The Amazon Kindle, an electronic reader, has been lavished with praise by hopeful newspaper and book executives who say they believe it has the potential to do for newspapers and books what the iPod did for music. But if the Kindle, which not only displays the news but also speaks it with a computerized voice, is ever to be the savior of print media, it needs to bone up on its pronunciation. In particular, the voice of the Kindle mispronounces two important words that show up often in the pages of newspapers: “Barack” (the device rhymes it with “black”) and “Obama” (sounds like “Alabama”).
The science behind computerized voice features has come a long way, but apparently still has a ways to go.
“The technology is very advanced; everyone has the memory of the Stephen Hawking voice, which was very robotic,” said Patrick Dexter, the director of business development at Cepstral, a Pittsburgh company that does such work and has licensed its technology to Google. “The goal right now is to get a voice that sounds almost indistinguishable from a real person.”
Amazon.com hopes a bigger version of its Kindle electronic reading device can be a hit, even if it’s more expensive, and the company is aiming it in part at college students who are eager to save money on their textbooks.
Introducing Kindle DX–Amazon’s Large Screen Addition to the Kindle Family of Wireless Reading Devices
Large Kindle DX Display and New Features Provide Enhanced Experience for Reading a Wide Range of Professional and Personal Documents
The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post to Launch Trials Offering Kindle DX to Subscribers Who Live in Areas Where Home Delivery is Not Available
Leading Textbook Publishers to Offer Textbooks in Kindle Store
Five Universities to Launch Trials with Students Using Kindle DX in Fall 2009
SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–May. 6, 2009– Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today introduced Amazon Kindle DX, the new purpose-built reading device that offers Kindle’s revolutionary wireless delivery and massive selection of content with a large 9.7-inch electronic paper display, built-in PDF reader, auto-rotate capability, and storage for up to 3,500 books. More than 275,000 books are now available in the Kindle Store, including 107 of 112 current New York Times Best Sellers. New York Times Bestsellers and New Releases are $9.99 unless marked otherwise. Top U.S. and international magazines and newspapers plus more than 1,500 blogs are also available. Kindle DX is available for pre-order starting today for $489 at http://amazon.com/kindleDX and will ship this summer.
“Personal and professional documents look so good on the big Kindle DX display that you’ll find yourself changing ink-toner cartridges less often,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. “Cookbooks, computer books, and textbooks – anything highly formatted – also shine on the Kindle DX. Carry all your documents and your whole library in one slender package.”
New Large Display
Kindle DX’s display has 2.5 times the surface area of Kindle’s 6-inch display. The larger electronic paper display with 16 shades of gray has more area for graphic-rich content such as professional and personal documents, newspapers and magazines, and textbooks. Kindle reads like printed words on paper because the screen works using real ink and doesn’t use a backlight, eliminating the eyestrain and glare associated with other electronic displays.
The New York Times Company and Washington Post Company are launching pilots with Kindle DX this summer. The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post will offer the Kindle DX at a reduced price to readers who live in areas where home-delivery is not available and who sign up for a long-term subscription to the Kindle edition of the newspapers.
“At The New York Times Company we are always seeking new ways for our millions of readers to have full and continuing access to our high-quality news and information,” said Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., chairman, The New York Times Company and publisher, The New York Times. “The wireless delivery and new value-added features of the Kindle DX will provide our large, loyal audience, no matter where they live, with an exciting new way to interact with The New York Times and The Boston Globe. Additionally, by offering a subscription through the Kindle DX to readers who live outside of our delivery areas, we will extend our reach to our loyal readers who will be able to more readily enjoy their favorite newspapers. Meanwhile, we are continuing to work with Amazon to make The New York Times and The Boston Globe experiences on Kindle better than ever.”
