I find it dissapointing that the Kindle DX doesn't have:

- Wacom touchscreen stylus input
- WiFi
- Unlocked 3G modem (for any worldwide carrier)
- Bluetooth (for foldable full sized keyboard text input)
- A kickstand on the back (to position it on the table while you type in text)

If they had those features, this device would become absolutely priceless for education, work and anyone who is an enthusiast about commenting any text in real-time. Chatting, debating about all texts be there from books, textbooks, blogs, newspapers, anything. With those better input mechanisms you could really collaborate on the devices.

I guess we'll have to look forward to the Pixel Qi 3Qi screen to be tablet mode compliant and come on much cheaper, full LCD color compatible tablet devices which will really come with all these features.

In my opinion, the KDX won't be priceless for education/work/etc until you can search, highlight and annotate pdfs as well as just displaying them.

The other things are nice, I guess, but seem less important to me.

This should be good free publicity for Irex for their Digital Reader 1000S, since Irex is still superior to the Kindle DX.

Hopefully this can push Irex to release new versions with unlocked 3G HSDPA modem and usb-host or bluetooth for the external full sized foldable keyboard to input text. It'd be nice if Irex would do 5" and 6.7" with wacom, wifi and 3G as well.

I find it dissapointing that the Kindle DX doesn't have:

- Wacom touchscreen stylus input
- WiFi
- Unlocked 3G modem (for any worldwide carrier)
- Bluetooth (for foldable full sized keyboard text input)
- A kickstand on the back (to position it on the table while you type in text)

If they had those features, this device would become absolutely priceless for education, work and anyone who is an enthusiast about commenting any text in real-time. Chatting, debating about all texts be there from books, textbooks, blogs, newspapers, anything. With those better input mechanisms you could really collaborate on the devices.

I guess we'll have to look forward to the Pixel Qi 3Qi screen to be tablet mode compliant and come on much cheaper, full LCD color compatible tablet devices which will really come with all these features.

Quit pulling your punches! Tell us what REALLY pisses you off about the Kindle DX! :D :D :D

All those features would be nice, but I just don't see them happening soon. Meanwhile, I'm still trying to get enough people to buy (or pre-order for the DX) through my associate's pages to get my own DX. :)

Derek

I find it dissapointing that the Kindle DX doesn't have:

- Wacom touchscreen stylus input
- WiFi
- Unlocked 3G modem (for any worldwide carrier)
- Bluetooth (for foldable full sized keyboard text input)
- A kickstand on the back (to position it on the table while you type in text)

If they had those features, this device would become absolutely priceless for education, work and anyone who is an enthusiast about commenting any text in real-time. Chatting, debating about all texts be there from books, textbooks, blogs, newspapers, anything. With those better input mechanisms you could really collaborate on the devices.

I guess we'll have to look forward to the Pixel Qi 3Qi screen to be tablet mode compliant and come on much cheaper, full LCD color compatible tablet devices which will really come with all these features.

With that feature list why are you even looking at an e-reader? With the exception of the cell modem you're describing a TabletPC...:smack:

Yes I find the DX to be disappointing, but not because it's missing the features you list.

9inch screen negates all those issues :)

9inch screen negates all those issues :)

$489 negates the benefit of a 9in screen...

Meh....

Also.... what's the deal with people complaining about the price so much. I mean, yeah, I don't like it - but it's in keeping with the tech prices right now. It's not excessive or anything. How much is the big Iliad, again...?

But yeah... you're expecting too much, bud. I might as well go "I want my iPhone to know who I'm gonna call in advance." You can't expect tech that was high tech when it had wireless access at all to jump to all of that in the next iteration.

Stylus is the only one that bothers me. If I'm ever going to transition to electronic PDFs of journal articles I read, it has to be on something I can write on to highlight stuff and write notes in the margins just like I do the PDFs I just print out now.

Get something where I can do that just as quickly and easily as I can with print outs, and has no problems displaying PDFs of any kind, and I'll give it a serious though. To date the only thing that comes close is a tablet PC, and they're too balky and the couple I've tried I've struggled to write legibly on (I write small--especially when making notes in the margins--and have terrible penmanship).

