The question is, whether these units are worth the price. There is only $40 of difference between that refurbished 2nd-gen and a new 3rd-gen device, and the screen improvements are probably worth that. And the model with the better screen and wifi only is $20 cheaper.

The price difference between the older and newer $359 DX is a bit higher at $70, but again comes down to the question of just how much that new higher-contrast screen is worth. And for just a bit more than either you can get a color iPad.

I would be a bit hesitant myself about spending that much money on a refurb. If you’re going to put that much money into it already, you might as well spend a little more and get the newest version.

The Kindle DX goes for $299.99 and includes free 2-day shipping

The Kindle global 3G goes for $169.99

What a difference a display can make All it took was turning on the $380 Amazon Kindle DX (Graphite) second-generation large-format e-reader to see that Amazon’s claims of a higher-contrast display than its predecessor were true. The E-Ink display indeed reflects a significant improvement in contrast, as evidenced by the clarity of the crisp text, and the darker blacks of graphics and words alike.

The blacks, in fact, truly look black; by comparison, the blacks on the original Kindle DX appear dingy and gray. Words on the Kindle DX (Graphite) appear to jump off the page. …

Did Amazon tuck away a microphone in the Kindle 3 with the idea of adding a phone option later, not just for possible fun with a voice navigation option? That’s my guess, after having read Andrys Basten’s mention of the “’not currently enabled microphone provided for future use.’”

A phone option for the Kindle would be Jeff Bezos’s way to weaken the iPhone’s multi advantage. Yes, maybe just one gizmo to tote after all—the K machine rather than an iPhone. Perhaps you would pay extra for a wireless connection that worked with the phone. Presto! New rev stream for Jeff and his friends at AT&T, and I suspect they could adjust the biz model to allow for losses in other rev for the wireless carrier. Will the wonders never cease? I really hope someone can pin this one down ASAP. I might upgrade my pre-ordered K3 to include the 3G option, not just WiFi, if my reckless speculation about the phone is on target.

I can also envision shared or unshared voice annotation of e-books. In the case of the unshared variety, Amazon could still store the files remotely. And speaking of sharing, I notice that the Amazon software update for the iPad, iPod and iPhone includes some shared highlighting—you can see how many users highlighted the most popular passages, at least in the case of bestsellers like Losing Mum and Pup, just as you can with Kindle hardware.

Simply put, while I disagree with Jeff Bezos on e-book standards and financial disclosure, I know he and his people are no dummies. Now, Jeff, prove it further and add ePub capabilities to the Kindle.

Q: Why doesn’t Amazon support the popular "e-pub" standard used by your competitors and many libraries?

A: We are innovating so rapidly that having our own standard allows us to incorporate new things at a very rapid rate. For example: Whispersync (which uses wireless connections to sync your place in a book across devices) and changing font sizes.

Other standards over time may incorporate some of these things. But we’re moving very quickly to improve the state of the art. It’s very helpful not to have to wait for some third-party standard to catch up.

Chris Meadows nicely shot that one down. So ePub at one point would not even allow font-size changes? Come on, Jeff. From afar I love the better traits of the new Reader and may buy one myself, and I recognize that the Amazon has its share of positives. Respect for e-book standards just isn’t one of them.

In fairness to Jeff, I’m also grouchy toward the International Digital Publishing Forum, the creator and developer of ePub. He is right about the group’s inadequacies. Two years ago and probably earlier, I myself wrote on the sync issue, suggesting that the IDPF come up with an industry standard (since we’re not talking about format matters per se, I’d have been happy simply IDPF simply recognizing others’ efforts in this area).  No such luck. Whatever the reason, the IDPF has been too bleepin’ snailish in the past. I hope that changes, and in fact there are signs it might.