Kindle DX’s large display offers an enhanced reading experience with another category of graphic-rich content—textbooks. With complex images, tables, charts, graphs, and equations, textbooks look best on a large display. Leading textbook publishers Cengage Learning, Pearson, and Wiley, together representing more than 60 percent of the U.S. higher education textbook market, will begin offering textbooks through the Kindle Store beginning this summer. Textbooks under the following brands will be available: Addison-Wesley, Allyn & Bacon, Benjamin Cummings, Longman & Prentice Hall (Pearson); Wadsworth, Brooks/Cole, Course Technology, Delmar, Heinle, Schirmer, South-Western (Cengage); and Wiley Higher Education.
Arizona State University, Case Western Reserve University, Princeton University, Reed College, and Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia will launch trial programs to make Kindle DX devices available to students this fall. The schools will distribute hundreds of Kindle DX devices to students spread across a broad range of academic disciplines. In addition to reading on a considerably larger screen, students will be able to take advantage of popular Kindle features such as the ability to take notes and highlight, search across their library, look up words in a built-in dictionary, and carry all of their books in a lightweight device.
“The Kindle DX holds enormous potential to influence the way students learn,” said Barbara R. Snyder, president of Case Western Reserve University. “We look forward to seeing how the device affects the participation of both students and faculty in the educational experience.”
New Built-In PDF Reader
Kindle DX features a built-in PDF reader using Adobe Reader Mobile technology for reading professional and personal documents. Like other types of documents on Kindle, customers simply email their PDF format documents to their Kindle email address or move them over using a USB connection. With a larger display and built-in PDF reader, Kindle DX customers can read professional and personal documents with more complex layouts without scrolling, panning, or zooming, and without re-flowing, which destroys the original structure of the document. Everything from annual reports with graphs to flight manuals with maps to musical scores can be viewed on a single, crisp screen with Kindle DX.
New Auto-Rotation
Kindle DX’s display content auto-rotates so users can read in portrait or landscape mode, or flip the device to read with either hand. Simply turn Kindle DX and immediately see full-width landscape views of maps, graphs, tables, images, and Web pages.
New 3.3 GB Memory Holds Up To 3,500 Books
With 3.3 GB of available memory, Kindle DX can hold up to 3,500 books, compared with 1,500 with Kindle. And because Amazon automatically backs up a copy of every Kindle book purchased, customers can wirelessly re-download titles from their library at any time.
Incredibly Thin
Kindle DX is just over a third of an inch thin, which is thinner than most magazines.
3G Wireless, No PC, No Hunting for Wi-Fi Hot Spots
Just like Kindle, Kindle DX customers automatically take advantage of Amazon Whispernet to wirelessly shop the Kindle Store, download or receive new content in less than 60 seconds, and read from their library—all without a PC, Wi-Fi hot spot, or syncing. Amazon still pays for the wireless connectivity on Kindle DX so books can be downloaded in less than 60 seconds—with no monthly fees, data plans, or service contracts.
Syncs With Kindle for iPhone and other Kindle Compatible Devices
Just like Kindle, Kindle DX uses Amazon Whispersync technology to automatically sync content across Kindle, Kindle DX, Kindle for iPhone, and other devices in the future. With Whispersync, customers can easily move from device to device and never lose their place in their reading.
Massive Selection of Books—Plus Newspapers, Magazines, and Blogs
The Kindle Store currently offers more than 275,000 books, including popular books like New York Times Bestsellers, New Releases, and fiction and nonfiction released in the past several years. Dozens of newspapers and magazines are also available for subscription or single-edition purchase. BusinessWeek and The New England Journal of Medicine are available in the Kindle Store starting today, and The Economist will be available soon. Subscriptions are auto-delivered wirelessly to Kindle overnight so that the latest edition is waiting for customers when they wake up. Over 1,500 blogs are available on Kindle and updated and downloaded wirelessly throughout the day.