One problem I see is the e-reader devices have a firmware with "one size fits all" features. Computers can run an infinite combination of software, tailored to a specific problem. Amazon has a pretty tough row to hoe.

Greg

One problem I see is the e-reader devices have a firmware with "one size fits all" features. Computers can run an infinite combination of software, tailored to a specific problem. Amazon has a pretty tough row to hoe.

Greg

Agreed 100%. And not just for textbooks, PDFs etc., but it just limits there ability to go mainstream period since reading is relatively smaller niche compared to people who buy netbooks, iPhones etc.

So I think the ultimate device down the road will be some kind of table device. It will use some type of epaper or other display that's very easy on the eyes, has long battery life and can do movies etc. and not just text.

It will be something you can surf the web on, watch movies and TV shows and read things ranging from novels to newspapers, magazines, PDFs etc. with full ability to easy highlight and write notes.

Something like that will really take off since it will appeal to a wide array of people, while dedicated readers are limited to avid readers who read enough to shell out money for a device that does nothing but display books and other reading material.

There will always probably be dedicated readers out there that are smaller and appeal to us avid readers. But some multifunction tablet device is something that could really go mainstream and expand the ebook market since a lot of people will have a device they bought for reasons other than reading novels etc. that happens to also be able to read books.

Meh....

Also.... what's the deal with people complaining about the price so much. I mean, yeah, I don't like it - but it's in keeping with the tech prices right now. It's not excessive or anything. How much is the big Iliad, again...?

But yeah... you're expecting too much, bud. I might as well go "I want my iPhone to know who I'm gonna call in advance." You can't expect tech that was high tech when it had wireless access at all to jump to all of that in the next iteration.

Simple - Amazon played up how this is aimed at students and textbooks... How many students do you know have $500 for an e-book reader... The value proposition for the Kindle is already pretty weak, but the free wireless internet helps that equation a bit. The steeper cost of the DX makes it harder to show the value of the device.

Sure Amazon could work out a deal with textbook publishers for college textbooks but the entire college textbook deal is such a racket that I wouldn't expect students to benefit from it... If anything I think the textbook publishers would embrace this to kill the used textbook market off with colleges endorsing it because they'll get more kickbacks from the publishers PLUS Amazon will work out deals with the schools where they get even more kickbacks for pushing their students on to Kindles...

How about newspapers... I can buy a newspaper for $0.25 or $0.40 and subscriber to it for even less, and while I'm reading it other members of my household can enjoy sections of that very same paper - all without disturbing me. The DX may make it easier to read a newspaper on a Kindle but to share it with the family means that everybody else has to wait until I finish reading. Either that or I have to purchase multiple devices AND multiple subscriptions since we can't share subscriptions between multiple devices on the same account - something I can do when I subscribe to the paper version.

That being said offering a DX for around $100 with say a 12 or 18 month subscription to a newspaper - well that might be tempting. If a college offered a $489 DX and included the student's first year of texts on it - I might look a little more favorably on the device, even moreso if additional textbooks were sold to the student at a real discount as opposed to the make believe discounts offered by publishers/schools for "customized" texts...

However, with the size of the DX it really should be targeted at a different kind of Kindle user than I am. I travel a lot - and I love having several books loaded on to my K2 with the ability to order more while I'm on the road. The K2 fits in my carry-on that includes a laptop and frequently a DSLR camera and assorted bits. However I couldn't get a device the size of the DX into my carry on.

I'm just disappointed in lack of SD card slot. 3Gs is not enough for education! I'm a grad student and I need more!

Our voice is being heard. I expect the price point to be radically adjusted in less than half a year.

I'm just disappointed in lack of SD card slot. 3Gs is not enough for education! I'm a grad student and I need more!

agree...I was all excited untill no SD card slot. I'm little more than disappointed, I was going to preorder but I don't think I want it anymore.

How many students do you know have $500 for an e-book reader...
I've got to buy my son a MacBookpro for college this fall which is waaaayyyy more than that. If the kid needs it, Mom and Pop will spring for it.