Regardless of Jeff’s monopolistic aspirations and the IDPF’s past slugishness, we need standards for the entire e-book industry to make e-books a truly durable medium; and rich corporations like Amazon and Adobe should be willing to help pay for the technical capabilities for the IDPF to keep up. Yes, Jeff: you should be in the IDPF, just as Google and Apple already are. You’re a freeloader if you’re not. Your dissing of Mobipocket format books—on which some hapless buyers spent hundreds and in some cases thousands of dollars for proprietary-DRMed editions they can’t enjoy on their iPads—shows how trustworthy you are on format matters. Mobipocket the company was once in the IDPF. But it isn’t now. Corporate pressure, now that Amazon owns it?

Meanwhile I’d suggest that the library world and other large buyers and potential buyers of e-books lay down the law for Jeff. “ePub when possible, or we won’t give you business. We’ll buy Kindles in small quantities or on our own to see what you’re up to. But no large institutional buys of Kindles or books in that format.” Hello, American Library Association? How much do you care about open standards? I’m going to send this post to an ALA tech expert and find out what the group is  up to. Any chance ALA can come up with formal collection development guidelines that position ePub as the preferred format for books that don’t have special requirements which the standard format can’t meet? Luckily, ALA’s Office of Information and Technology Policy is an IDPF member; but that should be just the start. I want action.

First it was the markdowns on the Kindle 2, and the even lower markdowns on refurbished Kindle 2s. This should have been an early clue, given that it’s much the same thing that happened to the Kindle 1 shortly before the Kindle 2 came out.

When the Kindle 2 went out of stock on Amazon, it seemed obvious a replacement would be coming soon—and now the Wall Street Journal is covering Jeff Bezos’s next e-ink marvel. Engadget has a closer look at the device (and a bigger version of the photo at left), Wired has more coverage, and probably every other e-book and tech blog will have its own coverage within a couple of hours.

The new Kindle will have the same sort of higher-contrast screen as the new Kindle DX, and will be available in 3G for $189 and wi-fi only for $139, bringing it in a good $10 below the wi-fi-less Kobo or the wi-fi-only Nook. I believe this represents the first time any Kindle has had wi-fi; no word yet on whether the 3G version will also have it as a back-up.

"We developed this device for serious readers. At these price points, it may be much broader than that," said Mr. Bezos in an interview. "People will buy them for their kids. People won’t share Kindles any more."

From the photo, the new Kindle seems to share the same graphite grey shade as the new Kindle DX—perhaps an easy way to distinguish it casually from its predecessor—and Bezos notes it is 21% smaller than the previous one, even though the screen is still the same size, with further interface improvements to minimize distractions.

Bezos says he had no interest in adding features such as color that would distract from the reading experience, or in following the lead of a hundred other companies who were making LCD tablets. “I like building a purpose-built reading device. I think that is where we can make a real contribution.”

The device will be available for order on Thursday, and ship internationally (140 countries) August 27th.

The eight-inch Android tablet shown to the left sells now for $143.10 at Amazon. $100 in a year or so? With better than the current 800-by-400 resolution? And more than one user review at Amazon, so a purchase is less of a gamble?

You can even plunk down $124 for a rather problematic seven-inch Android tablet passing itself off in a photo as an iPad clone (I wonder about the 720p in the display-related specs, if nothing else). What’s more, there’s also the seven-inch Pandigitial Novel, an Android-based color ebook reader on sale at some places for less than $150 with special offers included. Again, a flawed machine—but a hint of better things to come. Same for the $199 Cruz Reader.

And now a question for library geeks out there: Are any of you experimenting with super-cheap Android machines, given their low costs and the forthcoming software from a major library vendor like OverDrive?  Here’s a chance to stay ahead of your users. If I were a public librarian, I’d think about such angles as:

–The greater demand that the new tablets will create for e-books. Will library budgets be ready? Will people be able to borrow a wide variety of books in E, not just the genre novels and other typical e-book fare? And will your tech support be up to snuff.

–Possible retaliation from certain publishers, fearing that their business models are more threatened than ever. Will some just stop making their books available to libraries or insist on library-hostile terms, if e-books are finally easy to check out with OverDrive’s new software? Should librarians and vendors such as OverDrive try harder to pick up books from smaller, more flexible publishers?

