Amazon's big-screen Kindle DX makes its debut
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos shows off the Kindle DX
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET News)NEW YORK--Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled the much-anticipated large-screen Kindle e-reader in a lecture hall Wednesday at the downtown Pace University. Called the Kindle DX, the new device is geared toward readers of personal and professional documents, newspapers, and magazines--and textbooks, a potentially huge target market.
The debut of the bigger Kindle wasn't exactly a secret: rumors of a larger-screen Kindle had been around for quite some time, and concrete reports began to surface earlier this week.
Amazon's Kindle DX
(Credit: Amazon)According to Amazon's Kindle DX page, the device has the following:
• A 9.7-inch display with 16 shades of gray. (The standard Kindle has a 6-inch display.)
• Capacity to hold up to 3,500 books, periodicals, and documents.
• An auto-rotating screen to show either portrait or landscape views.
• A built-in PDF reader.
• 3G wireless network support with no monthly fees or annual contracts.
• Battery capacity to "read for days without charging."
• Text-to-speech abilities to read publications aloud.
Several of those features are shared with the current Kindle 2, but several are unique to the Kindle DX: the native PDF reader that doesn't require the files to be converted, the rotating display, the 3,500-publication capacity compared to 1,500 for the Kindle 2, and of course the larger screen.
"You never have to pan, you never have to zoom, you never have to scroll, you just see the documents," Bezos said.
The Kindle DX retails for $489 (the standard Kindle is $359), and is available for pre-orders now on Amazon. It'll ship this summer.
As expected, education is a big market for the bigger Kindle. Amazon has partnered with textbook manufacturers Pearson, Cengage Learning, and Wiley to bring textbooks to the Kindle--which Bezos says make up 60 percent of the textbook market--as well as Arizona State University, Princeton University, Reed College, the University of Virginia, and Case Western Reserve University to launch a Kindle DX pilot program this fall.
"We're going to get students with smaller backpacks, less load, easier access," said Bezos, who then introduced Case Western president Barbara Snyder. She said that the university would be seeing how study habits and the learning process change with the use of Kindles as textbook replacements.
Bezos shows off a newspaper view on the Kindle DX.
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET News)Many predicted that the Kindle DX would be geared in part toward helping out the struggling newspaper industry, and indeed, three newspapers will also be testing out the Kindle DX this summer in exchange for future product development help. The publications participating are The New York Times, The Boston Globe (owned, and recently nearly shut down, by the New York Times Company), and The Washington Post.
Arthur Sulzberger Jr., chairman of the New York Times Company, said that the Times and the Globe will first be available on the Kindle DX in markets where home delivery is not available.
The Kindle DX showcases "our commitment to reinvention and to taking full advantage of digital media," Sulzberger said, "which are providing a compelling laboratory for entrepreneurs, for technologists, and of course for journalists. The new Kindle DX is an important milestone in the convergence between print and digital."
"Newspapers have been an absolute bestseller on Kindle," Bezos said. "People love waking up in the morning to find that their New York Times, their Washington Post, their Wall Street Journal have been 'automagically' delivered overnight. They like the fact that when they travel their subscription follows them around."
In addition to launching the new device, Jeff Bezos hailed the rise of the Kindle phenomenon in general, and its lofty goal of working toward "every book ever printed, in any language, all available in less than 60 seconds."
"Eighteen months ago, we launched Kindle, and at the time we had 90,000 books available for Kindle. (We had) 230,000 books just three months ago when we launched Kindle 2," Bezos said. Now, the count is 275,000 books. "We've added another 45,000 books in just the last three months. We're actually accelerating."
Last updated at 8:20 a.m. PT.
CNET News reporter Stephen Shankland contributed to this report.
Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos. E-mail Caroline. 
About the only thing this is good for is newspapers and magazines - ad supported e-ink. If my local newspaper wants to give me one of these in return for a two year subscription, I'd consider it.
maybe textbooks will cost less than $120 now.
