Amazon Debuts Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Fire HD In 2 Sizes 307
Nerval's Lobster writes "Amazon used a Sept. 6 event in California to debut a range of products, including a front-lit [not back-lit, as originally reported] Kindle e-reader with a higher-resolution screen, an updated Kindle Fire, and the new Kindle Fire HD in two screen sizes. First, Bezos showed off a new version of the Kindle e-reader, the Kindle Paperwhite, complete with a front-lit, higher-resolution screen (221 pixels-per-inch and 25 percent more contrast, according to Amazon). The device weighs 7.5 ounces and is 9.1mm thin; battery life is rated at eight weeks, and the screen brightness is adjustable. He then showed off the updated Kindle Fire, before moving to the Kindle Fire HD, which features a choice of 7-inch or 8.9-inch screens, dual stereo speakers with Dolby Digital Plus, two antennas for better Wi-Fi pickup, and a Texas Instruments OMAP 4470 processor (which Bezos claimed could out-perform the Tegra 3). The Kindle Fire HD's 7-inch version will retail for $199 and ship Sept. 14, while the 8.9-inch version will cost $299 and ship Nov. 20. An 8.9-inch, 4G LTE-enabled version with 32GB storage will be available starting Nov. 20 for $499, paired with a $49.99-a-year data plan."
But it's not the google experience (Score:2, Insightful)
I want to feel warm and fuzzy and covered in the goodness of complete googleness
Re:But it's not the google experience (Score:5, Informative)
I want to feel warm and fuzzy and covered in the goodness of complete googleness
I picked up a Fire as a cheap 'Android' tablet while visiting the US. Once I got it back to the UK, it was pretty hopeless. No Amazon Marketplace over here and the odd hardware profile means most apps turn up their nose at it, even with sideloaded Google Market. I will be looking at the Nexus 7 or similar when I come to replace it. Sorry Amazon, nice try, but your walled garden isn't for me.
Re:But it's not the google experience (Score:5, Interesting)
It is absolutely trivial to transform a Kindle Fire into a regular Android tablet. My mom did it. I got a refurb one specifically for that purpose. It is currently running Jelly Bean pretty smoothly.
Re:But it's not the google experience (Score:5, Insightful)
Amazon's walled garden is the #1 strength of the Nexus 7. Also, the latest Android is nice. I have the Amazon Kindle app, the B&N Nook app, Google's Play Books app, and of course an audio-book player which is what I use most often. I was wondering what Amazon could offer that would make me wish I had a Kindle Fire HD. Looks like nothing.
On the positive side, the $300 price point for the larger device is eye-opening, though I'm pretty happy with my 7". My family keeps stealing it, and my wife travels with it, even though she has an iPad. The Nexus 7 is simply a better e-book reader than any current iPad.
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That is just a bizarre comparison. BBC is paid for by the *government*, Amazon is a private company. I don't see why a Kindle couldn't work perfectly outside the US.
[citation needed] (Score:4)
Huh. I'm looking at Title 17 of the US Code, and nowhere among the exclusive rights of copyright holders is "export" listed. So, I'm thinking, some kind of evidence supporting this claim would be nice.
This would suggest that the UK doesn't allow imports of anything that could be subject to copyright unless it had a registered UK copyright. Aside from the fact that this would be impossible to enforce (given the scope of things that are subject to copyright protection and how impossible it would be to verify that for every import it would apply to), this is, like the last, a pretty extraordinary claim for which some evidence would be welcome.
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It is extraordinarily misleading to claim that this supports the claim that the US prohibits exports without the copyright holders permission. No "export" -- which would require a tangible good -- is involved here, and the only reason that copyright law might be involved (as opposed to contract law) is because what you call "broadcast" is actually el
Re:But it's not the google experience (Score:5, Insightful)
the UK government protects its local artists/authors by not allowing imports unless registered under UK copyrights.
What? What?
Bullshit.
I've exported plenty of books to the UK, (when I worked for a publisher) never heard of this requirement.
