Amazon’s New Kindle DX Pushes the World One Step Closer to a Futuristic Jetsons Utopia

For those of you who have been hanging out with Fred and Wilma at the drive-in theater for the past year or so, the Kindle is an electronic media reader (essentially a “book” which uses bytes—bad consonance I know.) However, unlike previous incarnations of the fabled “paperless book” the Kindle uses a revolutionary Digital Ink technology which only requires electricity while the image on the screen is refreshing (turning from one page to another, for example) and not while the image is actually displayed. The digital Ink produces a crisp image in grayscale without the harsh glare or backlight of a tradition computer monitor or mobile device’s screen. This gives the Kindle an incredible battery life (up to two weeks one single 4 hour charge) and an inherent “Green” footprint.

So, the Kindle is an electronic book, right? Yes and no. While the device does allow you to read your favorite books in a cool, trendy new way, the Kindle is so much more than a book. It’s really a library with access to Amazons incredible digital library of over 275,000 books, over 60,000 audio books, hundreds of top rated periodicals such as The New York Times and Time magazine. And with the new DX, you can digitally search preview, and purchase anything from the Amazon library (and watch it download in less than 60 seconds) and it works without an internet connection. The Kindle operates of the Whispernet, Amazon’s own wireless network which piggybacks on Sprint’s own 3G network so you can use the Kindle wirelessly anywhere Sprint service is available. It also works with an “old fashioned” USB 2.0 cable as well by why would you want to use that when you can beam data out of the air?

And with Whispersync technology, you can easily transfer documents from one Kindle to another.

But an electronic book, even one with access to all of those titles, would be a little boring—especially for the MTV generation, one of the Kindle’s core consumer groups. Amazon also wanted to target tech savvy business professionals as well. That’s why it upgraded the Kindle so the new DX could transport and view a wide array of digital media formats including: Kindle (AZW,) PDF, text, Audible audio books, MP3 (which is great for listening to your own music library or podcasts on the go,) html, Word .Doc, Jpeg, and many more. Whether the end user prefers a laid back, bohemian approach to things and wants to listen to Indie rock while flipping through Jack Kerouac’s On The Road, or is a more traditional suit and tie type looking for a way to carry and display everything from simple memos to complex cash flow charts, the Kindle is a very capable tool.

The new DX is a significant upgrade over the older, much smaller version, with:

1) A 9.7” display (capable of up to 16 shades of grey for crystal clarity)

2) A built in dictionary (The New Oxford American Dictionary)

3) Free access to the Wikipedia online encyclopedia

4) A basic web browser great for text-centric sites such as Google

5) Support for MP3 format to support audio (as mentioned above)

6) An auto-rotating display that allows better presentation of oversized documents

7) A Native PDF reader (which requires no conversion and preserves the original layout of the document)

8) Amazon’s experimental Read-To-Me software (which converts text into spoken word)

Kindle users get all of that in a package that’s still only 1/3 of an inch thick and weighs just over a pound.

Amazon’s marketing machine was no doubt running at full steam as it worked frantically to tie its newest game-changer to the “Green” movement and a paperless society but those claims are not far off the mark and Amazon has the facts to back them up. The digital Ink technology revolutionizes energy consumption in portable devices and the fact that Kindle can give anyone access to hundreds of thousands of documents without ever having to pulp a tree for paper is really quite amazing. If paperless really isn’t your “thing,” just imagine how much space you’ll save by having your entire collection of dusty old hardcovers in a 1/3 of an inch digital box (not to mention the money you’ll save over bookstore prices.)

Already several colleges have pre-ordered the reader for use in the fall, citing the cost effectiveness and minimizing environmental impact as chief reasons to go digital. However, with a nearly $500 price tag the Kindle DX may remain out of the hands of the general public for some time to come. But considering everything the Kindle can do (and the number of devices and old fashioned books it can replace) even $500 is an incredible bargain.

Personally, I feel that if the Kindle fits within your budget, you should have one. This device is truly a cut above the competition and may just be the kick in the pants we all needed to go paperless.

Just imagine waking up on a sunny Sunday morning as your robotic dog brings you your slippers. You pad out to the kitchen and sit in front of a hot breakfast that your robot housekeeper just placed on the table. There in front of you is the morning news—all the news that is news and all of it that isn’t—in a shiny new Amazon Kindle DX.