
New Amazon Kindle announced: $139 WiFi-only, $189 3G, available August 27th  - ssclafani
http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/28/new-amazon-kindle-announced-139-wifi-only-version-and-189-3g/
======
minouye
I love my Kindle and this is awesome news. For all of you on the fence, here's
why I recommend everyone buy a Kindle (haven't used a Nook, but I think most
of these points apply):

1\. You will read more.

2\. The reading experience will be better than you think--there was a 1-2 day
adjustment period for me. After that, I didn't even notice I wasn't reading
paper and ink.

3\. You can highlight and make notes in books that are actually usable.
Remember post-its, bookmarks, notes in the margins? I loved to mark-up books,
but never pulled them out again to reference what I wrote. Now I have all of
my highlights in one place. I can even highlight a passage and share it on
Twitter or Facebook (if you have 3G, then you can do this while sitting on the
beach!)

4\. I have all of my books with me via my phone. I just read Moneyball and
wanted to share a quote with a friend. I was able to open up the Kindle app
and presto, I'm able to share it with them.

5\. I am more mobile (I have less stuff). Instead of buying books to collect
them, I am buying them to consume them. Others may not have this problem, but
I did.

5\. Did I mention you will read more?! If you like reading and have ever set a
goal to read more, please buy a Kindle. If a friend recommends a book to you
during the day, you can download it while sitting in a comfy chair when you
get home, and can be reading it seconds later.

Most of the arguments about whether or not to buy a Kindle center on the
price. At $140, it is well worth it when you consider the additional amount of
reading you will do. You will learn more, you will read more books, it will be
worth it!

~~~
pg
Why is a Kindle better than an iPad?

~~~
mattmaroon
I have both. I've had iPads for about a month, and a Kindle for about 2 weeks.
I assume you are asking why it is better specifically for reading since
comparing the two generally is like comparing a notebook and an MP3 player.
They're just not analogous in general, but for reading purposes the Kindle is
vastly superior to the iPad.

I actually read the same book on both this past weekend flipping back and
forth. The iPad has a slick UI for books, though the page flipping can be a
bit finicky,but it's still a back-lit LCD (albeit a nice one) which is just
uncomfortable for long reading. It's the same uncomfortable feeling you get
from staring at a monitor for a long time.

The Kindle is also much lighter, which is nicer than you'd think when you're
holding it for a couple hours at a clip. The iPad is surprisingly heavy, which
is such a common complaint that I imagine Apple will address it in the next
generation.

The Kindle's battery is good enough that I suspect you could read a few books
on one charge if you kept the wireless antenna off. You could go on a weekend
trip without taking a charger, which is nice. The iPad's battery is actually
pretty good for what it is, and is probably why the thing is so damn heavy,
but you'll still be charging it every night.

The iPad's screen is AMAZINGLY smudgy. I can't describe how bad it is in that
regard. The smudges add a slight blurring effect to text which gets annoying.
We have 5 of them in the office and everyone has complained about it. I got an
Invisible Shield screen protector for them, which helps a lot (and I could
also take a key to it without scratching) but adds its own annoyances.

E-ink is really unbeatable for reading. You would love a Kindle I think. How
many books do you read a year?

~~~
ugh
“It's the same uncomfortable feeling you get from staring at a monitor for a
long time.”

— I don’t get that, your mileage may vary. (The Kindle is probably still what
you should get if you read a lot.)

~~~
rdoherty
I think that some people don't get eyestrain using a monitor because their
eyes jump around and off of it continually throughout the day. The eye motions
and strain of reading is fairly different when you read word after word, line
after line for 1/2 hour or more.

An analogy would be saying your arms don't get sore picking up a book but
actually you're picking up a book 100 or more times in a row. Your arm will
get tired.

------
keltex
$130 is a really compelling price point. The NY Times charges $20/month to
access their Kindle edition ($240/year). What they should do is offer a 2-year
contract and throw a Kindle in for free.

I personally hate this model, but it's been proven effective (at least in the
U.S.) for cell phones sales.

~~~
jonknee
They would now be a lot better off buying Kindle's for as many of their dead-
tree customers as they can and switching them over to digital delivery. They
have less than a million daily subscribers (so that's just $130m for the
Kindles) and spend $240m a year in raw materials. Gobs more for the staff. Of
course they would need to figure out advertising, but they would need to sell
less of it with the lowered printing/delivery costs.

Not an original idea, but now a lot more financially sound:
[http://www.businessinsider.com/2009/1/printing-the-nyt-
costs...](http://www.businessinsider.com/2009/1/printing-the-nyt-costs-twice-
as-much-as-sending-every-subscriber-a-free-kindle)

~~~
philwelch
You're not accounting for newsstand revenue. If they went all digital,
newsstand revenue would disappear. If they didn't go all digital, they
wouldn't spend all $240 million on paper subscribers. So either way it's not a
fair comparison.

