ก.ค.
09
2009
Kindle DX Accessories Store
Kindle DX Accessories Store
มิ.ย.
24
2009
Kindle DX’s Ability to Display Complex Structures and Form Function of a Bigger Unit
Kindle DX’s Ability to Display Complex Structures and Form Function of a Bigger Unit
Our Family owns 3 Kindles: K1, K2 and we now own Kindle DX.
We rated K1 and K2, 5 stars. K1 got its grade for the seamless Amazon’s wireless offering and the superior reading experience. K2 improved form function, introduced Text to Speech functionality and expanded embedded K1’s memory.
Why did I order a Kindle DX? I bought a DX for its ability to handle complex written structures. I read financial reports voraciously. Since I can’t read these reports on my PC screen or on K2 (text yes, financial statements no), I print out fat financials reports on a daily basis. As soon as I ordered Kindle DX, I sent .pdf files with tables, files and pictures to my DX email address. Does DX end the tyranny of lugging around piles of work material? Let’s find out.
Text: I almost had a heart attack. I downloaded a PDF from Edgar Online. Their standard font is just too small for DX. On the second attempt, I used a bigger bold font and it worked perfectly. I now have my Kindle DX magical font. Then I tested the Auto-Rotation feature. That is the DX golden nugget. It works brilliantly! Within a PDF document, auto-rotate to landscape will render the appropriate text size. I tested this feature on the original Edgar Document et voila! I prefer the next page and prev page buttons located at the bottom of the unit in landscape mode. You can’t annotate or Highlight in a PDF file. I trust Amazon.Com to deliver this feature in the not too distant future. If not, there goes one star.
Graphs and Tables: I got the Daily livestock Report from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The document has text, boxes, graphs and tables on one page. I auto rotated this newsletter to landscape mode and the rendering reaches perfection.
Pictures: Work of Art! I love the black and white pictures with lots of texture.
Browser: Speed has not increased but the ability to extract Wikipedia material for me is priceless. The size of the screen facilitates reading in the browser.
Form Function: The ability to handle complex structures comes at a cost. The cost is basically the super sizing of the unit. I find the unit to be much easier to hold in the landscape mode. My wife and I will continue to use our K1 and K2 for reading ebooks. I will be using Kindle DX for more complex material.
Text to Speech (TTS): I find myself using TTS more and more. Unfortunately on DX, TTS does not work within PDF files. It does on K2. This is a minor issue since I use TTS for ebooks.
Memory: 3,500 books on the Kindle DX and an unlimited number of your books saved within the Amazon.com’s cloud which can be downloaded at will for free. Some say it is not enough; I say bring a Cray computer on your next vacation.
Don’t want: I don’t want a backlight on my kindle or touch screen on the reading space.
Wishes: Global wireless access to Kindle DX Store. Bezos’ vision of all books ever written available on Kindle (let’s speed this up, please). Sudoku. Add a print to file feature in the browser so that I can clip Wikipedia or other web material to be retrieved within the main menu. Ability to access the documents I have archived on Pixily.
By Michael Bigger
มิ.ย.
19
2009
Will a lot of Kindle DXes sell in the first 1-2 months?
Will a lot of Kindle DXes sell in the first 1-2 months?
Let’s see –
- The Kindle DX isn’t exactly getting a fair chance (as we’ve just seen above).
- The $489 price of the Kindle DX is also scaring off a lot of potential buyers.
- There is little pent up demand because a lot of people have bought Kindle 2s in the last 4 months. Also, there’s still more interest in K2 than in KDX -
- Back To School season doesn’t start until July and peaks only in August.
That pretty much means that the Kindle DX is going to see a gradual adoption.
This would mean that it’s not until students see other students actually using a Kindle DX that DX sales pick up. For Amazon, the biggest challenge is thus creating enough buzz during the early July to Labor Day shopping season to kick-start sales BEFORE the shopping season is over.
The first Kindle DX and its current release do ensure two things -
มิ.ย.
14
2009
Kindle DX Review
Amazon Kindle DX Review
Amazon’s Kindle DX was announced back at the beginning of May, but it’s taken until now for the first of the oversized ebook readers to reach buyers’ hands. The Kindle DX begins shipping this week, promising more E Ink real estate, more memory, and more file-type support on top of the Kindle 2’s existing Whispernet wireless and other features. Is bigger necessarily better? SlashGear put on our reading glasses and set to finding out.
The differences between the Kindle 2 and the new Kindle DX are obvious: a 9.7-inch E Ink monochrome display dominates the front panel, offering around 2.5x the space of the smaller ebook reader and squashing the QWERTY keyboard into tic-tac tininess at the bottom. Amazon has obviously worked hard to minimize the screen’s impact on the overall chassis, with mixed results. It’s a scant 0.02-inches thicker than the Kindle 2, at 0.38-inches, with a metal back-plate lending stiffness, but the left-side page controls have been dropped.