With that feature list why are you even looking at an e-reader? With the exception of the cell modem you're describing a TabletPC...:smack:

Yes I find the DX to be disappointing, but not because it's missing the features you list.

Touchscreen, WiFi, we have those features on the Irex Digital Reader 1000S for not much more expensive than the Kindle DX.

In my opinion, Amazon had no excuse not to include touchscreen wacom stylus input and full WiFi or international 3G modem support.

Touchscreen, WiFi, we have those features on the Irex Digital Reader 1000S for not much more expensive than the Kindle DX.

The 1000S ($749) doesn't have WiFi, and costs $260 more than the DX ($489). That's a lot of money for a digitizer. The 1000SW has the digitizer and WiFi, but goes for $849, and as far as I know isn't even available yet.

The 1000S ($749) doesn't have WiFi, and costs $260 more than the DX ($489). That's a lot of money for a digitizer. The 1000SW has the digitizer and WiFi, but goes for $849, and as far as I know isn't even available yet. The DR1000S now costs $859. The DR1000SW has been indefinitely delayed for undisclosed reasons. My guess is that iRex has been unable to make a web browser work, although this is now relatively simple to do. Note that iRex never released a web browser for the iLiad.

In my opinion, Amazon had no excuse not to include touchscreen wacom stylus input and full WiFi or international 3G modem support.

I'm betting that there are a lot of reasons why international 3G modem support isn't included - most of them related to why Amazon doesn't officially sell Kindles outside the US... Why does Amazon need to add international support to a device that is only being produced for consumption in the US? Yes Americans do travel internationally but so what? That's like telling electronics makers that their device is a let down because it's only wired to accept 110v current...

If Amazon doesn't have the deals in place to sell e-books outside the US to the Kindle why should they worry about international 3G on the device? Even better - Kindle is a CDMA device - but if it was going to support the international standards it needs to include either GSM, HSDPA, UMTS, or even LTE - a radio that isn't built in to the device... Plus that also means making accommodations for a SIM card slot as well... Keeping it CDMA? How many CDMA carriers outside the US would Amazon need to cut deals with? If Amazon isn't planning on selling the Kindle outside the US why bother with this?

I've got to buy my son a MacBookpro for college this fall which is waaaayyyy more than that. If the kid needs it, Mom and Pop will spring for it.

Are you looking for a son to adopt? :rofl:

I've got to buy my son a MacBookpro for college this fall which is waaaayyyy more than that. If the kid needs it, Mom and Pop will spring for it.

That is excellent of you... It should last your son the whole college career, esp. if you bought the extended warranty.

Anyhow it's not too hard to do the math. If you're pursuing a science degree where the books are $100+, then it's not uncommon to spend $500+ per semester on books, or $300-$350 per quarter. A $500 device that buys books for half-price pays for itself rather quickly. I have only an English degree so I'm not qualified to tell you the break-even point :)

Although at this point in the market evolution, not every book will be available for a Kindle or even a PC. Another point is that the people selling the books are under no incentive to save anybody money by switching to a new medium.

Greg.

The 1000S ($749) doesn't have WiFi, and costs $260 more than the DX ($489). That's a lot of money for a digitizer. The 1000SW has the digitizer and WiFi, but goes for $849, and as far as I know isn't even available yet.

Irex probably sells in the 100s of times less devices than Amazon. Economies of scale would lower the prices.

I am sure that the Wacom touchscreen wouldn't add much cost to the device if manufactured by the hundreds of thousands of pieces like Amazon would when they promote their new products on their frontpage at amazon.com the worlds biggest online retailer.

Adding WiFi in such a product is not expensive either. It's actually very optimized and cheap these days. The only concern sometimes is R&D required to make sure that there wouldn't be interference between the WiFi and the 3G modem in the same device, as well as R&D optimizations done with hardware WiFi/3G on/off switches and so on to optimize the power consumption of those wireless access systems, since those are the biggest power draw of such devices.

But anyways, I believe Amazon has no excuse not to do it. Unless of course Amazon would quickly release a Kindle DXTW or something, that adds Touch, adds WiFi and unlockes the 3G modem.

