
Amazon Officially Announces The New Kindle Paperwhite - aaronbrethorst
http://www.techcrunch.com/2012/09/06/amazon-officially-announces-the-new-kindle-paperwhite-paperwhite-display-frontlighting-and-212-ppi/
======
Roritharr
I'm really disappointed.

The hardware buttons for the page turn are the essential feature i love about
my Kindle Keyboard (3rd Gen).

The integrated lighting is nice, but not really the kind of innovation that i
wish the market leader in e-books would be capable of and nothing i'd buy a
new one for.

I'd instantly buy another Kindle if they had a color e-ink version like the
Jetbook color, or that prototype that e-ink showed on the 2011 IFA.

~~~
eupharis
"Nothing I'd buy a new one for." Exactly my thought. I'll continue to use (and
love) my Kindle Keyboard everyday.

This makes me worry about Amazon's future in the ereader space. The Touch is
gone, replaced with this for $139 sans offers. The capable Kobo Touch and Nook
Touch are $99.

$40 for a light and whiter background? I'll continue to use my $4.50 clip-on
light, thanks.

Kindles aren't at the head of the price versus performance curve anymore.

~~~
notatoad
They're still at the head of the price curve if you look at the price that
matters: $69. you don't really need a touch screen, a glow light, and the ads
are not a big deal. Kindle is still the cheapest real player in the e-reader
market.

I probably won't be upgrading from my 3rd-gen kindle either, but somehow i
doubt amazon cares. I'm sure they make more off of book purchases from 3-year-
old kindles than they do from the sale of new hardware. They want to sell
kindles to as many people as they can, but once you've got a kindle all they
need you to do is keep buying content.

~~~
eupharis
The price of the Kobo goes down by $20 too if you throw in ads.

Also, how do you search for words or phrases without a keyboard or touchpad? I
find that a very handy ereader feature. Well worth $10.

Oh remember the days of paper books and indexes...

~~~
danudey
I rarely do searches on my Kindle 4, and when I do there's a not-as-
cumbersome-as-you'd-think-but-pretty-cumbersome-anyway keyboard that you can
use. In exchange, I get a smaller, lighter Kindle that's easier to pack
around.

That said, the physical page-turn buttons are the best part. Without those,
I'd never use the thing.

------
ComputerGuru
Just keep in mind that most real books you read are printed on recycled paper
that's beige, creme, off-white, somewhat yellow, grey, or a little brown
anyway. The only "white paper" you actually read would be computer printouts.

I've never had a problem with "real books" and wished they were printed on
"white paper" instead, nor have I ever complained about the Kindle display -
it was always more than adequate in terms of contrast and colors. It's just
the goddamn lag (esp. in the touch screen edition, which makes it so
infuriating because of the lack of both tactile _and_ visual feedback). So I'm
inclined to just call this a marketing ploy.

~~~
notatoad
looking at non-marketing pictures of the new kindle [1], it looks like the
screen is about the same colour as a paperback page. The real advantage of the
white seems to be that the front-lighting is a warm white light, not the
bluish light that the nook uses.

[1] [http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/6/3295939/amazon-kindle-
paper...](http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/6/3295939/amazon-kindle-paperwhite-
hands-on-pictures#3746413)

~~~
MBCook
The 3rd from last picture compares the old & new Kindles with the backlight
off. You can see the new one's color is closer to white, but it's not really
that different. They're both still pretty close to a standard paperback.

However, in that picture you can see how much sharper the text on the new
Kindle is. That really appeals to me.

I like my 3G, but I think I'd really like the increased resolution. The thing
I worry about is turning pages. I _like_ using the buttons on the sides of my
Kindle to change pages (even if I think they should be reversed vertically).
I'm not sure I like the idea of having to poke the screen all the time and get
finger prints on it.

I'll have to see one in person either way. But they've got me interested.