Maybe you're thinking of North Korea or wherever it is you live, because "copyright registration" is not a requirement" to sell books in any civilised country.
However, I'm sure publishers do want to restrict the marketing regions. They will have contractual arrangement with Amazon to do so. But that's nothing to do with either copyright or the UK government.
Re:But it's not the google experience (Score:5, Interesting)
What's really weird about your counterpoint is: There was a time in the 80's and 90's when the US donated launch vehicles to put up BBC's satelites over various tropical locations such as the Carribean, and the treaties that made this possible spelled out that US citizens who could get line of sight to those birds could legally access the programming. Living in Fla. at the time, I was one of the people who did it. Later, i was told by a US government source that they never meant to have that knowledge become generally public, and actually wrote the BBC to confirm it was as I remembered. BBC reps actually sent me a government address to contact if I wanted more information and confirmed that was their understanding as well, so I have no idea who the US government was acting on behalf of.
Re:But it's not the google experience (Score:5, Insightful)
>>>Sorry Amazon, nice try, but your walled garden isn't for me.
One could say the same about the BBC and their "walled garden". Why on earth did you think you could use an amazon tablet outside of its home country? I certainly don't expect to be able to hear/watch BBC outside of the UK.
Because I paid for the tablet, but I don't pay for the BBC?
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Does Google include 10-20 dollar books that can be borrowed for free? Or Fantasy & Science magazine for a mere $12/year? Or e-ink that is easy on the eyes? Or free 3G web surfing? My kindle has all of that.
Re: (Score:3)
and a nice horribly slow refresh rate, no games, no netflix, or any other useful application.
Eink is not a tablet replacement.
The crossover (Score:2)
and a nice horribly slow refresh rate, no games, no netflix, or any other useful application.
Not true of the Fire which fixes all of those problems and still gives you the first two things listed (lending and cheap SF).
The eInk kindle cannot replace a tablet, no, it simply makes for a great companion to a tablet...
And if you like the eInk Kindle why would you not start to consider the Fire?
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And if you like the eInk Kindle why would you not start to consider the Fire?
Because if I want an eye-searing backlit reader to use after the lights go out, I'll use my wife's iPad 3 which has a much better DPI than the Fire. Horses for courses, and for reading I'll use my e-ink Kindle whenever I can (and maybe I'll get the new Paperweight to solve the after-dark problem). When I want to use a tablet for tablety stuff, the Fire is not my first choice.
DPI (Score:4, Insightful)
iPad 3 which has a much better DPI than the Fire
iPad 3rd Gen has a resolution of 2048×1536 on a 9.7" screen, giving it a DPI of 264.
Kindle Fire HD 8.9" has a resolution of 1920x1200 on a 8.9" screen, giving it a DPI of 254.
For all intents and purposes, the Kindle Fire HD has the same DPI as the latest iPad.
Re:But it's not the google experience (Score:5, Insightful)
Nor is a tablet a suitable replacement for an Eink reader.
Re:But it's not the google experience (Score:5, Informative)
Actually it is. I use one in that fashion regularly.
Re:But it's not the google experience (Score:4, Insightful)
As has been reported recently on Slashdot (and known to people with circadian rhythm disorders for much longer) staring at a backlit screen at night can seriously screw up your sleep schedule. Not to mention many people have more eyestrain from backlit screens than non-emissive ones. For many people, a tablet is a terrible replacement for an eInk ereader. Does make me wonder if this Paperwhite will have the same problems though.
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That study did not seem very complete. I would bet on a strong placebo effect.
Eyestrain from backlit screens is another one of those bullshit conditions. People spend 8 hours looking into an LCD, then go home and spend another couple hours looking at a bigger LCD. No one ever complains about the monitor or the tv, but if its a book they say "oh noes lcd will burn the eyeballs out of your sockets!!".
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I am not a homosexual, not sure why you would think I was. I have some gay friends I can introduce you to if you are looking for a date.
I own only 1 apple device, a macbook air running linux. I despise the iOS devices.
I have a nook, which has an lcd and it works great.
