Today in Tech: Amazon Kindle DX
Ever since “going green” met the recession the idea of early adoption has kind of been thrown on its head. Everyone has this urgency to clean up their emissions but they want don’t want to pay the price for emerging technology. With much more frivoulous technological advances like Blu-ray or LCD TV’s, it was never really an issue. There wasn’t a national call to upgrade to skinnier televisions. I have always enjoyed reading about emerging tech. I think its really interesting to see where the technology world is possibly heading. The idea of E-Books has always appealed to me. The convenience of having access to hundreds of thousands of publications and books on a medium that reads very similiar to paper is clearly the first step in lowering our dependence on [tree made] paper.
Amazon today showed off its newest E-Book reader aimed at the education and subscription digital newspaper market. The DX (not to be confused with the DSi) comes in with a 9.7 inch E-Ink screen. Coming on the heels of the Kindle II, this version touts a long awaited PDF reader. My first reaction is that this is a genius move. Textbook pricing has long been one of the most ludicrious costs of going to college. The books are heavy, expensive, and have a very short shelf life. I have seen some response saying that the price point of the DX comes in at the price of a low end laptop ($489). While this is true, I think that the Kindle still has a number of things working in its favor.
1) The vast majority of consumers hate reading off computer screens. I still get eye strain from sitting infront of my work computer screen after an eight hour day. The E-Ink really does seem to make a difference in readability of a screen over long periods of time.
2) Battery life. Those low end notebooks are going to have a 4 to 5 hour battery life at max before they have to be plugged in. The Kindle can run for days without ever having to be plugged in. You could go to all your classes with your digital textbooks and never have to worry about having a place to plug in.
3) Size Matters. The Kindle is just over 1/3 of an inch thick making it highly portable. No more lugging books around campus or running back to your room to switch books inbetween. Everything is in the device.
The upfront cost, as with any emerging tech, is going to be pricey. Years later, early adaptors generally are seen as crazy for paying the kind of money they did to get technology that still needs work. Though there is something to say for making head turns when you pull out a 9.5” E book reader in a coffee shop.
by
roninpowride
2 years ago