------
iandanforth
I read this as "The New Kindle Paperweight." I sincerely hope that it's a
successful product so this pun doesn't show up too often.

~~~
ComputerGuru
Hahaha: quote from <http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19509626> under the
image (the caption):

"Amazon said the Kindle _Paperweight's_ battery could last for up to eight
weeks"

(emphasis added)

(screenshot: <http://cl.ly/image/3n0f0p3X173q>)

~~~
eblade
I think the "eight week" translates well if the average daily usage is half an
hour?

~~~
ComputerGuru
I'm not referring to the battery life, rather the slip-of-tongue wrt the name
of the device.

------
jgon
Disclosure: I own a kobo ereader.

One thing that is really interesting to me is battle of spec marketing and how
Amazon is really managing to outdo its competitors here.

As far as I can tell the Kobo Glo and the Kindle Paperwhite use the same new
display and lighting technology. However Amazon has christened theirs as the
"Paperwhite" and so several sites I have read have discussed how kobo has
released a competitor but it uses the "older e-ink pearl" technology. If
anyone has some clarification about the displays I would happy to get more
detail, but from the matching resolutions, to the similar device photos on
their respective websites, to the description of how the front-lighting is
achieved lead me to believe that Amazon is using commodity e-ink technology
available to everyone else and christening it as a revolution.

Their other claim is that they get 8 weeks of battery life with the light
enabled. Closer reading of the small print reveals that this is going by 30
minutes of reading a day, for a grand total of 8 _7_ 0.5 = 28 hours of reading
with the light. On their site Kobo claims 55 hours of use with the light on.
Amazon does not say in their comparison if the light stays on for the whole 8
weeks, or just while it is being read. But either they have achieve an
incredible breakthrough in battery life to allow for 8 _7_ 24 hours of lights
or their battery life is 1/2 that of a competitor. Regardless I have seen
several sites claiming that Kobo has some serious catching up to with "only"
55 hours of battery.

Anyway, just the usual specs jockeying between tech companies, but in this
case as an owner of a kobo I was intrigued by the details as I have experience
with one of their competitors. Always interesting to see what gets reported
unchecked and what doesn't.

~~~
radicaldreamer
This is called great marketing: "Amazon is using commodity e-ink technology
available to everyone else and christening it as a revolution."

Apple does the same thing, again and again.

~~~
jgon
It's true, and I wasn't expecting them to say anything like that. Of course
they would trumpet it as a revolution, it would indeed be terrible marketing
if they didn't.

My post was muddled, so I guess what I was really trying to say is this: Most
of the tech reporting I have seen around this event has uncritically parroted
most of these claims. This bodes poorly for getting accurate information in
areas where it isn't as obvious to me. It caught me off guard this time
because I saw it being done by several resources which I had previously viewed
as being more in-depth and trustworthy. I guess it's like reading an article
in the newspaper about a topic you know quite well. It makes you incredibly
suspicious of reporting on topics you don't know as much about.

------
acabal
Can it read epubs yet?

I was thinking of buying a Nook Glowlight because I often read in bed while my
partner sleeps. But when I went to check it out in the store, the contrast is
noticeably worse on the Glowlight, to the point where I decided not to get
one. If this new Kindle can read epubs, has a light, and has contrast that's
at least as good as a regular Kindle, I'm sold.

Edit: I know I can convert files, but it's a big pain to be constantly
converting a big library, especially since I very often correct ebooks in
Sigil.

~~~
eclipxe
Use Kindlegen
([http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000765211))

Seriously. Calibre produces a very poor conversion. Kindlegen will retain much
of the ePub fidelity.

~~~
MikeKusold
Thank you! I've been using Calibre to convert everything. Is there a way to
add WhisperSync too?

~~~
eblade
If your kindle is non-3G, the content that you email to your kindle address
will show up when it's connected to wifi.

------
robertskmiles
And yet when I go to amazon.co.uk or amazon.com they aren't advertising the
new version as available for purchase.

One thing Apple gets right is that you can buy a new product as soon as it's
announced.

~~~
stuff4ben
No you can't. There's often delays in highly desired products, not to mention
they stop their entire storefront when doing product launches ("We'll be right
back!", but I won't since I can't order it right now). At least I can still
use Amazon.com to order things.

