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Old 05-04-2009, 05:56 PM   #46
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According to a Wall Street Journal article

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Beginning in the fall, some students at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland will be given large-screen Kindles with textbooks for chemistry, computer science, and a freshman seminar already installed, said Lev Gonick, the school's chief information officer. The university plans to compare the experiences of the students who are issued the devices and those who use traditional textbooks, said Mr. Gonick.
If they announce the KindleXL won't be available until the fall (or later) I'm really going to be pissed.
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Old 05-04-2009, 06:15 PM   #47
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Whatever new device they announce on Wednesday I suspect will not be available right away.

The quote from the Wall Street Journal article would seem to hint that it won't be available until later in the year. I don't see why Amazon would be doing a press conference now for something that may not be released until later this year, but maybe we are thinking along the wrong line.
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Old 05-04-2009, 06:21 PM   #48
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Time is a Ticking

Quote:
Originally Posted by Daithi View Post
According to a Wall Street Journal article



If they announce the KindleXL won't be available until the fall (or later) I'm really going to be pissed.
I have 5 days to return the Kindle 2 i just bought - it will be quite a dilema if the new one is not available for several months - that would leave me to hang on to the one i got and then sell it (for a much diminished price) - or return it for full value and then be without one until the new one came out - hmmmm

I wonder if they will offer any deals for recent purchases
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Old 05-04-2009, 06:49 PM   #49
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Originally Posted by MaggieScratch View Post
It's interesting that Amazon chose to "leak" the info via the NYT instead of one of the tech blogs or similar....
It is likely that the Ny Time is some sort of partner in this.

I am also hoping, that there will be searchable, resizable PDF support. I am not sure how else they can preserve page layout, or show complex graphs, etc..

As long as DRM can be removed, I'd be interested.
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Old 05-04-2009, 07:08 PM   #50
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Oh Dear, another product and another round of "I hate DRM" and "They should have done THIS not THAT".

Cripes.

Dinna matter to me in any case, I like the ones we have and have no desire for a semi-portable biggie (next larger size comes on it's own trailer <g>). Woulda been great back in college and grad school but in those days we had to hand write our own textbooks on vellum, being pre-Gutenberg.....

Last edited by CCDMan; 05-04-2009 at 07:13 PM.
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Old 05-04-2009, 07:55 PM   #51
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Originally Posted by CCDMan View Post
Oh Dear, another product and another round of "I hate DRM" and "They should have done THIS not THAT".

Cripes.

Dinna matter to me.....
Then why dontcha spend the time just petting that sweet-looking dog of yours, and let us bitch to our hearts content....

Last edited by Sonist; 05-04-2009 at 08:08 PM.
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Old 05-04-2009, 08:13 PM   #52
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Oh, I hope it can read pdf natively!

If it can't, it's pretty much a non-starter as far as I'm concerned, (I want to read/search/annotate pdfs of academic papers) but best of luck to the newspapers, if that's what they want to try.
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Old 05-04-2009, 08:47 PM   #53
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But if this is another Kindle and the software on this new Kindle is not good enough, then I do hope it tanks. If it is a larger screen, then it needs ePub and PDF support for ADE. If it doesn't have this, then wait for someone's larger screen device that does.
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Old 05-04-2009, 08:57 PM   #54
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Originally Posted by JSWolf View Post
... it needs ePub and PDF support for ADE. If it doesn't have this, then wait for someone's larger screen device that does.
I know I most certainly will. But if they didn't implement decent PDF support in a large screen device, they'd be idiots.
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Old 05-04-2009, 09:06 PM   #55
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But if this is another Kindle and the software on this new Kindle is not good enough, then I do hope it tanks. If it is a larger screen, then it needs ePub and PDF support for ADE. If it doesn't have this, then wait for someone's larger screen device that does.
The software on the Kindle is more than "good enough", it is using a model of ebooks that not everyone is happy with but it has a very good implementation of that model.

