Kindle DX : great reader… but not quite there yet

Pros:
- The e-ink screen is gorgeous and definitely replicates a real ink-and-paper reading experience. Also, navigation and page turns aren’t as slow as I was expecting and are not particularly distracting.
- PDF rendering is great and very accurate, even for complicated documents with many pictures/tables/graphs. Even previously annotated and modified PDFs (from my tablet PC) display correctly, with all my handwritten notes and highlights. It takes a few seconds to load (more for larger files), but page turns are fast.
- In portrait mode, normal letter size documents like journal articles look great and are very readable. The margin-cropping feature works well, and I haven’t had major issues with the font size.
- The build quality is terrific. It’s very thin and feels solid and well put together. The buttons and joystick controller are a little annoying (too stiff or not enough “click”) but otherwise, it’s a good-looking and very functional reader.

Cons:
- NO FOLDERS OR OTHER ORGANIZATION SYSTEM! This is a huge flaw for me and may result in my returning the Kindle if there isn’t a firmware upgrade in the works. So my 1000+ PDF files can be copied in their normal folders to the main Documents folder of the Kindle with no problem (they stay organized on the Kindle USB drive)… but then there is no organization of the files on the actual Kindle display. It becomes one huge list of all the files, which you can sort by title, date added, or author (although author is very rarely included in the metadata). True, you can search the titles but this lack of folders is extremely inconvenient for when I need a particular paper but don’t remember the specifics well enough to search for it. It’s really ridiculous there isn’t something as basic as folders on a gadget that Amazon hopes to sell to academia. Or even for non-academics, if Amazon is touting the large internal storage for downloading and holding tons of books, then they really need to include an organization system for handling those books.
- The landscape display mode is not optimal for PDFs with 2-columns or large graphics. The accelerometer works well (maybe too sensitively), but the portrait mode just doesn’t suit these types of PDFs. You can’t scroll, so the display just chops up the pages, oftentimes in the middle of a graphic. So you would need to flip the page back and forth in order to read columns or, for example, reference a legend/description for a large figure that was chopped into two pages. Portrait mode is readable for me but I can imagine that small graph and figure text might be a problem for some and that trying to magnify via landscape mode would be highly annoying.
- There is absolutely no annotation/note-taking feature for PDFs. I had read another review somewhere which stated that notes can be added for whole pages, rather than within the text; this isn’t true, and notes can’t be added in any way. Yes, the kindle can be a good PDF reader for students and professionals, but some sort of note-taking is also essential. For books and newspapers, the kindle DX does this beautifully and adds a txt file with your notes on its USB drive, which you can then easily access on your computer. Even a really basic notes feature (e.g. one note per entire document) would be better than nothing.

So the Kindle DX may be worth it if you want a highly portable reader with great PDF rendering and battery life. It’s definitely much better than trying to read PDFs on my iphone or netbook. Besides academic stuff, I also read a huge amount of fiction so I will definitely get a lot of use out of it. However, it’s still far from perfect, and I’m really hoping Amazon is working on a firmware update that will resolve some of the issues I have with it. If you’re just looking for a novel reader, then stick w/ the more portable kindle 2.

So cmon Amazon, if you really expect this to become popular with students/professionals, then fix these blaring issues! The hardware is great - fix the software (can it really be that hard to add folders??).

KindleDX: Color Conversions on PDF

I just received my Kindle DX. I am a prior Kindle and current Kindle2 user. Why did I buy the Kindle DX? I purchased it primarily to read technical programming books which are so frequently distributed in PDF format now. Reading technical books in the Kindle/Kindle2 frequently did not work well because diagrams and code snippets were virtually unreadable. The first book that I tried to read on the Kindle DX was a programming book on the Android platform, “Hello, Android” by Ed Burnette. It was amazingly easy to copy the PDF from my computer to the Kindle and the reading experience on the Kindle DX was much better than on the Kindle2; however, there is an issue when a book uses a lot of different colors in its text. In the case of this book, they had to make serious revisions for the latest version of Android. As a result, they used color to denote revised sections. Unfortunately, some of the colors are so light when translated to gray scale that they are very difficult to read. So, the lack of color on the electronic “ink” strikes again.