~~~
CamperBob2
_"We'll be right back!", but I won't since I can't order it right now_

Yeah, you will.

~~~
stuff4ben
Yeah, you're right. I can't quit you Apple!

------
jrockway
I'm excited. I have to admit that I really like the Nexus 7, but I can't
really get into fiction books unless I see them on something that looks like
paper. I can't really explain it, but I'll probably be purchasing one of these
things. If only Google Play Books worked on the Kindle :)

~~~
mortenjorck
I have the same unexplainable perspective on long-form fiction on LCDs, but I
think I've actually isolated the hangup: It's the backlight timeout. I don't
care whether the light is coming through or bouncing off the screen (your eyes
can't actually tell the difference!), but it's the psychological effect of
having a clock constantly counting down to when the screen will shut off,
requiring that I spend no more than a certain amount of time reading each
page.

~~~
nuclear_eclipse
Increase the timeout then. You're probably already in the habit of manually
turning off the screen when you're done with the device, so why do you need it
to turn off automatically after a minute or two of inactivity? Especially when
modern tablets have battery life measured in many _hours_ of time with the
screen turned on, does it really matter if you do happen to forget and it
takes five or ten minutes for it to correct your mistake? And if it really
takes you more than 10 minutes to read a page on a tablet screen before you
touch it again to flip the page, just turn off the timeout altogether.

------
homosaur
212 PPI could be revolutionary in viewing non-text documents on an e-ink
screen. The current Kindle is basically unusable for PDFs unless you have a
DX. It might still be too low of a DPI, but it has to be a major improvement
and right now most PDFs are just BARELY unreadable.

~~~
ChuckMcM
Back in 1990 I saw a prototype IBM display that was 230PPI which really
impressed me. The person doing the demo said that eyestrain drops dramatically
once you're eye can more easily infer the lines rather than connecting the
dots on 'large' pixels. Their claim was that 200 PPI was the reading threshold
where eyestrain due to pixelation became 'negligible'.

At one time I had a link to some studies but now I only find later papers,
sigh. Searching for 'eye fatigue ppi' gets you some decent hits.

~~~
nradov
Jakob Nielsen mentioned the impact of PPI on reading speed in an old article
but unfortunately he didn't cite the original source.

<http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9511.html>

------
sahat
Probably one of the most interesting features of the new Kindle Paperweight is
this: "The display has 62 percent more pixels, and it’s super sharp with
excellent contrast". There haven't been any new breakthroughs in the eInk
department since B&N Nook Simple Touch and Kindle 4.

~~~
ernesth
The higher resolution was pioneered by iRiver one year ago, the frontlit
screen by Barnes and Noble 4 months ago. And the combination of both by Kobo
yesterday.

So not a breakthrough by amazon ;-)

~~~
RexRollman
You're right, but the way they are lighting it is indeed different.

------
pnathan
I am interested what their plan for the DX form factor is. I really don't like
the small form factor of regular kindles.

~~~
jackowayed
I posted a longer comment about this last night[1], but the short version is:
Amazon is clearly much more interested in profiting from content than
hardware. That means they want cheap devices that people will take everywhere
and read lots of books on. The Kindle DX is less portable (and thus you're
less likely to take it on your commute, etc), and its main advantage is for
reading PDF's, on which they make money.

So I think it will be an expensive second-class citizen for the forseeable
future. It's not in their interest to change that.

1: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4483305>

~~~
ableal
> main advantage is for reading PDF's, on which they make money.

I suppose you mean "make _no_ money", assuming PDFs are off-the-net stuff,
which is quite likely.

A couple of years ago I got a Kindle DX for technical PDFs, and haven't used
it much past the first year - it's not really pleasant to use. It combines the
size/weight disadvantage of an iPad 10" (not the upcoming mini ;-) with the
slowness and poor resizing of eInk.

~~~
pnathan
I have a DX and frankly, I think it's a pleasure to read and use. I would like
to see a DX2 come out sometime!

------
hasker
It looks like if you preorder by September 14 you can avoid sales tax in CA! I
checked on some other preorder items that will not ship before Amazon starts
charging CA tax.

~~~
ghshephard
Well, to be clear - you end up having to pay the tax yourself, instead of
having amazon collect and pay it for you.

~~~
jlgreco
_Technically_ I believe you wouldn't pay a sales tax, but rather a use tax.
But yeah, same thing.

------
jonknee
I'm going to order the 3G model as soon as it's up on the store. The backlight
is what was holding me back before.

