Live from Amazon's Kindle event in NYC!
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted May 6th 2009 10:53AM
posted May 6th 2009 10:53AM
11:08AM "Thank you." And that's that! Now time for a little hands-on action. Thanks for reading -- stay tuned for pics (and video!).
11:08AM Kindle 2 price has not changed.
11:07AM 9.7-inch display with auto-rotate, 3G wireless, 3.3GB of storage, native PDF support, $9.99 or less NYT bestsellers, no wireless contract... $489. But we knew that.
11:06AM "So let me put this all together for you."
11:06AM We're checking out some textbooks now -- Jeff is demo'ing the ability to search words just... like... the... Kindle. Nothing really truly new here so far. Wait! "This is a new feature -- you can decide how many words per line you want. I find I read faster when the line length is shorter."
11:04AM Now showing off reading stories in shortened groupings. Yep... just like reading news on the Kindle.
11:03AM Now he's reading the news out loud. Looks good... but about the same as the Kindle 2. If you just bought one of those, it's going to be hard to convince you on the DX. This timing is odd to us.
11:02AM "I don't think it makes sense to continue with the demo..." Now Jeff is inviting people on stage... oh wait -- screen is back. Someone is getting fired today.
11:02AM Oh man. The screen just went off totally. "Does the camera seem to be working right?"
11:01AM "You can see, even in reverse, how good the display looks." Wow, Bezos must be a bit angry right now. "I'm going to choose to find this hilarious." More laughs. It's all backwards! "Let's look at the NYT -- I've never seen it backwards."
11:00AM Ha! "How in the world did we make it backwards..." The display is backwards right now. Big laughs on that.
11:00AM "Here's something from my collection. This is exactly the kind of document I would have wasted ink on. It looks absolutely beautiful."
10:58AM PDF demo now -- the screen looks good, but the refresh is still fairly slow. We'd imagine the larger screen hurts it a bit.
10:58AM Jeff is back. "Let's do a quick demo. We'll have these after the event for you to play with."
10:57AM "Thank you Amazon, thank you Jeff, for boosting book sales, and thank you for making the Kindle DX such a compelling experience for readers."
10:57AM "This experiment..." Ouch. "Will combine the immediacy of the web, with the readability of the Kindle experience." "We will offer the Kindle plans where our paper is not available to provide our readers with what they want, and where they want it."
10:55AM "We knew that one day an e-reader would offer the same experience of a newspaper. As each new generation of the Kindle came to market, that dream continues to get closer to realization. This is an example of how we're using every medium to meet the demands of our readers."
10:54AM "We're pleased to announce that three papers have signed on with us, the NYT, Boston Globe, and the Washington Post. They will offer reduced prices for long term commitments on subscriptions." And NYT chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. is out.
10:53AM "People love getting newspapers on their Kindles. They love that it follows them around."
10:52AM Newspapers... here we go.
10:52AM And Jeff is back...
10:51AM Barbara: "We believe this will revolutionize learning. As a research university, we're bound to test our hypothesis -- will the Kindle change how students work? We're going to look at these questions. To all the reporters here, can you imagine what it would be like to craft your story using paper, a typewriter, white out?"
10:49AM "This is a dream to have textbooks on a device this small. Students with smaller backpacks, less load, easier access. Speaking of students. We've got the textbooks, we've got the device -- what about the students? 5 universities have decided to pilot the Kindle DX this fall. And here's Barbara Snyder, president of Case Western Reserve."
10:48AM "Textbooks shine with this display. I'm excited to announce today that we've reached an agreement with three leading textbook publishers."
10:47AM "Any highly structured documents look great on this device. Here's a cookbook, lots of structure. Here's another one, a photo of sushi... it's making me hungry. Computer books, they're highly structured, complex layouts. They shine with the Kindle DX."
10:46AM "Here's an article from Nature, a newsletter, a memo, an annual report. You just rotate the device and you go to widescreen mode."
10:46AM "The display is 2 and a half times the size of the Kindle 2. Built in PDF reader, you never have to pan, you never have to zoom, you never have to scroll. You just read."
10:45AM "Most of the documents that we print and read are 8 1/2 x 11 -- you can't reflow these documents. Even with electronic paper, you need a big display." Hmm... really? And it's out. "I'm excited to introduce... Kindle DX."
10:44AM "Why do we still print? Because computer displays are worse than paper. Paper is just better. It's worth the hassle of printing. Well, Kindle's paperlike display solves that problem, but there is one more thing."
10:44AM "We print more paper now than ever before. Paperless society never came. Printers have proliferated, and so have their evil companion..." Ha! Picture of ink cartridges.
