New Kindle DX coming anytime soon?

[HarryT]

Where do we start? Let's see: no zoom capabilities, no hyperlink support, no table of contents support, no annotation; that's probably enough to be going on with.

[thebestjeter]

I think there are going to be a new generation of Kindle DX sooner or later. Amazon has introduced the "Digital Replica" format, which is basically a PDF format with some superficial changes for his rental text books. I know Amazon is going to launch a tablet this fall, but I think they're not going to force those students to read those PDF on a tablet. I think the point of the tablet is not ebooks, but music and movies. The Kindle DX has to remain an option for those who prefer a dedicated reading device.

[Barcey]

I've been expecting a Kindle DX refresh ever since I saw the press release on the e-ink 9.7" 300 DPI screen.

http://www.e-ink.com/press_releases/...on_051611.html

[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Where do we start? Let's see: no zoom capabilities, no hyperlink support, no table of contents support, no annotation; that's probably enough to be going on with.

What he said. You can get better PDF support if you are willing to hack your device. I don't need to worry about that now so I have not tried but I would prefer to have the same capabilities the K3 has on my DXG without having to hack it.

I use my DXG for pleasure reading. I prefer reading hardbacks to paperbacks and found that I prefer the DXG to the K3. I use my K3 for travel.

[amo]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Where do we start? Let's see: no zoom capabilities, no hyperlink support, no table of contents support, no annotation; that's probably enough to be going on with.

No zoom capabilities?! You mean you can only read it in the full-screen format that it comes in, no setting it to 150% or whatever, end of story? That would be a deal-breaker right there.

[HarryT]

That's correct. Your only option is to display it in landscape orientation, which obviously provides a certain "zoom factor".

[Barty]

The problem with the DX is the hardware and software aren't good enough to take advantage of the larger screen for textbook and PDF. It wouldn't be so bad if it were just an oversized kindle 3, but it's not even that.

[phili]

Originally Posted by amo

No zoom capabilities?! You mean you can only read it in the full-screen format that it comes in, no setting it to 150% or whatever, end of story? That would be a deal-breaker right there.

Originally Posted by HarryT

That's correct. Your only option is to display it in landscape orientation, which obviously provides a certain "zoom factor".

What are you talking about???
Of course you can zoom in PDF´s with the Kindle DX. You can zoom in 150, 200 and 300%.

[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by phili

What are you talking about???
Of course you can zoom in PDF´s with the Kindle DX. You can zoom in 150, 200 and 300%.

I was pretty sure you could but going to wait until I got home to double check.

You cannot take notes, highlight, or bookmark in the document.

[physics]

Actually, you can put a bookmark in yourself (alt+b), but for some reason the shortcuts for next bookmark and previous bookmark don't work. I did this to make a table of contents for myself in my longer pdf's, but this means that I need to remember if the bookmark on page 261 is chapter 6 or 7, and so on. Needless to say, I'd really love hyperlink support. (And to get my beta problem fixed, but that's a problem on almost all devices...)

[brudigia]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's only sold at amazon.com, but anyone (including people in the UK) can buy it.

In June I saw it being sold in a Best Buy too. Don't know if that is still so.

[amo]

Thanks for all the info, guys (and gals). This is really helping. At this point I don't really care about note-taking or hyperlinking (I dunno, maybe I should?); I just want to be able to comfortably *read* pdf's (starting grad school in January; there'll be tons of that). Like I said, not being able to zoom would do away with the "comfortable" aspect right there; but if that's actually not the case, I think I could be ok with it.

Let's see, what I want from a pdf reader is
a) large screen, being able to see the whole page at once in a readable font and being able to zoom in to make it readable if the original document is in small print
b) e-ink
c) easy download from computer to reader (USB or such); being able to access the net with the reader itself doesn't really matter to me right now
d) reasonably comfortable to hold (i.e. I can lie down on the couch with it), not too heavy

So far, the DX seems to deliver those- doesn't it? And it's not much more expensive than a couple of hardcopy textbooks.

If anyone has better suggestions for a good pdf reader with those features which is either better or cheaper, I'd be more than happy to hear about them.
Oh, and being in Canada, I obviously need something I can get up here (i've got access to a shipping address in the States for the next six weeks or so; if I get the DX i'll probably have it shipped there).