------
2mur
</lurk>I have a launch Kindle 2. I love the device for all of the same reasons
that minouye listed. I never had any problems with it until this past weekend.
I turned on the 3G and hit the 'sync/update' option. I knew that it was going
to download and install the newer 2.5 update (which added the long-needed
'collections' feature which allows you to arbitrarily group your books). Well
it bricked the device. I'm not sure how it happened. I was well outside (~6
months) the 1 yr warranty. I called them up and they overnighted a brand-new
K2 at no cost. (At least it looks brand-new, it could be a really well-
preserved refurb). That kind of experience is why I really like Amazon and the
Kindle. I don't know if I have any reason to upgrade for myself, but at $140 I
think this is getting into gift range for my Mom and the in-laws for Xmas.
(just registered to tell this story... long-time lurker)

~~~
2mur
I'll also add that the Kindle shows up as a USB-connected storage device so
you don't need special drivers or software (MS-only etc) to drop files on it.
That was a big concern for me when I originally was researching eInk devices
because I don't have any Windows boxes at home.

------
acangiano
The world of reading is about to change. $139 is not quite Seth Godin's
suggestion for a "paperback" device, but it's still very affordable. At this
price point, I think that many relatively tech savvy readers will end up
buying one simply because they can.

Seth Godin's reaction: [http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/07/here-
comes-t...](http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/07/here-comes-the-
paperback-kindle-as-promised.html)

------
elblanco
Now this is starting to get closer to a sweet spot. I'm curious if E-Ink is
starting to lower their licensing costs now that there's a lot more
competition in the space, or if manufacturing the screens is just becoming
cheaper.

Design looks more polished too.

------
JunkDNA
At that price, I'd be tempted to get one for situations where I would worry
about my iPad. I'd consider taking a $139 kindle to the beach. I'm terrified
of taking my iPad.

~~~
jonknee
Not to mention you'll actually be able to see the Kindle's screen at the
beach.

------
mhd
Finally back and forward buttons on both sides. And I've always been rather
satisfied with the page turning speed, especially compared to the nook, so if
that got even faster… I'm tempted to sell my old one now.

If the increased speed of the e-ink translates to a better browser, the 3G
model might finally be a good HHGTTG replacement for travelers (Con against
the iPad: roaming charges). Even better if the developer program would finally
take off and someone would make a dedicated Wikipedia app.

------
ajg1977
Interesting that there's only a $50 premium for the 3G Kindle, whereas the 3G
iPad is an additional $130 over the Wifi model.

Different licensing agreements? Amazon taking a loss? Typical Apple markup?

~~~
miratrix
iSuppli estimates that 3G radio adds about $25 to the cost of iPad
([http://www.isuppli.com/teardowns-manufacturing-and-
pricing/n...](http://www.isuppli.com/teardowns-manufacturing-and-
pricing/news/pages/mid-
rangeipadtogeneratemaximumprofitsforapple,isuppliestimates.aspx)) so at $50,
I'd imagine that Amazon's probably recouping the cost of baseband hardware +
development time and effort, and not much else.

It's amazing to think that they can throw in the free 3G access on top on the
hardware for just $50 extra. I guess they're counting on low browser and web
usage due to the e-ink screen...

~~~
jonknee
> It's amazing to think that they can throw in the free 3G access on top on
> the hardware for just $50 extra. I guess they're counting on low browser and
> web usage due to the e-ink screen...

I think that's subsidized by the increased amount of books people buy when
they can buy them anytime anywhere but only through Amazon.

------
melling
I haven't enabled 3G on my iPad because I'm usually near wifi these days. I
can't imagine that a 3G Kindle is necessary for too many people. The extra
cost is your first 4 books.

~~~
dandelany
It's not really necessary for anyone, but it is quite a nice luxury. I was at
the beach last week and a friend (a highschool English teacher) recommended a
novel that she teaches her students ("The Sparrow" by Mary Doria Russell; it's
great so far). I was so intrigued by her explanation of it that I bought it
then and there, sitting on the beach, and started reading it 30 seconds later.
So I expect that those who can afford it will.

That said, I keep the 3G off when I'm not using it, because it _tears_ through
the battery, even when the Kindle's off(!) so that it can always receive new
subscriptions.

------
fletchowns
When you are done reading a book on the Kindle can you loan it to a friend?
(the book, not the whole Kindle!)

~~~
mattmillr
When I saw the new price point, I actually briefly considered buying a $139
model so I could loan the whole Kindle (and my whole electronic library) to a
friend...

Then again, I bought a paperback book yesterday specifically because I knew I
would be reading it and passing it on. This really is the biggest sore point
for e-readers.

------
teilo
I have a Nook. I chose it over the Kindle for two reasons: Micro-SD card
support, and ePub support. The 4Gb internal memory in the Kindle 3 largely
eliminates the need for memory expansion. The lack of epub is the deal-breaker
for me.

