Kindle 3 Announced 2 comments
Apparently the 6-inch Kindle being out of stock 
for the last few days was in preparation for the introduction of a new Kindle, which Amazon has just announced. The new version is a “21 percent smaller and 15 percent lighter design, with 50 percent better contrast, 20 percent faster page turns, up to one month of battery life, double the storage, and more–only $189, and still with free 3G wireless.” Wi-Fi is also built in, and there will additionally be a Wi-Fi only Kindle for a lower price of $139, which is $10 lower than the price of the Wi-Fi only nook ereader.
The smaller size is achieved by slimming down the bezel and rearranging the buttons. The page turning buttons are thinner as well.
As expected, the new 6-inch Kindle will make use of the new Pearl e-ink display, just like the new DX graphite. As for the faster speed, it apparently does not come from the faster processors we’ve been hearing about over the last six months or so, but sounds more like it is the result of fine tuning and optimization:
Kindle’s all-new, high-contrast electronic ink display is further optimized with Amazon’s proprietary waveform and font technology to make pages turn faster and fonts sharper. Waveform is a series of electronic pulses that move black and white electronic ink particles to achieve a final gray level for an image or text. Amazon tuned the new Kindle’s waveform and controller mechanism to make page turning 20 percent faster. In addition, this waveform tuning combined with new hand-built, custom fonts and font-hinting make words and letters more crisp, clear, and natural-looking. Font hints are instructions, written as code, that control points on a font character’s line and improve legibility at small font sizes where few pixels are available. Hinting is a mix of aesthetic judgments and complicated technical strategies. Amazon designed its proprietary font-hinting to optimize specifically for the special characteristics of electronic ink.
Some other feature upgrades:
- More built-in storage: new model will store up to 3,500 books.
- Quieter page turning buttons. The older model makes a small clicking sound when you flip pages.
- New Web browser: The new Kindle uses a WebKit-based browser, which is faster and easier to navigate. The new browser also has an “article mode” feature, which condenses Web pages into the main textual content for easier reading.
- Better Accessibility: New Text-to-Speech (TTS) enabled menus enable navigation of menus without having to read menu options. All menu options, content listings on the home screen and item descriptions are TTS enabled.
The new Kindle 3G + Wi-Fi comes in both graphite or white, while the Wi-Fi only model is available in graphite only. I do like the graphite color better than the white myself – it adds to the perceived contrast. The Wi-Fi only model also weighs slightly less – 8.5 ounces vs 8.7 ounces for the Kindle 3G + Wi-Fi (and 10.2 ounces for the older model).
The new lighted leather cover for 
the Kindle 3 sounds kind of neato. It has a built-in retractable light that draws power from the Kindle’s battery via gold plated conductive hinges that also hold the Kindle 3 securely in the cover. The new lighted cover
Well, there is nothing really groundbreaking with this release, but the improvements are somewhat more substantive than the Kindle DX graphite’s improvements over its previous model. I really wish we could have gotten more durable plastic-based displays but, after the iPad’s release, pricing has become the primary focus. I’m hoping that the color Kindles, when they arrive, will have flexible screens.
The newest members of the Kindle family of ereaders will be shipping on August 27, 2010. Amazon is taking pre-orders
UPDATE: Amazon has put up a copy of the Kindle 3 User Guide – I’ve posted a link to it on my User Guides and Manuals page.
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2 Responses to 'Kindle 3 Announced'
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Some more specs and details here – http://blogkindle.com/2010/07/kindle-3-released/. With devices such as Kindle starting at $139 eBooks should become mainstream really soon. Personally I don’t see why wouldn’t anyone add extra $50 to get free 3G. It makes the device so much more usable.
£149.00
£109
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