10:43AM He's really driving home the reasons why the Kindle is killing. He's working towards documents now... paper... here we go.
10:42AM "It's meant for people to read. It's light, it feels good in your hands. You don't notice it's there. It doesn't beep at you, it doesn't get warm in your hands. These are real issues, and if they existed they would make the reading experience less enjoyable."
10:41AM "Another reason: it's 3G wireless. You don't need the computer, you don't even have to own a PC. It's seamless integration. Even though it's 3G, there's no annual contracts, no monthly service fees. You can download books in less than 60 seconds."
10:40AM "Why is that? We have the books that people want to read. We have tens of millions of customers who buy books from us -- we know what they want. There's another reason too -- the paper like display. It doesn't cause eye strain, it's readable in the sunlight. It's better than computer displays. And of course it sips battery power."
10:39AM He's into his same intro from the Kindle 2 event. "We've added 45,000 books in the last three months. Kindle sales are now 35% of books where we have Kindle editions -- that's coincident with the launch of Kindle 2."
10:38AM "Ladies and gentlemen, Jeff Bezos." Applause. And Jeff is out!
10:36AM Team Amazon is running a bit behind schedule as you can see. We can't really blame them though, we hear that Terminator Salvation Kindle is hard to deal with. It keeps trying to exterminate its owner because it thinks they're "obsolete."
10:34AM Whoa -- the music in here has just gotten extremely funky thanks to a band called MFSB... claims Shazam.
10:30AM We can say this: so far, our connection is holding up way better here than it did in the Morgan Library (for the Kindle 2 launch). Maybe Amazon is listening. Now if they just have enough Kindles to go around when it's time for some hands-on action, we'll be in business.
10:20AM Are we about to see the emergence of phone-carrier style plans for e-readers? Logically, it makes sense for subsidies to enter the picture when you have content providers like the Times pairing up with hardware companies (like Amazon in this case). So the idea of a free or more moderately priced device coupled with a one or two-year contract for delivery seems highly plausible.
10:15AM So before things get rolling, some more serious predictions. It's going to be hard for Amazon to convince people to drop another $360 on a device. Our feelings (as of right now) is that they (and the New York Times, of course) will have to come with an attractive subscription plan to make this enticing to users. Should be interesting to see how they position this, but we at least know that it costs the NYT basically nothing to pipe their paper onto this device, so that price better be reasonable.
10:11AM We managed to nab some front row seats and we're right next to the cats from Gizmodo -- as you can see in the pic below. The house is getting kinda full now... Bezos will be pleased.
10:07AM Here's our predictions besides the Kindle DX (the big daddy we saw yesterday). Tiny Kindle (about the size of a Tic-Tac box), Kindle Lady (it's pink), and a very special Terminator Salvation Kindle.
10:03AM And we're in our seats! Once again, a nice theater setting for the Amazon folks. Everyone is scrambling to get situated right now, and there's some sweet soul on the sound system here.
9:48AM We're in folks. Right now the press is in a holding pattern outside of the actual venue, but hey... free coffee.
Got my wife one of the original E-book readers, made by Sony, a couple of years ago. Great gift for a reader. The Kindle has wireless going for it, but the size and feel of the Sony's seem more refined...feels more like holding a real book.
But competition is a good thing!
It is posted on the Kindleboards blog that the DX is up for sale at Amazon for $489
The cover costs $49.99
L
I forgot the link in my other post:
http://www.kindleboards.com/blog/
Bezos is looking mighty old...
Sorry, no color and almost $500! I was ready to pre-order but once it showed up on Amazon at that price I put the wallet away. Color will be the next evolution, it has to be or someone like Apple will crush it with a tablet. I wanted to own one, I really did, I knew there'd be no color realistically but I had thought for sure there would be some sort of subsidy. Best of luck Amazon.
Only $490?!? Sign me up! Wait ...
its $489 on Amazon right now
If most of our printed content is on 8.5x11 inch paper, why is 9.7" diagonal ideal to display this without pan, zoom, or scroll? It's too small.
If you cut off the typical 1" margins from an 8.5x11 inch content, you end up with 6.5x9 inch area. This has a diagonal of 11.1 inches. So, we are operating with somewhere around 76% of the usable area.
Textbooks are different, and other digital media will probably be fine, but it's no substitue for 8.5x11 paper!
There are already larger eReaders out there ... just not sold in the US yet. Peter Kafta has written about the iRex device that is over 10 inches, supports PDFs and you can already get something like 800 newspapers on it.
