NYT: Big screen Kindle could arrive this week

[davidspitzer]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Well, it looks like Amazon botched the KDX up. It has no ePub support. A nice big 9.7 inch screen with no ePub support is a joke.

I dont understand the hoorah over epub, isnt the target format really Acrobat for a large screen device to preserve the newspapery (i made that word up) and text book look and feel?

[Ervserver]

I've been reading numerous articles stating that several universities are already planning to equip students with the Kindle III

[kuliand]

Originally Posted by ny10522

Well, just returned my Kindle 2 (had only two days left to do it) in anticipation of this device. I enjoyed my Kindle 2 but there was one huge drawback.....screen contrast. I hope the new large screen Kindle has a thicker font or better contrast.

Epub support is a non-issue. With Stanza or Calibre it was easy to switch formats and directly load almost any book I liked onto the Kindle. It will be great to read textbooks. I have many scanned books and texts in PDF format. The larger screen and PDF support will be a welcome improvement.

As for cost, the Kindle 2 was a BARGAIN! Lifetime subscription to the internet with access anywhere in the US! I sent/received emails, looked up topics while reading via Google or Wikipedia, and even read the New York Times without subscription via Calibre. The Kindle 2 was almost terrific, but if they improve screen contrast, this next Kindle will be DA BOMB!

I agree the contrast of the current eINK viziplex displays isn't great but i think the 9.7" is the same tech just on a larger scale unless the eINK company has a new version of display ready for use?

[tesseract420]

I've read that the new Kindle DX is to have a 9.7 screen. That's great, but paper sizes are not measured by the diagonal length of the paper. With just that one measurement, it's not possible to figure out the A x B paper size, where A is width and B is height (such as 8 1/2 x 11).

There already is a full size A4 reader: the Macbook Air. Open a pdf using Skim, rotate the document to the left. Switch to presentation mode, and you get a full screen display. The Air is light enough so that you can read this way without any problems. The screen of the Air is just a little bit smaller than an A4 sheet of paper.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by tesseract420

I've read that the new Kindle DX is to have a 9.7 screen. That's great, but paper sizes are not measured by the diagonal length of the paper.

It is 8" by 5.5", see post #67.

[tesseract420]

OK, 5.5 x 8 (inches) (mentioned in another message) yields a "screen size" of 9.71, which is consistent with the reporting.

This is roughly the size of an A5 sheet of paper. Roughly.

[astra]

Originally Posted by tesseract420

OK, 5.5 x 8 (inches) (mentioned in another message) yields a "screen size" of 9.71, which is consistent with the reporting.

This is roughly the size of an A5 sheet of paper. Roughly.

So, what are you trying to say?

[tesseract420]

Hmmm. Is a screen that is roughly the size of a half sheet of paper (European specs) really news? It's an improvement over the Sony Reader, perhaps, but not by much.

[kuliand]

Originally Posted by tesseract420

Hmmm. Is a screen that is roughly the size of a half sheet of paper (European specs) really news? It's an improvement over the Sony Reader, perhaps, but not by much.

Well it's an improvement plus i think 9.7 could be ok for most text books but maybe not for newspapers. I have got used to my small sony screen over the last 8 months. I guess the first big device will be the plastic logic reader but im not sure what size screen that will have in the end.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by tesseract420

This is roughly the size of an A5 sheet of paper.

So, worse case, two landscape screens give you a full A4 page. The experience with 8" and ~10" EInk devices, though, is that stripping the margins helps a lot. Perhaps enough to read letter/A4 in portrait mode. There are other options, like 2-column zoom modes and reflowing the text. We don't know which of these, if any, the large Kindle will have (it might not even have a landscape mode, since the Kindle 2 and the iPhone app don't).

[astra]

Originally Posted by tesseract420

Hmmm. Is a screen that is roughly the size of a half sheet of paper (European specs) really news? It's an improvement over the Sony Reader, perhaps, but not by much.

I believe it is such a big improvement that it is difficult to explain but I am going to try...
Standard PDF in landscape mode and zoomed in with zero margins looks like a printed page on iLiad iRex 8" screen when reading half page at a time. Now we are talking 9.7" vs. 8"....new benchmark.

With a screen ratio of 600x800 pixels for the Kindle2, that translates into a 3x4 screen ration. I forget what the pixel count is for the new Kindle (3?), but assuming the same 3x4 ratio then trigonometry can be used to approximate the size:

ATN(3/4) = 36.86989765

Width = SIN(36.86989765) * 9.7 = 5.82 inches

Height = COS(36.86989765) * 9.7 = 7.76 inches

The Kindle 2 and Sony PRS-505 screens are as follows:

Width = SIN(36.86989765) * 6 = 3.6 inches

Height = COS(36.86989765) * 6 = 4.8 inches

That is indeed quite a step up in size but not in resolution as the new Kindle will display more overall pixels, though slightly fewer pixels per inch. The Kindle 2 has 166 pixels per inch whereas the new Kindle will have 150 pixels per inch. The new Kindle will actually have 2.61 times as much screen space (that is, squared inches of screen space) as the Kindle 2, Kindle 1, and Sony PRS-505.

(5.82 * 7.76) / (3.6 * 4.8) = 2.61 or 261% larger

(NOTE: My figures are probably off a bit as the specs seem to indicate 5.5" x 8", which is not a 3x4 ratio.)

However, having said that, the new Kindle will have to have much better firmware than the Kindle 2 to get my interest. And it will need to be able to view PDFs in native format without having to have Amazon convert them to a corrupted and inferior format.

Additionally, Whispernet needs to be improved. I live in the middle of the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex where Sprint should get good reception. However, Whispernet is almost always showing 1X speed and even small (200 page) books take at least 5 to 10 minutes to download. I feel sorry for any one who lives on the fringe of coverage areas.

[Moejoe]

Deleted, didn't see the first post

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by davidspitzer

I dont understand the hoorah over epub, isnt the target format really Acrobat for a large screen device to preserve the newspapery (i made that word up) and text book look and feel?

I am with you on this.

PDF would be the best format for a large screen, since it can preserve the fonts and layout as the publisher intended them to be. Like a printed page, if you will. If there is screen-size standardization, then we are set.

Ideally, PDF would have been an open source format, but it's not, and it's the best I've seen out there.

I don't get the need for yet another format, like EPUB, which seems to bring less to the table, to boot.

[sirbruce]

Originally Posted by ny10522

Well, just returned my Kindle 2 (had only two days left to do it) in anticipation of this device. I enjoyed my Kindle 2 but there was one huge drawback.....screen contrast. I hope the new large screen Kindle has a thicker font or better contrast.

Epub support is a non-issue. With Stanza or Calibre it was easy to switch formats and directly load almost any book I liked onto the Kindle. It will be great to read textbooks. I have many scanned books and texts in PDF format. The larger screen and PDF support will be a welcome improvement.

As for cost, the Kindle 2 was a BARGAIN! Lifetime subscription to the internet with access anywhere in the US! I sent/received emails, looked up topics while reading via Google or Wikipedia, and even read the New York Times without subscription via Calibre. The Kindle 2 was almost terrific, but if they improve screen contrast, this next Kindle will be DA BOMB!

I can't say as your move was very smart. What if the Kindle DX doesn't *have* wireless access? And it might not be available until the fall. At least wait until it comes out before making a decision, sheesh.