Rekindling Amazon’s Kindle E-Book Reader

By no means am I an earlier adopter of cutting edge technology when it is first released. I find that the initial price for a new product is usually a lot more than what I am willing to pay for it and I almost always want to see the kinks worked out before I snap up what I hope will become an eventual bargain.

Yet, I remain intrigued by Amazon whose electronic-book reader, Kindle, seems to be getting a lot of attention by technogeeks lately as well as by the literati who seem to be embracing the technology.

The All New Kindle DX

On Wednesday, Amazon rolled out a larger e-book reader, dubbed the Kindle DX, this version making it easier to read textbooks and newspapers. Best of all, the Kindle DX’s screen is about the size of a standard sheet of paper, making it easier to see what is featured.

Critics are saying that the Kindle DX is too pricey (retail price is $489) as well as too limiting, especially when compared with the $199 Apple iPhone which can show videos and color images. Despite its black and white imagery, Amazon is quick to point out that it doesn’t come with a pricey two-year service contract ala the iPhone.

Kindle Editions Of Some Of Your Favorite Newspapers

Amazon may have found willing partners for the Kindle DX in the form of some of our largest newspapers. Indeed, the Boston Globe, Washington Post and The New York Times have Kindle editions of their newspapers already in place, the larger format is likely to appeal to customers. Thus, these same newspapers will test sale the Kindle DX to people who subscribe to the Kindle edition of their newspapers.

Colleges and universities may soon become some of the biggest fans of the Kindle DX as a number of textbook publishers, including Pearson PLC, plan to sell their textbooks on the Kindle DX. The “kindlized” titles have yet to be announced nor prices determined, but it is a start.

Amazon also announced partnerships with five universities which would give some students access to the the Kindle DX for the upcoming academic year in lieu of purchasing textbooks. Details on how that would work out haven’t been announced.

Important Features Found In The Kindle DX

Among the many features and attributes of the Kindle DX include the following:

Super thin — about a third of an inch thick (or thin?), the Kindle DX is actually narrower than the average magazine.

Built-in PDF reader – all of your personal and professional documents can be read on screen with no need to rotate or flip pages.

Lots of memory — 3.3G of memory is available on the Kindle DX which Amazon says translates into 3500 books.

Auto rotation — 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.

My only concern about the Kindle DX is taking it somewhere, such as the beach, where sand could get in and mess up the unit. Then again, I can’t think of the last time I actually brought a newspaper, magazine or book with me to the beach, preferring to do the bulk of my reading inside and away from direct sunlight unlike the avid reader featured above.

The Kindle DX is scheduled to go on sale this summer.

Related Reading — Daily News & the Decline of the Print Media

Amazon.com contributed some of the information contained in this story.