Re:But it's not the google experience (Score:4, Insightful)
I like eink as I don't have to stare at a light bulb to read. Plus it has about a one month battery life.
Re:But it's not the google experience (Score:5, Informative)
The new kindle paperwhite includes a page light, so this is no longer true.
Re:But it's not the google experience (Score:5, Insightful)
So, it has a light, but does it do PDF annotation? Can you zoom and navigate and crop PDFs easily? No.
The primary use for an e-ink reader is to read novels. PDF is not a suitable format for that. Although the Sony reader has the features you ask for, for those of us who don't read children's books they are not necessary. Technical reference works is not really what it's designed for either, but it's quite adequate, and far better than the tablet I left at home.
Look, if you don't read novels e-ink is not for you. Get a tablet for your games, browsing, magazines and illustrated PDFs. We who *do* read novels are quite happy with our readers. BTW, I also have a tiny clip-on reading light which works perfectly well, but I almost never bring it because I don't need it.
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I'm at the point in my life where I don't want to manage a shitload of different devices.
If you don't read books, then an ebook reader isn't for you. But if you do read books, what would you rather do? Manage a single device, or manage a shitload of different books?
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Why would you need to annotate a PDF when you're reading an epub? Why would you need to zoom and crop a novel that has been reflowed with whatever text size you have chosen?
the e-ink readers are designed for just that.. reading. Expecting one to be a PDF editor is pretty retarded.
The comment was about e-ink readers not being useful in the dark, that was what my reply was in response to. Moving the goalposts doesn't make you look smarter, it makes it clear you're not.
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I think you are forgetting about the incredibly useful application that millions of e-ink kindle owners are incredibly satisfied. Or do you need all of your entertainment spoonfed to you through a bunch of blinky lights?
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Re:But it's not the google experience (Score:5, Interesting)
"My kindle has all of that."
Mine too. I own all the models but the touch has a problem in country life.
Each time a fly lands on it, there's a page change, back or forward, depending on the landing zone.
Sometimes the fly also looks-up a word in the dictionary.
Re:But it's not the google experience (Score:5, Funny)
Hold long will the (hu)man hold down the proud black fly?
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"My kindle has all of that."
Mine too. I own all the models but the touch has a problem in country life.
Each time a fly lands on it, there's a page change, back or forward, depending on the landing zone.
Sometimes the fly also looks-up a word in the dictionary.
At one time an ant highlighted the words "advocate leniency" on a page in my Sony reader. Maybe those insects have more communication skills than we give them credit for :)
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I have the GlowLight model. B&N's hardware is nicer than Amazon's, as is their software, but their actual ebooks leave something to be desired. I've encountered a lot more formatting errors than I did on the Kindle, and even several books that didn't let me change the font. I actually had to resort to stripping the DRM from the EPUBs (or just downloading pirate copies of books I bought), unzipping them, and manually adding the font files and editing the manifest, CSS, etc. It's a damn pain, and the
Like the multi-user features (Score:5, Interesting)
Kindle has a nice idea of how the device can be used in a family, where the parents can control time spent by kids.
It'll be interesting to see if Apple has anything up and comping to address this same problem, until now they have kind of ignore this.
I think Amazon could do very well with the new Fire, and also the new PaperWhite kindle - that's the first e-ink Kindle that appeals to me, the others were just too low contrast for me. And even iPad owners could easily be enticed to buy a cheaper e-ink Kindle... that could well help cement them as the leader in e-Books (not that they were not already pretty cemented).
Re:Like the multi-user features (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Like the multi-user features (Score:4, Interesting)
That probably is Apple's plan. It was easy enough to carry forth when there were no good competitors. But instead of getting each of two kids an iPad, a single Kindle Fire for both is viable... it'll be interesting to see uptake on this vs. Apple's plan, or if Apple decides that in fact they should think about more of a multi-user approach.
Apple is even sort of well positioned to take up multi-user stuff if they want to thanks to iCloud, each kid could have a different iCloud account and the device could easily switch home directories based on the current iCloud user setting. They just don't make that easy to do right now (I think it would re-sync the device every time you switched users).
