
Amazon reveals $79 Kindle - zeratul
http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/28/amazon-reveals-79-kindle/
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bradleyland
You know, this is probably a really ridiculous gripe, but that silvery plastic
look makes the new Kindles look cheap. It reminds me of the cheap silver
plastic they use for "As seen on TV" products. I much preferred the slate gray
and white colors of the Kindle Keyboard.

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kylec
It looks cheap because it _is_ cheap. It's a $79 Kindle, what do you expect?

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bradleyland
That's kind of contradictory to how Amazon is positioning them:

"These are high-end products"

That's the first phrase of the first paragraph after the product image.

I'm not saying they need to cover them in alcantara, but the old smooth-matte
finish is much better than this.

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raju
Does anyone use the Kindle for technical books? If so, how does it fare? For
the $79/$99 it's not a big price to pay, but I have 10s, if not 100s of PDFs
that I would like to keep and read (reading on the iPad isn't working out for
me).

Any thoughts?

Update: Just saw fribblerz's comment about the DX. But I am still curious
about the other Kindles.

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sliverstorm
You basically need a DX for PDF's. The smaller screen requires more zooming
and navigating, which is a pain due to the performance lag.

Of course, this can be avoided if they are not PDF out of neccesity. If the
book is all text, not heavily formatted, and you just have it in PDF for
convienience, look into getting an eBook copy.

Note: I use a 2nd gen Kindle. The newer models might be a little snappier.

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radu_floricica
Nope, still need a DX for PDF and images. Even zoomed, it's hard to make out
small notations in graphs and pictures.

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fribblerz
I'm really looking forward to something like a cheaper variant of DX to come
along. Technical books don't render well on 6 inch screen and I can't get
myself to shell out a notebook's price for current DX.

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runningdogx
Still no native epub support. What is Amazon waiting for?

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saturdaysaint
As someone that's been on the Kindle since the 1st gen, I love the march to
something cheap and light/small enough to be held in one hand.

It's just a shame that there's no text-to-speech, which would be really killer
on this, the lightest model in the lineup. I find TTS really useful,
especially for non-fiction, essays and news (conveying the nuances of fiction,
particularly dialogue, can be awkward with TTS). I think the feature's been
buried by way of being awkwardly placed in the text-size menu of previous
Kindles. I'd say %90 of Kindle owners I talk to have never used it or don't
know the functionality is even there.

At the very least, I hope Amazon puts it in their iOS/Android apps.

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stumm
Many publishers don't allow their books to use the TTS feature. Possibly
because they fear that it would could into their audio-book market. Amazon may
have decided that it's a feature that's too infrequently used to justify the
cost.

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ctdonath
Same price as a Prime membership. How long 'til they say "aw shucks, we'll
just give every Prime member one"? Maybe fulfilling the theorized "free Kindle
by November '11" prediction? (Price drops vs. dates graph is near straight-
line to there.)

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zeratul
Actually, the announcement is now at the Amazon's home page.

Next step: make e-books cheaper!

[http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-version-expensive-paperback-
ver...](http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-version-expensive-paperback-
version/forum/Fx1YVPLD6A2JUPU/Tx15JXOCDQNRKJF)

~~~
AzAngel
They used to, but then the publishers forced them to accept the agency model
of e-book pricing.

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shoota
Actually, I believe it was Apple who promoted the agency model on the iPad
which forced Amazon to convert to the agency model as well.

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jonknee
It was still the publishers, Apple just made themselves into a poker chip the
publishers could use to play against Amazon.

~~~
shoota
Sure ultimately it was the publisher's decision to go to the agency model but
if Apple and Amazon held firm it would have been a win for the consumer. Apple
decided to take a swipe at one of its competitors which in the end hurt
consumers by allowing for ebooks to be priced artificially.

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culturestate
eBook prices were artificial to begin with. Amazon was known to take a loss
when necessary to set the price ceiling at $9.99, which (as you can imagine)
would hurt competitors who couldn't absorb losses like that.

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gerlv
Price of this Kindle in the UK: £89 = $139. ([http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kindle-
Wi-Fi-6-Ink-Display/dp/B0051Q...](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kindle-Wi-Fi-6-Ink-
Display/dp/B0051QVF7A/))

~~~
pdw
Europe gets the ad-free version, which costs $109 in the US. Add 20% UK VAT
and that becomes $131 or £84. Amazon's price is pretty reasonable.

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keithpeter
OK, thanks for that, I was thinking that it was the usual small markets pay
more thing. Osbourne effect: I've actually been putting off a kindle purchase
until the pad was launched as I knew there would be a cheaper electronic ink
reader after the pad.

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tybris
I now own over a dozen books that are more expensive than a Kindle.

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vaksel
personally I don't like it...the current kindle feels too small and a bit
uncomfortable to read because of that, I'd imagine with the new one flipping
pages is going to be even more anoying

