My View: Kindle DX

As many people are aware Amazon shipped the first Kindle DX ebook readers this week. I received mine on June 12th having pre-ordered in early May.

I've been reading a large number of posts and previews on the DX from people who I figure either have only had a Kindle for 24 hours, or are basing their opinions on what they have read about the new device. As an owner of the original Kindle for over a year, I wanted to weigh in with my view of what the DX means to someone who uses a Kindle every day.

I will tell you right up front that I am an avid reader in a family of avid readers. My wife and daughter both own Kindles. They both read much more than I do, and the Kindles have almost become members of the family, being taken everywhere they go.

The DX had two features that I wanted in my ebook reader since I first got the original Kindle last year. The first is a screen that comes closer to a full sized magazine or hard back book. I read a lot of technical and scientific books, including texts on software engineering which is my profession. A limitation of the original Kindle was it's ability to show long source code listings or mathematical equations on the smaller screen. The DX resolves this problem with a 9.7" diagonal screen compared to the 6" diagonal screen of the Kindle 1 and 2.

The second feature was the ability to read PDF natively. The original Kindle was much maligned by reviewers for the lack of PDF support. To a certain extent this was an unfair complaint against the Kindle because it was and still is actualy possible to convert PDF documents to a format that can be read on the Kindle. The problem is that the conversion process often lead to badly formatted material. Unless you wanted to take the time yourself to learn how to convert a PDF text to the Kindle format and edit the results to look better the results weren't always ideal.

The DX is capable of displaying PDF documents directly. Simply copy any PDF document you have to the Kindle's memory and the document appears on the Kindle's home screen. Click on it and you see the full PDF formatted file just like reading on the computer screen. There are some limitations, but most of those have to do with limitations of PDF and not necessarily the Kindle.

One of the very nice new features of the DX is the Auto rotating screen. With this you can turn the Kindle on it's side or even upside down and the text is rotated to the screen. Thus you can read in Portrait or Landscape format which makes reading some alrger PDF files even easier. This feature works with all text being read on the Kindle DX.

One of the new features of both the Kindle 2 and DX which often receives complaints is the Text-to-Speech feature. This allows you to listen to (almost) any document while it is read to you with either a male or female automated voice. I tried this out for the first time and was actually surprised with the realistic voice. It doesn't match a real human readers emotive voice. However, this feature is primarily aimed at people who either cannot see well enough to read text, or people who need to review a document when they cannot see the screen. While driving for instance. And for that the Text-to-Speech feature does the job very well. This feature would make the Kindle a great choice for people with limited eye-sight.

Unfortunately the feature does not work with all documents on the Kindle. Worse, this is not a technical issue, but rather an political/ecnomic issue. It seems that a number of publishers and authors were concerned with the loss of revenue for their audio books. If a person could purchase a best seller for $9.99 on the Kindle, and use the Text-to-Speech feature, why would they spend $30 for the Audio book version. For this reason Amazon was forced to include a feature which allowed Publishers to decide if a book could be converted to speech. So much for assisting those who are physically challenged. The message seems to be that if you need an audio book, you must pay more for the privlege.

Hopefully this issue will cause sufficient uproar that the publishers will be forced to reverse their decision and open up ebooks to those who need to listen to a book to enjoy it.

As a piece of technology the DX has some limitations. It is much larger and heavier than the original Kindle and Kindle 2. None the less, it still weighs less than many large books which it is designed to replace. For myself, I wish I had gotten the Kindle last year before reading David McCullough's excellent but boat anchor like John Adams. Often when we are out together and I want to put the Kindle away, it fits easily into my wife's purse next to her own Kindle. The DX won't fit in there, and she won't be willing to carry its extra weight in any event.

The Kindle DX supports 16 shades of gray as opposed to the orignal Kindle's 4 shades display. This is a big improvement in the eInk and I must say I find the few illustrations I have in my eboks are easier on the eye in 16 shades. Color, of course, isnt' coming to the Kindle anytime soon. Colored eInk technology is still several years away provided the manufacturers can produce color displays that do anything more vibrant than light pastels. For now I don't mind this bit as all of the books I read are printed in black and white anyway.

Many people still don't understand the pricing of he Kindles. At $489 for the DX it does at first seem to be very expensive. However, what most people miss is the built in Whispernet. The Kindle's price includes lifetime (life of the Kindle) use of the 3G network which can be used to browse for books on Amazon's website, download books and browse the Internet from anywhere the service is at. Right now this includes the United States only. Whispernets backbone is the Sprint wireless network which is the same network you would use for text, email and browsing on a Sprint Blackberry device. The important thing to understand is that there is no monthly charge for this usage. The Kindle price includes this usage with one exception.

If you want to send a non-Amazon created book to your Kindle via the wireless network, you will pay at a rate of approximately US$0.15 per megabyte. Notice, you can avoid this charge by simply copying any electronic document from your Desktop or Laptop PC to the Kindle via the USB interface. There are numerous other ways to get books and articles onto your Kindle without paying this fee. So this really isn't an issue for Kindle owners.

It is also important to recongize that there are numerous ebook outlets on the Internet. If your taste runs to classical literature, you can probably find any book you want free of charge via Feedbooks.com or Project Gutenberg.

The truth is, the Kindle isn't intended for casual readers who read only a handful of books every year. Where the Kindle really makes sense is for heavy readers, and travelers. Where the ability to search for, find and purchase a book directly on your Kindle anywhere you happen to be (within the U.S.) I know that for myself and my wife, the Kindle's pay for themselves in the lower priced ebooks versus paper books.

Remember also that paperless books are better for the environment. We cut down fewer trees now. I suspect my wife's reading habits alone probably saved an entire forest in the last year. I know of both medical and legal professionals who have converted to the Kindle to save money and space. It has also made them more productive as they have their entire library immediately available.

Like any technology, the Kindle isn't for everyone. If you are an avid reader, read a lot of textbooks, PDF documents or larger formatted journals, the DX is definitely worth your attention. For people like my wife and I, the Kindle is must have technology. The space we've saved in our home is all the justification we need. When my wife first heard about the Kindle back in early 2007 she told me it looked like a way to avoid putting up more bookshelves in our house. My initial reaction was that the Kindle would have to provide a much better reading experience than reading on my Laptop. It has exceeded that requirement and has been a constant traveling companion for both of us for the past year, and hopefully for many years to come.