Indeed, Amazon could probably not have managed this this family thing without the Whispersync stuff in place themselves...
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You've met any siblings? If one wants to do something, the other will want to do the same thing, just because the other does it. Time share plan is a good idea in theory... practice on the other hand ... not so much.
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That's a great point but it comes up hard against the economic reality of many families not being able to afford an iPad per kid.
I know a number of families that make kids share an iPad, it builds character after all. But with a multi-user approach a brother could not screw with his sisters games.
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If you had the rubber case in the first place, you wouldn't have had the kids.
Is "Thick rubber case" the modern version of Twain's barrel?
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You've met any siblings? If one wants to do something, the other will want to do the same thing, just because the other does it. Time share plan is a good idea in theory... practice on the other hand ... not so much.
Talk about a first-world problem. "I had to get little Timmy his own iPad because he and little Johnny were always fighting over the other one." Heaven forbid kids should learn to share. (Strongly resisting the obvious "back when I was a kid" anecdote. I'm only partially successful.)
Re:Like the multi-user features (Score:5, Insightful)
But instead of getting each of two kids an iPad, a single Kindle Fire for both is viable...
I'm guessing that you don't have two (or more) kids. Share is typically not in their vocabulary.
Re:Like the multi-user features (Score:5, Insightful)
That's because of shitty parenting. Proper parenting results in sharing. Shitty parenting results in kids that are rutted and who simply grow, like a cow or a vegetable. Proper parenting involves raising children so that they understand the concepts of sharing, respect, playing nice, etc.
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Not true. My one year-old has learned to scream "share!" as she rips a toy out of her older brother's hand....
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...the parents can control time spent by kids.
Wow, they can use the device to make sure kids read?
Possibly yes (Score:3)
Wow, they can use the device to make sure kids read?
The parental controls could in theory, allocate the amount of time permitted between apps and books.
I have no idea if they do, but they could.
That doesn't technically make them read but reading on a tablet might be "cool" enough even a kid that did not otherwise want to read would do so.
8 weeks instead of 2 months battery? (Score:2)
Interesting change in wording. That means 56 days of reading 1-hour per day instead of 62 days. Meanwhile Barnes advertises "over 2 months" for their nooks.
Also the 4G version probably won't have free web surfing (like the kindle keyboard has).
Re:8 weeks instead of 2 months battery? (Score:5, Informative)
Interesting change in wording. That means 56 days of reading 1-hour per day instead of 62 days. Meanwhile Barnes advertises "over 2 months" for their nooks.
Are you quite sure?
Barnes on Nook Glowlight:
Read for over 1 month on a single charge with GlowLight on (based on a half hour of daily reading time)1 Read for over 2 months with GlowLight off (based on a half hour of daily reading time)1
Amazon on Kindle Paperwhite:
"So we worked on our power management — Kindle paperwhite can get eight weeks of battery life even with the light on.
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks for the correction. :-) Sounds like amazon's glowing ebook lasts about 3 weeks longer than the Nook Glow. Ya know..... it would be simpler for customers if they just used "hours":
"The Glow last over 30 hours with glowlight; over 60 hours without glowlight." - "Amazon Paperwhite lasts 56 hours even with the light..... almost double that without."
Re: (Score:2)
Ya know..... it would be simpler for customers if they just used "hours":
"The Glow last over 30 hours with glowlight; over 60 hours without glowlight." - "Amazon Paperwhite lasts 56 hours even with the light..... almost double that without."
It would be simpler for us, but I believe that for most customers that half an hour a day value (I hope they at least have the same daily amount) does give a better estimate on how long they can actually use the device without recharging ^.^ Actually, a value over 20 hours is all I would need...
Backlit? Frontlit? (Score:3)
I think the terms you are looking for are frontlit and thick. Still, I'm a bit disappointed that the DX is such an ugly stepchild. Certainly there's a market for a reasonably priced larger format e-reader.
I'm thinking about returning my recently acquired kindle gen 4 since I may not get to use it much in the next month, and a built in light is a major feature.
