Amazon's new Kindle - the Kindle DX.

msteinhilber

Looks like an ebook reader that I'll finally consider purchasing. I had been more impressed with the Kindles over the Sony's that I had considered buying in the past, but the Kindle wins hands down now. Much larger screen, that should help out big time in the PDF book reading department!

Amazon.com: Kindle DX: Amazon's 9.7" Wireless Reading Device (Latest Generation): Kindle Store

I'm going to sleep on it for a day or two, but I think I'm going to pre-order... I just can't resist

EDIT: Native PDF reader too! I missed that my first read through... did the revised Kindle include that, or did you still have to convert them?

kalebksp

Damn, I really want that, and I already have the Kindle 2. Native PDF reader and a large screen would be awesome.

I guess I'll have to start saving, it's pretty spendy.

skrpune

okay the native pdf reader part is cool, but not sure it's $489 worth of cool. OUCH! It would be nice to get some digital versions of my textbooks, but not all are available for the kindle and/or in pdf format, and that's a lot of money to shell out just so I can pretend I'm on the Enterprise...

msteinhilber

skrpune wrote: »

okay the native pdf reader part is cool, but not sure it's $489 worth of cool. OUCH! It would be nice to get some digital versions of my textbooks, but not all are available for the kindle and/or in pdf format, and that's a lot of money to shell out just so I can pretend I'm on the Enterprise...

I agree, the price tag is up there - that's the only attribute that has me sleeping on it for a day or two instead of just pre-ordering now.

My main draw to it is I have been considering various devices for some time, now it looks like there's actually something with a decent enough sized screen to still provide readable PDF's. The main reason I would consider shelling out that kind of cash is entirely for the portability factor. I already lug around my backpack two and from work everyday. Typically I have one or two textbooks which pretty much eat up the space in my bag. Since I am likely to continue on towards a Master's degree once I'm finished up with my B.S. this semester, those textbooks won't be going away anytime soon. My biggest gripe is how much of a PITA it is to haul around other books, currently being the MS Press 70-640 training kit. I have so many opportunities throughout the day to hit the books that go wasted because hauling that one extra book is such a pain.

Ughh... decisions... $489 or just carry around a book or two on whatever topic I'm studying at the time.

empc4000xl

This device is amazing to me. I was thinking about all the stuff I need when I do hit customers sites. I could have all of my Cisco books on 1 device instead of what I just think I may need. I already carry a bunch of PDF's from cisco's side on my HD, but to be able to have them in a easier to read format would be amazing. I'm deff looking forward to this. The price tag looks steep so I will wait for reviews to come, but I think I may pull the trigger on this.

tiersten

A few things:

1. It is really expensive!
2. It isn't out here in the UK
3. They took out the card slot in the Kindle 2/DX

WanBoy67

Aside from battery life which is a big aside depending on your useage. How would this beat a netbook like the Asus T101?

They are both 10" screens, the Asus is twice the weight but you can surf the net on it and do documents and music, but the kindle is proprietary, only black & white but is very thin & lighter.

This is going to bring the Kindle head-to-head with netbooks and I can only see a netbook winning in the end.

kalebksp

WanBoy67 wrote: »

Aside from battery life which is a big aside depending on your useage. How would this beat a netbook like the Asus T101?

They are both 10" screens, the Asus is twice the weight but you can surf the net on it and do documents and music, but the kindle is proprietary, only black & white but is very thin & lighter.

This is going to bring the Kindle head-to-head with netbooks and I can only see a netbook winning in the end.

It's an ebook reader, nothing at all like a netbook. The whole point is the eInk screen, which has no backlight making it easier to read.

tiersten

WanBoy67 wrote: »

They are both 10" screens, the Asus is twice the weight but you can surf the net on it and do documents and music, but the kindle is proprietary, only black & white but is very thin & lighter.

ePaper displays aren't meant to compete with LCDs currently. Benefits are the increased battery life because they don't have a backlight and don't need to be refreshed. They're more comfortable to read as well. Downsides are that current generation ePaper displays are black & white, if you don't have a ambient light source then you can't see anything and they take time to change.

WanBoy67

tiersten wrote: »

ePaper displays aren't meant to compete with LCDs currently. Benefits are the increased battery life because they don't have a backlight and don't need to be refreshed. They're more comfortable to read as well. Downsides are that current generation ePaper displays are black & white, if you don't have a ambient light source then you can't see anything and they take time to change.

