Kindle e-book readers from Amazon have much to offer
14 NOV, 2011, 03.56PM IST,
14 NOV, 2011, 03.56PM IST,
NEW YORK TIMES
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If you think that the pace of technological progress is already too fast, you'd better not look at e-book readers. You'll get whiplash. All of a sudden, the e-book companies are flooding the market with new models simultaneously. You'd think some major gift-buying season were about to begin.
The biggest e-reader headline, no doubt, is Amazon's new touch-screen color tablet, called the Kindle Fire. (Get it? Kindle a Fire?) Actually, the big news isn't the tablet - it's the price: $200. When most tablets cost $500, a $200 tablet is rather a big deal. More on that in a moment.
In all, Amazon has three new Kindle models. The two cheaper ones will surely get lost in the smoke from the Fire, but that's a pity; they're rather spectacular.
The standard Kindle, just called the Kindle, has an improved version of its usual six-inch E Ink screen, which shows crisp, clear black and shades-of-gray photos on a very light gray "page." The annoying white-black-white flash when turning an E Ink page now occurs only once every six page turns. E Ink comes awesomely close to looking like paper. And, like paper, it doesn't glow; you need light to read by.
This new Kindle is now so small, it fits in a pants pocket. But again, the news here is the price: $80. Do you have any idea how astonishing that number is? The first Kindle, born four years ago this month, cost $400. This model weighs 40 percent less, occupies a third less space and stores seven times as many books - at 20 percent of the price.
At this rate, by next year, Amazon will pay you to buy a Kindle.
You can pay a little more for various perks. For example, the $80 model displays ads. Never while you're reading - only on the "sleep" screen and in a strip across the bottom of the Home screen. Most are discount deals, which makes them a lot more palatable. But you can get this Kindle without the ads for $110.
The second new model, the Kindle Touch, is almost identical - but instead of navigating by clicking a four-way controller, you can just touch the screen. It's beautifully done. This model, too, is available with ads ($100) or without ($140).
All e-book readers connect to Wi-Fi hot spots - to download new books, for example. But the 3G Kindle Touch can also go online over the cellular airwaves, wherever you happen to be. (It's $150 with ads, $190 without.) There is still no charge for this Internet service, and this Kindle Touch is the only e-book reader on the market to offer it.
Now then: the Kindle Fire.
It's a chunky-thick, 7-inch, shiny black tablet. It's actually running Android, the Google software that powers a lot of cellphones and other companies' tablets, but you'd never guess it. Amazon has plastered over the Google design until not a speck of it is left showing.
The colorful home screen depicts an attractive wood grain bookshelf. Its scrolling contents consist of miniature posters of your e-books, music albums, TV shows, movies, PDF documents, apps and Web bookmarks. There is also a lower shelf where you can park the items you use most often.
=======================================================
If you think that the pace of technological progress is already too fast, you'd better not look at e-book readers. You'll get whiplash. All of a sudden, the e-book companies are flooding the market with new models simultaneously. You'd think some major gift-buying season were about to begin.
The biggest e-reader headline, no doubt, is Amazon's new touch-screen color tablet, called the Kindle Fire. (Get it? Kindle a Fire?) Actually, the big news isn't the tablet - it's the price: $200. When most tablets cost $500, a $200 tablet is rather a big deal. More on that in a moment.
In all, Amazon has three new Kindle models. The two cheaper ones will surely get lost in the smoke from the Fire, but that's a pity; they're rather spectacular.
The standard Kindle, just called the Kindle, has an improved version of its usual six-inch E Ink screen, which shows crisp, clear black and shades-of-gray photos on a very light gray "page." The annoying white-black-white flash when turning an E Ink page now occurs only once every six page turns. E Ink comes awesomely close to looking like paper. And, like paper, it doesn't glow; you need light to read by.
This new Kindle is now so small, it fits in a pants pocket. But again, the news here is the price: $80. Do you have any idea how astonishing that number is? The first Kindle, born four years ago this month, cost $400. This model weighs 40 percent less, occupies a third less space and stores seven times as many books - at 20 percent of the price.
At this rate, by next year, Amazon will pay you to buy a Kindle.
You can pay a little more for various perks. For example, the $80 model displays ads. Never while you're reading - only on the "sleep" screen and in a strip across the bottom of the Home screen. Most are discount deals, which makes them a lot more palatable. But you can get this Kindle without the ads for $110.
The second new model, the Kindle Touch, is almost identical - but instead of navigating by clicking a four-way controller, you can just touch the screen. It's beautifully done. This model, too, is available with ads ($100) or without ($140).
All e-book readers connect to Wi-Fi hot spots - to download new books, for example. But the 3G Kindle Touch can also go online over the cellular airwaves, wherever you happen to be. (It's $150 with ads, $190 without.) There is still no charge for this Internet service, and this Kindle Touch is the only e-book reader on the market to offer it.
Now then: the Kindle Fire.
It's a chunky-thick, 7-inch, shiny black tablet. It's actually running Android, the Google software that powers a lot of cellphones and other companies' tablets, but you'd never guess it. Amazon has plastered over the Google design until not a speck of it is left showing.
The colorful home screen depicts an attractive wood grain bookshelf. Its scrolling contents consist of miniature posters of your e-books, music albums, TV shows, movies, PDF documents, apps and Web bookmarks. There is also a lower shelf where you can park the items you use most often.
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