All this technology... (Score:2)
Re:All this technology... (Score:5, Insightful)
Sales tax is not state by state, it is county by county or in some states town by town.
I have been involved in projects to do this and it is a huge PITA. State sales tax is easy, town or county are hard since zip codes and other such normal address data do not tell you if they are within a town/county or not.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
The tax rates available from the state generally is only updated once a year, and not at the same time as the county/town. This means you have to buy a subscription to a service to handle this, and they well may not be 100% up to date either. Then you have to check if the user in the county/town whatever, for practical reasons they means asking like you have seen.
Hard is the wrong word though, it is not a hard problem just one you have to solve over and over. The real problem is when you find out you did it
Re: (Score:2)
>>>computing sales tax on a state-by-state business is too difficult for them
Actually Amazon collects use* tax in ~10 different states, so you're hitting them without reason. Weird observation though: They only charge me 1.5% instead of the full 6%. Guess the computation IS difficult after all.
*
*It's called a "use" tax not a sales tax when the product originates from a non-resident seller. And it only applies to Amazon not the private sellers.
I read "Paperweight" instead of "Paperwhite" (Score:5, Funny)
I read "Paperweight" instead of "Paperwhite"
$159 for 7" Fire (non HD) (Score:2)
Which is a sweet price for a 7" tablet as long as it can be rooted and ROM'd.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/09/amazon-shows-off-new-kindle-fire-shipping-sept-14-for-159/ [arstechnica.com]
OMAP 4470 can't do shit (Score:2)
OMAP 4470 "Can outperform the Tegra 3"? The Tegra 3 has 1.2-1.7 GHz QUAD CORE ARM Cortex-A9 application-optimized cores with NEON. The OMAP 4470 has 1.5-1.8GHz DUAL CORE ARM Cortex-A9 application optimized cores with NEON. You know that means the slowest Tegra has 1/3 more processing power available than the fastest OMAP 4470, and its single-core speed is 2/3 that of the OMAP? If you went with the Tegra 3 T33 used in the Asus T700 at 1.7GHz, you'd have 95% of the single core speed and 90% more total pro
Re: (Score:2)
Re:OMAP 4470 can't do shit (Score:4, Informative)
You're focused exclusively on processing speed, you've totally ignored power consumption, display functions, and surrounding support chips. As I said, you don't understand systems, or the difference between raw speed and performance. If Amazon says the OMAP provides better performance, I believe them, since they have to take very much more into account than just MIPS.
Oh, and you've gotten your facts very wrong. The OMAP 4470 is a 4 core processor, and the Tegra is a 5 core processor. The OMAP, in addition to the 2 A9 cores, it has 2 M3 cores, which consume only 32 uW/MHz (a regular A9 core consumes ~300 uW/MHz at its most efficient) . This is very likely why it outperforms the Tegra in this application.
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You're forgetting the SGX554, clock for clock it's twice as powerful as the GeForce ULP.
THIS. In mobile, the GPU tends to be a bit more important than raw CPU power. This is because we are doing a lot of pixel pushing to render the final UI. On something like the Tegra 2, the UI could be slow because the fill-rate on Tegra 2 was comparatively low. A SOC with a better GPU but worse CPU would feel much smoother when navigating the UI. It is not often that you are maxing out a core, let alone four of them.
Steve jobs would never have allowed this (Score:4, Funny)
Steve jobs would never have allowed this to happen
He would have had bezos killed by his secret ninja assassins a long time ago
Re:Steve jobs would never have allowed this (Score:5, Funny)
Bezos uploads a backup of himself daily to S3. You can't kill him, you can only return him to the last backup point.
To kill Bezos, you have have to kill S3.
Re: (Score:3)
Hah, where do you think I got the idea? Irony points: I read it via Kindle app on the iPad.