But that's the thing, I don't read for 4 days straight. I wouldn't read for more than 4 hours on the go and if the battery last 5 hours, I have time to spare. Add a car battery charger and a bluetooth GPS and I've got the coolest tool ever. And they cost pretty similar money.

Cool Tools: GPS & Google Earth Solution

tiersten

WanBoy67 wrote: »

But that's the thing, I don't read for 4 days straight. I wouldn't read for more than 4 hours on the go and if the battery last 5 hours, I have time to spare. Add a car battery charger and a bluetooth GPS and I've got the coolest tool ever. And they cost pretty similar money.

They're not intending for you to read for 4 days straight though. You're supposed to be able to just get it out and read without worrying about whether you charged it last night or not.

eBook readers are specifically designed to be good at one thing only and thats reading books/magazines/newspapers.

WanBoy67

tiersten wrote: »

eBook readers are specifically designed to be good at one thing only and thats reading books/magazines/newspapers.

If it were at a price-point because it did one thing only then I would see it's value.

Claymoore

tiersten wrote: »

eBook readers are specifically designed to be good at one thing only and thats reading books/magazines/newspapers.

I like to read outside, especially the pool or the beach, and the Kindle pwns netbooks for that function. The eInk can actually be read in sunlight and I can kick back in a lounge chair without a hot laptop battery branding my legs.

There were only a couple of things holding me back from buying an earlier version of the Kindle. One was the size - I read larger computer books not paperbacks. The other was the ability to display the graphics from the same computer books. Looks like the DX solved both of those issues for me.

dynamik

I had another member email me about this the other day. I was grilling him about his kindle 2 and how well PDFs worked etc. It sounded like things were hit-and-miss depending on the conversion. I'm sold on this thing though; it looks like it will do everything I want.

darkerosxx

Waiting until the screen reacts with touch like the iphone, then I'll buy one. I want a 10" monitor with no keyboard that uses touch like the iphone and refuse to buy anything until I get it!

undomiel

Eww, no fingerprints on my screen please! Drives me batty. I'm definitely interested but the price needs to come down a bit before I can seriously consider one.

nel

looks good but pricey.

Why is there no colour? touch screen would of been good too. Anyone know when its comin to the UK?

networker050184

undomiel wrote: »

I'm definitely interested but the price needs to come down a bit before I can seriously consider one.

My thoughts exactly.

msteinhilber

WanBoy67 wrote: »

Aside from battery life which is a big aside depending on your useage. How would this beat a netbook like the Asus T101?

They are both 10" screens, the Asus is twice the weight but you can surf the net on it and do documents and music, but the kindle is proprietary, only black & white but is very thin & lighter.

This is going to bring the Kindle head-to-head with netbooks and I can only see a netbook winning in the end.

I have a netbook, and I have to say that I would never consider it to be a winner over any decent ebook reader for several reasons. The first which you have the battery life which you have mentioned.

Battery - The main reason I prefer the battery life of the Kindle over my netbook is my netbook can get at best maybe an hour and a half if I tweak the power settings to the maximum. That's just not enough to keep stuck in my bag and read as I want, no way I would make it through a day of reading without having to plug in.

Weight/shape - The netbook weighs more, but more importantly - it's nowhere as nice to hold and read something. I suppose I would have to flip it sideways like a book and rotate the screen, but that's awkward to hold like that.

Screen - I dislike reading for longer lengths of time from a regular LCD. If you sit in front of both, it doesn't take long to realize that the e-ink display would be far superior to a regular LCD for reading.

You can certainly do more with a netbook, that is very true - but I often don't buy in to the whole multi-functional device when I want one particular feature to be done very well. Many multi-purpose devices do an OK job at many different tasks, this Kindle on the other hand does a excellent job at it's intended purpose.

HeroPsycho

Am I the only one who looks at this thing and wonders at what point is it so big it's not particularly portable anymore and therefore becomes less useful?

The advantages of a larger screen are obvious, but the dimensions are to the point I'm lugging a netbook sized device around.

And yes, the price is ridiculous. Kindle 2 was already high.