Edit: Ordered. Should be here on October 2nd.

------
evandena
How far off is the technology to combine this type of screen with your typical
LCD tablet screen? I would love to read on a "paperwhite" screen, and watch
movies/surf on a standard tablet screen, all on one device.

~~~
andyjsong
It's happening: [http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/31/lcd-and-e-ink-dual-
screen...](http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/31/lcd-and-e-ink-dual-screen-
prototypes-show-up-at-ifa/)

Also I was thinking about buying something like this for my netbook:
<http://pixelqi.com/products>

------
dlevine
This is actually a pretty good upgrade IMHO.

The backlight is a huge upgrade - I have wanted this for years. And a sharper
screen is always great. I bought a $79 Kindle last year (over the Touch)
because it was smaller and had physical page turn buttons. I'm probably going
to upgrade as soon as this is actually available.

I'm not crazy about the lack of physical buttons, but I'm sure I'll get used
to it.

Color e-ink would be great, but from what I hear, the performance just isn't
there yet. Hopefully next year.

------
sadga
Why would you make the bezel case black? That creates an eye-straining
contrast between the bezel and the white screen.

~~~
relix
Exactly. It makes the contrast, one of the selling points, more noticeable
than if everything around it was white. The black case of the previous kindle
was in my opinion a very good design choice.

~~~
colanderman
No, not a good design choice. A good _sales_ choice.

------
vessenes
The press conference is thin on some details, like refresh rate of the new
screen, but I'm really excited about this. Higher contrast, long battery life,
backlight..

I will order two. I haven't had a kindle for a year or so, but I'll use this
in bed at night when I don't want bright screens / work intruding on my
reading.

------
BryanB55
I'll probably get one, I just got the most recent kindle touch after selling
the 2nd generation kindle for it. Looks like I'll be moving on to my 3rd
kindle.

There's something about the price point that really sells me on these...$120
doesn't seem like a big deal, specially if I sell my current generation, it
only ends up costing maybe ~$50 to upgrade and reading on an ultra light
kindle is a lot more comfortable to me than an iPad or physical book.

It sounds like they wont have a non-touch model this time though. I like all
the new features but I would probably go back to a non-touch screen if they
offered it. I tend to hit the screen too often by mistake and end up losing my
place.

~~~
yajoe
There were both touch and non-touch Kindle e-ink readers announced. The non-
touch Kindle does not have the "Paperwhite" screen but it is super fast and
light weight, and it's now $69...

I've been waiting to take my Kindle Paperwhite home for some time now; I love
the front-lit screen.

------
laacz
Why nobody is excited about size of new Fire? To me 7" is cute and all
pockety, but it is still too small to feel confortable doing stuff on it.
8.9", on the other hand, is good compromise between small 7" and large 10".

~~~
lazugod
Because we have yet to see if the software has improved.

------
bbq
And also 3 new tablets. Kindle Fire upgrade, and two Kindle Fire "HD"
editions.

------
RexRollman
I think this looks interesting and I will order one. The only thing that
annoys me about the Kindle is that you can't set you own lockscreen image,
even if you buy the non-ad supported version.

~~~
jonhendry
There's a minor hack that lets you use your own images. I don't know if it'll
work as-is with the new devices, or if it needs to be updated.

------
pooriaazimi
Isn't _everyone_ (and by that I mean everyone, including naive customers)
already fed up with this HD thing?

I dream of a day when I wake up and don't hear this word (mis/ab)used again.

------
BoppreH

      “Paperwhite” display, which offers more contrast
      and brightness
    

Brighter? As far as I know it doesn't have any backlight, so how can it be
brighter?

~~~
tnuc
It has front light. Thus it is brighter.