I would wager that they would be less. I purchased a digital copy of a text book a few years back. the hardback sold for aroun 100 and i go the digital version for about 60 if i remember correctly
Ever cross index a text? Color highlights where the colors have meaning? Book Tabs for quick referenc (Book marks could replace this). Or simply correct an error in a formula or in the text?
The sheer number of ways we can organize information with our own two hands is amazing. Before we can fully go electronic we need this ability. My organization is trying ot go to electornic reveiw of plans. But if i can't sketch an idea on the electornic plans or make annotation and such it's so very limited.
That's without covering the issues with DRM and the data.
But I agree, the Kindle won't be for everyone, esp. if you want to write/highlight/scribble/draw all over your pages. Maybe wait for the next version ;)
They will last you a whole semester.
The Kindle 2 highlights across pages. If you do that with Amazon-purchased books, they back up the highlighting and annotating along with the book (if you want) so you can re-download them together if needed later at no cost.
Also, if you highlight a word or phrase and then type an alpha-character, the Kindle 2 will paste the word or phrase into a searchbox, for searching Wikipedia or for Google'g.
- Andrys
http://kindleworld.blogspot.com
Guess what? You won't be selling back copies on your Kindle.
Dream on, the prices of textbooks have little to do with printing and distribution costs.
I think in the future students won't pay for digital textbooks out of pocket. They'll be included in the price of the course because the school has a blanket license. You'll buy your Kindle or whatever and receive a downlaod code when you register for classes. Otherwise, what's to stop piracy?
The only thing that I think should make publishers concerned is that some colleges are moving away from texts created by publishers and more towards public domain or liberally licensed textbooks (eg. CC share alike).
I don't see how students in the future won't pay for textbooks in the future unless all course materials are freely licensed. Merely because one embeds the price of the books into the course doesn't mean that the cost is zero. I think a lot of students would prefer to be able to decide where they purchase their course materials and whether they purchase the materials at all. I can remember some courses in college where I either didn't need one of the assigned books, I could share a book with someone else taking the class, or I already had the assigned book from another class. It would be incredibly wasteful not only economically, but environmentally to buy a book that a student already had. While in theory a large college or university could buy books in bulk cheaper than an individual could that isn't always the case.
@ make_or_break: While I empathize of students everywhere it would be inaccurate to call a used book seller a pirate.
They already offer PDF versions for about the same price as a physical book. Anyone idiotic enough to buy a Kindle will be idiotic enough to pay the same price for a DRM'ed digital copy.
I agree, the campus and off-campus bookstores are not pirates, they are thieves.
Not to mention, you just turn the thing on and you're reading. With a laptop, you have to boot into your OS, launch a program, etc. If you want to look up one little fact on one page, you're not going to spend 5 minutes to do it... but you would spend 10 seconds to pick up a reader.
And of course there are battery life issues. Now, say you have this laptop with a detachable screen. What happens to the battery? Do *both* the screen and the laptop itself have a battery? They would have to, because the screen battery would need to be too small to power both units together. That adds weight. And the screen battery life would be very low because you're talking about a backlit LCD. E-ink displays are no good for general computing work, of which you'd still expect the laptop to be capable.
I think you've basically missed the point of the Kindle and other e-readers.
http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/home/index.htm
http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/home/index.htm
The screen slides off the keyboard. Both screen and keyboard have batteries, so run time is longer when they are paired. The CPU is in the screen, the connection to the dock is power + USB.
How about one of these with an instant on 'Kindle' layer for reading ebooks and a normal boot to an OS for full computer mode use?
Sometimes, technology neophytes act like armchair experts, but clearly don't understand what they are talking about.
I agree with the previous comment that colors would be nice. If they properly take care of tables, graphics, annotations, that would make this a very powerful tool for textbooks.
I don?t have a Kindle but checked one out from a friend. The screen is very neat and unlike most standard back-lit LCDs. If you get a chance, check it out. Kindle?s display is VERY cool and more comfortable for all-day reading.
In any case, it is awesome that there is another, larger screen, Kindle coming out. It is pretty exciting that Amazon is putting a ton of effort into revolutionizing and popularizing eBooks.