–New business opportunities, at least in cases where the law allows and resources are available. Could certain libraries work directly with vendors and distributors or with retailers so that library visitors can easily buy Android machines on the spot. The libraries could turn at least small profits. When the price goes below $100, the hardware will be fodder for impulse purchases, at least in affluent areas.

I’m also curious what the extra-cheap tablets will mean for libraries’ relationships with school systems, if more students can download e-books and other content directly. If fewer students show up at the libraries, could this hurt the quality of their work—since professional research guidance will no longer be within a few feet of them? Could public librarians fill in the gaps remotely? Public librarians are not school librarian substitutes, and vice versa, but the firings of school librarians will not help matters.

Reminder: I’ve focused on Android tablets, but Android phones are likewise worthy of attention.

And finally: At least one well-known library blogger—Sarah (“Librarian in Black”) Houghton-Jan, the Digital Futures Manager for the San Jose Public Library—is already Android-hip. I’ll welcome Sarah’s thoughts on the above issues.

Update, 11:40 a.m.: A librarian friend of mine observes that users tend to prefer their own hardware, not the library-chosen variety. True! But as I myself see it, library-related options should be available in cases where there’s sufficient local interest. What’s more, Android tablets’ economies can boost e-book use no matter who owns or recommends the machines.

Laptop has a multi-page review of the new DX. They like it, but don’t feel that it has a robust enough feature set for students.

Interestingly, they have a comment on screen that I haven’t seen before:

Looking at the cover of N. K. Jemisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms on both devices, the DX’s version was definitely darker, but appeared muddier to our eyes rather than having better contrast.

A reader named Will posted a link in the Screens page to a handful of DX-friendly screensavers hosted over at Picasa. If you’ve read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, played Portal, or watched Futurama, you will likely be interested. If not, carry on.

Kindle Screensavers by William [Picasa Web Albums]

Via Chris Walters’ Kindlerama

New Graphite DX alongside Older White DX

This photo is from the Amazon’s Customer Images area and is taken by D. Meador. Here’s a link to the specific image which is 130k in size. I had to make it smaller for the blog and for the loading time of the Kindle Edition of this blog.

It’s a good illustration of the subtle differences in background lightness being more evident when you can see where the lighter aspects come through in a much more intense way, as in the white that you can see within the dark area of the very lowest bird’s wing as it appears in the graphite DX.

Also see the back of the head of the 4th bird down, facing to the right. With the older DX, it’s grayer.

In the smaller background spaces that are defined by branches as in the triangle that is made between the bottom part of the 3rd bird from the end and the branch it is on that turns up a bit, the difference in whiteness isn’t evident until you look at them one after another.

Then, if you step back a bit, and look at it overall, the the definition of the full picture by contrast is evident. The intensity of the black you see there is also seen in the text of documents on the display.

My DX seems somewhere between the two, but if given a choice of the first or 2nd one, as seen here, my eyes definitely like the one on the left better.

D. Meador has also done a customer review of the Graphite model at Amazon. Included in it:

‘ Comparison of Kindle DX (White) to DX (Graphite). The black images are sharper, and you can immediately see the difference. The ink looks richer, darker and more like an actual book. The graphite body color does make the “page” background appear whiter, along with the improved contrast.

Comparing the Kindle DX to the iPad: I stopped by the Apple store and compared the DX to the iPad. The iPad had too much glare and harsh contrast when compared to the Kindle. Also, the fonts were crisper and easier to read on the Kindle. ‘

Clayton Morris, for FoxNews, does a video preview of it and also a brief review, and writes:

‘… The biggest complaint I have with the iPad is not being able to read it in direct sunlight. In fact it’s virtually impossible. By the pool, beach or park, that’s where my Kindle gets its biggest workout.

… The screen on the new Kindle DX is nice and sharp and makes reading in the sunlight a no-brainer. If Amazon were smart, this little factoid would be plastered all over its marketing material.

Certain features on the Kindle DX have left the iPad in the dust, such as a very thin third-inch width compared to the iPad’s half-inch size. A much longer battery life — iPad gets about 10 hours while the Kindle boasts a week on a single charge. The Kindle DX is also noticeably lighter than the iPad. But remember, the Kindle is just an ebook reader and the iPad is almost a laptop replacement, hardly the same kind of device.’

