Amazon's Kindle DX reader - the blog

Kindle DX – would it start shipping allready?

admin — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:23:26 +0000

For a couple of moths now the Kindle DX could be pre-ordered on Amazon, but nobody knows for sure when will the shipping start.

IF you’re looking right now on the Amazon page, they say that “Expected to ship in 2 to 3 weeks” . But they’ve been saying that since 2 weeks ago and still nobody got their DX yet.

So, if i were to guess, the Kindle DX will start shipping from next week (August 1st). That’s not an official anouncment, it’s just my guess, as one of the persons waiting for the DX for a long time. As for you, what do you think, when will the Kindle DX reach their current buyers?

A short look on the Kindle generations

admin — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:05:22 +0000

No more than 2 years ago, Amazon entered a still small market at the time with their own product: the Amazon Kindle. They we’re planing to conquer the ebook readers segment pretty soon, with one of the best devices on the market at the time and very good auxiliary services. And now, two years later, they managed that, as the Kindle (who now reached the third generation) is the uncontested king on its realm.

The three Kindle generations: 1, 2 and DX

Taking a short leap backward in time and seeing how all started might be a little interesting, so here we go.

2007 – the first Kindle

The first Kindle

In the fall of 2007, Amazon announced their first ebook reader. It had only one real contestant at the time. Sony’s Reader (here’s a more detailed review of the two) . But it managed to kick its ass pretty fast. It had some strong points, like the integrated keyboard and the ability to buy content from Amazon directly via a wireless connection (only in US) , but it also had some severe lacks: didn’t support PDF or DOC files, many of the primary features were quite money hungry (you could subscribe to feeds, but that would have cost you 1$/month per each feed) and was ugly. Having the support of a brand name as big as Amazon made all these fade though, and the first Kindle rapidly became a top seller on the US market.

2008 – the Kindle 2

Kindle 2

One year later, Amazon prepared the second generation, the Kindle 2, that came to eliminate most of the downfalls of the first generation, bringing lots of extra features too.

It had a similar 6″ screen, but with a better resolution and quality (could display more shades of gray). Designed was rethink from scratch, as the Kindle 2 was now slimmer and way better looking than its predecessor. Also, the Amazon books store grew , becoming the biggest collection of online content in the world. And all these without modifying the price: the Kindle 2 replaced the older model having the same price tag : $359 at the moment .

2009 – Kindle DX, bigger is better?

DX: bigger is better

Just a couple of moths after they released the Kindle 2, Amazon announced the Kindle DX, the bigger 9.7″ version of their ebook reader. It appeared in order to satisfy the needs of those claiming the 6″ screen was too small for a reader. So, Amazon complied.

The Kindle DX will start shipping at the end of this moth and we’ll be able to say more about it then. For now, we know it brings some improvements over the Kindle 2: the bigger screen with a bigger resolution, bigger internal storage, native PDF support , auto rotation functions and many others. Of course, the price tag got higher ($489) , but we believe it’s worth it.

Or else we wouldn’t have built an entire site dedicated to this product, would we? So, if you want to stay in touch with more info regarding the Kindle DX, don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS or email newsletter.

Kindle DX versus the iPhone

admin — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:37:14 +0000

Kindle vs the iPhone. Fight !

Many said that the almighty iPhone (yeah, i’m ironic ) can steal market share from the ebook readers and i find this to be just bull-shit.

First of all, comparing the two is like comparing Apples with Bananas, because they are just different gadgets meant for different things. The iPhone is a mobile phone with touchscreen and great multimedia features. On the other side, the Kindle DX is an ebook reader with a big screen, one of the biggest on the market.

It is true some iPhone users might read electronic books on their device. But the experience is not at all similar to reading on a Kindle DX. First of all, the Kindle uses e-ink displays while the iPhone uses regular LCD. Then, the iPhone screen has 3″ , while the Kindle’s has 9.7 ” .That means that reading on the iPhone equals reading on a tiny surface that could damage your eyes. While reading on the Kindle DX… well, i’ll just let the picture below speak for itself.

Reading on the iPhone or on the Kindle DX? Not a though choice at all

So in the end, there’s no winner in an hypothetical fight between the iPhone and the Kindle DX on this site, because they just can’t be compared. But if I would want a device that would allow me to read easily… i’d never choose the iPhone, that’s for sure.

Foto source: Flickr

eBook readers – the technology behind them:e-Ink

admin — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:08:17 +0000

Carrying books - before e-ink readers appeared

We’re living in active times. Most of us spend a lot of time on the road, either commuting or traveling for pleasure/work . Thus, we have less and less time for activities like reading. But reading is so important to everyone’s education as it can’t be overlooked.

For a while, carrying books around was the only solution. Big heavy books. But things changed when the devices called ebook readers entered the market, a couple of years ago.

These electronic devices allow you to store and use multiple kinds of electronic documents, including texts, graphics, pictures and even audio files . All these in a compact gadget very easy to carry around .

You might say similar things can be achieved with a modern mobile phone or a netbook . But that’s not entirely true , cause ebook readers use a special kind of display technology, one that tries to imitate the sensation you get when reading a normal book as close as possible. This technology is called e-ink display .

Unlike regular LCD screens, the ones that use e-ink consist are different. They have a layer with millions of electronic charged micro-capsules between two layers of glass (or something similar). Whenever you want to change the image shown on the screen, an electronic impulse arranges the micro-capsules in the required way and the content is displayed. This way, the e-ink screens don’t have a negative effect on your eyes, as they are not continuously back lit. They resemble almost perfectly a piece of paper and you will need and external light source to read them. Also, they don’t require much energy to work, as electricity is only used when you change the displayed content. and one more thing: e-ink screens are a lot less fragile and resistant than other types of screens.

How eink screens display content

There are some downfalls e-ink displays have though. Since this is a relatively new technology, they can only display black/white static pictures for now. Experimental colored e-ink displays have been tested, and they are expected to reach the market in a couple of years, but they will be pretty expensive. As for running movies on e-ink displays, this might not happen very soon. But after-all, these screens are not made for dynamic content anyway.

So, e-ink screens allowed the construction of the ebook readers because they we capable of imitating closely the sensation you had when reading a normal paper book.

These days there are quite a few models on the market of such devices, including Amazon Kindle and the new DX or Sony’s Reader . More about those and other interesting subjects about ebook readers in a next post though .