A Nook can read any epub from any store supporting the Adobe Digital Editions
DRM. To my knowledge, this is all of them, including Sony. Of course, if the
epub is DRM-free it will work as well.

epub is an open format. It is mostly HTML/CSS, with support for embedded fonts
and a normalized system for storing images, meta-data, etc. It is widely being
supported by various open source tools. Google is making their public domain
books available as ePubs (quality varies).

Topaz and Mobi are proprietary formats. Kindle is the only reader of note
using them. They can be converted to epub if the DRM is broken (possible, but
YMMV), but it is often a time-consuming process, and thus not worth it.

If the new Kindle would support epub, it would be a hands-down winner. But, of
course, that would mean that people are able to purchase books from sources
other than Amazon.

Since the Nook runs Android, I am hoping some clever person figures out a way
to hack the Kindle for Android app to run on the Nook. Best of both worlds.

------
jakarta
Can anyone give me their take on viewing PDFs with the non-DX Kindle?

I've been seriously thinking about getting one. I read through reports and
ebooks pretty heavily and my chief concern is that if I bought a Kindle I'd
end up reading mangled PDFs where the formatting gets distorted to accomodate
the smaller screen size.

~~~
someperson
Formatting is fine. PDF was designed for that very purpose anyway.

Zooming and generally navigating a PDF is a _huge_ pain. Screen refreshes are
slow. Much like navigating through a plot on a graphics calculator.

PDF reading is a good extra, don't expect too much. I convert all text heavy,
non-technical books using "calibre" to the PRC format. Works well enough for
reading for pleasure.

(PS. I have a Kindle 2. Received it a few weeks ago)

~~~
sliverstorm
In short, it is 100% functional but if you plan on reading a lot of PDF's,
look to the DX.

~~~
jakarta
thanks. That is what I thought.

I think at the DX price point I might instead opt for an iPad.

------
moultano
Frankly, I don't know why someone would choose this over reading on your smart
phone. (Assuming you have a smart phone.)

I bought a nook, but then returned it after discovering that its pdf support
sucked, and that I could read much more easily using Aldiko on my nexus. I
find e-ink screens to actually be much worse for reading compared with white
text on a black background on a hi-res LCD/OLED. The page turning time is a
deal-breaker compared with a smart phone. That e-ink KACHUNKA every time gives
me a headache for some reason.

To me, battery life seems like the only selling point.

------
mikecane
It's very interesting that Amazon has gone with a WebKit-based browser.

~~~
lanstein
Why?

~~~
mikecane
For one thing, Ibis Reader is a web app that allows reading of ePubs. Imagine
now being able to also read ePub on the Kindle.

------
gmosx
Even though I bought my Kindle less than a year ago, I am considering
switching to the new version. All my wishes are fulfilled in this version:

* WiFi support = blog access, web browser, full content in subscriptions and hopefully lower prices for international users

* better contrast (I found Kindle2's contrast lacking)

* Even lighter

* Better Forward/Backward buttons positioning

* Improved PDF support

Oh, and I love the dark color ;-)

------
dotcoma
...and the 3G version is going to have free worldwide web browsing included?
(some people in Europe are saying so)

------
rodh257
I want an e-reader, but I want to read technical (coding) PDFs etc. I'm told
this will be inconvenient at a screen this size and that I should get the
Kindle DX.

Hopefully they announce a massive price drop on the DX as well (preferably
before I visit the USA in December)

~~~
smackfu
They just did recently.

~~~
rodh257
$379 is still too expensive, all I want is the base wifi kindle with a few
inches more screen area

------
tjpick
I got on of these for $149 (NZ) and it does the trick. Same display technology
as the kindle anyway.

<http://www.koboereader.com/>

~~~
lazyant
In Canada they are also $150 but Canadian dollars (like $200 NZ) isn't it
built in Canada?

~~~
tjpick
yes I think they are built in Canada. Actually I just checked online and it
looks like the NZ price is $295. Maybe I just forgot how much it actually
cost.

------
technomancy
Dang, it still has that terrible D-pad. Looks nice otherwise, but I hope they
go back to the silver ribbon for v4; it's so much nicer.

------
jwhitlark
Another case where tethering makes sense.

------
KevinMS
Does anybody have any good/killer reasons to recommend the 3G over the wifi-
only?

~~~
leviathant
The only thing I used the 3G in my Kindle for was when I was in Egypt. Rather
than hunt down a wifi signal for our netbook, I could check my gmail and post
to twitter from my Kindle. I was on a train between Cairo and Luxor and
posting to Twitter about how I'm on a train in BFE. I was telling friends
about camping in the white desert from my Kindle.

Completely free of charge, in the middle of the Egyptian desert. That was
definitely worth it.

If you don't travel so much, save $50 and get the wifi-only version.

