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Amazon Debuts Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Fire HD In 2 Sizes
Nerval's Lobster writes "Amazon used a Sept. 6 event in California to debut a range of products, including a front-lit [not back-lit, as originally reported] Kindle e-reader with a higher-resolution screen, an updated Kindle Fire, and the new Kindle Fire HD in two screen sizes. First, Bezos showed off a new version of the Kindle e-reader, the Kindle Paperwhite, complete with a front-lit, higher-resolution screen (221 pixels-per-inch and 25 percent more contrast, according to Amazon). The device weighs 7.5 ounces and is 9.1mm thin; battery life is rated at eight weeks, and the screen brightness is adjustable. He then showed off the updated Kindle Fire, before moving to the Kindle Fire HD, which features a choice of 7-inch or 8.9-inch screens, dual stereo speakers with Dolby Digital Plus, two antennas for better Wi-Fi pickup, and a Texas Instruments OMAP 4470 processor (which Bezos claimed could out-perform the Tegra 3). The Kindle Fire HD's 7-inch version will retail for $199 and ship Sept. 14, while the 8.9-inch version will cost $299 and ship Nov. 20. An 8.9-inch, 4G LTE-enabled version with 32GB storage will be available starting Nov. 20 for $499, paired with a $49.99-a-year data plan."
I want to feel warm and fuzzy and covered in the goodness of complete googleness
Kindle has a nice idea of how the device can be used in a family, where the parents can control time spent by kids.
It'll be interesting to see if Apple has anything up and comping to address this same problem, until now they have kind of ignore this.
I think Amazon could do very well with the new Fire, and also the new PaperWhite kindle - that's the first e-ink Kindle that appeals to me, the others were just too low contrast for me. And even iPad owners could easily be enticed to buy a cheaper e-ink Kindle... that could well help cement them as the leader in e-Books (not that they were not already pretty cemented).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
My main question: Will they get the software right? My Kindle Touch has some truly terrible software running it.
250MB per month before you have to pay more
Was e-ink ever gone ? No LCD beats it for long reading sessions.
I'm actually looking forward to that illuminated display.
What are you talking about? It IS E-ink. There's just a built in light that you can either use or not use.
I thought it was e-ink with a special kind of backlighting.
But I can't really tell from the story link, it doesn't say lcd or e-ink...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I saw paperwhite and was hoping this was a resurgence for E-Ink. Sadly no, it's not.
It's e-Ink, at least according to http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/06/kindle-paperwhite/. It would have to be, to have an 8 week runtime.
geek. lawyer.
It's NOT BACKLIT. Submitter wasn't paying attention. It's an illuminated display, you can turn it off.
They made a big deal in a comparison slide about how the data plan was just $50 for a year of 256mb/month data. I believe that was even global!
That's a pretty impressive arrangement.
I do wonder if it will be undercut a bit by shared data plans the carriers are just starting to offer. Bringing a 4G iPad into a home that already has two iPhones means only $10/month extra device fee... that's still $120 though.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Interesting change in wording. That means 56 days of reading 1-hour per day instead of 62 days. Meanwhile Barnes advertises "over 2 months" for their nooks.
Also the 4G version probably won't have free web surfing (like the kindle keyboard has).
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
I think the terms you are looking for are frontlit and thick. Still, I'm a bit disappointed that the DX is such an ugly stepchild. Certainly there's a market for a reasonably priced larger format e-reader.
I'm thinking about returning my recently acquired kindle gen 4 since I may not get to use it much in the next month, and a built in light is a major feature.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
I always thought you could do backlit e-ink by making the white component flourescent and providing a UV LED backlight ; I wonder if that's how it works.
Now I remember why I thought it was e-ink.
The backlighting is not like LCD backlighting. It looked really interesting from the displays, and they claimed it was just like having ambient light on a page.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It's not a higher res somewhat higher contrast e-ink kindle?
I thought it was. Why don't you? Are you misunderstanding anything? Am I?
Surely it's a regular 6 inch Kindle? Just better?
That's a winner for me. I use so little data - I just need a little information most of the time. Give this baby a custom interface for an in-dash entertainment system and I'm all over it.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
...and computing sales tax on a state-by-state business is too difficult for them. Bah!