Kindle DX : Good, not great–but I like it

Additionally, the physical layout of the device is not bad. My biggest two complaints are that the number row on the keypad has been merged into the top letter row, forcing you to press ALT every time you want to type a number. Also, I sometimes have problems clicking with the five-way controller and end up accidentally moving the cursor instead, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. While it’s hardly as sleek as something I would expect from, for example, Apple, it’s definitely not bad, and it’s just as thin as I expected.

My biggest wish is that they would improve PDF support. Yes, it views PDF documents fine (except one I had with a ridiculously detailed embedded image that it refused to display). I have my local bus routes and scheduled copied to my Kindle, and it’s a lot better than my trying to remember stop times or jot down notes to myself any time I go somewhere new (I just moved here!). However, for other documents, there are times when it would be nice to be able to pan or zoom (although flipping the Kindle DX to landscape mode will zoom a little, at the cost of potentially splitting the page). Basically, how well the Kindle displays PDFs depends on the document itself, so for those documents that the Kindle doesn’t quite get right, it would be nice to do some tweaks. My biggest wish besides this would be supporting links in PDF documents (frequently found in PDF documents’ tables of contents). Also, you can’t take notes or highlight in PDFs. I understand not being able to highlight (PDFs aren’t necessarily text), but it would be nice to be able to at least take notes, even if they are for the whole page.

The Kindle DX has some other nice features as well–the built-in Web browser that works over the cellular network connection, for example, is handy. While it’s still experimental and slightly clunky to use at times, it’s great for looking up something quickly, including the weather, a map (like I said, I’m new here!) or–my favorite–a Wikipedia article about something I just read. And it’s currently free, so I can’t complain (although I wouldn’t be surprised if they started charging for data as the browser matures).

Price-wise, even if the Kindle DX seems to cost a lot, I actually don’t know any eBook readers this size that cost less (all the ones I can find, such as the iRex Ditigial Reader, cost more–a lot more). I paid a bit more than I’d like for the Kindle DX, but it was worth it to me, and I recognize the “early-adopter premium” I am probably paying. Kindle books, however, are normally reasonably priced, and Kindle books from Amazon are normally less than eBooks elsewhere. You’ll have to decide if the prices are worth it for yourself.

Kindle DX : Bigger is Better for Technical Books

I have used the 1st Kindle for a year and a half and really love it. The only down side was that I couldn’t read some of my technical books. The problem was with the images and tables that didn’t fit the size of the original kindle. The larger size of the Kindle DX allows me to carry my reference books and read them with ease. I have used my original Kindle for all my recreational reading every day since I purchased it. I will now be using the Kindle DX for all my recreational reading and for all my technical reading. I was just looking around my library and realizing all the room I will save when I donate my books to the library. (I’ll also be saving a lot of trees in the future.) Oh and I gave my wife my orignal Kindle. She was dead set against purchasing a Kindle. Now she can’t put it down.

Protective case: I purchased the Kindle DX cover with the Kindle DX. However I wanted more protection for the Kindle DX when I carry it in my backpack. Targus makes a Netbook Slipskin Peel mini-notebook case that fits up to a 10.2″ widescreen netbook which fits the Kindle DX in it’s cover like a glove. Targus TSS11101US Neoprene Slipskin Peel Netbook Case for up to 10.2-Inch Netbooks (Black/Blue)

Not perfect, but darn close! (Goodbye 3-ring binders)

My primary reading material is technical — either paperback books, many with more than 1000 pages, or PDF documents that I have printed as a 4-up / double sided pages stored in large 3-ring binders. This means I usually have about 5 to 10 pounds of printed matter to carry to and from work.

I became excited when e-readers first began hitting the market. I picked up the Sony PRS-500, thinking I could use it in place of the tomes I now carry. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to my expectations. The display was too small to read most PDFs. Also, on larger documents with diagrams, it sometimes took 40 seconds or more to flip to the next page. After a month, the Sony reader started collecting dust.

When I heard about the Kindle DX and its large display, I was eager to see if it would fit my needs. After the release, I started seeing some negative reviews of the device, specifically it’s PDF features. So I hesitated, but finally decided to give it a try, as I could return it within 30 days.

Once I received the device, I was amazed! Yes it has a few rough edges, but it is incredible and it far exceeds most of my expectations.

