Hasta La Gadget!

Ross Rubin (@rossrubin) contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

Amazon’s Kindle DX includes a few tweaks such as automatically rotating the orientation of the screen when it is placed in landscape mode and adjustable page margins because… well, CEO Jeff Bezos seems to like the feature. Literally, though, the biggest change is the new 9.7-inch electronic ink screen, which displays two and a half times more content than the 6-inch screen on the Kindle 2 and Sony Reader. The expanded display allows more detailed graphics to be seen without zooming or panning, and is better suited to a wide range of source material including maps, technical diagrams, and sheet music. But textbooks and newspapers were singled out as two printed sources that are particularly significant for the forthcoming device.

These publications both benefit from the larger Kindle screen size, but each face different challenges in finding success on the Kindle DX. For newspapers, the Kindle DX cuts down on the costs of printing. Newspapers, though, are already struggling against competitors that did away with that expense years ago, including blogs that break stories and online entities such as Craigslist, eBay and Google that have siphoned away advertising revenue. Textbooks, on the other hand, have no major electronic competition, and print still retains advantages such as better readability and color. But digital textbooks must compete with used textbooks, a major market on college campuses, and likely will not be able to be resold if other digital content is a predecessor.

At the Kindle DX launch, representatives from The New York Times Company and Case Western Reserve University both characterized their involvement with the Kindle DX as a trial or experimentation. What’s behind the arm’s length embrace?

Continue reading Switched On: Big Kindle on Campus

Filed under: Handhelds

Switched On: Big Kindle on Campus originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 May 2009 17:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s a wave of electronic books coming, suggests a Verizon Wireless exec, and it’s taking aim at markets the Amazon Kindle doesn’t cover.

Speaking in Las Vegas, Tony Lewis, who heads an initiative within Verizon Wireless to provide cellular connections for new types of gadgets, said that his company had been approached by five companies about new e-readers.

While he wouldn’t give the company’s names or specifics, he suggested that they weren’t going to go head-on against the Kindle, which has already built up a significant advantage in the electronic book market. Instead, they planned to market to areas the Kindle left out, such as the education market.

It makes a lot of sense. While some people would never give up the romance or feel of a printed book, any student would be happy to trade a ten-pound book bag for a lightweight, searchable reader.
 
[Via Google News/AP]