The solution to the internationalization of the 3G modem would be for the hardware engineers to design a clever 3G modem module slot somewhere on the device, all utilizing the same standard antennae or even have the antennae be user replaceable, and then make it possible for users worldwide to just buy the 3G modem module that works for them.

The Amazon website is available in many more countries, so even though book publishing and licencing is a huge pile of mess, Amazon charges a quite unsubsidized price for their hardware as it is, there is no need claim that the egg is needed before the chicken. Amazon needs to put the device on the worldwide markets and then make it open standards compliant (blogs, newspapers, pdf, html, txt, jpg, etc..) and then services will automatically come to it and more monetization can happen. Without a device, nothing can happen.

My only explanation is that for some reason, Amazon is not interested in selling more Kindles. At least not yet.

My only explanation is that for some reason, Amazon is not interested in selling more Kindles.

Yep. Clearly. Silly Amazon.

They can always lower the price if they sell less than forecast and hope for more sales but it's not possible for them to raise the price if sales are greater than anticipated.

Marketing is more complicated than these things. There's other issues involved... it's not just "how many can we sell" it's "at what price can we sell them" and get the most bang for our buck, how can we soften the market for future items, what kind of deals can we make with hardware manufacturers, what kind of legal situations will we be in if we operate in other markets, do we have a big enough catalog to serve these markets, etc.

It's all much more complicated than we talk about it here. And given Amazon's reputation, they probably know what they're doing better than we do.

I think it'd be the best thing for everyone if Amazon opened up, at least, other English speaking markets - Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand, etc. but there may be issues we're not aware of, etc.

Meh....

Also.... what's the deal with people complaining about the price so much. I mean, yeah, I don't like it - but it's in keeping with the tech prices right now. It's not excessive or anything. How much is the big Iliad, again...?

The Irex Illiad, the only existing e-Ink device near in size to that DX, is $860 without wireless (which is not an option).

Also, it has very slow response time for the stylus input, takes 40 seconds to boot up even in the 2nd edition, and has nightmarish customer support.

Here's a review on it:
http://www.alexonlinux.com/irex-technologies-iliad-together-more-than-a-year

Also, on my blog I've an entry re David Pogue's online review of the amazing Novatel MiFi as well as a reminder that he once found the Kindle 2's pricing unfathomable (in his review of it) but that review no longer says that and explains just how expensive 24/7 cellular wireless is.

The MiFi is something that most of us may want for our netbooks or laptops but even then the minimal pricing is $40/month.

There have been many stories about AT&T's programs to offer netbooks by Acer and other companies for $100 with 2 year wireless contracts for $50 to $60/mo.

So, paying $489 one time for the DX, with its quite large screen ($130 more than for the K2) is not that unreasonable. The iPhone Basic service with web data is $60/mo. These are costs that go on and on. The new iPhone is $200 but with the monthly access cost of $70 now WITHOUT text messaging ($5 more) brings it to over $1,000 in the first year-- and the costs continue.

I say all this as someone who's pretty happy with the smaller size K2 and am not planning to get a DX.

As for webbing on the Kindle, there are plenty of mobile versions of sites now and the options of Basic, Advanced, and Advanced with Javascript, and Disabling or Enabling images can get you decent experiences when on the street and needing data.

Even at home in another room, I was reading a Wired RSS feed and following their links. In Advanced mode, the words are tiny so you get the full screen. Not needed. I switched to Basic and paid attention to the reality that the left column contents will show up first and need to be page-turned to get to the article body but it doesn't take that much time and the words are in normal size and the font is not shaded but black. Wire's photographs are in really good resolution and show up very nicely on the Kindle, though you can disable images if you're in a hurry.

On the street the other day, we needed to find an Italian restaurant for a special occasion, as the one we were at would not open for another half hour. I went to m.yelp.com and got a list of the ones nearby, summaries, and user-reviews. And found a great restaurant we'd ignored all these years.

24/7 wireless for no monthly charges has to be factored in as a huge feature when complaining about $360 for "an e-reader" or $489 for one that has a considerably larger screen and keeps the wireless feature.