Kindle DX includes all the other features Kindle customers enjoy every day, including:
* Wirelessly send, receive, and read personal documents in a variety of formats such as Microsoft Word and PDF
* Look up words instantly using the built-in 250,000 word New Oxford American Dictionary
* Choose from six text sizes
* Add bookmarks, notes, and highlights
* Text-to-speech technology that converts words on a page to spoken word
* Search Web, Wikipedia.org, Kindle Store, and your library of purchased content
* No setup required—Kindle comes ready to use—no software to load or set up
Amazon Kindle is sold through Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
The screen looks the same, but somehow, proportionally beautiful. The screen is significantly better looking in terms of overall ratio between screen and non screen. The keyboard is about 10 percent of the overall device, where the older versions felt more like 20%. I like it, but doubt I would want to bring this on a trip or use it in bed to read. It clearly is a work device, meant for displaying 8.5×11-inch type docs. The screen refresh rates are the same—almost as fast as Kindle 2, because although it is the same engine and technology, its refreshing more info. But it is more contrasty they say, compared to generation one. – from Gizmodo
We just got a quick first in-person look at Amazon’s new Kindle DX. It looks bigger! Some quick thoughts on the device:
* It’s not really drastically different from the Kindle 2. Not in any way. The ability to auto-rotate is nice, and the big screen is definitely easier on the eyes when it comes to reading newspapers, but largely this is the same beast.
* The screen looks great. It may just be the demo units here, but the blacks seem to be darker than they are on the Kindle 2. We’ll have to hold this judgment for when we’ve got a review unit in our hands.
11:07 a.m. | Wrapping Up: Mr. Bezos is summarizing the features of the Kindle DX. Large 9.7-inch display with auto-rotation, high-speed wireless access to 275,000 books, 3.3 gigabytes of storage, or room for up to 3,500 books. Native support for PDF documents, with no panning, zooming or scrolling necessary. “Kindle is now a family,” with two models, Mr. Bezos said. – from NYTimes
South Paws might feel like they’re being left out with only right-hand side controls, but you can flip the Kindle DX upside and it auto-rotates so the controls are on your left (upside down though). – from Crunchgear
Kindle book sales would be trending at $175 million a quarter ($700 million a year). The Kindle might turn out to be Amazon’s biggest growth business yet. – from Techcrunch
Amazon.com Inc. on Wednesday plans to unveil a new version of its Kindle e-book reader with a larger screen and other features designed to appeal to periodical and academic textbook publishers, according to people familiar with the matter. Beginning this fall, some students at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland will be given large-screen Kindles with textbooks for chemistry, computer science and a freshman seminar already installed, said Lev Gonick, the school’s chief information officer. The university plans to compare the experiences of students who get the Kindles and those who use traditional textbooks, he said. – from WSJ
Amazon is now offering over 500 movies and TV shows in high-definition through its Video On Demand service. Major Hollywood studios and television networks have partnered with Amazon to bring recent movie releases and popular TV shows in HD to your TV – provided you have the right third-party hardware gear. If you have a Roku digital video player, TiVo Series3, Sony Bravia Internet Video Link, an HD or HD XL DVR or a Panasonic VIERA CAST-enabled TV, then you can rent HD movies for $3.99 to $4.99 and TV episodes purchases for $2.99 each. PC and Mac users can also get a dose of HD content through Amazon’s online rental service. But only standard definition movies and TV shows in the HD format are available via your PCs. – From PC World
Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos said in a letter to shareholders Friday that sales of the Kindle are ahead of projections — good news for the e-tailer considering both the weak economic climate and the fact that the second version of the Kindle became available only two months ago. “We’re grateful and excited that Kindle sales have exceeded our most optimistic expectations,” Bezos wrote to Amazon shareholders in a letter posted to the company’s Investor Relations home page. “If you haven’t seen it, Kindle 2 is everything customers loved about the original Kindle, only thinner, faster, with a crisper display, and longer battery life, and capable of holding 1,500 books.” While Amazon hasn’t released sales figures for the Kindle 2, which began shipping February 23, a source described as close to Amazon told The Washington Post this week that about 300,000 Kindle 2s have been shipped so far, which would put Amazon’s take from the $359-a-pop devices at about $107 million. – From Channel Web
Jeff Bezos, when he was peddling the new Kindle on Charlie Rose the other night, kept using the word “seamless.” He wasn’t talking about the device itself, of course, but the experience of the customer that uses it. Whatever you think about the Kindle, Bezos’ choice of that word goes right to the heart of Amazon’s own strategy, and the reason why the company, its operations and its stock have held up so well in the past few months. Everyone knows that Amazon’s (AMZN) e-commerce site succeeded because its interface was intuitive to the point of being completely natural. What isn’t discussed as much is the ethic behind that success: Simplicity is hard. Just as Amazon went to great lengths and expense to make the Kindle experience seamless, it has gone to a considerable amount of trouble to adhere to what is a very simple corporate strategy: Make it easy for the customer, and make it cheap. – From Fortune
The Kindle 2 is out and the reviews are coming in. On the whole, what’s being said is that the new version offers improvements all around – but no new features that will knock your socks off. Most reviews have praised the new Kindle for it’s improved readability, size reduction, more battery power, storage increase and speed improvements. People who like the Kindle, will like it even more. The main issue is that it’s still very expensive – $359 – so your average person would rather just buy their books the old fashion way and save a bunch right here. Improving usability will help in the long run, so it’s a positive step.
