The Gray Lady returns in 2.0?
Amazon has dropped its new Kindle DX with a “newspaper-friendly screen that’s 2.5x bigger than the standard Kindle.” It has some nice specs (see below), but I’m not totally sold on this device as the new newspaper savior.
Evolutionarily speaking, I see the DX as a very good thing for newspapers. One more step toward a new digital medium with low overhead and subscriptions that would reach a growing demographic of digital news consumers like myself. It’s hard to admit that I really am more comfortable with the New York Times in a digital format even though I would have told you I had ink running in my veins just a few years ago. The KindleDX has a lot going for it, but I see some drawbacks.
First the DX’s size. Still too small to capture the menu-layout style of a paper, but any bigger and it would be obviously impractical. The real solution will be flexible screens that roll or fold up – when that day dawns newspaper format will get some real traction. Second issue is the demographic who will buy this. At $489 the DX is spendier than an iPhone and yet more limited in its functionality. The young digital consumer – admittedly using myself as a template – reads a lot of online news, but if you’re going to haul around something big as sheet of office paper and stiff as a board it had better be able to have the full functionality of a laptop or at least an iPhone. The future newspaper won’t be only a newspaper, it will be everything with a newspaper function.
So, nice job Amazon: I appreciate the hard work. Now, when does the 2.0 come out?
• 9.7-inch E-Ink screen (1200 x 824 with 16 shades of grey)
• 1/3 of an inch thick (10.4″ x 7.2″ x 0.38″)
• 4GB Storage for 3,500 books (a bump from 1,500)
• Unspecified but “long” battery life
• Native PDF support through built-in reader
• Automatic landscape/portrait text rotation
• Navigation buttons moved to right side of screen only
• EVDO (of course) for 60-second book transfers
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