"Love is a familiar; Love is a devil: there is no evil angel but Love." --William Shakespeare ('Love's Labors Lost')
The Kindle Fire was the original successful 7" android tablet.
Apple is going to be releasing their Fire knock off soon and the nexus came out a few months ago.
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
Was e-ink ever gone ? No LCD beats it for long reading sessions.
I didn't find that to be the case for previous e-ink kindles, the lower contrast was like looking at dirty paper and bothered me enough I preferred LCD's for hours of reading.
The new Paperwhite display looks like a winner to me though, finally realizing the full potential of electronic paper along with a great lighting solution. I think it could be the first e-ink I really do find preferable to an LCD, and it has a decent PPI for rendering text.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Hey, that's over 8MB a day. That's right, 8 *Mega*bytes, bitches! And it's "Mega" so you KNOW it's gots to be big! Let's see someone else top THAT!
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
I read "Paperweight" instead of "Paperwhite"
The Luddites were ahead of their time.
250mb a month is way too low. The telcos are looking to profit on the very high probability of overages charges on this one.
It is e-ink, with a frontlight. The summary is wrong in saying backlight.
In other words that's about twice as expensive as $20 for 2GB that I pay to my cell phone company.
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
Which is a sweet price for a 7" tablet as long as it can be rooted and ROM'd.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/09/amazon-shows-off-new-kindle-fire-shipping-sept-14-for-159/
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OMAP 4470 "Can outperform the Tegra 3"? The Tegra 3 has 1.2-1.7 GHz QUAD CORE ARM Cortex-A9 application-optimized cores with NEON. The OMAP 4470 has 1.5-1.8GHz DUAL CORE ARM Cortex-A9 application optimized cores with NEON. You know that means the slowest Tegra has 1/3 more processing power available than the fastest OMAP 4470, and its single-core speed is 2/3 that of the OMAP? If you went with the Tegra 3 T33 used in the Asus T700 at 1.7GHz, you'd have 95% of the single core speed and 90% more total processing power available.
There is no way you can outperform the Tegra 3.
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Article claims backlit as well.
"But first, Bezos showed off a new version of the Kindle e-reader, the Kindle Paperwhite, complete with a backlit, higher-resolution screen (221 pixels-per-inch and 25 percent more contrast, according to Amazon). "
Has anyone on Slashdot actually seen one? Is it front-lit or back-lit?
This will certainly be a good selling point. I have 250MB limit on some of my devices. Given that most of my time is spent in WiFi vicinity, I don't really go over. For most people who are not going to watch movies on the road that will be enough. I do wonder if streaming from amazon is going to be including in the limit, or if they want to push the cloud enough to make it not count against the limit. If Amazon did allow you to stream movies that you bought without penalty, that would be a good reason to buy the kindle.
It is also interesting to compare this strategy against the Google strategy. Amazon has well priced good products with a customized Android interface backed by a cheap data plan and lots of content. The OEMs working with Google to put out chrome books and tablets tend to not have the content, are not leveraging data plans that Google certainly has the power to acquire, and in the end are not selling product. Look at the chromebook lease deals. $30 a month for a computer that will not work without an internet connection, and often does not include mobile connectivity options.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Steve jobs would never have allowed this to happen
He would have had bezos killed by his secret ninja assassins a long time ago
and a nice horribly slow refresh rate, no games, no netflix, or any other useful application.
Not true of the Fire which fixes all of those problems and still gives you the first two things listed (lending and cheap SF).
The eInk kindle cannot replace a tablet, no, it simply makes for a great companion to a tablet...
And if you like the eInk Kindle why would you not start to consider the Fire?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The hardware seems good for the price, but I'm not at all thrilled with Amazon's custom software. The Kindle Fire HD might be a good deal if they get CyanogenMod working on it. A resolution of 1920x1080 on a 8.9-inch tablet doesn't quite match Apple's 10" @ 2048x1536, but it comes pretty close and is $200 cheaper. Strangely, no articles seem to say what the resolution will be on the smaller 7-inch Kindle Fire HD.
>>>250MB/month data cap
Only applies when you're outside the U.S. While I'm inside the states I surf on my kindle keyboard 3G as much as I want..... reading facebook, ebay, wikipedia, etc.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
Why would I give up one walled garden to go to another? With Android you have choice. With iWhatever you have the current Generation and the old Generation. I want choice.