Edit: When I say "particularly portable", I mean if you're already carrying perhaps a laptop or Netbook, etc. I was thinking of getting a Kindle instead of lugging a book to read around when I have down time. There's a point you're honestly carrying a second computer. Not sure where that point is though...

tiersten

HeroPsycho wrote: »

Am I the only one who looks at this thing and wonders at what point is it so big it's not particularly portable anymore and therefore becomes less useful?

The DX is designed textbooks and manuals. Basically things where you want to be able to view an entire A4ish page at a time.

HeroPsycho wrote: »

And yes, the price is ridiculous. Kindle 2 was already high.

Agreed! If/when they release it in the UK, I can see the price getting even worse

bertieb

HeroPsycho wrote:

There's a point you're honestly carrying a second computer. Not sure where that point is though...

Probably something like this.....

msteinhilber

HeroPsycho wrote: »

The advantages of a larger screen are obvious, but the dimensions are to the point I'm lugging a netbook sized device around.

And yes, the price is ridiculous. Kindle 2 was already high.

The alternative to lugging around a netbook sized device around would be lugging around a 800 page book, and that's only if you just carry one. I'm not sure what the argument here is, it's the size of a netbook, maybe slightly larger but smaller than a notebook. It's certainly less heavy and much smaller than just about any tech book of any sorts. I know there are a group of users that really want a single unified device to cover all or many of their needs but for anyone serious about reading a book for any length of time I can't see that happening unless you can really tolerate reading for an hour or two at a time from a traditional LCD. That's the biggest selling point to me, the larger screen primarily followed by the native PDF support - I'll finally have a solution to keeping a book with me and can carry this instead. Some people don't mind reading PDF books on a notebook or netbook or whatever they have access to to read them on, that's great but I can't do that - the only way I could consider it is if I had a monitor that swiveled but that would take away my portability. I'm not going to sit there and scroll down to read the lower half of a page, and after a while the fact that I'm reading from a LCD is going to give me a headache and eyestrain.

The price is high, before something like this is adopted by many it will have to come down I agree. I am a fairly early adopter though, and I'm generally willing to pay a premium especially considering the untapped study time that having a device like this available to me wherever I go - being able to unlock that study time will be a huge advantage.

dynamik

For those who aren't familiar with this, the native support for PDFs is huge, and that necessitates the screen size. Before, you had to run them through a conversion utility (or through a few to find the best conversion via trial-and-error) to get them into a kindle format. The entire purpose of PDFs is to provide consistent formatting across platforms, and the conversion process breaks all that, especially with images, sidebars, etc.

While the price is an obvious drawback, I don't understand the complaint of having to carry around another device. If 19 ounces is a deal-breaker for you, it's time to hit the gym Seriously though (and as noted above), it certainly beats carrying around thousands of pages of text.

I'm really on a mission to get rid of clutter and become more organized. I guess I have a little extra motivation besides simply having convenient access to books. I used to have four double-bookshelves filled with books (most of that crap is the ex-wife's problem now ), so this is would be huge for me.

WanBoy67

msteinhilber wrote: »

Some people don't mind reading PDF books on a notebook or netbook or whatever they have access to to read them on, that's great but I can't do that

the only way I could consider it is if I had a monitor that swiveled but that would take away my portability.

I'm not going to sit there and scroll down to read the lower half of a page, and after a while the fact that I'm reading from a LCD is going to give me a headache and eyestrain.

If you have a netbook you are probably on the go, so you can have Adobe read the book to you using AT&T Natural Voices while you are driving, kindle can't do that. Very handy.

The Asus T101 has a swivel monitor to turn it in to a tablet, so it works as a laptop & a tablet but it is still light.

Because it's a tablet it can work in portrait so you get the full page displayed & you can use it as a notepad.

If I had a kindle in my hands, maybe I would be astounded at the ease of reading but I have no problem reading off an LCD for extended lengths and I'd prefer an multi-function device. And when I get Windows 7 with multi-touch on a netbook it's going to be the bees knees. We drool over different devices.

dynamik

WanBoy67 wrote: »

If you have a netbook you are probably on the go, so you can have Adobe read the book to you using AT&T Natural Voices while you are driving, kindle can't do that. Very handy.