- Andrys
http://kindleworld.blogspot.com

Touchscreen, WiFi, we have those features on the Irex Digital Reader 1000S for not much more expensive than the Kindle DX.

In my opinion, Amazon had no excuse not to include touchscreen wacom stylus input and full WiFi or international 3G modem support.


Touchscreen is available for the same i-ink screen, with the Sony PRS-700 (though theirs is 8 shades of grade), and here's Pogue's writeup on it, which merely says what almost every other review has said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/26/technology/personaltech/26pogue-email.html - bad loss of clarity to the extra layer.

Another article on the Sonys yesterday compared the Sony 505 vs the 700 and had a photo showing the differences, which I first thought was due to lighting but the frame or bezel? of the 700 indicates otherwise, as far as main cause. I have that in an entry from last night. It's no wonder the 700 has not been selling particularly well and I've seen reports of people going from the 700 to the 505.

The newer Iliad 1000s is about $750 without the WiFi/Bluetooth/3G?

What's the verdict on the 1000s here? Worth $750? With 3G, implemented, worth the $860?

So many are waiting on Plastic Logic, not due out until 2010 and they do not plan email or a web browser for it.

- Andrys
http://kindleworld.blogspot.com

Patience young grasshopper! They are getting it right gradually, and even though it is a nice little device, it's easy to see what it's lacking.
Within a couple of years we will have fully featured touch devices which will handle all of our internet and reading needs. But we are still waiting for costs of the various components to come down and for the battery technology to improve.
They can create a device with fast wifi and blutooth but if they suck the battery so quickly that you get 2 hrs life from it, its not really feasible.

How many students do you know have $500 for an e-book reader...

I spent more than that on books some semesters (average was probably $400/semester). If PDF versions were half the cost I was paying, then I'd save the cost of the DX in ~3 semesters.

This might be useful for reference:
http://www.westwood.edu/media/images/socialmedia/studentincome_big-w950-h950.jpg

Touchscreen is available for the same i-ink screen, with the Sony PRS-700

Wacom stylus input is much preferable than the resistive touchscreen technology that Sony has used in the PRS-700. I believe the Wacom stylus input also is much clearer and does not introduce stuff in-front of the screen but only some magnetic field behind it.

I pre-ordered the DX to augment my original Kindle, because I want an ereader that supports letter-sized PDFs. I looked at the iLiad readers, but they frankly are late-alpha stage products that really aren't ready to ship to the average consumer. The feature list on them is great... but how much actually works? How good is the battery life? How much of a hassle is it to get content on them?

I'm assured that my DX will work as well as my original Kindle, that I can transfer my AZW books seamlessly between the two, and that I can access the web via the DX. I can also transfer any PDF I have to the device via USB cable.

I don't understand why people who don't live in the US are bent out of shape on the Kindles. You can buy books for it as long as you have Internet access and a computer with a USB cable. Not a big deal.

Yeah, if the iLiad was actually finished, I would have bought it. But it isn't. The DX is.

Yeah, if the iLiad was actually finished, I would have bought it. But it isn't. The DX is.

With the greatest respect, John, how can a device which is pure "vapourware", as the DX will probably be for at least the next six months, be "finished"?

The PDF support on the iLiad is superb. The reason I sold mine was the extremely poor implementation of the MobiPocket Reader on it - for PDFs, it's unbeatable. May I ask what specifically about the PDF implementation on the iLiad it is that you found to be objectionable?

Wacom stylus input is much preferable than the resistive touchscreen technology that Sony has used in the PRS-700. I believe the Wacom stylus input also is much clearer and does not introduce stuff in-front of the screen but only some magnetic field behind it.

Thanks. I did read that the Irex Illiad's 2nd edition had a response-time for the stylus, of .5 to 1 second, which was really frustrating for the reviewer when just drawing a line, but I suppose some can get used to that.

There's also no pressure-support on the Iliad unit. I haven't read much from people actually using it though. I also read that the wireless support is extremely limited when it comes to any kind of web browsing. But this is just a superficial look in the last week or so. Would like to hear from people actually using the Iliad.