It is fronlit, like the Nook Glow. http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/06/amazon-officially-announces-the-new-kindle-paperwhite-paperwhite-display-frontlighting-and-212-ppi/
8MB of bandwidth per day ought to be enough for anybody. ;)
You pay $20 per year to get 2GB of data each month?
In other words that's about twice as expensive as $20 for 2GB that I pay to my cell phone company.
Your calculation is wrong, but even if your calculation was right, it would certainly not be the case. People don't use up to their limit all the time. $20 for 2GB, $10 for 1GB or $5 for 500MB or $1 for 100MB are certainly not the same plan. I would be super happy to have a $1 for 100MB, pretty upset with $10 for 1GB and feel ripped off with $100 for 10GB.
I watched the live presentation. It is a front lit display using a new technology to light the front of the display using nanoimprinted light channels in the glass. It acts like ambient light but it is not a backlight in any way shape or form. It also claims 8 weeks of battery life with the light on. I guess the closest thing you could call it is redirected side lighting? The live blog from gizmodo has a picture of the tech as it was show on the bigscreen. http://live.gizmodo.com/page5.html.
Why why why Amazon? Pretty much everything about the new Kindle sounds great except for the lack of page turn buttons. I'm still using my 3rd generation Kindle and I'd love to upgrade it to a higher contrast screen with built in lighting, but touchscreen-only navigation is a killer. It makes one handed reading more difficult and uncomfortable, will cause screen smudges, and will be nearly impossible to operate with gloves.
Yup definitely e-ink, thank you confusing article... Let's not mention the most distinguish feature of the display and just start spooging numbers like apple owns this joint.
Where are you getting this 250MB limit? My kindle keyboard also has a limit, but it doesn't apply as long as I stay inside the U.S. where it's unlimited. (shrug). If you turn-off the images it makes a huge difference in the data impact. A 1 meg page shrinks to just a few kilobytes (~50).
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
I first read this as "Kindle Paperweight". The Kindle isn't THAT bad...
âoeAny society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
Where are you getting this 250MB limit?
From Amazon's slide they showed during the event.
What do you mean 'may be for real? They explicitly stated it in their presentation.
But I think they are annoyed with the idea that they should have to pay, because they are big, but not other online companies. Notice states don't seem to be going after any and all online companies, just Amazon.
Wonderful. The new hardware is out. Now where's my Android app to let me use the Amazon Prime features? Is there some kind of insurmountable technical reason why they can create one for the iPad but not for an Android phone? Notice I said ~technical~, not ~financial~.
Why on earth did you think you could use an amazon tablet outside of its home country? I certainly don't expect to be able to hear/watch BBC outside of the UK.
My American publican broadcasting network carries BBC news - both TV and radio.
Why can't all tablets offer $50/yr 250MB/month data plans?
I'm sure they're profitable at this rate.
They can up sell users as well. $10 per GB over the 250MB monthly allowance will allow us to use more data as needed fora reasonable fee.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
I would imagine that it's more or less the same thing as Nook GlowLight. Which you can just go and see in store today.
9.1mm thin
I want you to stop and think about what you've done.
A Paperwhite is actually a type of daffodil.
#DeleteChrome
Kindle DX2 please. 11 inch screen with this new screen tech please.. I know a LOT of people that would kill for an A4 size screen.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
"Why would I give up one walled garden to go to another? With Android you have choice."
With the properly chosen android device you have choice. Please dont sugar coat it, the Kindle Fire is android and it has NO choice unless you hack it. In fact the only tablets I know of that give you freedom of choice is the nexus 7 from google. Unlocked bootloader and pure Jellybean os with no crap installed. Unlike the Xoom.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Wow, they can use the device to make sure kids read?
The parental controls could in theory, allocate the amount of time permitted between apps and books.
I have no idea if they do, but they could.
That doesn't technically make them read but reading on a tablet might be "cool" enough even a kid that did not otherwise want to read would do so.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Huh. I'm looking at Title 17 of the US Code, and nowhere among the exclusive rights of copyright holders is "export" listed. So, I'm thinking, some kind of evidence supporting this claim would be nice.