I had the chance to do a brief hands-on with the Kindle 2 after its introduction today; in contrast to last time around, review copies were not available to the press. I’ve gone on record with a list of complaints about the first generation version, and suggested that there may have been little Amazon could do, given its reliance on E-Ink for that hardware. It appears that E-Ink has come through for them in a big way, and the Kindle 2 is a far better device as a result. The new version displays more shades of grey than were previously possible, and Amazon has paired that with a set of updated fonts to make the text significantly crisper and easier to read. But it’s the speed of the display that makes everything different. Amazon claims a 20 percent improvement in page flips, but it’s clear that the operating system is very capable of redrawing only subsets of the screen—perhaps the software is smarter about that than it was previously, it’s impossible to tell. In any case, the result is that anything done on the screen is very much faster—moving the cursor, selecting text, typing, menus, you name it. It’s really hard to convey just how much more responsive the device feels. – ars technica
Amazon.com on Monday released a new version of its Kindle electronic-book reader, but the slimmer and lighter upgrade of the original is drawing criticism from some Kindle users. Rather than make any dramatic changes, Amazon has tweaked the original book-sized Kindle. The new version is a third of an inch thick, weighs about 10 ounces, gets more battery life, and has an improved display. In addition, Amazon has added more storage and has made the device faster. The price, however, remains the same: $359. “Plain and simple, waaayyyy too much money for a book reader,” one person wrote on Amazon’s customer discussion group. “I could buy a mountain of paperbacks for the price of this thing. Just like the first Kindle, I’ll pass.” – From Information Week
Were there an anthology of gadget launch announcements, the unveiling of Amazon’s Kindle 2 e-book reader would have one of the more anticlimactic storylines. t started out like any other big press conference, with a line of reporters and photographers streaming out the door onto the chilly sidewalk outside the historic Morgan Library & Museum. The Kindle 2’s arrival had been preceded by the usual blog blitz of leaked photos, rumors, and breathless wish lists. (A color screen! Better PDF support! International versions of the Kindle store!) Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos took the stage, Steve Jobs-style, with a slide show recap of the original Kindle’s success before making the big debut. But the announcement itself was underwhelming. The price, $359, remains the same. The battery life’s been improved by about 25 percent. The Kindle 2 is much skinnier than its predecessor, slimming down to 0.36 inches in thickness from 0.7, but it’s only a tenth of an ounce lighter. The storage capacity has jumped from 256MB to 2GB, or about 200 to 1,500 books, and the electronic ink display has improved from a 4-color to 16-color grayscale. – From CNET
The gadget girl she is, my wife wants one of these. We do admit the original was a worthy stab at an electronic reader, and are intrigued by Mr. Bezos’ second go around with the Kindle. Therefore, I imagine one will end up in the home before the year is out.
