Archive for the ‘kindle dx2’ tag
Kindle DX 2 – PDF no comments
I’ve just made a video of viewing a PDF file on the latest generation Kindle DX (Kindle DX 2). The Kindle DX is the best e-ink based ereader I’ve seen so far for handling PDF files.
With its larger screen, in many cases zooming in will not be required – especially with the magnification that the landscape mode provides.
I’m really happy with the Kindle DX. I do find that I like reading on a larger screen, but in my case I mostly use my ereaders at home, so portability is not really an issue for me.
It is rather suspicious that Amazon is out of stock of the Kindle DX for several weeks. Is a new DX incoming? If so, I imagine more than a few people who purchased the “latest generation” Kindle DX will be unhappy that their generation was so short-lived.
If Amazon is about to release a new Kindle DX 3 it will probably have only incremental improvements. There will no doubt be a Wi-Fi only version that will cost less, and the PDF handling improvements introduced with the Kindle 3 (contrast adjustment, annotations and dictionary lookup on non-scanned PDFs) will also be included.
Hopefully the better PDF handling features can be ported over to the Kindle DX 2 as well – this should only be a matter of a software update.
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Amazon Buys Touchscreen Start-up no comments
The New York Times is reporting that Amazon has purchased Touchco which is a start-up specializing in touchscreen technology. The acquisition will be merged into Lab126, which is Amazon’s hardware development division.
This is exiting news for the Kindle family of ereaders. While Kindle DX2 will definitely need a touchscreen, it is a feature that is perhaps less vital for the 6-inch Kindle, at least for some users. It is however, a feature that Amazon will need to add to maintain parity with competing hardware. It could also perhaps enable Amazon to ditch the chiclet keyboard and have a larger screen on a new ereader with the same overall size as the current Kindles.
The touchscreens commonly used in current ereaders are either of the capacitive type, which Sony uses in the Sony Touch Edition and which has glare issues which detract from the reading experience, or Wacom technology which adds considerable expense and must be used with a special stylus. Endless Ideas (of BeBook fame) will be releasing their new Neo ereader on February 25. The Neo will use a touchscreen based on Wacom technology and is priced at $299. I believe that this is the lowest priced ereader using this type of touchscreen that has been announced so far.
The technology (interpolating force-sensitive resistance) developed by Touchco is said to be completely transparent and flexible, and could cost as little as $10 per square foot. It is also capable of multitouch and can accept input from either finger or stylus, or just about anything else you should choose to touch the screen with.
£149.00
£109