I agree, though, that at a minimum Amazon needs to add native PDF support for a functional large screen device. This would be easier without DRM, and I don't see them embracing Adobe ADEPT, but I assume they will have DRM for PDFs. Full device search is one example of something that the Kindle does well, and no one else (short of a laptop) does at all. This is actually even more important for a student device. I assume they will have (MOBI) dictionary lookup for PDF, since iRex already has this on the DR1000. It would be nice if they allowed more than one primary dictionary, but I'm not holding my breath. Amazon is probably going to surprise us with one of more feature we did not think of. They are better at ebook devices than almost everyone.
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Old 05-04-2009, 09:13 PM   #56
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All I can tell you is the second most common question on the Amazon boards from potential customers is "Can I get textbooks on Kindle?" (The most common one is "Does it work in <foreign country>?") Anyone at Amazon could see the market potential here; I'm glad they chose to act so quickly.
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Old 05-04-2009, 11:09 PM   #57
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Engadget Post with pictures

These could be totally fake but here are some supposedly leaked pics.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/04/a...-inch-display/

9.7" screen with native PDF support/rendering. Very interesting is the side by side picture comparing the current Kindle 2 with the "Big Kindle" (Kindle XL?). Looks like almost 2x the screen real estate.

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Old 05-04-2009, 11:23 PM   #58
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Awesome! I just hope it's not too expensive!
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Old 05-04-2009, 11:38 PM   #59
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Multi-year lurker, first-time poster.

I'm a grad student/part-time lecturer. When I saw this news, I called my textbook rep from a major publisher to see what I could get out of him. He's normally a really up-front guy, but this time, he seemed to be holding things back. (I couldn't tell if he was no answering out of ignorance or knowledge) He told me that one of the books I use (new edition coming out) would still be available in pdf and perhaps also in several "new electronic formats."

I'm not sure what to make of it. If it were really happening, I'd have expected them to work us a little more last week with promises of "e-textbooks."

That said, if textbooks are a big part of the market for a new device, they HAVE to announce it, and allow publishers to get the info to us THIS WEEK. I have to put my orders in at the bookstore next Friday. Speaking for myself, having available e-formats might influence my decision! (particularly if the DRM made sense, either in purchase or rental models - I personally despise all DRM, but, pragmatically, it's a necessity for textbooks, provided that the ownership of a file could be transferred)

The timing seems pretty perfect for textbooks. It has to be now to catch the 09-10 academic year. (there's also several of the "big-market" textbooks with new editions for next year - which also suggests that this is a magic moment to catch the wave)

Speaking as someone who has waited for several years for an affordable large-screen reader, this is almost as exciting as the Plastic Logic announcement was!
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Old 05-04-2009, 11:52 PM   #60
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveNB View Post
These could be totally fake but here are some supposedly leaked pics.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/04/a...-inch-display/

9.7" screen with native PDF support/rendering. Very interesting is the side by side picture comparing the current Kindle 2 with the "Big Kindle" (Kindle XL?). Looks like almost 2x the screen real estate.

Dave
The screen on the Kindle DX will be about the size of the entire Kindle 2, maybe a smidgen larger. Extrapolating along the lines of the top photo in the article you referenced, that would seem to indicate a 10x7 height/width. This is about the size of a trade paperback comic book.

That's a workable size for a student with a backpack to carry it in and a desk to put it on, but a bit large for a commuter/traveler, and a bit heavy, I'd think, for mobile reading. It's the hardback to the K2's paperback.

It will absolutely need a cover of some kind to protect it in the backpack.

I don't think that the 4 photos at the bottom of the page are legit. The screen in the second photo seems too large compared to the K2 in the same photo. But it could be the angle or something.

It seems to me that the KDX has to support pdf without conversion. That will be nice for all of us, since it suggests an upgrade to the K2 software. It will be interesting to see if it also supports epub. My guess is not, since that would open the K platform & I don't think that Amazon is interested in supporting other ebook stores.
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