Thursday was the day the entire digital world was expecting: the announcement of the new ebook reader from Amazon, the much awaited, much discussed, the one and only Kindle Paperwhite.
It was only a matter of time until Amazon answered to its Barnes and Noble counterpart, but from what I can gather, the Paperwhite will surpass in performance the Nook with Glowlight.
Why, you might wonder? As it turns out, Paperwhite only has a front-lit display that comes in very handy when reading on a park bench in the evening or in bed, without having a strong light glowing and disturbing your spouse. Amazon has even patented this technology, as all companies of this sort love to do, and explained that they added an anti-glare layer under which the device distributed light evenly, toward the display and away from the reader’s eyes.
“Paperwhite” aside, let’s see about some generalities: the new model is the fifth generation of Kindle touchscreen ebook readers and comes with 62% more pixels than its younger sibling. Furthermore, it boasts 25% increased contrast, rendering whiter whites and the blackest of blacks.
As compared to the colorful and lively tablets (the new Kindle Fires HD were also announced on Thursday), the conventional monochrome ebook reader might not receive the same public interest, given that a device designed for reading has a smaller range of activities that can be conducted on it. However, for those of you who prefer a sleek, sexy, thin ebook reader, the new Paperwhite might be the next best thing.
Amazon boasts two months of battery life, with an average of 30 minutes of reading per day. That sounds good, considering the extra strain of the backlight, feature that can be manually controlled. Some might think an automatic brightness level would do it better, but in the end it should be our choice.
Interesting new features are Time to Read, X-ray and of course the immense Amazon bookstore that needs no introduction, with its massive library comprising millions of books, out of which 180,000 are exclusive. Time to Read is a new thing a ma jig that calculates the approximate time of you finishing the book, by measuring your reading speed and habits. X-ray is another cool feature that helps you find all mentions of a character or an idea in the book, thus providing a deeper insight and a more thorough understanding of the concept.
The prices Amazon set for the new reading device ranges from $119 for the Wi-Fi version to $179 for the one with Wi-Fi and 3G, prices available with “special offers” – advertising. Considering the prices the older versions of Kindle have reached – $69- the new release seems a bargain as well.
These are our first impressions on the Kindle Paperwhite, the next release from Amazon. When it comes to digital reading, Amazon surely knows what features to add, how to blacken the black and increase readability. Simply put, the Paperwhite is the next best ebook reader on the market as of October 1st, 2012.
The new eBook reader launched by Onyx is bound to stun with its impressive features. The device is making its way into the United States rather slowly, but people from across Europe and Asia can lay their hands on this beauty quite easily.
The new Onyx reader is similar to the Nook Touch in the physical appearance and one can also associate these ebook readers as the same type of infrared touch screen is embedded in them. Yet the Onyx has profound superiority to the… Read the rest