~~~
BoppreH
If the previous one had no light and this one has, "brighter" is a strange way
to describe it, isn't it?

~~~
joshuacc
Not at all. It's very common to refer to papers as brighter and darker. This
analogous use for an electronic reading surface seems very natural to me.

------
djahng
I'd upgrade to the Paperwhite just for the built-in light. I backpack a lot,
and reading my Kindle with a headlamp is really annoying...

------
stcredzero
How fast is the response time on the display? Something with "paper"
whiteness, a reflective screen, and an option to backlight is the perfect
basis for an e-ink "digital moleskine." However, it would need to add instant
response time and a good stylus. A "paper-like" feel of the stylus on the
surface and attention to other details would be needed as well.

------
6ren
Not backlit, it's "front-lit" [http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Paperwhite-
Resolution-Display-B...](http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Paperwhite-Resolution-
Display-Built/dp/B007OZNZG0)

They say it's "25% better contrast", but is this with the display lit or
unlit? It's easy to increase contrast by adding more light, but not great on
the eyes.

------
oconnor0
I find [http://g-ecx.images-
amazon.com/images/G/01/kindle/dp/2012/KC...](http://g-ecx.images-
amazon.com/images/G/01/kindle/dp/2012/KC/battery-compare._V389693466_.gif)
saddening. Comparing battery life in completely different units? Isn't that
something of a sleazy marketing "trick"?

------
tiatia
Question: I want to buy either, a kindle for $69 or a Nook for $99

I want to:

* Read books (by the way, recommended: ebooks.adelaide.edu.au)

* Install Android and install a vocabulary training program (e.g. anki: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70FIv5Qfrag> )

Question: Can the kindle be rooted?

~~~
Casseres
> Question: Can the kindle be rooted?

Oh yes :-)

<http://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=150>

------
EternalFury
My Kindle is the best piece of electronics I have ever bought. Just ordered
this new version.

------
pragmatic
Any opinions on the "Special Offers" version?

Has anyone tried one of these? Just wondering if it's worth saving $20 to have
yet another source of ads (very clever getting ads close to...if not yet _in_
a book).

~~~
bbgm
I've used those for two versions now. The ads don't come in the way at all.

~~~
pragmatic
Thanks.

Looks like you can turn if off, and they'll simply charge you the price
difference.

[http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_s...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_special_unsubscribe?nodeId=200671290#unsubscribe)

~~~
showerst
I have a kindle touch with ads, and honestly I sort of prefer them over the
ad-less version. Those same 10 screensavers on the ad-less one get old fast,
and I even buy an advertised product on rare occasions.

They really need to hook it up to my AMZN recommendations to show me targeted
discounts though =P.

------
przemoc
So once they've taken (micro)SD port, they'll never give it back?

------
tynan
Anyone know for sure whether or not the browser will work international with
3G? That's the one thing that would prevent me from upgrading from my keyboard
model.

~~~
davidw
I have a Kindle 3 with 3G, and it works great over here in Italy, and was also
the only internet connected device I had when stuck in Amsterdam because of
snow a few years back (hotel charged something obscene for wifi, and the phone
would have incurred big roaming charges).

Of course, with the touch, they only let you see wikipedia and Amazon.com,
I've heard.

------
photorized
"9.1mm thin"

It's kinda like "40 years young", I guess. 5'9" short.

~~~
zmmmmm
Yeah, I get why the manufacturers spin it that way, but it irritates me no end
that tech sites and bloggers repeat it.

------
ekianjo
ANyone know if the technology used in this Kindle the same as before (e-ink
again?). Or did they move to a better alternative (since there are several
ones) ?

------
fts89
Preorder the Fire HD here
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008GFRDL0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008GFRDL0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&tag=asdfdsa-20&creativeASIN=B008GFRDL0&linkCode=as2)

And the paperwhite here:
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008UB7DU6/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008UB7DU6/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&tag=asdfdsa-20&creativeASIN=B008UB7DU6&linkCode=as2)

------
nostromo
This seems like poor timing to announce just prior to the iPhone 5 and later
the iPad Mini.

An early launch could have given them a bit of traction going into the holiday
season. ("My friend just got one and now I want one.") Announcing after the
new Apple products could have made them top-of-mind around the holidays. But
this timing puts them uncomfortably close to what will surely be a much larger
Apple news event.

~~~
Pkeod
You instantly get their products top of mind if you ever use Amazon.com - I
think most people who are both Apple and Amazon customers go to Amazon.com
more than Apple.com.

~~~
chucknelson
Well, yeah, I go to amazon.com to buy everything _except_ an iphone, ipad, or
macbook. Not a good comparison.

~~~
sadga
But you will still see a Kindle ad when you are there.

