Archive

Posts Tagged ‘ebook reading device’

The Amazon Kindle DX In Saving The Troubled Newspaper Industry

December 13th, 2009

The newspaper industry has taken a big hit recently and is now looking to the Kindle DX to pull it out of the trenches. As subscriptions hit an all-time low, newspapers have had to make huge budget cuts. For some publications, this means laying off part of the workforce or cutting sections out of the paper. For other papers, it means going to a weekly rather than daily paper. But some newspaper publishers, such as the New York Times, have started looking to the digital world to save their print. While most newspapers are now online, a few have decided to make the switch to the Kindle as well. This has brought about quite a debate among analysts.

Some say that the change is a good thing for the newspaper industry. The printed paper has been around since Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick published its first, and last, edition in 1690. Now that the digital age has revolutionized almost every other facet of human life, the paper is simply falling into place. Many people see the trend as inevitable and think that it would be unwise if papers were to resist. Instead, opting to go where the momentum leads them may allow papers to get to readers more easily and with less waste. Hopefully, this will entice people to pick up their subscriptions again.

However, there are those who say that newspapers are making a mistake by putting their hopes in the Amazon Kindle DX. Most newspapers have already spent the money to take their publications online. They make their money back through advertising revenue since the online publications are free to read by anyone. Now, they want to charge people to read that same free content on their Kindle rather than their computer. Some analysts see this as a waste of time and money that could be the dagger in the heart of the newspaper industry. While it is hard to imagine newspapers disappearing forever, pseudo-journalism such as blogging has already displaced a great deal of trained news reporters.

If more newspapers do turn to the Kindle DX to save their publication, it may spark a renewed interest in the news. The Kindle is already catching on as a phenomenon in the reading world, letting people take thousands of their favorite books wherever they go, as any Kindle DX review will tell you. By offering live updates to popular subscriptions, the Kindle makes it easier than ever to read the paper. You don’t have to get yours out of the mailbox on cold mornings and you don’t have to worry about the environmental impact of all that paper. You don’t even have to wait for your computer to boot up in order to read your favorite news column. You just turn on the Kindle and it’s right there waiting for you.

Now that’s what I would call convenience. But is it enough to save the newspaper industry? Only time will tell.


Others Technology , , , , , , ,

The Amazon Kindle DX Reviews – What Are Buyers Saying About it?

December 12th, 2009

If you check out the huge number of Amazon Amazon Kindle DX Review available on the internet, you will find a mixed bag. While the DX has received mostly positive reviews, it is impossible to please everyone and many people  have some complaints. Many problems people have with the DX are personal issues such as the 12 hour battery not being enough to keep up with their travel- intensive job. But for the vast majority of people, 12 hours is plenty time to read for one day. In order to decide if the Kindle DX is the right handheld ebook reader for you, you have to break down the pros and cons.

List down the advantages of the DX and you’ll find yourself with a rather long list. The hype surrounding it during its release had some basis after all. First, the Kindle DX sports a huge screen with an auto-rotate feature, and natively supports PDF documents. All these make for a great device for reading newspapers, illustration-heavy books, tables, charts, and maps. Its 4GB of hard drive is large enough for your entire library and then some. The DX also has the sleek design of the Kindle 2 but with a much improved look and feel, and better placement of buttons.

The Kindle DX still has to deal with some issues though, some of which are not found on the device itself. One big complaint users have is the use of Digital Rights Management (DRM) which Amazon has chosen to implement with the DX. Although widely-used before, DRM is now somewhat an outdated method of protecting material, yet it limits the documents that you are able to access on your Kindle. Users find that many of their files will not work with the DX and so one would be forced to buy most reading content from Amazon.

There are also complaints about the organizational abilities, or lack thereof, with the DX. If you have a huge library, your options for sorting and managing  your files are limited, making your library hard to navigate. As always, the price must be discussed. The DX is a luxury that many readers just cannot  afford, costing nearly as much as a small laptop.

All that taken into account, it’s time to take a step back and consider if the Kindle DX is worth having. True, it is one of the most pricey gadgets around given the fact that it’s more of a hobby gadget than necessity, but the features that also come with it as an ebook reading device certainly can’t be easily dismissed. It may have its share of flaws which are quite off-putting for some, but these flaws do not affect 100% of buyers. The bottom line is, the Kindle DX may not be for everyone just yet, but for most of those privileged to own one, their purchase was worth the price.


Others Technology , , , , , , , , ,

Amazon Kindle 2 Review: Cutting Through the Hype

December 11th, 2009

When the Kindle first released, it was fairly quiet. It didn’t garner the long wait lines of the iPhone or the stampede for the latest Windows. But if you were an avid reader, it may have caught your attention. When the Amazon Kindle released, people began to realize that there really was an incredible piece of technology here. Now, with the release of the Kindle DX, Amazon has become the leading seller of ebook readers and the DX is their new top-end product.

But is all this popularity well-founded or is it just hype brought on by a new piece of technology? To be fair, it is a bit of both. The Kindle is far from a perfect device and it won’t be replacing the paper book just yet, but it does offer the best possible way to take your books, and lots of them, wherever you want to go. That portability is something you just cannot find with normal books. And even though the Kindle DX is big, roughly the dimensions of a sheet of paper but considerably thicker, it can bring over 3,000 books with it. You would need quite a backpack to carry a library that big with you.

The Kindle 2 has plenty of competition from other portable ebook reader, but the new Kindle DX is in a category all its own. Amazon has built a reader that is an improvement over the competition in almost every way. Whether it is more storage, an easier-to-read screen or the rotating views ala the iPhone, the Kindle DX is unmatched in its features. But it remains unmatched in its price as well.

The cost is probably the key reason many people don’t have a DX and perhaps why many people never will. At nearly 500 dollars, you would expect the ebook reader to do, or come with, a lot more. You don’t get a cover, you don’t get any free books, you can only view in grayscale and you end up with a device that is extremely limited due to copy protection. If you pay so much, why can’t you get a few extras thrown in?

Since the Kindle is a fairly new device, it still hasn’t completely broken into the market. Although it is the most popular one, the Kindle still can’t offer its internet connection service outside the country. Once the Kindle is more established, this is likely to change. For now, many people just see it as a fancy way to read books. But it wasn’t so long ago that the iPod was just a fancy way to listen to music. Now, it is one of the most widely spread pieces of technology you can find. The Kindle remains revolutionary in what it offers. Eventually, it is hard to imagine that paper books will not be replaces. For now, it is still a luxury to many people, but as it discovers its territory in the marketplace, more and more homes will be losing the bookshelf and getting a Kindle.


Others Technology , , , , , , , ,