Make sure to click through for the full review, photo gallery and unboxing/walkthrough video of the Amazon Kindle DX.
That means that anybody who automatically goes to use their left-hand to turn pages (and that’s not just the left-handed among us) will have to either retrain themselves or follow Amazon’s advice and flip the display 180-degrees. Doing so obviously puts the keyboard and joystick out of easy reach, so it’s not an ideal solution.
Anybody planning on doing this regularly really should get into the habit of using the included USB 2.0 to micro-USB cable, though, as Amazon’s Whispernet conversion fees can quickly mount up. Shortly before they announced the Kindle DX, Amazon quietly changed their policy on wireless conversions: where previously they charged a fixed $0.10 per document, they now bill per megabyte. Files are rounded up to the nearest whole megabyte (MB), each charged at $0.15. Given that a typical research paper will range in size from under 1MB (which Amazon will round up) to perhaps 10-15MB depending on length, graphics and whether the original is in color or monochrome, you’re likely looking at least a dollar per conversion. Manual transfers via the USB cable (Amazon will also convert documents not natively supported and send them back to your email account) are free.
มิ.ย.
13
2009
Amazon Kindle DX Leather Cover Review
Amazon Kindle DX Leather Cover Review
The new leather cover for the Amazon Kindle DX is surprisingly very simple, nothing overdone unlike the previous Kindle covers. The leather cover is nothing fancy on the outside, but dependability wise, it’s really more than it seems, and it really fulfills its promise of protecting the Amazon Kindle DX.
This is one of the best things invented and I think that with e-books being published on the internet everyday, a gadget that will read e-books is the most helpful thing. If you love your Kindle and if you love reading e-books then the jacket is one thing that you should be without.
What I love about the new Kindle DX leather cover is the simplicity of the clips and edges designed specifically to offer protection to the Amazon Kindle. It only has a few fastening hinges, all of which are enough to keep the Kindle secure and away from scratch or any kind of tampering.
The thickness of the leather cover, I’ll say is to be about average. The thickness will obviously change and you can feel it, especially if you’re someone who really appreciate the thinness of the kindle. But at the same time, it also protects very good. I’ve learned how to adjust to the thickness, since I originally wanted something that’s both simple yet very effective anyway.
The outside of the Kindle DX leather cover is just a black rough genuine leather, and the edges are like soft felt. I love that it looks classy and it looks very professional. I love how the Amazon Kindle DX looks with its leather cover on, because it makes it look so much better. But what’s the best thing about the Kindle cover? It’s very affordable.
For more information, check other Amazon Kindle DX Leather Cover reviews.Erika Ayala works part time for a consumer review company.
Like the iPhone, the Kindle DX will automatically rotate the screen from portrait to landscape mode when you flip the unit on its side.
มิ.ย.
09
2009
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 pre-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 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’s 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 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.
มิ.ย.
08
2009
Kindle DX : will start shipping June 10
Amazon.com to ship Kindle DX ahead of schedule
The popular device will start shipping June 10
IDG News Service - Amazon.com’s new large-screen Kindle DX e-reader will ship earlier than expected, the company said Monday.
Amazon will begin shipping the product to customers on June 10, earlier than the third-quarter release the company had planned.
Amazon unveiled the new e-reader and allowed customers to begin pre-ordering it on May 6. The product, a follow-up to February’s release of the Kindle 2, features a larger screen and more memory than either that product or its predecessor, the original Kindle released in November 2007. Kindle 2 also shipped slightly ahead of schedule.
The Kindle DX features a 9.7-in. screen, aimed at making it easier to read newspapers, textbooks, magazines and business documents. Other Kindle products have a 6-in. screen and were aimed mainly at reading paperback novels.
In addition to the regular online and retail sales channels, Amazon.com has worked out several distribution deals for its new devices, hoping to encourage customers to use them for their extended purpose.
Kindle DX: hot or not?
By now, you may have heard of a little thing called the Kindle, an e-book reader that has become Amazon.com’s leading lady. Also by now, you may have heard of their newest release, the Kindle DX. This is not the Kindle 2 - that was released just three months ago. No, this is a new version with a few improvements and a lot of hype. Let’s see if it can hold up against some scrutiny.
For starters, the Kindle has made a huge impact on Amazon’s market. According to Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, the Kindle market is responsible for 35 percent of book sales. Wow, that’s not bad. Thirty-five percent equals a lot of books and a lot of money, so you can see why Amazon would want to make sure they’ve got the best product out there. Do they?
Here’s the rundown:
The Kindle DX features a 9.7 inch display. That’s 6 inches bigger than its predecessor.
It has an auto-rotate feature which allows you to read in either portrait or landscape mode. Most of the function buttons are on the right side, which could present a problem for lefties, but if you just flip it upside down, you now have the buttons on the left side. Pretty cool, huh?
