Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeebra
Is this new format rolling out to all eInk Kindles as well or just the Fire? I assume it's backwards compatible with the current Kindle format? (is that a stupid question? I don't know much about formats)
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Amazon says that it'll be available on "Latest Generation" eInk Kindles. You could take that to mean either the models they currently sell (which includes the Kindle Keyboard/Kindle DX), or just the recently announced
Kindle and
Kindle Touch.
It's very unlikely that the original Kindle or Kindle 2 will be updated to support the format. It's also quite unlikely that they'll update the Kindle DX.
The Kindle Keyboard (3rd generation) is a big grey area. Although it's not the latest and greatest model, it's still on sale prominently (more prominently than the Kindle DX) and has the biggest install base of all of the Kindle devices to date. Note that it's featured in the banner at the top of the product pages I linked to above.
What Amazon
has said is that when Publishers deliver their books to Amazon for publication, the tools Amazon provides will produce both a book in the new format (KF8) and the current book format.
That should ensure owners of older devices can still read the books, but they wont experience some of the newer formatting features (this could mean that some books aren't available on older devices if the publisher/Amazon decides the book needs the new format to work properly).
Amazon has confirmed that the format will work with the Kindle Apps and presumably the Cloud Reader (which of course is running inside a web browser that supports all of the HTML5/SVG/CSS3 features the new format provides).