Kindle 2

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Unlike Texting, Reading While Driving is Safe.

May 18, 2009 by Mel Dashner

Too many compare Kindle’s text-to-speech to a beautifully crafted and performed audio book. That is a mistake. There’s too much additional information in an audio book represented by among other things, the voices of famous actors. It’s hard to imagine a text-to-speech engine ever being able to impart the drama and emotion of a Richard Burton or Peter O’Toole. Not to mention the fact that two audio books performed by different actors will result in two different works.

The text-to-speech capability in Kindle is obviously not on par with an audio book, or up to speed with the best speech engines. However, once you’re into a book and familiar with the characters and story line, brief episodes with Kindle’s text-to-speech are perfectly acceptable.

For example, let’s say you started reading a particularly thrilling book last evening and continued reading the next morning. Sadly, you must leave for work. Instead of listening to the radio or another rap song, fire up your Kindle and "read" while you drive. Again, it’s not great audio, but at this point you’re so engrossed in the story it doesn’t matter.

Try it. You might be surprised.

Kindle and Wi-Fi

May 11, 2009 by Steve Bain

WhereIsMyWiFi We are surprised that specifications for the Kindle DX include no mention of a Wi-Fi radio. We were not anticipating that a Wi-Fi radio would replace the cellular radio. Rather we were expecting that the two radios might coexist side-by-side.

A recent article at SFGate headlines: Why not a cheaper Wi-Fi-only Kindle? The article’s theme is that the Kindle’s price could likely be reduced by by eliminating the cellular radio and its associated service cost. The answer to the headline’s question is likely that Amazon is seeking a user experience that could not currently be provided by a Wi-Fi radio. Recent informal demographic estimates, developed at the Kindle Culture blog and elsewhere, suggest that the existing Kindle user base is largely older and majority female. This sounds to us like a demographic that may be especially appreciative of configuration-free operation. The Kindle’s existing wireless is fully operational out of the box with no configuration. We geeky types sometimes forget that subscribing to internet service, configuring a Wi-Fi router, enabling WPA security, and entering passwords are hardly inexpensive and intuitive tasks.

For current Kindles, Amazon’s Whispernet service is provided through the Sprint US cellular network. Sprint’s geographic coverage, both CDMA and EVDO, is actually quite impressive. However, Sprint’s coverage is far from universal and is especially spotty in parts of the US northwest. In addition, Sprint’s network has no international coverage. Thus a Wi-Fi radio could be of great benefit to Kindle users in many rural areas and to users who travel internationally. Such a Wi-Fi radio could be disabled by default to retain the existing Kindle’s user experience and battery life.

The marginal cost of the needed electronic components for a low power Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11-g) radio manufactured at the Kindle’s volumes is currently very roughly at around $5.00 per unit, meaning that such a capability would likely add less than $25 to a Kindle’s sales price. Based on teardowns of the Kindle 2, we expect that Amazon has the technical ability to add Wi-Fi at any time to updated versions of either the Kindle 2 or Kindle DX, possibly by changing an integrated wireless daughter card and an internal antenna at the time of manufacture.

We are guessing – and hoping – that the next major Kindle news from Amazon will involve international availability. This will almost certainly require new Kindle models configured with TDMA/GPRS cellular radios, and it is possible that some international markets could be best addressed with Wi-Fi radios exclusively.

The addition of Wi-Fi radios to Kindles for the US market is purely speculative on our part, but Amazon may soon be under competitive pressure to offer such a feature. Thus far, Amazon seems to be doing a good job of positioning and executing to stay a step or two ahead of its e-reader competition.

Which Kindle? Comparing Kindle 2 and Kindle DX

May 6, 2009 by Steve Bain

DX and K2 So you want a Kindle, but now you have the new problem of deciding which one.

The most important thing to understand is that the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX are very similar products that were undoubtedly developed in concert. They share almost all of the same advantages and disadvantages.

Kindle 2 weighs just about a pound including its leather cover. It is more convenient to carry than almost any book in your library, and it fits easily in a purse. Operation in a single hand is possible and even pleasant. Kindle 2 does not natively display PDF files, but Amazon’s free conversion service performs well in our experience for most narrative documents in PDF format, and the service couldn’t be more convenient to use (assuming you are willing to pay pocket change for wireless delivery).

However, the Kindle 2 and its available data formats are not suited to display of documents that require the geometrical richness of a printed page or that need to reference the original page numbers in printed documents. If research papers or technical manuals are an important part of your needs for Kindle, you would be well advised to wait for the DX.

The key distinctive features of the DX are its much larger display and its associated support for a much wider range of PDF documents, including bit-mapped PDFs. If you need to capture paper documents for e-reading, an inexpensive scanner will likely suffice without any requirement for optical character recognition and editing. Thus the DX could be especially useful in a range of applications that depend on scanning paper documents. It is in precisely such applications for complex and bit-mapped documents that the DX’s larger memory may be handy.

Kindle DX has almost twice the weight and surface area of the Kindle 2, so it will be a little less convenient to carry. In fact, the DX is large enough and heavy enough to be considered an exclusively two-handed device.

When both are packaged with the near-essential cover, Kindle DX is priced $150.00 higher than the Kindle 2. To paraphrase one of our team members, $150.00 is a lot of fajitas.

Our take: The Kindle 2 is for pleasure and the Kindle DX is for research, education, and business, but with lots of crossover for both devices at the boundaries. The Kindle DX earns extra credit for users with low vision, since the larger display is sure to be convenient for reading books at large font sizes.

In our experience, the Kindle is one of those rare products that grows on you as you use it. All of the minor issues that may be worrisome as you first experiment with the device rapidly fade into the background of reading. Then many features creep up on you as being much more useful than you originally anticipated. These include the paper-like display, the week-long battery life that largely eliminates any worry about power,  books that never loose your place, an always-available queue of reading material to suit your mood, and the convenience of simply emailing books and other documents for automatic conversion and wireless delivery to the device.

We are very pleased with the Kindle 2, and we look forward to testing and development for the Kindle DX. If you enjoy reading, we expect that you will be pleased with either product.