The Kindle also comes with a PDF reader. This comes in really handy, especially since getting them there is pretty easy, because
the Kindle is on a 3G network. You don’t have to worry about finding WI-FI or paying a monthly service fee. Amazon provides this for free, so downloading new books is easy. Sending PDF’s is easy because all you have to do is e-mail the file to your Kindle account and it’s there on the device.
With the interests of students in mind, Amazon has announced that textbooks will be available for download to the Kindle this fall. (That’s enough to convince me.)
It has 3.3 GB of memory so it can hold about 3,500 books.
Of course, you’ve got the whole media library of Kindle available to you with 275,000 books, 1,500 blogs, and a couple of major newspapers are even chipping in.
It all sounds pretty cool on the outside. The downside is the price: $489. Yes, you read right, $489. Still, the books are cheaper, you don’t have to pay any monthly fees, even for the 3G, and it’s super-convenient. Is it worth it? Well, that’s up to you. I also have to let you know about those three major newspaper companies that are making their editions available to Kindle readers, The New York Times, the Boston Globe and The Washington Post. The only people who can get these services at a reduced price are those who live in areas where home-delivery of these papers is not available and who sign up for long-term subscriptions of the Kindle version of their paper. It’s not too bad of a deal. Of course, Amazon has let us know that this service is just a trial. However, the textbook availability is not a trial, and I think this feature is really what’s going to make the Kindle potentially change the market. It’s new age and, there’s no way around it, it’s better. Easier for students to carry around, easier for them to buy, use, and get rid of their books (the best part), and its highlighting, dictionary, and search features are really going to benefit them in solid, real-life ways.
My only real complaint is the price. Other than that, if the Kindle changed the way we read books, the Kindle DX is going to change the way we read, learn, and see the world.
Amazon Debuts $489 9.7″ Kindle DX E-Reader
Called the Kindle DX, the device looks and feels almost exactly like the refreshed Kindle 2 from February. The biggest difference (literally) is the panel. Instead of the standard 6″ screen, this device includes a 9.7″ (diagonal) e-ink display which will supposedly enable newspapers and textbook publishers to get their content into digital form more easily. The other new capabilities are built-in PDF support (finally!), auto-rotation via an integrated accelerometer and storage for up to 3,500 books. If you’re keeping count, the Kindle book store now has over 275,000 titles available, which sure beats your local library.
According to Amazon, the DX’s screen has 2.5x the surface area of the Kindle’s 6″ display, and it also features 16 shades of gray for showing more subtle changes in text. Also new with this device are initiatives from both The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Washington Post. All three papers will begin a trial this summer to sell the Kindle DX along with a newspaper subscription for a discounted rate, but there’s a huge, huge catch: you can’t be in an area where home delivery is available. In other words, the newspaper firms are alienating thousands of potential buyers as they force people to continue reading paper articles — a dreadful idea, if we may opine. After all, what are the chances that someone is out of home-delivery range, yet has access to Sprint’s 3G network for downloading new editions of the newspaper? This clearly wasn’t thought out very well.
Thankfully, the above situation is just a “trial,” and we’re hoping that newspaper executives see the light and begin offering their content (along with the subsidized Kindle DX) to anyone who wishes to buy in. After all, how many potential customers are they losing by forcing an actual paper upon them? Give people the choice to go digital!
On an entirely different front, Amazon has also rounded up Arizona State University, Case Western Reserve University, Princeton University, Reed College, and Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, all of which will launch trial programs to make the Kindle DX available to students in the fall. While details aren’t yet available, the schools will “distribute hundreds of Kindle DX devices to students spread across a broad range of academic disciplines.” Interestingly enough, there was no similarly big announcement made by any major textbook publishers. We guess that “used textbook” market is a bit too lucrative to give up so soon, huh?
พ.ค.
30
2009
Kindle dx
Amazon Kindle DX
Reviews of the Amazon Kindle e-Book. Check out pictures, news, and reviews of Amazon’s latest product push - the Kindle.
Kindle DX Review (Video): This commercial presentation provides an up-close look at the features and specs of the Kindle DX including: display features, how the text-to-speech sounds, wireless access and technology, buying content (periodicals and books) through Amazon, web browsing, PDF viewing and much more.
Advanced Design
Sleek & Trim
Kindle DX is as thin as most magazines. Just over a third of an inch in profile, you’ll find Kindle DX fits perfectly in your hands.
Beautiful Large Display
Kindle DX ’s large display is ideal for a broad range of reading material, including graphic-rich books, PDFs, newspapers, magazines, and blogs. Kindle DX’s display is two and a half times the size of the Kindle display. Whether you’re reading the latest bestseller or a financial report, text and images are amazingly sharp on the 9.7″ screen.
