With the launch of Amazon’s Kindle DX electronic reader it looks as though small is no longer beautiful The Kindle DX comes with a 9.7 in (24 cm) screen which is almost 4 in (10 cm) larger than their current Kindle e-book reader.
With the DX, two major markets, newspapers and text books. The problem with smaller ebook readers is that whilst they are fine for many books they not so good for text books that contain charts and graphs. The Kindle DX with its larger screen is ideal for these types of publications. A swell as textbooks the larger screen is also suited to highly formatted information found in cookbooks and computer related publications.
One area where Amazon hope the Kindle DX will come to the forefront is electronic newspapers. Already The New York Times and The Washington Post offer a subscriber service that delivers the newspaper directly to the Kindle DX using the cell phone network.
The Kindle DX has a memory that is large enough to store 3,500 e-books which can be purchased and downloaded directly from Amazon. Currently there is over a quarter of a million titles a available.
The new electronic reader has some very useful features for text book readers. It provides the capability of annotating or highlighting text. It is also possible to bookmark specific pages or to switch pages to landscape view.
Joe Bezos , the founder of Amazon said at the launch of the Kindle DX that “Cookbooks, computer books and textbooks and anything that is highly formatted will shine on the Kindle DX”.
As part of Amazon’s ongoing trials Princetown students are to be given Kindle DX readers as part of a trial this autumn. However many students appear to be sceptical of the new technology. Among the problems students have is the fact that for some work you need ready access to four or five different textbooks at the same time. Cost is also going to be another factor for hard pressed students because at $489 it is hardly cheap.
Amazon is currently only available in the USA although it is expected to be available worldwide later this year.
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