Amazon’s third incarnation of the Kindle is here, folks. All 9.7-inches of it. Specs and info leaked about the now official Kindle over the last week and they seemed pretty much dead on. It comes packing with the larger screen, auto-rotating screen, and finally supports PDF files fully with a native PDF reader. This larger Kindle also ups the storage capacity from 1,500 books on the Kindle 2 to 3,500 on the Kindle DX thanks to 3.3GB of on board memory. The pre-order is up now and will ship shortly if you’re willing to drop $489 on one.
More pics and info after the jump.
Slim: Just over 1/3 of an inch, as thin as most magazines
Lightweight: At 10.2 ounces, lighter than a typical paperback
Wireless: 3G wireless lets you download books right from your Kindle, anytime, anywhere; no monthly fees, service plans, or hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots
Books in Under 60 Seconds: Get books delivered in less than 60 seconds; no PC required
Improved Display: Reads like real paper; now boasts 16 shades of gray for clear text and even crisper images
Longer Battery Life: 25% longer battery life; read for days without recharging
More Storage: Take your library with you; holds over 1,500 books
Faster Page Turns: 20% faster page turns
Read-to-Me: With the new text-to-speech feature, Kindle can read every newspaper, magazine, blog, and book out loud to you, unless the book is disabled by the rights holder
Large Selection: Over 275,000 books plus U.S. and international newspapers, magazines, and blogs available
Low Book Prices: New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases $9.99, unless marked otherwise
Photo Gallery by Picturesurf
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
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.
You know what, I think the kindle idea is great and all but it looks like its an accessorie to an old mac or Packard Bell pc.
accessory*
Link links to Kindle 2?
All the specs are the same as the Kindle 2?
I just got a Kindle 2 and am a little annoyed b/c I’m a grad student and got it for managing books and journal articles. This new one is much better suited to that. My question to Amazon is are they going to let all of us who got the Kindle 2 upgrade w/o a hassle, if we choose to drop that extra $100 or so bucks.
That’s the price you pay with technology. It happens with everything.
Return it and get Kindle DX
I agree, the Kindle is a great idea, but maybe Apple engineers should start thinking about making this. What Amazon has out right now just isn’t pretty enough.
“..should start thinking about making this..”
lol. That’s funny.
Is the “3G wireless” a hit that it might expand to europe where EVDO is not very populare ?
Key point – will the 3G work at launch in Europe and elsewhere?
20% faster page turns?? is that 20% faster than kindle1 or kindle2?
i bet someone at Amazons web marketing division gets fired for the early leak …
Wicked cool, I want one!
Imagine if there’s a comp like that! With an on-screen keyboard!
That’s kind of my question. This thing costs nearly $500. That’s in laptop price range. And it’s similar in size. Am I missing something? Another device to carry around on trips? Why is the Kindle hardware, and not software for a laptop? To me the Kindle is a superfluous contraption made to appease the DRM worries of print publishers. The entire model needs to change. Instead, they are trying to force people to change their natural behavior so they can keep doing business the old way. Just MHO.
Since the dawn of time man has………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. and that is why the Kindle will fail.
Can you use your laptop for days on end without charging?
That’s the big deal about the Kindle. The electronic ink draws zero power to maintain a page on the screen, it only draws power when the screen changes.
That, and you can read it in the sun.
This year’s laptops, yes. But laptops are a moving target, and somewhere in Taiwan there is a guy stroking his chin…
So the hassle of charging a battery and the ability to read in the sun are the points of contention? They seem a bit reaching and exaggerated to me. My previous point was meant to illustrate that the Kindle takes a general device application (laptop) and narrows its use to just read print material. Now that would be fine if it was priced much cheaper, or had a novel or unique form factor. For instance, take the idea of the Kindle and build it into a pair of (decent looking) sun glasses. Have it somehow Blue Tooth to any device (laptop) to access the DRM content. The DRMing can be built into the sun glass hardware, although, I think ditching DRM either entirely or mostly is where business models need to move to. Just MHO.
@Alex – so when I wanted to read a book, I’d have to don sunglasses and cart my laptop around for DRM authorisation? I think I’ll stick to the book-like device, thanks.
I can’t comfortably read with my laptop on the beach, on a bus, in bed, etc. It’s not light enough to hold at a normal reading angle in those situations, the screen is unreadable outside in the sun, and I’ll get a few hours at most out of it.
In short, sometimes it’s nice to have a device that’s limited but does what it’s intended for better than the jack-of-all-trades devices.
Sure ceejayoz.
I’m not a pitch man. My point still stands. The Kindle is almost the size of a laptop for one, and costs nearly as much. For two, if you can transmit the content to the sunglasses, then why would a laptop need to be carried around? The content is in the glasses. I apologize for not being clear.
I wasn’t trying to come up with a Kindle killer. I was trying to understand what would motivate me to purchase one. So far, probably because I have such a poor imagination, I am unable to come up with any compelling reasons. But I’m sure there must be some out there. There are lots of smart folks over at Amazon.
Anyway. Go Amazon! Go Kindle! Yay!
Yes, you are missing the point of the device completely. This isnt a laptop replacement, its a e-book reader. The SCREEN is what makes this worthwhile. I own a Kindle 2, and its the very first screen that I feel comfortable reading for extended periods of time.
After a couple weeks, you forget about the technology and simply enjoy the books you are reading! This can not be overstated: The technology “gets out of the way” of the reading experience!
In the two months I have owned the device, I have read over 20 books (with 3 or 4 on the device waiting for me). This is compared to a total of 3 books read this year before I got the Kindle.
