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New Amazon Kindle announced: $139 WiFi-only, $189 3G, available August 27th

engadget.com

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Re: New Amazon Kindle announced: $139 WiFi-only, $189 3G, available August 27th

#61

Post by nzmsv »

mlinsey wrote: post #43
duck wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if you read more technical/reference type books than fiction, would everyone recommend the iPad?

I would, yes. Especially over the vanilla Kindle. At least the Kindle DX would support full-size PDF's without panning. But I still think the delay in page-turn times on e-ink would give iPad the edge.

I was trying to decide between a Kindle DX and an iPad for reading PDFs. Ended up going with Kindle, and I'm loving it so far. The page turn delay has been much criticized, but it's actually faster than the older eink readers, even with the bigger screen.

And the text looks beautiful. No comparison to LCD is even possible. When I got my Kindle, I thought there was a piece of paper stuck to the screen telling me to go plug it in. That was actually an image on the screen.

But I'll concede that an iPad would have more functionality.

Re: New Amazon Kindle announced: $139 WiFi-only, $189 3G, available August 27th

#62

Post by harisenbon »

mattmaroon wrote: post #52
minouye wrote: post #18

I love my Kindle and this is awesome news. For all of you on the fence, here's why I recommend everyone buy a Kindle (haven't used a Nook, but I think most of these points apply): 1. You will read more. 2. The reading experience will be better than you think--there was a 1-2 day adjustment period for me. After that, I didn't even notice I wasn't reading paper and ink. 3. You can highlight and make notes in books that…

Totally. I read 2.5 books in my first week of owning it. I'm only even on the net tonight because I accidentally left it at work :(. My wife wants to use it, but every time she comes near I snarl and pet it and call it my precioussssessss.

Since I moved to Japan, I had very little access to good english books, and the access I did have was rather expensive.

Before buying the kindle, I had read maybe 5 english books in the last 5 years. With the kindle, I read over 15 books in the first month.

My eyes get strained out reading books on my iphone or monitor, but really the eink feels just reading like actual paper.

I'm always surprised by people comparing the ipad and kindle, as in my mind and LCD screen just can't compare to the ease of reading eink.

Re: New Amazon Kindle announced: $139 WiFi-only, $189 3G, available August 27th

#65

Post by teamonkey »

soundsop wrote: post #45
minouye wrote: post #18

I love my Kindle and this is awesome news. For all of you on the fence, here's why I recommend everyone buy a Kindle (haven't used a Nook, but I think most of these points apply): 1. You will read more. 2. The reading experience will be better than you think--there was a 1-2 day adjustment period for me. After that, I didn't even notice I wasn't reading paper and ink. 3. You can highlight and make notes in books that…

I can't tolerate the jarring flash to black (pixel reset) that occurs when changing pages on e-ink devices. Has this limitation been overcome?

According to Engadget it's faster but I guess it will still have the flash to black.

"The new handheld...has a 20 percent faster refresh rate on its E Ink (yep, still E Ink) screen"

"The screen will remain the same 6-inch size as the last two Kindles, though the company claims page turns are faster and contrast is improved."

Re: New Amazon Kindle announced: $139 WiFi-only, $189 3G, available August 27th

#66

Post by rdoherty »

ugh wrote: post #55
mattmaroon wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have both. I've had iPads for about a month, and a Kindle for about 2 weeks. I assume you are asking why it is better specifically for reading since comparing the two generally is like comparing a notebook and an MP3 player. They're just not analogous in general, but for reading purposes the Kindle is vastly superior to the iPad. I actually read the same book on both this past weekend flipping back and forth. The i…

“It's the same uncomfortable feeling you get from staring at a monitor for a long time.” — I don’t get that, your mileage may vary. (The Kindle is probably still what you should get if you read a lot.)

I think that some people don't get eyestrain using a monitor because their eyes jump around and off of it continually throughout the day. The eye motions and strain of reading is fairly different when you read word after word, line after line for 1/2 hour or more.

An analogy would be saying your arms don't get sore picking up a book but actually you're picking up a book 100 or more times in a row. Your arm will get tired.

Re: New Amazon Kindle announced: $139 WiFi-only, $189 3G, available August 27th

#67

Post by philwelch »

jonknee wrote: post #17
keltex wrote: post #7

$130 is a really compelling price point. The NY Times charges $20/month to access their Kindle edition ($240/year). What they should do is offer a 2-year contract and throw a Kindle in for free. I personally hate this model, but it's been proven effective (at least in the U.S.) for cell phones sales.

They would now be a lot better off buying Kindle's for as many of their dead-tree customers as they can and switching them over to digital delivery. They have less than a million daily subscribers (so that's just $130m for the Kindles) and spend $240m a year in raw materials. Gobs more for the staff. Of course they would need to figure out advertising, but they would need to sell less of it with the lowered printing/…

You're not accounting for newsstand revenue. If they went all digital, newsstand revenue would disappear. If they didn't go all digital, they wouldn't spend all $240 million on paper subscribers. So either way it's not a fair comparison.

Re: New Amazon Kindle announced: $139 WiFi-only, $189 3G, available August 27th

#68

Post by gmosx »

Even though I bought my Kindle less than a year ago, I am considering switching to the new version. All my wishes are fulfilled in this version:

* WiFi support = blog access, web browser, full content in subscriptions and hopefully lower prices for international users

* better contrast (I found Kindle2's contrast lacking)

* Even lighter

* Better Forward/Backward buttons positioning

* Improved PDF support

Oh, and I love the dark color ;-)

Re: New Amazon Kindle announced: $139 WiFi-only, $189 3G, available August 27th

#70

Post by coned88 »

pg wrote: post #20
minouye wrote: post #18

I love my Kindle and this is awesome news. For all of you on the fence, here's why I recommend everyone buy a Kindle (haven't used a Nook, but I think most of these points apply): 1. You will read more. 2. The reading experience will be better than you think--there was a 1-2 day adjustment period for me. After that, I didn't even notice I wasn't reading paper and ink. 3. You can highlight and make notes in books that…

Why is a Kindle better than an iPad?

The iPad has really bad text reproduction. The text is very jagged and not sharp. I was quite shocked when I brought my kindle to the apple store and compared. I was really let down.
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