Auto-Rotating Screen
By simply turning the device, you can immediately see full-width landscape views of maps, graphs, tables and Web pages.
Built-In PDF Reader
Unload the loose documents from your briefcase or backpack, and put them all on Kindle DX. From neighborhood newsletters to financial statements to case studies and product manuals–you can take them all with you on Kindle DX. Native PDF support allows you to carry and read all of your personal and professional documents on the go. With Amazon’s Whispernet service, you can send your documents directly to your Kindle DX and read them anytime, anywhere.
5-Way Controller
KindleDX has an easy-to-use 5-way controller, enabling precise on-screen navigation for selecting text to highlight or looking up words.
Simple to Use, No Computer Required
Kindle DX is completely wireless and ready to use right out of the box–no setup, no cables, no computer required.
Amazon’s New Kindle DX: Pros and Cons 
Amazon announced the next generation of it’s Kindle e-reader, the Kindle DX. Per Amazon, the display is 2.5 times bigger than the original. After taking a look, here’s some of the main points:
Pros:
1. The new larger size allows documents to be read as-is, with the entire document fitting in the screen. With the smaller Kindle screen, users have to scroll to see more of the document, or the document has to be re-flowed, something that can severely change the readability.
2. Those who read large print books and feel the current Kindle screen could not accommodate them should have an easier time with this new version.
3. The DX will have an automatic rotating display, meaning the screen automatically changes from vertical to horizontal and back again, depending on how it’s held.
4. The Kindle DX can store around 2,000 more books than the current Kindle.
5. PDFs won’t have to be converted like the they do in the current Kindle.
Cons:
1. The current Kindle isn’t exactly the most portable device, despite its slim size. By tacking on an additional two inches, it will be even harder for many to carry the Kindle DX around as an all-purpose device, as Amazon touts it to be.
2. At $489, it costs over $100 more than the current Kindle, which isn’t the cheapest e-reader available to begin with.
3. I haven’t seen anything to indicate that Amazon has improved the connectivity issues that have plagued some of the current Kindle owners.
4. The Kindle still requires the Kindle store and still does not allow crossover purchases.
Kindle DX: The flip-side
While the backside of the Kindle DX 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).
16 shades of gray
As with the Kindle 2, the DX’s e-ink screen delivers 16 shades of gray, which means sharper images than the first-gen Kindle. (Those hoping for a color screen will have to wait for future versions
A library in your hand Newspapers, magazines, books, and personal documents are accessible on the Kindle DX. The unit also includes a full version of the New Oxford American Dictionary, so unfamiliar words can be
Still no touch screen Unlike the competing Sony Reader, the latest Kindle still doesn’t have a touch screen. However, the built-in keyboard makes it relatively easy to enter search terms and Web addresses.
Kindle DX: To Buy or Not To Buy?
Today, Amazon announced a new Kindle e-reader that has a bigger screen — 9.7 inches diagonally — and a bigger price tag: 489 smackeroos. So should you fork out $130 more than the last Kindle for the new version? We can’t say for sure until we get to play with it for a while, but here’s a preliminary guide based on the specs and our quick demo at today’s press conference.
Who Will Want It
Students: Textbooks can weigh five-plus pounds and cost 80-plus dollars. So backpack-burdened students are the obvious first customers for a big-screen e-reader that can hold hundreds of textbooks and display their diagrams and charts in full. The Kindle DX isn’t the first large-screen e-reader (see the options from iRex) but Amazon’s clout gives it an advantage, letting it offer textbooks from many different publishers. Amazon has already announced deals with Pearson, Cengage Learning, and Wiley, who together account for 60 percent of the U.S. textbook market. Although prices for the upcoming digital textbooks haven’t been announced, I expect that they’ll be lower than the printed version, just as with Amazon’s other e-books.
News junkies: the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Boston Globe will all offer Kindle DXs at a discounted price in a trial of digital subscriptions. Unfortunately, it seems this summer’s trial will happen only in areas where there’s currently no paper delivery. (Looks like the rest of us will have to wait, which is too bad for me — I’d gladly sign on, because even though I can get the paper delivered to my apartment, someone always steals the darn thing before I get outside.) Right now the digital newspapers’ format is simple, not a copy of the paper version’s layout, just as on previous Kindles — although maybe the bigger screen will prompt publishers to think about new ways of presenting articles.
Owners of printers: Businesspeople, scientists, and the rest of us are always printing out 8 1/2-by-11 documents, whether they’re corporate reports, journal articles, or recipes. A screen that’s two and a half times the size of the original Kindle’s gets much closer to the size of an actual piece of paper, so you don’t have to zoom or scroll to see all the information — everything looks exactly like the printouts we’re used to. The best part: The Kindle DX can read all your PDF documents instantly, without you having to go through the complicated conversion process that the current Kindles require.