This would suggest that the UK doesn't allow imports of anything that could be subject to copyright unless it had a registered UK copyright. Aside from the fact that this would be impossible to enforce (given the scope of things that are subject to copyright protection and how impossible it would be to verify that for every import it would apply to), this is, like the last, a pretty extraordinary claim for which some evidence would be welcome.
Check it out - fantastic dialogue and impressive realization of future tech: downloadable personas, backups, and lots of drugs and guns. Quite an enjoyable read:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40445.Altered_Carbon
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
Really, is Android so phenomenally inferior to Apple that your devices use that much data at idle? Makes me feel much better about my iPad purchase.
I have had an iPhone (and iPad(s)) for about 3 years. In that time, I have exceeded 250MB per month twice. Once was on a trip to NY where I got stuck in a hotel with $10/day wifi and crap for TV for a couple of hours each night while my then 4 year old daughter was ready for bed by 8pm. I surfed the whole time. The other time was on my iPad on a non-wifi train & bus trip back that was 16 hours round trip. By the end, I got bored and was watching youtube vidoes.
Most months I hover around 60MB on my phone and 100-200 on my iPad. I have 200/250MB accounts because they are cheap - $15/mo - and I don't need to stream much of anything. For the cost of the next plan up ($30/mo), I get 64GB of on-device storage which is enough to carry nearly everything I need on a daily basis. I still get email from both my work and personal accounts, do all my calendaring and Google Voice on the phone, get weather updates - including radar maps, use it for GPS (though I use Navigon because I travel to areas without cell coverage), IM, Facebook (way too much), as well as a host of productivity apps. I'll even fire up NPR from time to time when I'm out of range of their OTA signal but in cell range (rarely, I admit). I'm run a small consulting business, so there's no lack of data coming into and going out of my phone.
Unless you're going to graphics heavy pages, streaming video, or streaming audio for significant time while off wifi then sure - you need more data. But for the non-streaming user, 250MB of mobile data a month is going to cover almost all of it. I would happily jump at a $50/yr plan on my iPad and my phone if I were limited to "only" 250MB/mo.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
I never had any problems with it. You tap, you don't swipe. The screen isn't glossy, either, so even if you do get fingerprints, you'll have a harder time noticing them.
Then again, some people might be bothered by it where I'm not. My suggestion? Go to a Best Buy and look at one of the demo units. If fingerprints are ever a problem on Kindles, you'd see it there. If the screen still looks fine, then you should be good. Unless, of course, they clean the things... (Hint: look at the nearby tablets to see if they do!)
If you can't convince them, convict them.
This so many times over my head hurts. Oh, and at the same kind of price as a standard Kindle.The eink screen is about $30-40 for a 6" size. presuming there are no barriers to production of a larger size, an 10-11" screen should be on the order of $130-$140. Tack $125 onto it and go. Adding $300 is just insulting.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
No cheaper DX sized ink device? No color ink? Yet another "tablet" ( dedicated multimedia consumption device ) in an already saturated market of low end LCD devices?
Thanks for nothing of any value. Perhaps B&N will deliver this Christmas.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
No it cant be beat, but as they move towards multimedia devices ( higher profit margin on purchases ) i don't see a bright long term future for our ink.
But i haven't lost hope yet.
The B&N side lit ink i hear isn't that great, time will tell if Amazon got it any better. ( but i still want larger and color dammit )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I wonder what genius at Amazon thought that Paperwhite is a good word? It's awkward to say and is so similar to paperweight that people will confuse it all the time.
I don't think so, I saw it and right away I was taken with the name.
I think it's brilliant because the remaining people who do not have eInk Kindles but use Kindle, is that the old displays were too grey.
The new name clarifies right away this is not your grandfathers eInk, it's 25% brighter and smiles all around.
People don't really think about parperweights anymore, but have been trained by advertisers to really pay attention to the word "white" in anything so I think that will remain clear to most people.
All around I thought Amazon had a fantastic round of product launches with some really good ideas in each category.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I call bullshit, because it wasn't in the article, and I can't be arsed to find more info based on a Slashvertisement.
The people who modded you up could have spent their time citing something to support your claim, but did not.