First, the PDF viewer is not “slow” as some have written. I have opened a 150MB PDF in about 5-6 seconds, and turning to the next page is about 1 second. This is about 40 times faster than the Sony PRS-500 for the same document.

The display is exceptionally crisp and readable, even for 8.5×11 formatted PDFs. My eyesight is still fairly good and I am used to reading them printed 4-up (4 pages reduced to fit on one side of a single sheet of paper). The Kindle DX lets me see the documents much larger than I am accustomed. The Kindle DX display reproduces a full 8.5×11 page reduced to about 75 - 85% of its original size, depending on how much of the margins it is able to crop.

On the downside, the DX doesn’t have the ability to annotate a PDF, but this is something I rarely need. The Kindle DX lacks “folders” to organize the hundreds of documents I carry on it, but by adding a keyword to the title of the document, you can quickly search for what is needed. The Kindle DX is missing support for hyperlinks in the table contents of a PDF, but this is not a deal breaker; you can still navigate to a specific page by selecting a menu option and typing the page number. The keyboard lacks a dedicated row of buttons for numbers, making page number entry cumbersome. My final gripe is that the leather case, an essential accessory, is not included.

Overall, I am very pleased with the Kindle DX and I have no plans of returning this to Amazon.

By RJ

A K2 Owner Reviews The Kindle DX

I really love my kindle 2 but decided to order the Kindle DX because I was intrigued by the larger screen of the DX and wanted to see how the two kindles compare. Hands down the DX is a better e-reader despite being bigger and heavier. The key advantage is the larger screen which can hold a lot more words and information on a page than the K2. Even at very large font sizes the Kindle DX still looks like a page from a book. The contrast is also much sharper on the DX - something I noticed right way when I first turned it on. The words seem darker and crisper. The DX is faster than my K2 when I am opening books, turning pages or even accessing the web. With respect to the pdf feature I can’t critique the Kindle DX because I don’t read a lot of pdfs. For what I do read which are some pdfs and word documents it works well.

Although the Kindle DX is bigger and heavier than the K2 this in no way compromises the user-friendliness of the reader. There is only a marginal difference in how heavy the device feels as compared to the K2 and the increased dimensions are not so significant that it affects portability. This can easily fit into a large handbag (albeit not a small purse). As a normal sized woman with the typical upper body strength of a woman I am sensitive to carrying around heavy things and the Kindle DX does not feel that much different than my K2.

In short, as much as I love my K2, I am really happy I bought the Kindle DX and will likely use this exclusively. I will use it primarily for pleasure reading and for reading pdfs and other work documents. I am not taking any classes so I won’t be using it for textbook reading (and I have not tested textbooks on the Kindle DX).

By victori100 “victori100″

Kindle DX Arrives

The Kindle DX arrived last week and I have had a few days to really use the device and my conclusion is that this is a great eBook reader for the right users. Like the Kindle and Kindle 2, it isn’t for everyone. Here are my thoughts:

Pros:

1) The Kindle DX’s larger size allows for reading documents with fewer page turns. While Page turning is faster on the Kindle DX than it was on my older Kindle 1, the amount of text per page means fewer “pages” per document. My aging eyes also prefer to increase the font size on some documents, and having more screen real estate makes this more forgiving.

2) The larger size allows me to read some web pages and new PDF files much more comfortably. While PDF files still have many limitations, the native support for PDF means the few books I have in this format can now be read on the Kindle without converting them.

3) Landscape mode is a real plus for me. For several documents I own, holding the Kindle DX in Landscape mode makes reading much easier and the documents flow better in that mode. However I prefer to switch manually between Portrait and Landscape. I have the same problem with my iPod Touch. It wants to switch to Landscape just because I shifted positions while reading. I prefer to decide for myself which mode is best for a given document.

4) Portability, while it is larger and heavier than the original Kindle, it is still much easier than carrying around several books when going on a trip. I won’t hesitate to pack the Kindle DX along.

5) Amazon support. I can’t say this enough. I have heard horror stories of people trying to get support from Sony for their eBook reader. Amazon has bent over backwards to help us with every problem we’ve had. I purchased the wrong edition of a book by mistake, and Amazon quickly credited me. MY original Kindle stopped working a few days after the warranty had expired, but Amazon replaced it free of charge anyway. If you are going to buy some new and admittedly expensive technology, make sure the company you are doing business with will stand by their product. Amazon does.

