professional and personal documents. Like other types of documents on Kindle, customers simply email their PDF format documents to their Kindle email address or move them over using a USB connection. With a larger display and built-in PDF reader, Kindle DX customers can read professional and personal documents with more complex layouts without scrolling, panning, or zooming, and without re-flowing, which destroys the original structure of the document. Everything from annual reports with graphs to flight manuals with maps to musical scores can be viewed on a single, crisp screen with Kindle DX.

New Auto-Rotation

Amazon Kindle DX’s display content auto-rotates so users can read in portrait or landscape mode, or flip the device to read with either hand. Simply turn Kindle DX and immediately see full-width landscape views of maps, graphs, tables, images, and Web pages.

New 3.3 GB Memory Holds Up To 3,500 Books

With 3.3 GB of available memory, Kindle DX can hold up to 3,500 books, compared with 1,500 with Kindle. And because Amazon automatically backs up a copy of every Kindle book purchased, customers can wirelessly re-download titles from their library at any time.

Incredibly Thin

Kindle DX is just over a third of an inch thin, which is thinner than most magazines.

3G Wireless, No PC, No Hunting for Wi-Fi Hot Spots

Just like Kindle, Kindle DX customers automatically take advantage of Amazon Whispernet to wirelessly shop the Kindle Store, download or receive new content in less than 60 seconds, and read from their library—all without a PC, Wi-Fi hot spot, or syncing. Amazon still pays for the wireless connectivity on Kindle DX so books can be downloaded in less than 60 seconds—with no monthly fees, data plans, or service contracts.

Syncs With Kindle for iPhone and other Kindle Compatible Devices

Just like Kindle, Kindle DX uses Amazon Whispersync technology to automatically sync content across Kindle, Kindle DX, Kindle for iPhone, and other devices in the future. With Whispersync, customers can easily move from device to device and never lose their place in their reading.

Massive Selection of Books—Plus Newspapers, Magazines, and Blogs

The Kindle Store currently offers more than 275,000 books, including popular books like New York Times Bestsellers, New Releases, and fiction and nonfiction released in the past several years. Dozens of newspapers and magazines are also available for subscription or single-edition purchase. BusinessWeek and The New England Journal of Medicine are available in the Kindle Store starting today, and The Economist will be available soon. Subscriptions are auto-delivered wirelessly to Kindle overnight so that the latest edition is waiting for customers when they wake up. Over 1,500 blogs are available on Kindle and updated and downloaded wirelessly throughout the day.

 Gadget Hot..! KindleDX By Amazon.

The KindleDX from Amazon is the most recent addition to Amazon’s popular line of eBook Reader devices. Introduced in May 2009, the KindleDX is the largest Kindle available with a screen size of 9.7″. Most of the technology in the KindleDX is 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 KindleDX retains the same WhisperNet wireless technology as the Kindle 2 offering free wireless access for book download.

The KindleDX 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 KindleDX 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 poised to make a move, things are about to get interesting.

KindleDX college plans revealed: only 300 students total

We knew the KindleDX 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 KindleDX , 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 KindleDX 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 new KindleDX 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 KindleDX . 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, KindleDX 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! KindleDX has 9.7″ display size, but Kindle 6″.  Also KindleDX 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, KindleDX 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 KindleDX !

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 KindleDX power adapter or optionally to connect to a PC or Macintosh computer).

PDF compatibleEarlier Kindles required Adobe PDFs to go through a conversion process first, but the

KindleDX : 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).