Actually, the Kindle 2 can read to you. I'm not sure if the voice is the same quality though; the Kindle still seemed a little too robotic for my liking.

kalebksp

WanBoy67 wrote: »

If you have a netbook you are probably on the go, so you can have Adobe read the book to you using AT&T Natural Voices while you are driving, kindle can't do that. Very handy.

The Asus T101 has a swivel monitor to turn it in to a tablet, so it works as a laptop & a tablet but it is still light.

Because it's a tablet it can work in portrait so you get the full page displayed & you can use it as a notepad.

If I had a kindle in my hands, maybe I would be astounded at the ease of reading but I have no problem reading off an LCD for extended lengths and I'd prefer an multi-function device. And when I get Windows 7 with multi-touch on a netbook it's going to be the bees knees. We drool over different devices.

This obviously isn't a device for you. I suspect you'd see the advantage of the eInk screen if you had one in front of you, but since you don't have problem reading off of LCDs the benefit would probably be minimal.

WanBoy67

dynamik wrote: »

Actually, the Kindle 2 can read to you. I'm not sure if the voice is the same quality though; the Kindle still seemed a little too robotic for my liking.

Cool, I wasn't aware of that. I thought the headphone port was just for audio books.

HeroPsycho

dynamik wrote: »

While the price is an obvious drawback, I don't understand the complaint of having to carry around another device. If 19 ounces is a deal-breaker for you, it's time to hit the gym Seriously though (and as noted above), it certainly beats carrying around thousands of pages of text.

I said "dimensions", not weight, as the problem. Smart@ss... LOL...

In all seriousness, I carry around with me usually my laptop, Ipod + earbuds, writing pad, a small collection of mini-tools, smart phone, travel chargers, and assorted pen drives in my laptop bag. Replacing whatever smaller paperback book I carry for when I have downtime with a normal Kindle is attractive to me, but a Kindle DX dimensions wise doesn't help me much.

Imagine the Ipod Touch with a twice as big screen. Sure, a bigger screen would be nice, but at what point does that thwart the entire point of the device?

It would beat carrying around large books, no doubt, but you can do that with a normal Kindle. Just saying that for some people (perhaps me as one of them), the larger screen might actually be a detriment.

dynamik

HeroPsycho wrote: »

I said "dimensions", not weight, as the problem. Smart@ss... LOL...

Your verb of choice was "lugging", so it seems like the weight is indeed an issue, at least on a subconscious level. I may not be able to conveniently carry a large piece of paper around, but I'm never like: *sigh* I can't believe I have to lug this piece of paper all over the place.

I'm just saying... fyourlife...

HeroPsycho wrote: »

In all seriousness, I carry around with me usually my laptop, Ipod + earbuds, writing pad, a small collection of mini-tools, smart phone, travel chargers, and assorted pen drives in my laptop bag. Replacing whatever smaller paperback book I carry for when I have downtime with a normal Kindle is attractive to me, but a Kindle DX dimensions wise doesn't help me much.

Imagine the Ipod Touch with a twice as big screen. Sure, a bigger screen would be nice, but at what point does that thwart the entire point of the device?

It would beat carrying around large books, no doubt, but you can do that with a normal Kindle. Just saying that for some people (perhaps me as one of them), the larger screen might actually be a detriment.

I agree; it depends on your needs. Most of the time, I do have a couple of thick books on me, so the thought of swapping those out with one of these is very appealing. As long as it fits in my bag, I don't really care what the dimensions are. I'm sure they'll keep the smaller version around for people who prefer smaller paperbacks, so it looks like everyone will be happy in the end

msteinhilber

HeroPsycho wrote: »

It would beat carrying around large books, no doubt, but you can do that with a normal Kindle. Just saying that for some people (perhaps me as one of them), the larger screen might actually be a detriment.

The significant problem with the smaller Kindles is two part. First, PDF's need to be converted. In doing so, you lose a lot of the value of a technical book because the page numbering will be all goofed up, making it difficult to reference things. Enter the Sony e-book readers that would support a standard PDF. Those were plagued (at least in my opinion) by very slow page turns, but they would display a PDF. The problem there, and the same that a smaller Kindle would have with native PDF support is the smaller screen would make the text difficult to view once the PDF was fit to screen.

I would love to have a smaller Kindle as well, but it just isn't possible with the way things currently are handled.