The Gadget Blog » Kindle DX

Student Sues Amazon for Remotely Deleting 1984 From His Kindle

Rico Mossesgeld — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 10:31:32 +0000

Yes, it’s amazing that Amazon can remotely delete customers’ books, and hide behind a prompt refund.

What’s even more amazing is a student is willing to go through the trouble of suing Amazon over this (the company deleted his copy of 1984, which he needed to finish homework) to “set a precedent”. Not for money in other words, but to make the courts declare remote control of paid merchandise illegal.

I’m suddenly glad the Kindle never tempted me too much. Then again, I’ve also started worrying about my Steam games collection, which of course is subject to Valve’s control.

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Why iPhone Kindle Won’t Kill Kindle

Rico Mossesgeld — Tue, 12 May 2009 13:00:01 +0000

So people are saying that the iPhone Kindle app, which more or less provides the same ebook reading functionality on Apple’s smartphone, will kill the Kindle. Makes sense actually. After all, why spend $360 on a gadget that can only do one thing, when you can spend roughly the same for a smartphone that multi-tasks? This argument appeals especially to die-hard fans of the Apple “experience”.

Courtesy of Amazon

At the same time however, I can tell you that reading text on a backlit display strains the eyes. The e-ink of Amazon’s Kindle, on the other hand, is easy on the optics. That’s still why a lot of us still prefer reading printed words on dead trees, even if literally all books ever written are available through the web browser; no tiring light shines from them.

Future Kindles will definitely display color, free from the limits of grays. And you can bet that development will make Amazon’s reader more attractive; who wouldn’t artificially generated color pages that are easy to read? Amazon has the luxury of concentrating on ebook research, unlike supposed future competitors like Apple who are taking a more broad research towards R&D. What do you think?

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My Thoughts on the Amazon Kindle DX

Rico Mossesgeld — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:00:02 +0000

So yes, Amazon launched yesterday a 9.7″ version of the Kindle, named the Kindle DX. I think:

Geeks would want to hear about the specs – The Kindle DX features a 9.7″ display, with a resolution of 1200 x 824 pixels, and an estimated 4.5GB (3,500 books) of internal storage. The DX is the first Kindle with an accelerometer; pages will rotate between landscape and portrait automatically depending on the device is held.

Kindle 2 vs. Kindle DX

Newspapers must be praying that the Kindle DX is a success – The Boston Globe, The New York Times, and The Washington Post must be thinking: Oh wow! A potential way to revive our dropping revenues! Could turn out to be a wise move actually. At least less trees die!

If Amazon is serious about pushing the Kindle DX as an educational device… – Then they should cut the price a bit. $489 for a gadget that can display only 16 shades of gray!? Speaking of which…

The textbook-on-a-Kindle pilot program is a good move – 50 lucky(?) students at an American university will receive 50 units to use as textbooks. Their academic performance will be compared to other students using traditional books. If this little exercise goes in favor of Amazon, they will have a strong case study to sell the Kindle DX to more clients! Specifically the educational ones.

Amazon could’ve chosen a better name. I don’t know if DX stands for anything, but any time I think of those two letters, Triple H and Shawn Michaels come to mind. How educational indeed!

That’s all I’ve got on the Kindle DX. What about you?

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