Few specks and images were revealed, and we were all up and waiting the Amazon Kindle DX to go official. And when Jeff Bezos finally unveiled it yesterday, there were cheers all around amid the gadget frenzy, but in the end it all boiled down to a hefty price tagged elephant of show, that not many would prefer over its predecessors, unless you are a victim of the receding electronic newspaper subscriptions or are lured by the larger 9.7-inch screen of course.
What’s it all about
Priced at whooping $489, the Amazon Kindle DX slated to ship out this summer, is a 1/3-inch thick 1.3onz device offering 1200 x 824 pixels resolution at 150 dpi on its 9.7-inch e-ink screen in plastic enclosure. Flaunting about 3,3GB of storage capacity good enough to stock up a pile of newspapers, magazines, text and graphics, and also accounting for faster browsing and better handling of complex data, the Kindle DX can play around with PDF and MP3 formats, besides the TXT.
Some of the added abilities of the Kindle DX include, wireless 3G, which lets you download books right from your e-book reader, an auto rotating screen that rotates from portrait to landscape automatically as the device rotates. The text-to-speech feature lets the reader read out text and news, while the 3.5mm stereo audio jack and built-in stereo speakers, let you enjoy all your favorite tracks.
Targeted audience
Given the larger size and space, only those who need to carry enormous amounts of reading material with them would prefer the Kindle DX over the other e-book readers. Students, business tycoons and newspaper junkies are best thoughts for buyers that ring a bell in my judicial mind. As the Amazon makes available a variety of texts from different publishers including Addison-Wesley, Wiley Higher Education, Longman & Prentice Hall, on the Kindle DX therefore the device could be a consideration with pupils, however the bulk could play negative concern of more trouble in portability. There are schools still that have signed to give out Kindle DX to their students, are you in one of the schools?
The New York Times, Washington Post, and Boston Globe have agreed to offer subsidized Kindles on contract to customers who cannot get papers delivered at their doorsteps, when the DX is shipped later in the year. So, if you want a hang of the Kindle DX before actually shelling $489 for yourself, become one fortunate who cannot get a newspaper delivered to himself, and maybe the big three (somewhat struggling) news agencies find you.
Shortcomings and possible inclusions in the 4th edition
Amazon Kindle is to e-books what Apple iPhone is to Smartphones, like an Apple buff wouldn’t look for anything other than an iPhone, similarly those with an inclination for Kindle wouldn’t bend for another e-book reader. But if you are new to the e-books and are searching some kinda electronic device to read on, many better and cheaper choices are available.
As Kindle DX was long awaited, we thought it to be all encompassed with modernaties for geek hood, but in this front, the big screened fellow with QWERTY keyboard lacks the much preferred touchscreen and that faster page flips we’d have liked anyway. So if you haven’t been sufficed by the Kindle DX e-book reader, wait on with me for the fourth.
