Hasta La Gadget!

The second-generation Kindle Paperwhite is an iterative upgrade, but one that is still worth your attention.

Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite is one of the most popular e-readers on the market, widely appreciated by customers. The company might already be working on a successor, according to TechCrunch, which claims to have seen a prototype of the new Kindle Paperwhite that Amazon is said to release in early 2014. It is said that the new e-reader will have a high resolution display touting 330ppi or pixels-per-inch.

It is also said that the new Kindle Paperwhite will come with a few hardware improvements. The display will apparently be flushed with the edges of the e-reader and it will be constructed from “very matte glass of some sort,” and not plastic. The switch to glass won’t affect weight though, the report adds, because the new models are said to be lighter than the existing ones. Ice Wine is reportedly the codename of the new Kindle Paperwhite, which isn’t expected to come with any major software improvements, but it is said that the software will be upscaled to fully capitalize on the high resolution display. Amazon is also reportedly working on new typography for the e-reader which will include a custom-built font, making reading a lot easier. Some design changes have been detailed as well, the rear casing will apparently take design cues from the current Kindle Fire HDX tablets and will also come with a rear power button that’s similar to the one on the new tablets. Last but not the least, the new Kindle Paperwhite is said to have an ambient light sensor which will automatically adjust the display’s brightness based on the light in the room. No information about pricing or availability is public at this point in time.

New Kindle Paperwhite Expected In Early 2014 With High Resolution Display original content from Ubergizmo.

Exactly a day after gracing the Fire line, Amazon-owned Goodreads has arrived on the Paperwhite — if you’re willing to take a little initiative and download yourself, that is. And in all honesty, this was the upgrade we’ve been waiting for since the acquisition was first announced. It’s nice functionality to have on the Fire, certainly, and folks who own multiple Kindle devices will appreciate being able to use it across the tablets and readers, but the addition of social reading means a lot more on e-readers, where things tend to be a lot more locked down, due to hardware limitations. Overall, we were a bit underwhelmed by the implementation on the HDX. With a few exceptions, Goodreads feels more like an app than an integral part of the ecosystem. Given that the Paperwhite offers a less open platform, however, we had higher hopes for the e-reader.

And indeed, once installed, Goodreads is front and center — well, slightly to the right of center, added to the homepage toolbar, sandwiched between search and settings. If you’ve already tied your Amazon account to the social network — as we did with yesterday’s Fire update — you should be good to go. Tap the “g ” icon, and you’ll bring up the Goodreads app, which has been styled to match the rest of the Paperwhite UI. The app’s front page shows you updates across your network, including ratings and who wants to read what. From there, you can like and comment on statuses and mark those titles and “Read” or “Want to Read.” Up top, the My Shelves link lets you see your own collection. From that page, you can also click through to add books from your Amazon library, a nice way of back filling all the electronic and physical books that you’ve read over the years. It’s the next best thing to inviting people over to your place to see your real life bookshelf.

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The team at Amazon behind the Kindle have refreshed the Kindle Paperwhite with a boost to both software and hardware, and all the way over in Berlin this week we’re having another look at it. This device looks – from all outward appearances – to be the exact same model as the original. It’s once […]

The most striking difference you’ll notice in the just leaked announced new Kindle Paperwhite isn’t something on the device’s screen — it’s on the backplate. AMAZON. That brand, once so subtly tied into the company’s game-changing e-reader, is now big, bold and garishly displayed in gloss across the upper part of the Paperwhite’s posterior. Why? Well, the answer is quite simple really: compared to the Kindle brand, Amazon’s brand equity is much stronger in overseas markets. If you’re a longtime Kindle user like me, you’ll probably find this design tweak annoying, but that’s about all it is. The rest of this new Paperwhite is a matter of finessing the tried-and-true Kindle experience, not disrupting it.

Filed under: Amazon

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