Hardware good, software not so much (Score:2)
The hardware seems good for the price, but I'm not at all thrilled with Amazon's custom software. The Kindle Fire HD might be a good deal if they get CyanogenMod working on it. A resolution of 1920x1080 on a 8.9-inch tablet doesn't quite match Apple's 10" @ 2048x1536, but it comes pretty close and is $200 cheaper. Strangely, no articles seem to say what the resolution will be on the smaller 7-inch Kindle Fire HD.
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HD usually means 1920x1080. Unless they got the naming wrong (and get sued for misleading advertising), the 7" should be 1920x1800 too.
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Er, make that 1920x1080 (sorry about the typo)
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No, HD is 1280*720. Sucker.
No page turn buttons :( (Score:5, Insightful)
Why why why Amazon? Pretty much everything about the new Kindle sounds great except for the lack of page turn buttons. I'm still using my 3rd generation Kindle and I'd love to upgrade it to a higher contrast screen with built in lighting, but touchscreen-only navigation is a killer. It makes one handed reading more difficult and uncomfortable, will cause screen smudges, and will be nearly impossible to operate with gloves.
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This was my reaction exactly. However I've never tried a Kindle touch, and imagined there was some sort of swipe gesture required. I just had a look on youtube though and it seems pretty tolerable.
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I've not used a non-touch Kindle, but I can't imagine it being any easier than the Kindle Touc
Still nothing for college textbooks. (Score:5, Informative)
Kindle DX2 please. 11 inch screen with this new screen tech please.. I know a LOT of people that would kill for an A4 size screen.
Re: (Score:3)
Yes, and this time actually support it please. My original Kindle DX feels about as abandoned as they get - not a single update, unlike the smaller, non-premium cost models, to browser functionality, only one freaking image per periodical... it's ridiculous. I will not buy another Kindle until I see assurance that it isn't going to get ignored, support wise, the same way the original DX has been.
Re:Price on data plan is suspect (Score:4, Informative)
250MB per month before you have to pay more
Re: (Score:2)
Hey, that's over 8MB a day. That's right, 8 *Mega*bytes, bitches! And it's "Mega" so you KNOW it's gots to be big! Let's see someone else top THAT!
Re:Price on data plan is suspect (Score:4, Funny)
8MB of bandwidth per day ought to be enough for anybody. ;)
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In other words that's about twice as expensive as $20 for 2GB that I pay to my cell phone company.
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You pay $20 per year to get 2GB of data each month?
nope.jpg (Score:2)
In other words that's about twice as expensive as $20 for 2GB that I pay to my cell phone company.
Your calculation is wrong, but even if your calculation was right, it would certainly not be the case. People don't use up to their limit all the time. $20 for 2GB, $10 for 1GB or $5 for 500MB or $1 for 100MB are certainly not the same plan. I would be super happy to have a $1 for 100MB, pretty upset with $10 for 1GB and feel ripped off with $100 for 10GB.
Not suspect, that was the highlight (Score:3)
They made a big deal in a comparison slide about how the data plan was just $50 for a year of 256mb/month data. I believe that was even global!
That's a pretty impressive arrangement.
I do wonder if it will be undercut a bit by shared data plans the carriers are just starting to offer. Bringing a 4G iPad into a home that already has two iPhones means only $10/month extra device fee... that's still $120 though.
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That's a pretty impressive arrangement.
not so much.
on my phone, i use 250MB in 3 days or so. i just checked my nexus 7, and it has used 2GB is a week, and it's sitting idle 90% of the day. if you just left a tablet idle for a month it'd use over 250MB (because of various apps that are performing background data transfers ... like email, IM, weather, news, and other basic things everyone has on their device).
250MB is enough to download e-books and read email occasionally. you are SOL of you have ideas of downloading music or movies or streaming a
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not so much.
on my phone, i use 250MB in 3 days or so. i just checked my nexus 7, and it has used 2GB is a week
Sure, but at home the device will mostly be on WiFi.
256MB/month is actually quite a lot of data if you are mostly around WiFi.
you are SOL of you have ideas of downloading music or movies or streaming anything or playing online games.
Music or movies you would have downloaded at home. Online games (especially online tablet games) do not usually use up THAT much bandwidth.