Thanks. I did read that the Irex Illiad's 2nd edition had a response-time for the stylus, of .5 to 1 second, which was really frustrating for the reviewer when just drawing a line, but I suppose some can get used to that.

That's the response time of the eInk screen, not of the stylus as such. You do get used to it. Basically, you just draw and don't wait for the "visual feedback". One quickly gets used to it.

There's also no pressure-support on the Iliad unit. I haven't read much from people actually using it though.

That's not entirely correct. The iLiad hardware has pressure support, but the stylus that iRex supply doesn't. If one replaces the stylus with one that does have pressure output, applications which support pressure will work fine with it.

I also read that the wireless support is extremely limited when it comes to any kind of web browsing. But this is just a superficial look in the last week or so. Would like to hear from people actually using the Iliad.

There is no web browser installed by default, but one can install one (one huge benefit of the iLiad over the Kindle is that one can install applications on it). I had a brief "play" with web browsing on my iLiad, but it's really not a very rewarding experience, due to the eInk screen more than anything else.

So do you all think that the price will go down within a year of its release? I want something with a big screen to read PDFs, so this seems perfect.

I do have a Sony 505 now...

With that feature list why are you even looking at an e-reader? With the exception of the cell modem you're describing a TabletPC...:smack:

Yes I find the DX to be disappointing, but not because it's missing the features you list.

Why are you people keep repeating this silly non-sequitur about tablets all the time, I don't know - tablets are not comparable to eReaders any way (battery life, eye strain, weight, thickness, purpose etc), let's forget this once and forever.

I don't understand why people who don't live in the US are bent out of shape on the Kindles. You can buy books for it as long as you have Internet access and a computer with a USB cable. Not a big deal.


Let me guess: you're here, in the US, right?

The fact that most people pretend to not to use Kindles' built-in free internet access does not mean they don't use it all the time - it's one of the main ingredients that made it so successful (compared to other devices.)

It makes no sense to buy a Kindle from Europe, especially K2 - you're better off getting a WiFi-enabled device (unlike in US free WiFi hotspots are everywhere in Europe.)

Let me guess: you're here, in the US, right?

The fact that most people pretend to not to use Kindles' built-in free internet access does not mean they don't use it all the time - it's one of the main ingredients that made it so successful (compared to other devices.)

Really, the Kindle's Internet is too slow to be useful for casual browsing. I don't know anyone who is using it regularly instead of their PC or cell phone for regular Internet access.

What made it successful is the wireless download of newly released books at a cheaper price. If you eliminated the browser and made it so you could only use Amazon's store wirelessly, it would have outsold the competition just as well.

Really, the Kindle's Internet is too slow to be useful for casual browsing. I don't know anyone who is using it regularly instead of their PC or cell phone for regular Internet access.


Where did I say browsing the internet? :)


What made it successful is the wireless download of newly released books at a cheaper price. If you eliminated the browser and made it so you could only use Amazon's store wirelessly, it would have outsold the competition just as well.

Which means the free internet access I was talking about, thank you. :cool:

Then just say the whispernet for downloading books.

Saying free internet access makes it sound like the regular internet access is worthwhile.

Yes, it's great for downloading books, but it's slow and the browser sucks so it's pretty much useless for anything else.

And that will be a downside for them (if they don't fix it) once someone like Apple has a tablet out with a color screen, and full internet browsing and other features.

Again, a device like that is what will sell in the mainstream. For textbooks too--average college students don't read much outside of class (if they even read for class!) so they'd be much more likely to buy something they can surf the net on, watch videos, etc. etc. and also buy their books for cheaper--vs. something that only does the latter.

Why are you people keep repeating this silly non-sequitur about tablets all the time, I don't know - tablets are not comparable to eReaders any way (battery life, eye strain, weight, thickness, purpose etc), let's forget this once and forever.

True, but that only applies to avid reader. Most people, especially younger generations, aren't avid readers. Things like music, movies, internet etc. have long ago surpassed reading in filling peoples free time.

