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Kindle DX goes international
THE LATEST GENERATION of Amazon's popular ebook reader the Kindle DX is now available in over 100 countries around the world.
The DX is a larger version of its predecessor, featuring a 9.7-inch e-ink display capable of 16 shades of grey, aimed squarely at those wanting to consume more transitory content such newspapers and magazines on the device as well as graphically intensive media such as cookbooks, textbooks or work documents and presentations.
Like the original Kindle, the DX also supports WiFi and 3G data connectivity to allow it to wirelessly download content. Unlike the Kindle, the DX has native support for PDF files.
The global launch of the DX follows a similar, albeit shorter, pattern as that of the first Kindle which was launched in the US in November 2007, but didn't come to the rest of the world until the Kindle 2 was launched in October 2009, while the DX was launched in June 2009 and will be shipping internationally later this month.
"Documents look so good on the big Kindle DX display, that you'll find yourself changing ink toner cartridges less often and printing fewer documents," said Ian Freed, vice president of Amazon Kindle.
"We're excited to be able to offer Kindle DX to customers worldwide so they can carry all of their personal documents along with their whole library in one slender package."
You can pre-order the Kindle DX with Global Wireless from today with shipments expected to start on 19 January. Pricing is quoted at $489, around £305 at the current exchange rate, but it's likely to actually work out a bit higher than that once the traditional 'overcharge the Europeans' tax has been added. µ
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Too bad that a lot of reviewing sites simply base their reviews on the ones found earlier on the net, instead of testing it hands on.
If tested hands on, the reviewer should have noted that the DX version of the Kindle (even the latest generation Graphite) does not support Wifi, but only 3G.
For 3G outside of the USA this means you have access to Amazon's shop and wikipedia, the rest is blocked (for obvious roaming charges abroad), making the lack of Wifi on the DX a major selling disadvantage over the 6" graphite.
The Kindle 2 got native PDF support, in a software update shortly before Xmas. Although reading full A4 sized PDF's is still a pain on the 6 inch screen. As neither the Kindle 2 or DX supports zooming on the pages.
Unfortunately, Kindles don't have Wi-Fi. You need to be in range of a cell tower to download books from Amazon.com.
You can load DRM-free .pdf and .mobi books via USB though. A few technical book publishers are starting to release eBooks in .mobi format. .pdf's with reasonable page sizes display very well on the DX.
The Kindle screen is VERY easy on your eyes. It creates much less eye strain than a notebook or netbook screen. The light weight is a plus too. It's worth the money to me.
WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT, "KINDLE" ISN'T ACTUALLY A 100% ACCURATE NAME.
I don't really see the point, even though I own a Sony PRS-500. A Netbook is much cheaper and offers more functionality. And an e-ink screen is no pleasure to read, it needs to be fairly well lit. I'd rather have a netbook--no DRM and it's always been PDF compatible.
The Kindle DX looks to be the most desirable ebook, but I'm not going to get one because I don't want to be locked into using just Amazon's hardware for any book that I buy. Why couldn't they have used the perfectly good Adobe e-book digital rights management (DRM) that was starting to become an industry standard, but isn't now thanks to Amazon's breakaway DRM. I'm not getting any ebook reader while the DRM is fragmented like this.