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It also means reading state is properly synced all the time.
I have an iPhone, without trying especially to conserve data my cellular usage is around 300 MB/month. That's using maps, using the web when out and about, checking email. 256MB is a lot more useful than you are making out especially for more casual data users that are mostly reading.
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That's a winner for me. I use so little data - I just need a little information most of the time. Give this baby a custom interface for an in-dash entertainment system and I'm all over it.
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This will certainly be a good selling point. I have 250MB limit on some of my devices. Given that most of my time is spent in WiFi vicinity, I don't really go over. For most people who are
Are you sure it's not e-ink? (Score:2)
I thought it was e-ink with a special kind of backlighting.
But I can't really tell from the story link, it doesn't say lcd or e-ink...
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
it's e-ink with a "fiber optic" layer that lights from above.
Great point (Score:2)
Now I remember why I thought it was e-ink.
The backlighting is not like LCD backlighting. It looked really interesting from the displays, and they claimed it was just like having ambient light on a page.
Re:Paper White!! Wait, what? (Score:5, Informative)
I saw paperwhite and was hoping this was a resurgence for E-Ink. Sadly no, it's not.
It's e-Ink, at least according to http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/06/kindle-paperwhite/ [engadget.com]. It would have to be, to have an 8 week runtime.
Re:Paper White!! Wait, what? (Score:4, Interesting)
Was e-ink ever gone ? No LCD beats it for long reading sessions.
I didn't find that to be the case for previous e-ink kindles, the lower contrast was like looking at dirty paper and bothered me enough I preferred LCD's for hours of reading.
The new Paperwhite display looks like a winner to me though, finally realizing the full potential of electronic paper along with a great lighting solution. I think it could be the first e-ink I really do find preferable to an LCD, and it has a decent PPI for rendering text.
Re:Backlit?! (Score:4, Informative)
It's NOT BACKLIT. Submitter wasn't paying attention. It's an illuminated display, you can turn it off.
Re: (Score:2)
Article claims backlit as well.
"But first, Bezos showed off a new version of the Kindle e-reader, the Kindle Paperwhite, complete with a backlit, higher-resolution screen (221 pixels-per-inch and 25 percent more contrast, according to Amazon). "
Has anyone on Slashdot actually seen one? Is it front-lit or back-lit?
Re:Backlit?! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Backlit?! (Score:4, Informative)
I watched the live presentation. It is a front lit display using a new technology to light the front of the display using nanoimprinted light channels in the glass. It acts like ambient light but it is not a backlight in any way shape or form. It also claims 8 weeks of battery life with the light on. I guess the closest thing you could call it is redirected side lighting? The live blog from gizmodo has a picture of the tech as it was show on the bigscreen. http://live.gizmodo.com/page5.html.
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I always thought you could do backlit e-ink by making the white component flourescent and providing a UV LED backlight ; I wonder if that's how it works.
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The Kindle Fire was the original successful 7" android tablet.
Apple is going to be releasing their Fire knock off soon and the nexus came out a few months ago.
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The only things I dislike about the Kindle Touch software are that it shows books as a list of titles rather than cover art, and it doesn't show you how much left you have in a chapter (oddly, the non-Touch Kindle does show you this data). The first looks like it might be remedied, at least from screenshots, and in the presentation today, Bezos said that the Paperwhite tells you how much time you have left in your current chapter. Yes, time, not pages or "locations" or percentage. It tracks your reading
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>>>250MB/month data cap
Only applies when you're outside the U.S. While I'm inside the states I surf on my kindle keyboard 3G as much as I want..... reading facebook, ebay, wikipedia, etc.
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Re:WAY too little too late. (Score:4)
"Why would I give up one walled garden to go to another? With Android you have choice."
With the properly chosen android device you have choice. Please dont sugar coat it, the Kindle Fire is android and it has NO choice unless you hack it. In fact the only tablets I know of that give you freedom of choice is the nexus 7 from google. Unlocked bootloader and pure Jellybean os with no crap installed. Unlike the Xoom.