I'll always want an ereader, for the reasons you want. But people who read maybe a handful of novels a year are never going to shell out for one. But they'll buy the latest tech gadget that lets them surf the net, watch movies, listen to music, play games etc. and maybe buy an ebook or two since they're multi function tablet does that too.

And of course, eventually there will probably be new screen technology that can do all that stuff and be as easy on the eyes. But until then, even LCD screens are fine for those who seldom read for more than an hour or two.

I'd consider such a device for PDFs if it had good highlighting and note-taking with a stylus since I seldom read and annotate that type of stuff for more than an hour at a time. But I'll always have my Kindle or some other small, portable reader with an eink screen (or whatever future tech that's easy on the eyes) for my leisure reading.

With the greatest respect, John, how can a device which is pure "vapourware", as the DX will probably be for at least the next six months, be "finished"?
You can't accurately call the DX vaporware. Reviewers had it in their hands and were using it the day of Amazon's announcement. It's way past the vaporware stage.

Maybe you guys mean something different by the term, wapourware. I'm still not sure what it means but here's what wikipedia has to say:

Vaporware is a term used to describe a product, usually software, that has been announced by a developer during or before its development and, therefore, may never actually be released.[1] The term is usually applied to products which fail to emerge after having well-exceeded the period of development time that was initially claimed or would normally be expected for the development cycle of a similar product. The term implies unwarranted optimism, an as yet unannounced abandonment of a project, or sometimes even deception; that is, it may imply that the announcer knows that product development is in too early a stage to support responsible statements about its completion date, feature set, or even feasibility.

The Irex Illiad, the only existing e-Ink device near in size to that DX, is $860 without wireless (which is not an option).

You're confusing the iRex devices. The DR1000 is $860 and is a 10.2" device. The iLiad is their previous generation of device.


Also, it has very slow response time for the stylus input


You're talking about eInk refresh times (which all current eInk devices suffer from), not the stylus itself.


Here's a review on it:
http://www.alexonlinux.com/irex-technologies-iliad-together-more-than-a-year


That's obviously for the iLiad. You should probably be comparing the Kindle DX with the current/larger iRex device, the DR1000.

You're talking about eInk refresh times (which all current eInk devices suffer from), not the stylus itself.


That's true. But the end result is the same--stylus input is less than ideal because of the lag in the display.

I'm interested in something I can write on as easily as paper, but the technology just isn't there yet. E-ink displays refresh to slowly so you don't get the real time feel of writing on paper. Tablet PCs don't have that problem so much, but I have a hard time writing small and legibly in the margins of PDFs etc. like I can on printouts.

That's true. But the end result is the same--stylus input is less than ideal because of the lag in the display.

I'm interested in something I can write on as easily as paper, but the technology just isn't there yet. E-ink displays refresh to slowly so you don't get the real time feel of writing on paper. Tablet PCs don't have that problem so much, but I have a hard time writing small and legibly in the margins of PDFs etc. like I can on printouts.

That's certainly true. My point was just that "slow stylus input" is not useful as a relative comparison between eInk devices. The slow response time is a factor of the eInk technology itself, not any difference between devices.

True, not really good for comparison. The real point is point is that new e-ink devices offer stylus mark up worth paying for currently. And the tech for that is probably a ways off and may never get there due to how e-ink works.

We'll likely be stuck with LCD tablets for a long time for those who need to mark up PDFs etc. to get any use out of a PDF ereader etc.

Again, why not pay $485 for a device that can display native PDF files in A4 format? Especially when the nearest competitor is almost twice as much?

As one responder noted, MOBI support on the iLiad DReader is poor. With the DX you get great MOBI/AZW support and good/great PDF support. That means I can use one device to read reports, publications, and books. The IEEE and ACM libraries are now usable on an e-reader.

Better yet, I see a HUGE market for Kindle DX-formatted websites. The device is finally big enough to be feasible for reading websites. Or even online magazines... Lenswork would be among the interesting PDF magazines that would be readable on the DX.

Finally, although Whispernet is a cool feature, a little foresite (or a laptop) makes it non-critical for downloading books from Amazon while on the road. I can buy any book I want from Amazon and then download it to my tethered Kindle with just a couple more mouse-clicks and in about the same time.