A few days ago I wrote a column speculating when Amazon’s new Kindle might arrive, and I might have gotten the answer Tuesday morning. I just received an invite “to an important Amazon.com press conference” on the morning of Monday, February 9 in New York. I’m not going to say where it is (that’s not cool for Amazon’s PR people, who would have to deal with crashers), but let’s just say it’s in a location that relates to books. When the Kindle was first announced in 2007, Amazon held a very similar press conference (yes, in the morning), so I’d say there’s a good chance we’ll finally get some sort of official announcement on the next version–or versions–of Amazon’s popular digital reading device. – From CNET
Mark your calendars, e-book fans: Amazon.com will introduce the next generation of its popular Kindle reader in New York City on Feb. 9. The company sent out e-mails Tuesday announcing a press conference on that date at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York. And Amazon.com confirmed that its founder and chief executive, Jeffrey P. Bezos, will host the event. Amazon would not comment in any more detail about the coming announcement, but the Kindle’s detail page on Amazon.com tells the story. It now says the electronic book reader will ship in four to six weeks. It previously suggested a wait of 11 to 13 weeks. – From NY Times
As you gaze at this spy shot of the alleged Amazon Kindle 2 e-reader, read the tea leaves along with us: Amazon just announced a press conference at New York’s Morgan Library & Museum, scheduled for Monday, February 9th. Now what do you think the company will be rolling out at a library? Hmm? According to those in the know, the newest Kindle will lack that strange angular chin of its predecessor, and will be thinner but a bit longer. There’s also talk of a larger-screen version for students. The new Kindle’s going to shed some of the strange quirks of the Kindle 1, including accidental page turns, too. We have a feeling this is going to be great. – From dvice.com
The event will be at the lush Morgan Library & Museum which seems to suggest something to do with books. If our sources are correct, the new Kindle will be quite a bit nicer than the original model. – from Crunchgear
Amazon.com will join the iPhone frenzy on Wednesday with a new application available free for download through Apple’s App Store.
The software is relatively straightforward, offering a way for iPhone or iPod Touch owners to browse through all the products offered by Amazon.com, as well as by third-party retailers like Target and Macy’s that make their products available online through Amazon.
There is, however, one unusual and noteworthy aspect of the app called Amazon Remembers, which Amazon is calling “experimental.” The tool lets users take a photograph of any product they see in the real world. The photos are then uploaded to Amazon and turned over to the far-flung freelance workers in Amazon’s Mechanical Turk program, who will try to match them with products for sale on Amazon.com. The results will not be instantaneous (between 5 minutes and 24 hours, the company says), but the idea is to entice consumers to buy products from Amazon instead of its offline rivals.
Today, the online retailer Amazon.com launched its first iPhone/iPod touch application. Previously, Amazon offered a version of its site that was optimized for MobileSafari. Amazon has added some pretty nifty features in the iPhone application that could make shopping online a lot easier.
When you first launch the application, you are presented with your wish list, and the phrase “Get Yourself a Little Something.” From this home tab, you can also see your signed-in username. When you tap the search tab, you are able to type in a search string just as you can on the Amazon.com homepage. Search results are featured in a descending list, ordered by relevance. You can see the categories for the search results by tapping the “By Category” button in the top-right.
Once you’re on a product page, you are able to see the same information that you would see on the Amazon.com page, except compacted a little more. Tap the item name/price link, and you get a full product description. Tap the customer reviews section, and you can see all of the reviews. When you’re ready to purchase, select “Buy Now,” or “Add to Cart” at the bottom of the product page. The picture of the product will then “fall” into the shopping cart tab with a nice animation. You can also see a running count of all the items in your cart. If you decide you don’t want the item, just tap the edit button and remove it. When you are ready to complete your purchase, select the “Checkout” button in the top-right corner of the cart tab.
The new application helps users search and browse for products offered by Amazon.com and associated retailers including Target and Macy’s. Customer reviews can be viewed using the app, and transactions can be completed using Amazon.com’s “1-Click Shopping” and through the “Amazon Prime” premium shipping service.
“Amazon Remembers” is an experimental feature in the new app that uses the iPhone’s camera to help you create visual lists of products you want. You take a photo, and the iPhone app uploads the image to Amazon.com; the service then tries to match products in the same category. You can buy the product that matches right away, or save it and “remember it” for later in your Amazon account.