If Amazon?s Kindle can properly take care of tables, graphics, annotations, that would make this a very powerful tool for textbooks. The impact on traditional newspaper is less clear, unless Kindle can have a very low price point.
On the note about Amazon, thanks to PC World, I came across an interesting table that shows Amazon?s discounts in various categories. It is at http://www.uberi.com
Maybe someone will find it useful too, or at least somewhat amusing?
For almost $500 you get a netbook that only reads certain kinds of documents in 16 shades of gray? And you still have to buy the content? This seems to be a confusion of device with application and content. An intentional confusion that serves to lock the content in a provider-controlled delivery system. With the exception of battery life, all the appealing features are the services. I can buy a pretty good laptop for $500, and I can use it to see any kind of content in 32-bit color. And I can play World of Warcraft at the same time.
Newspapers are in trouble because now content can flow to many places and doesn't need to be printed on material one grade up from toilet paper. In the distant future, there will be this thing called the Internet where you can get news immediately, and in full-color. Often for free.
I took notes in class, in a notebook. The Text was for homework and reading assignments.
I have, and guess what? It has no appeal to me because it can not replace a physical book, and if I want to sell it(which is rare), I can.
On the off chance that the screen isn't big enough... I might turn on my laptop... The one with the 15" screen... In color.
Waaaaaay too niche product...
If it were iPhones, Blackberries, etc, would not be rising significantly is sales across many demographics, the Kindle isn't and will never.
I would really LOVE to have this Kindle next to my laptop (it would be just like having the old paper notebook and textbook back on the desk, but in digital format. I don't believe I need to say the advantages of this). However, with the limited amount of textbooks available to me, spending the bucks on a Kindle seems to be a waste. They seem to be preaching how convenient this is for students, but if they do not have the books students need, then this is misleading advertisement.
My suggestion to all students thinking about purchasing a Kindle for this purpose, should first try to find if their textbooks are available in digital format. It would be a real bummer to fork out $300 and not be able to use the darn device.
I think the Kindle is a great thing, but it is a long way from being practical in the school system.
P.S. Does the Kindle remind anyone of the Star Trek pads?
I think the bigger reason that a lot of student won't buy the ebook versions is that a lot of people don't want to invest in the cost of a Kindle and some types of diagrams won't be as effective on the ebook as they are on paper.
http://www.innovationinpractice.com/innovation_in_practice/2009/01/the-lab-innovating-the-kindle-with-task-unification-january-2009.html
On the other hand...I wouldn't want to use it as a textbook. Not at all. Though i keep some for reference, most get sold back. I'm more apt to write in a textbook while going back and forth in chapters frequently. Plus i can lay a textbook down while writing in notebook..hard to do that with a thin Kindle and be able to see it.
Other reasons:
textbooks need to be in color. The material isn't all text by a longshot.
textbooks wouldn't be cheaper. No more used books. You're always buying new when it comes to ebooks.
I can have two books open at once. Many come with study guides. If i go all ebook, this becomes a pain.
- by lancaster8739 May 6, 2009 9:50 AM PDT
- I can see parents of soon-to-be-freshman University Students plopping down $500 for one of these and just chalking it up to one of the many costs of a higher education. I can see the student's argument being that all they will have to carry with them is their laptop, their kindle, and a pen and pad of paper. No more lugging 3 heavy textbooks around campus for a days worth of classes. The price seems really high for the average consumer (outside of California), but it's probably not too bad when considered for a University Student and the portability benefits.
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- by LordOfMictlan May 6, 2009 9:57 AM PDT
- But when you pay the $500, you are really paying the publishers to make their content secure from you. They can already deliver to a laptop via .pdf or whatever proprietary format they want to create. That option has been around for years. But the publishers are afraid of not being able to control delivery and redistribution. So you pay them $500 for the extra screen and content lock. Consider it anti-pirate tax.
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- by Kimsh May 6, 2009 1:08 PM PDT
- There are numerous eBook formats that have been around for ages, some with decent copy protection. What you are paying for is the luxury tax of having a device that not many people have, and one that locks you into a single source for all future content and servicing. Its kind of like Apple that way.
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