Amazon started shipping their new version of Kindle last week, the DX. Apparently Amazon is aiming the DX at students (textbooks), magazine and newspaper readers, and business people who are able to e-mail Microsoft Word files and Adobe PDF documents to their Kindle. There is a charge to e-mail documents to your Kindle.
According to Walter S. Mossberg, writing in the Wall Street Journal, the DX is 85 percent larger than the original Kindle. He says he finds the added weight and size more awkward and tiring to use than the original Kindle. The DX sports a 9.7-inch screen (versus the original Kindle’s 6-inch screen) which can be rotated to read in landscape mode. This larger display is, I imagine, better for newspapers and magazines.
There’s still no color; images appear in greyscale.
The DX costs $489 and the smaller Kindle is still available at $359.
I don’t own a Kindle, but last week I used the Kindle app for the iPhone to download John Lescroart’s The Second Chair, which I’d left half finished in the seat pocket in front of me on a recent flight. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about reading a book on an iPhone, but, to my surprise, it’s fine. As a matter of fact, it’s downright handy. I can read a few pages anytime I find myself stuck in traffic or waiting in a long line at the grocery store. I read a couple of chapters the other day as I sat outside helping the sun set. It was fine.