Exclusive: meet the Amazon Kindle with 'Paperwhite' backlit display

[GA Russell]

I predict a sub-$100 price for the basic pagewhite.

Originally Posted by humandroid

Anyone want to make some predictions on the price?

Same as current Touch models. They will make their money off of book sales.

[xg4bx]

Originally Posted by humandroid

Anyone want to make some predictions on the price?

i'd say $119.99. no real reason other than that number feels right to me.

[stewacide]

If eink displays start getting very white I hope they introduce an option to dial-back the 'whiteness' of the background. I often find books (usually hardcovers) printed on very light-coloured paper hard to read in the bright sun.

[Daithi]

A lot of people seem to be focusing on the front-lit aspect, but it is the "PaperWhite" part that I find really interesting. If Amazon releases something that dramatically improves contrast, that would be really exciting. I'd love to see eInk with a contrast ratio closer to the whiteness of a piece of paper from the page of a book instead of the dull gray of a newspaper page. Of coarse, it is probably just a front light, but I can hope.

[scheichxodox]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

How did you turn pages on the Kindle Keyboard without moving your thumbs?

Well, I just rest my thumb on the page-forward button and make a slight press - no movement of the thumb required.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

How did you turn pages on the Kindle Keyboard without moving your thumbs?

What's next? You may have been impressed with retina display, but wait til you see the "Thought Control Kindle!"

[soulfuldog]

Thought control Kindle..... no thanks, that would require you to actually think to turn a page, a Kindle with page turn buttons just requires a slight nudge of your thumb and can be done subconsciously! A boon for us lazy folk who bemoan the tiresome act of having to lift your thumb to tap/swipe the screen.

[kennyc]

Okay then, up next "Auto Page Turn" much like the dreaded "Continuous Scroll"

[fjtorres]

Eye-tracking Kindle, Circa 2025.
It watches your eye movements as you read and pages when you reach the page turn icon at the bottom of the page.
(This is doable today but it'll take a while before they can get the processing power and algorithms out of the PC and into smartphones and readers.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_tracking

I'd still prefer the paging buttons on the basic Kindle, though.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by scheichxodox

Well, I just rest my thumb on the page-forward button and make a slight press - no movement of the thumb required.

I was just ribbing you. That's how I do it on my K-3 (which I still use along with my Touch). In truth it would be nice if a Touch model also incorporated the Keyboard's side buttons as an additional alternative to tapping the screen for page turns. They're very convenient, although the virtual keyboard on the Touch is better, in my opinion, and easier to use than the physical button keyboard on the K-3.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by Daithi

A lot of people seem to be focusing on the front-lit aspect, but it is the "PaperWhite" part that I find really interesting.

See above. My point was that, according to the WSJ and certain early adopters here, the new PRS-T2's screen is markedly whiter than that of the devices which preceded it.

Here's how this is relevant to the new Kindle:

Either Amazon has developed a new kind of e-ink screen or all e-ink devices going forward will likely show the same improvement, though perhaps not Amazon's flair for marketing it.

It matters because an overall improvement would not be an incentive to buy a particular model by a particular brand unless the consumer were married to the Amazon format, ecosystem and/or customer experience.

But in order to know, we'll have to wait until more information is available. I'm looking forward to a screen comparison between the T2 and the new Kindle. (Isn't a new Nook about to make an appearance as well?)

However, even if it turns out the new whiter screen will be adopted by other companies, there is still the specific combination of features to consider. If you were looking for the glow light of the ST combined with the whiter screen of the Kindle, PRS-T2 and/or other next-gen e-ink e-readers, then for now, the new Kindle might well be the e-ink device to buy. It becomes especially attractive if you're partial to the Amazon store and if Amazon has managed to improve the front-lighting.

[piper28]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Eye-tracking Kindle, Circa 2025.
It watches your eye movements as you read and pages when you reach the page turn icon at the bottom of the page.
(This is doable today but it'll take a while before they can get the processing power and algorithms out of the PC and into smartphones and readers.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_tracking

I'd still prefer the paging buttons on the basic Kindle, though.

I'd actually say it's closer to reality than 2025. The Galaxy S3 claims to know when you're looking at the screen, although I'm sure their tracking is pretty crude. But the actual processing power involved in tracking the eye isn't all that much these days. Battery power for the camera is probably one of the really larger obstacles. There's also some work that would have to be done on dealing with the idea of the surface that you're doing the tracking from and reading moving in relation to the head, that does complicate matters.

Now, that said, obviously I doubt anyone would be likely to do it for a reader, it's just not a reasonable enough application for it. But the difference between where we were 20 years ago with eye tracking and where we are now is pretty impressive. About 20 years ago I took a soldering iron to an $80k eye tracking machine that took up the entire top of a table . Thankfully nobody told me how much the thing cost until *after* they had me do that.

[kennyc]

20 years ago, dude! That was before the Internet!

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

See above. My point was that, according to the WSJ and certain early adopters here, the new PRS-T2's screen is markedly whiter than that of the devices which preceded it.

Here's how this is relevant to the new Kindle:

Either Amazon has developed a new kind of e-ink screen or all e-ink devices going forward will likely show the same improvement, though perhaps not Amazon's flair for marketing it.

It matters because an overall improvement would not be an incentive to buy a particular model by a particular brand unless the consumer were married to the Amazon format, ecosystem and/or customer experience.

But in order to know, we'll have to wait until more information is available. I'm looking forward to a screen comparison between the T2 and the new Kindle. (Isn't a new Nook about to make an appearance as well?)

However, even if it turns out the new whiter screen will be adopted by other companies, there is still the specific combination of features to consider. If you were looking for the glow light of the ST combined with the whiter screen of the Kindle, PRS-T2 and/or other next-gen e-ink e-readers, then for now, the new Kindle might well be the e-ink device to buy. It becomes especially attractive if you're partial to the Amazon store and if Amazon has managed to improve the front-lighting.

I'll be very interested to see the new device.

It's interesting to me that Sony's material for the T2 doesn't mention the whiter screen, and not all reviews mention it, either (i.e., the All Things D review on the WSJ). According to the specs, it's just a pearl screen.

On the other hand, Amazon is *calling the thing* Paperwhite; so obviously they think the increased whiteness is a big deal. It is possible, of course, that Amazon has a new screen technology that is noticeably whiter. This is possible, although I'm kind of skeptical, since Amazon doesn't develop its own screens and I haven't heard anything about e-ink coming up with something better. (And current e-ink is a long way from the background being close to paper white). ON the other hand, I think Amazon was the first company with access to the pearl screen, so maybe they are the first with access to some new screen.

But what I really suspect is that the screen looks really white *when the light is used*. It's already the case that pearl screen in sunlight look noticeably whiter than they do under a reading light less bright than the sun, so my theory is that there is some aspect of the frontlighting that brings out the whiteness of the screen and maybe enhances the contrast as well.

I guess we'll know soon enough.