Was it worth $400? (plus $5-$10 per book) For me, ABSOLUTELY! For you? Maybe, maybe not. How much do you enjoy reading? I would STRONGLY recommend either the Kindle 2 or the DX to people who love to read. If you are just a tech enthusiast, looking for the latest gadget, move on, buy an iPhone or something.
Kindle DX = Epic Fail!
Agreed.
this version looks as if it’s aimed at the academic/textbook market and maybe the business market. I’d like to see more details about how textbook publishers are planning to price their books on this Kindle
The price of each textbook is a key factor. This will look very atractive to law and medical students if the intial cost can be re-cooped in 1 year. Books are heavy. I also think that students will just get better at digitizing books into pdfs and posting them in forums.
Ok, first things first. Epic Fail is f*cking over, so everyone stop saying it.
Second thing, $489 is ridiculous. But all the power to Amazon if they can find people to pay that.
Epic Fail!
dmt’s reply to Wade Marshall was an Epic Win!
I thought posters telling other posters, and *everyone* just how and what to post was over. Hmm.
i phone/g-phone = tri corder
kindle = star trek reader pad thingy…
phasers? = still tasers.
the future is here!! (and capitalism still rules!)
I am quite impressed with the Kindle concept but like one of my friends mentioned, it would probably become more popular should Amazon be able to pull off a “lease a book” option as against “buy”. It probably can reduce the price of this device as well.
The problem is this is so close to being twice as useful as it actually is, but d*&ned Amazon still won’t deliver the goods. The Kindle is great for those who only want to read a book. Okay, for the DX, a newpaper or larger format document. The rest of the features are handcuffed by the e-Ink screen. One of the device’s greatest strengths also is its greatest weakness. You cannot surf the web using its built in 3G cell phone wireless because they give you no tools to navigate, not to mention many cites read the “experimental browser” as a Netscape level browser and will not allow you to access the site. A touchscreen would be an 100% improvement; and ditch the e-ink, use a trans-reflective screen that adjusts down to dull reflection in sunlight and up to backlit levels based on indoor lighting, and they’ll have something worth using. Maybe not for $489, but something.
Another piece of bad news for the news papers.
Open your eyes on this… It’s a HUGE opportunity for the newspapers… they need to get in the Kindle game.
Ron,
The newspapers are too myopic. They are very weary to adopt new business models. They don’t seem to want to get rid of their printing presses. I know this from first hand experience. They fail to realize that they are not really in the business of selling news, but are in the business of selling their community to advertisers. To be a bit blunt, they just don’t seem to get it. They don’t seem to get the two-way social aspect of the web and social media. Some are getting it, but most are sucking wind.
I’m not sure the Kindle will help them either. It’s two much of a one-way interaction that does not cultivate community. Without a cohesive engaged community, it’s difficult to define the value of your demographics, which makes selling ads problematic. So I guess from that perspective, I would not be surprised to see a bunch of newspapers jumping onto the Kindle band wagon, as it drives off the cliff.
two = too
Why would I buy one? Hmm.. because I like my vision! If you’re looking for a good reason to buy one, I think that’s a pretty good reason. My computer screen loves to make me squint. :)
Does anyone really have 3500 books? that’s just insane.
$500.00 bucks for a device that JUST allows you to read books…..Does it get any dumber than this?
FAIL!
Seriously…this will go the was of laser discs.
We are very disappointed with the new Kindle DX.
See our post about it here: http://www.skratchboard.com/2009/05/kindle-dx-falls-short/
Seems a bit pricey for something they just made slightly bigger…
Didn’t we first see portable ‘monochrome’ screens via the orignal Nintendo game boy over 20+ years ago??
Now you can a larger version of this (with the same capabilities) for 5x the price! What a deal!!
No number of features is worth dropping $500 for an ebook reader. Which has more value, an ebook reader or a PS3?
The Kindle has more value to me. I spend hundreds of dollars a year on books, and they all seem to be cheaper on the Kindle than in physical print. Give me two or three years and I’ll have saved more than the $359 the Kindle cost, easy.
This is incredibly lame. Instead of trying to make the normal-sized Kindle more affordable, thus making it more appealing to the masses, they crank out an even more expensive behemoth that even fewer people will want. For $500, you’d have to be stupid to buy an e-book reader. This is unreal.
let me see, I can, and have, dropped my text book from 2m up onto concrete and still been able to read it. I can read my paper text book twenty years after buying it. I can read my paper text book in any country of the world.
Seems that the US-only, DRM-restricted, fragile electric book replacements have a bit of evolution still to go.
Thanks for your port . It is useful for everybody.
You will see the Demo Video on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0omrYve-xg
for this price i can almost buy a laptop with which i could read browse the net play some games and watch videos and listen to music which i think is way better than just reading books and listening to music in this device
I know you can order the DX now but does anyone know when they will ship?
kdog, they will ship in the summer but they didn’t specify when during the summer – so I guess anytime between 6/21/09 and 9/21/09.
The Kindle DX is already the 4th most popular electronic on Amazon.com and it isn’t even available yet! http://bit.ly/JEHNj
Stop, check out this website for a professional review that you must read before you decide to buy a Kindle DX.
http://amazon-kindle-dx-review.com/
The thing is that the Kindle DX is not necessarily better than the Kindle 2. I still believe that the kindle 2 is much better for reading in general while the DX is for newspaper/textbook reading
Wow!
Amazon is offering refurbished Kindle DX for $399.99! I’m gonna buy mine right now.
;)