Cons:

1) Size (yes this is a pro and a con): The Kindle DX won’t fit as easily into a purse or small backpack. It will be harder to ignore the weight while walking through the airport. Still, it is better than what I used to do when traveling. Nothing was worse than deciding what books to take along due to the constraints of airline luggage.

2) We still need folder options on the Home screen. Honestly, saying we can have up to 3,500 books on the Kindle DX is completely outweighed by the inability to organize them the way we want to. The Search function partially works around this by allowing us to find a book quickly. However, I suspect searching a Kindle fully loaded with books is not going to be very fast.

Still, the Cons of the Kindle DX are essentially the Cons of the original Kindle. The DX may be a bit more cumbersome, but for anyone who reads a lot or travels and needs to carry reading material along, the Kindle is the best solution.

You’ll note I didn’t bring up price. The truth is price is always subjective. If the item is worth the price TO YOU, it is worth it for you. If it is not, then shouting at others won’t do you any good. There are people who buy a new Ferrari every year because they like their cars fast with a new car smell. Then there are those who feel the Ferrari is a waste of money for a machine that simply takes you from point A to point B. All arguments between these people will never end in agreement.

By S.W.Martin “grown up kid”

Amazon keeps on hitting this Kindle thing right out of the ballpark.

The Kindle DX is a worthy upgrade to the Kindle 2. From the HUGE screen to the native PDF support to the ability to turn the Kindle DX sideways to read, everything is just better on the DX.

1) The packaging is crisp, clean, and similar to a certain fruit vendor from California.

2) The DX comes pre-registered so all you have to do is plug it into the AC adapter and turn it on. The Kindle DX does the rest. Within a minute or two, your books will start appearing. From the time the UPS driver dropped off my DX to my first book was less than five minutes. Amazon has made the setup process very, very easy.

3) The native PDF support is absolutely brilliant. I sent a 6.7MB manual to my Kindle DX account. It appeared in less than 2 minutes! The fonts are crisp, the graphics are decent, and there is a “go to page” feature that allows you to skip through large PDFs.

4) The gyro-thingie works like a champ. While reading a PDF, I turned the DX 90 degrees. The Kindle DX reorientated the PDF automatically. Took less than a second. Not sure how comfortable it will be to read since the next page/prev page buttons are now at the TOP of the page…but it’s a very cool feature to have.

5) The keyboard has been improved as well. The keys are now slightly raised and, in my opinion, easier to use.

The Kindle DX is expensive. No question about it…but if you do any kind of reading, you owe it to yourself to get one. You will not be disappointed.

Some people might question the e-ink, lack of color, and lack of a touch screen. The DX isn’t designed to be a tablet…or have a battery life measured in hours. The DX can run for days with wireless enabled…and up to weeks without wireless. There are tradeoffs to be made. If you are seeking those features, the Kindle DX isn’t for you.

If you are seeking a huge e-book reader with native PDF support, text to speech, massive storage, whispernet, ability to purchase a book and start reading it in under a minute, access to over 270,000 books plus millions of free books on-line, and enjoy reading, get a Kindle DX.

Ok, I did find one minor drawback. The left-side buttons have been removed in the DX. Not sure why. It’s only slightly annoying…given all the other brilliant features.

By Gordon Ewasiuk

Kindle DX - Amazon’s New 9.7″ Wireless Reading Device

Just as soon as we finally get our hands on a new unit to test out, the boys over at Rapir Repair are racing to rip one apart. And that’s just what they’ve done here with the Amazon Kindle DX . Inside it’s got the requisite boards, wires, tape and cat hairs (just kidding), plus an E727NV WN2 wireless card, memory, CPU and Epson E-ink panel controller. It’s actually pretty sparse and clean inside of there — we’d expect nothing less! Hit the read link for the full, glorious disassembling (though there is one more shot after the break). Continue reading Amazon Kindle DX gets torn apart, examined Filed under: Displays Amazon Kindle DX gets torn apart, examined originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read

PDF on 700

Now, what I want to do with the eReader is be able to view books (Stephen King, Dean Koontz) and view PDF’s I’ve bought, as well as reading work documents on the go.  This would greatly reduce what I have to carry in a normal day.  Needles to say, PDF support is a must.  I also would like to be able to add notes to pages.  I’m a notorious note take in my books, be it with post it’s or writing, this is very important to me.