I have a DX, and I prefer it to a tablet/notebook/laptop/phone by about 100%. I prefer it to a book by about 99%. I don't like having to hold pages open, but I do like a physical book to hold. I do not like the tablet LED screen, and I will inflict as much physical damage as I can on anyone who tries to separate me and my Kindle.
This article mentions nothing of e-Ink, nothing pf a page light (whatever the hell that is), and nothing whatsoever to support your claims.
I threw it into Google, and came out with some sort of something, which said it was a 6" screen, not 9" like my DX. "Built in lighting" does not sound like e-Ink to me, even though the article tries painfully to illustrate how this happens.
It it not as big as the DX, which is a true e-Ink reader (as opposed to the Kindle Fire), and I see no evidence that a self-lit e-Ink device is in any way a substitute for the e-Ink experience. Mostly, I do not trust a self-lit book to be more than a traditional LED screen, or some radiation hotbed.
Obviously GP reads in bed with what is equivalent to an LCD (iPad). "This is no longer true" is not only understatement - it is completely false.
Apparently you meant to respond to that particular bit. The article does not respond to that, I had to actually search for my own reference. I know you are correct, but I still call bullshit on your post due to lack of citations. Did you expect me to just trust you? You, and those who moderated you? Fuck you, I have better things to do with my time. And because my time is now wasted, I intend to educate you, and your moderators.
A tablet reader will be superior to e-Ink in some ways, and vastly inferior in numerous other ways. "This is no longer true" applies to a small part of the post, and assumes that you are in the market for e-Ink instead of a tablet. How bright is the back-lighting? Will it keep awake someone beside you? I would want to know this before buying, reading with my SO asleep or trying to get there, and being kicked out of the bedroom.
For fuck's sake, please understand the context of a post, and therefore both the reply and the moderation, before replying or moderating.
I rate you -1, would not read again.
The device weighs 7.5 ounces and is 9.1mm thin
When did it become correct to use the word "thin" to mean "thick"?
If that's right, then why isn't it "7.5 ounces light"?
Why mix imperial and metric units in the same sentence?
Please note: these are rhetorical questions, feel free to respond, but try not to imply I'm too dumb to work out the answer in all cases is "marketing".
I know you're joking, but it's easily enough for most people considering they can also use Wifi when at home.
iPad 3 which has a much better DPI than the Fire
iPad 3rd Gen has a resolution of 2048×1536 on a 9.7" screen, giving it a DPI of 264.
Kindle Fire HD 8.9" has a resolution of 1920x1200 on a 8.9" screen, giving it a DPI of 254.
For all intents and purposes, the Kindle Fire HD has the same DPI as the latest iPad.
I've had not one but two kindle 3's (keyboard, wireless only) end up in this state: http://www.papaspyropoulos.com/my-amazon-kindle-screen-is-messed-up/. .epub support, which isn't so bad thanks to Calibre's conversion capabilities. But it's still a minor annoyance.
They ended up this way after being transported in a backpack, INSIDE a protective cover, in the company of a few other books (not heavy tomes). There are no visible signs of physical damage on the kindles, yet they are made unusable by mere carrying around. You might guess that some very moderate pressure was applied on the screen by the other books but what is the point of a PORTABLE reader if it can't withstand such little pressure? Amazon replaced the broken item the first time around, but now the warrantee period of 1 year is up. I now consider these devices to be home use only, which is a shame. I've stopped assuming I can carry it around. I don't know if other e-ink screens are also suffering from this frailty or its Amazon's design. YMMV.
A second concern with kindles are the lack of
Despite these concerns, I am contemplating on getting a Paperwhite or a Nook Glow. I love the display tech. Just wish these things would be more durable.
https://dalgamotor.wordpress.com/ - Elektronik beyinlere ozgurluk asisi (Turkish)
S3 is still around.
Best Slashdot Co
I know! You could run a BBS on that!
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
Also, how long is this deal going to available. Is it going to avalable for a second year, or it only with purchase. How are upgrades going to be handled? Do I lose my $50 is I upgrade to a larger plan. There are many ways to hide costs in this situation,
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Does the new Kindle have reverse video. For reading in dark, reverse video is much better than front-lit or backlit normal text.