[physics]

When I ordered the DX, I thought I wouldn't care about hyperlinking either- it would be "nice to have", but ok without it. (And I thought maybe a software upgrade would enable it.) Now, whenever I replace my dx I'm definitely going to get one that has hyperlinking. I think it really depends on the pdfs that you are reading, though- which will depend on what you're studying in graduate school.

I've found that if your pdfs are long, hyperlinking is very important. For example, I sometimes read pdfs of summer schools from arXiv. These are sort of like textbooks, and can be a few hundred pages long. To get to chapter 6, I need to go back to the table of contents (is that page 1 or page 2, or maybe there's an acknowledgements and it starts on page 4...), find Chapter 6, find the page number, remember...does the numbering start with page 1 or is there a title page, so maybe add one to that number, and then go to that page. Secondly, most of these pdfs have the equation numbers linked, so when they say "using equation 4.65 we can ...", on a computer you can click the link to go to equation 4.65, because there's no way you'll remember what that equation is. On the dx, there's no link, and of course you have no idea what page equation 4.65 is on, so you have to search, which is still pretty buggy and VERY slow. So for large pdfs, and pdfs with equation-links, I'd say get something with hyperlinks. I wish I did.

On the other hand, maybe you're studying history or something, in which case this post is totally not helpful. :-)

[amo]

Originally Posted by physics

When I ordered the DX, I thought I wouldn't care about hyperlinking either- it would be "nice to have", but ok without it. (And I thought maybe a software upgrade would enable it.) Now, whenever I replace my dx I'm definitely going to get one that has hyperlinking. I think it really depends on the pdfs that you are reading, though- which will depend on what you're studying in graduate school.

I've found that if your pdfs are long, hyperlinking is very important. For example, I sometimes read pdfs of summer schools from arXiv. These are sort of like textbooks, and can be a few hundred pages long. To get to chapter 6, I need to go back to the table of contents (is that page 1 or page 2, or maybe there's an acknowledgements and it starts on page 4...), find Chapter 6, find the page number, remember...does the numbering start with page 1 or is there a title page, so maybe add one to that number, and then go to that page. Secondly, most of these pdfs have the equation numbers linked, so when they say "using equation 4.65 we can ...", on a computer you can click the link to go to equation 4.65, because there's no way you'll remember what that equation is. On the dx, there's no link, and of course you have no idea what page equation 4.65 is on, so you have to search, which is still pretty buggy and VERY slow. So for large pdfs, and pdfs with equation-links, I'd say get something with hyperlinks. I wish I did.

On the other hand, maybe you're studying history or something, in which case this post is totally not helpful. :-)

Yeah, it's an arts degree (interdisciplinary studies), so I don't see a lot of need for looking up formulas. But that's okay, your post is still helpful, because I might run into that TOC issue you mentioned. Hmm. Hadn't thought of that, could be irritating... Thanks for pointing it out.

[emellaich]

For the textbook market you need a larger screen, like the dx, but you also need color for diagrams and charts. I suspect hyperlinks are also important. Therefore, I suspect Amazon will hold off on the Dx upgrade until their rumored 10 inch version of their forthcoming media device.

In terms of PDFs, my take is that you need to go with an iPad for now. If the price is too high, look for someone with an iPad 1 who is selling it on eBay.

To show you where I am coming from, I love my kindle and use it for pleasure reading, but it's my iPad plus the iAnnotate software for PDFs. There are several things I think a good academic PDF reader needs.

First, you need some way to acquire PDFs. You want to able to cross reference a new doc, or just go to the library and search/find docs. This means a web browser that you can use while on campus. If you have to wait to go back home to load new PDFs it will really put a crimp in your study plans. And, using kindle eink browser to search things from your library or download from your student course site is a sure route to frustration.

Next, you really need annotation for academic PDFs. These things are thick reading (I don't mean their physical size). You read a dozen of these and you will forget what the second one says. When you read them, your goal should be to distill the doc down into a manageable chunk. I go through them and underline insightful sections and highlight sections I might want to cite later. Then I write a brief summary from four words to two sentences on the front of the document.

The thing is that it's hard to know what a given document means if you can't see it in context of the entire set of documemts. So you read/summarize them all once. then you gather the entire stack together and use their summaries to see how they all fit together.

All of this means that an electronic version of this needs highlights, underlining, and typing and diagraming. This, unfortunately means touch screen LCD and not eink. And right now it means iannotate on an iPad.