Good point. I think he must have been referring to landscape mode handling 8.5 x 11 in true width, but he should have said so. But then his marketing acumen took over and he figured 95% of listeners wouldn't do the math.
Very enticing. Although I cannot justify the expense on my salary when the library is still free.
Did they mention when it will actually be available?
Worst
Launch
Ever
I just got a Kindle 2 about 2 months ago. There's no way in hell I'm going to shell out $500 for this one. The only feature that I really like is the built in PDF support. If only Kindle 2 had that...
Thanks for sharing live with us techno geeks that couldn't be there. I am a two version Kindle owner. Kindle2 fits my current needs perfectly but my college age grandchildren may need this. Good commentary and great pics.
Hi Jeff,
Great coverage of the event! Thanks for sharing this exciting event.
I'm rather disappointed at the other potential ebook device manufacturers particularly Sony. If Sony had moved fast enough they could have given the Kindle a run in the market by making their current ebook reader wireless, but with GSM phone technology. That technology would allow it to work all over the world - the Kindle wireless capability works only in the US. The result of all this is that Bezos can set the Kindle price at whatever he likes. With competition out there, the price has to go down.
Anthony S. Policastro
Novelist - http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/aspolicastro
Both of these are just too dam expensive. I could get a pretty decent laptop for $500!
Ryan
I don't understand how it has free 3G without any contract or monthly fee or anything. Who the hell provides it? How can I hack it to work for my computer? These are things that would make it worthwhile to me, even though it would never, ever happen.
Seriously though- ATT? VerizoN? HMMM.
Its NYC wear a black turtleneck why don't YOU?!!!!
Looks like the e-ink display of the Kindle DX is about 5.5 inch by 8 inch.
anyone know what 3 textbook companies they are working w/ ?
Please someone tell me they mentioned upgrades for suckers/customers that bought the first Kindle 2...
So Kindle 2 owners got screwed? To be absolutely clear, I'm not complaining about the fact that Amazon is announcing a new piece of hardware, but about the inference that the only way to get PDF support is to buy the new device. The problem here is that Kindle 2's size is ideal for portability and the DX is just too big to be useful to me. What I'm mad about is that Amazon is giving the impression that it has no intention of ever upgrading the Kindle 2 with the new native PDF reader SOFTWARE... which has been my #1 gripe with the device since the original Kindle debuted. I don't mind buying a newer device, but I DO NOT WANT a bigger Kindle, I simply want to be able to read my PDFs natively on my perfectly-proportioned Kindle 2 without horrifically ravaging the formatting into an unreadable mess. Amazon, you suck.
Can't wait for either the Kindle to go color (how good can an anatomy textbook, or an art or architecture textbook, or anything with complex graphics be without color?
If the New York Times offers it for $15 -$20 a month, I'll buy. I would love to see the TImes survive and give us better news than the blogosphere is capable of with reporters who sit at their computers all day long. How good can their reporting be when they never go anywhere? "I read a lot" does not cover it.
3G = EVDO = Qualcomm proprietary US only 3G
Hence, it will never ever work outside US boundaries
Larger is nice, but certainly not innovative. I was hoping for features that might set the stage to launch Kindle 3:
http://www.innovationinpractice.com/innovation_in_practice/2009/01/the-lab-innovating-the-kindle-with-task-unification-january-2009.html
Well a 9.7" diagonal is not even one half of a 8.5" x 11" sheet (whose diagonal, by the way, is 13.9"). So reading a 8.5" x 11" page on the DX would be like scaling the page to one half and than faxing it to you and then even a bit worse since the DX is actually a little bit smaller than that and with a lower resolution (150dpi for the dx and 200dpi for the fax). I wonder if the end result can really be that clear and easy to read (unless the original page is using a really large font).
Does anyone know what the font is that's used throughout the presentation? That's one very nice typeface.
"Students with smaller backpacks"? I understand a lot has changed since I was a student, but I think $500 for a flimsy electronic gadget of questionable usefulness is a bit too much even for the USC.
I want one but the thing dies so easy i heard anyone think its a good buy?
good?
can't wait for the plastic case for the new kindle as a huge iphone. :)
sounds nice this digital book, but what about the battery? how many weeks / hours does it work?
this is a joke... even jobs would blush on introducing this kind of hubris
wiat till the OLED foldable readers come out in 3 years.. this is trash
Thank you for your outstanding coverage. Felt like I was there today. greatly appreciated.
Awww come on... they look really cool and I could surely use one of these, but the price doesn't seem right to me :( .
Wow, that is absolutely amazing. Wow, totally wild dude. Must have!
RT
www.privacy-web.net.tc
looks good
Looks good