Now the Kindle doesn’t native support PDF’s and from what I heard their conversions aren’t the best.  (Except for the Kindle DX, releasing on June 10).  Every other eReader seems to support PDF.  So I thought I would try to find the Sony Reader that supports PDF nicely and allows notes.  The Kindle has always allowed notes and bookmarks, but has just now allowed PDF (Kindle DX).
I was able to see and touch the Sony Reader 505 at Target, which is where I fell in love with the idea of an eReader, but could NOT find a 700 anywhere.  Finally found that Borders has 700’s so I took a roadtrip to a local borders (about 1.25 hours away) to see the Reader.  The 700 honestly did not impress me at all.  The text was hard to read on a normal book, the contrast was horrid.  The PDF support was nice, it had zoom and annotation that I wanted, but reading it was hard with the glare from the touch screen.  I thought to myself, I should just try it.  So I ask Borders what thier return policy is, they only return Readers if they are defective.  The only Sony Store has a 14day return policy I believe, but after seeing the two side by side, I figure I won’t even bother.

The Kindle DX, I believe, will be my reader of choice.  The Amazon Store has an ample 30 day return policy (from delivery date) and PDF support.  Plus it has a bigger screen.  I found that while trying to read PDF’s on the Sony’s 6″ screen, it was hard to read at small “form”.. and when you expand the text the formatting kinda breaks.  The large 9.7″ screen of the Kindle DX I think will really help with that.

Amazon prepares for ‘textbook e-reader wars’

Amazon’s preview of the Kindle DX was “a smart tactical manoeuvre” designed to pre-empt competition from other manufacturers in a market that is “a new Holy Grail”, according to a senior figure at OUP.

Evan Schnittman, vice-president global business development at Oxford University Press, said Amazon had revealed the device early so it could stake out its territory before the academic market becomes home to the “textbook e-reader wars”. The Kindle DX will be available from the summer, and costs $489 (£325).

He said: “If you look at the two previous Kindle press conferences, both were held at the precise moment of release. The events were announcements of a product that was ready to ship, not, as with the Kindle DX, a preview event. Amazon made a premeditated change in their strategy . . . because it sees Apple as the player to beat in the university marketplace, and the last thing Amazon wishes to be is also-ran news after Apple launches a device for this market.”

Schnittman highlighted the importance of the higher education market—one that has “consistently rejected all previous digital attempts”, which he described as being “made up of the most wired, wireless, trend-setting, trend-following, advertising-influencing, advertising target audience in the world”.

Media men reject Kindle DX

Leading newspaper-owners have rejected Amazon’s charging model behind the Kindle DX, following the online retailer’s announcement of its new large-screen device yesterday, the Financial Times has reported.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch said his newspapers will not be signing up to Amazon.com’s Kindle DX, despite expressing confidence in the model of e-reading devices.

Murdoch, who owns newspapers such as the Sun, the Times and the Wall Street Journal, said: “We will not be giving our content rights to the fine people who created the Kindle.”

James Moroney, chief executive of the Dallas Morning News, said Amazon wanted 70 per cent of any subscription revenues his paper earned through the Kindle, and the right to republish the newspaper’s stories on other portable devices.

“Is that a business model that will work for newspapers? That to me is not a model,” he said.

The new device can hold 3,500 books and has access to over 225,000 titles.

But Amazon is not the only business in the e-reader market. Sony is there and so too is the iPhone with a Kindle app (although that is only available in the US for now). Plastic Logic will unveil its version later in the year.

“The launch of the Kindle DX is further proof of the strength of the market for e-readers,” said Neil Jones, the head of Interead, an English based company releasing Kindle-competitor in a few weeks.

“The fact is e-readers don’t have many detractors left. Everyone agrees that people will continue to read books, and the time for an “iPod moment” for e-readers is now,” Mr Jones told the BBC.

A trial of the new Kindle DX service will begin in the US this summer.

The Kindle DX won’t save the news industry, but that’s not the point: a guide to our coverage of e-readers

Amazon just unveiled a bigger, more expensive version of the Kindle that will, depending on whom you ask, “rescue newspapers” or just create “false hope.”