Kindle Ebook Reader for Christmas?

Amazon Kindle Ebook Reader For Christmas - But which One? DX or Ordinary?

The Amazon Kindle would make a great gift for someone for Christmas - but which one should you get? There is the 'normal' Wireless Kindle Latest Generation with a diagonal screen size of 6" or the Kindle DX Wireless with the bigger 9.7" diagonal.

So if size is all you are interested in then the choice is simple. Except of course that size ain't everything. There is also the price to consider.

Currently the 6" is perfectly adequate and will cost you $139 from Amazon, the 9.7" version will on the other hand set you back $379 - so that might have made up your mind for you right there.

In addition to length you need to consider the weight - the 6" version of the Kindle weighs 8.7 ounces (i.e. a small bag of sugar) the Kindle DX on the other hand weighs 18.9 ounces (i.e. a large bag of sugar and a bit more and you probably need two hands most of the time).

So basically the latest generation 6 incher is like a lightweight paperback book that fits discreetly in your pocket, whereas the chunky 9.7" is a heavy hardback that doesn't fit in your pocket. Holding the DX with one hand for any length of time is no mean feat, so you will also need to carry a table around with you.

In addition, the battery life for the small version is about 3 times longer than the large DX version.

Both versions of the Kindle store 3,500 books and give you access to over 700,000 books and magazines etc... They also give you access to 1.8 million free books that are out of copyright, such as Pride and Prejudice or Call of the Wild or Moby Dick etc... So you've got some serious reading ahead of you !

There are a whole host of other features with both Kindles, such as Built-In PDF Reader: Auto-Rotating Screen on the DX: Read-to-Me text-to-speech feature, which can read newspapers, magazines, blogs, and books out loud,

For a video giving the full details of each version of the Kindle see the links below:-

Kindle Wireless Wi-Fi 6 inches

Kindle DX Wireless Wi-Fi 9.7 inches


Since Oprah declared the Kindle her favorite gadget a couple of years ago it has become the number one selling electronic article on Amazon, for obvious reasons, not least of which is that it lets you carry around a whole host of books and magazines in one simple device.

So there is probably someone you know who would appreciate one for Christmas, but don't hang around as Amazon has been known to run out of them before due to the high demand.

Thank you for reading this far ! And Merry Christmas :-)

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Kindle Price Cut to $139

Ebook Readers - Amazon Cut Kindle Down to $139

I've always thought that as ebook readers go the Kindle was too expensive, even if it is Oprah's favorite gadget, now it appears that Amazon has admitted as much by cutting its prices to fight the threat from Apple in the electronic reader market.

CEO Bezos says that by focussing on features that facilitate downloading and reading books Amazon will distinguish its the Kindle e-reader from Apple’s multipurpose iPad.

“We’re trying to build something that’s great for long- form reading -- something you’d use if you want to sit down and read for two hours,” Bezos said “Our mission on the device side of the business is to use the latest technology to make the very best purpose-built reading device. We think that’s a mass product.”

The latest Kindles are lighter and thinner than previous versions, page turns are faster and resolution is sharper. They’re easier to read in sunlight and the batteries last for a month on a single charge -- two weeks longer than previous Kindles.

Kindle and e-book sales amount to $2.38 billion that's quite a chunk of change but only 7% of Amazon’s total revenue. However, the company has chosen to go on the offensive to ensure it keeps its market share as digital books start to dominate the known universe. Amazon said sales of e-books are now more than sales of proper hard books and Bezos says they will overtake paperbacks in 9 to 12 months.

“All media over time is going digital,” said Heath Terry, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets Corp. “Amazon saw that building a large base of customers would ultimately become a competitive advantage in dealing with publishers. They want to get there as fast as they can, before the competitors do.”

Competitors are catching Amazon fast and according to Yankee Group the market by Christmas will be split into thirds between Amazon, Apple and Barnes & Noble Inc., makers of the Nook reader.

Bezos said sales of the Kindle got a boost when the price was cut by 27% to $189 in June, a further $50 cut to $139 will spur adoption even more. Hell I might even get one myself when they get below $100 !

“We think at that price point people will buy multiple units for their households,” Bezos said. “We’ve sold millions of the prior generation of Kindles and we’re going to sell millions of this third generation.”

Amazon is also testing color screen technology and Amazon bought Touchco this year, which specializes in touch- screen technology, though strangely it kept the acquisition a secret.

Bezos is not convinced the Kindle needs a color or touch screen right now. A color screen doesn’t make a novel any better, he said and a touch screen glares at you, and reading on the iPad’s LCD is like “reading with a flashlight shining in your eyes.”

With the price getting down to more afforadble levels at last I predict a bright future for the Kindle especially with school kids and college students who are tired of carrying a ton of paper on their backs and women who read Jane Austen novels, as it is a well-known fact that real men don't read books! Does the Kindle have any video games on it ?


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Onyx Ebook Reader Video

The Onyx Boox Ebook Reader Available for Pre-Order

Looking for an ebook reader ? Don't fancy the Kindle ? Well take a look at the Onyx Boox.

Take care with the websites there would appear to be 2 - onyxboox.com and onyx-international.com - the onyxboox site is owned by a Chinese person in California apparently with a hotmail address. The other address seems to be the bona fide Onyx website.

It would appear that the Onyx Boox 60 is available for pre-order now and the item will be shipped on April 2, 2010. But I suggest you contact the 'International' site to see if you can figure out what they are doing. It is not totally clear.

Check out this video of an Onyx Ebook Reader from someone who has bought one



The boox offers "amazing paper-like reading experience with breakthroughs in E-ink technology (with 16 gray levels) and EPSON’s controller chip (brighter screen and higher contrast)" which is more or less what you would expect from an ebook reader.

You can also write on the screen without compromising brightness and you can search, highlight, annotate, and input text with a pen no problem.

Wireless connectivity.

Supports multiple formats
High quality support for most prevailing formats: PDF, HTML, TXT, Mobipocket (Non-DRM)m CHM, PDB, PNG, JPG, TIFF, BMP, MP3, etc.

Languages supported include : English, Spanish, German, Japanese, Arabic, Simple and Traditional Chinese, etc.

Extremely low power consumption, one charge allows weeks of reading.

Hardware Specification

6" E Ink® Vizplex® EPD display
16-level grayscale
Touch panel with full screen scribble
128MB RAM or above
532MHz processor or above
512MB Flash or above
SD/MMC with SDIO & SDHC support
USB 2.0 with OTG support
Wi-Fi/CDMA 1XRTT/GPRS/3G (option)
2.5mm Stereo Headphone Jack
1600mAh replaceable Li-ion battery

Features
Search and dictionary support
Text to speech (TTS) support
Font size & family change,
Zoom in/out
Bookmark/Table of contents

The Onyx boox will cost around $299 or 299 euros.

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