He wouldn’t personally shell out another $200 for the larger Kindle, but many have, and the continuing new reviews of recently received Graphite DX’s at the Amazon thread I linked to yesterday and at other Kindle forums are indicating that this is the reference e-Ink reader-screen for now and we hope it’ll someday also be put on a smaller Kindle. I did get the larger DX earlier because I’d rather read on a larger screen but many prize the easier portability of the smaller one.

Editor’s Note: the above is reprinted, with permission, from Andrys Basten’s A Kindle World blog. PB

It’s beautiful.

40% better contrast than the Kindle DX. At least it seems that way to me. It doesn’t really seem like 50% better contrast plus graphite casing. It is however very, very noticeable and much better than the Kindle DX’s screen.

25% better than my Kindle 2 Global’s screen. The screen on that was very good so the difference doesn’t seem as stark as with the Kindle DX.

The background is pretty white. As opposed to a very light grey on the Kindle DX 1 the background on the Kindle DX 2 seems white.

After spending a fair amount of time with my iPad, I can honestly say that I really don’t like reading on it. I have to go to the black background, white text option to make it marginally comfortable on my eyes. It is also much too heavy.

One thing I have noticed, though, is how small the screen on my Kindle 2 seems to be. Reading on the iPad really accustoms one to a larger screen. I never thought I’d want something the size of the DX, but I’m beginning to think that it might be the right one for me when I upgrade.

Bow toward Fremont, California, or wherever he works these days, the next time a struggling e-newspaper iinflicts a horrid full-page ad on you with “Skip this” in tiny type. Those are hate crimes against readers: the stuff Nielsen preaches against. Kudos to him!

Nielsen’s latest e-book-related study, however—comparing reading speeds for the iPad, the Kindle and paper publications—means little in the long term.

He seems to imply as much when he says the results are “promising for the future of e-readers and tablet computers,” even though the paper books have won for now. The iPad speed score with the same subjects was 6.2 percent slower than paper; the Kindle, 10.7 percent. He considers the iPad-Kindle difference to be not that significant statistically, but says that paper is clearly ahead.

While I’m pleased that Jakob Nielsen is stirring up interest in this essential topic, especially at a time when many schools expect textbooks to go electronic, I’d like to raise the following questions:

–Shouldn’t Nielsen’s study have included at least one app like the Stanza program, which allows the use of Aerial Rounded MT Bold on for e-book fans using the iPad? I know: “Testing a single iPad reader let us more easily compare it with the Kindle, which has only one user interface.” But in Nielsen’s place I’d have included the Stanza app, too, or another with some kind of bolding available for all text (not just chapter heads or subheads, for example). Both the Apple iBooks app and the Kindle counterpart for the iPad  this one-swoop boldfacing capability. And believe me, the absence of it slows me down, and probably lots of other users, too Last I knew, Bookeen was offering an embolden feature in its E Ink readers. When, just when, will other companies do the same for both E Ink and LCD screens alike? Better still, how about a way, if possible, for users to vary the weight of the fonts?

–I haven’t tried the newest Kindle DX, in the photo, but isn’t Amazon claiming: “Our graphite Kindle DX uses our all new, improved electronic ink display, with 50% better contrast for the clearest text and sharpest images”? Nielsen’s test used the Kindle 2 instead. Significantly, he himself acknowledges the importance of contrast issue: “Most of the users’ free-form comments were predictable. For example, they disliked that the iPad was so heavy and that the Kindle featured less-crisp gray-on-gray letters.”

–Just why didn’t Nielsen at least have his subjects try the older Kindle DX,  with the 9.7 inch screen rather than the K2’s six-incher; bigger displays mean less page turning. Also keep in mind the delay on an E Ink machine when you turn a page. It’s shorter on the Kindle 2 than on old devices but is still there, one more reason why a large screen reducing the number of turns would help.

Something I loved about the Nielsen study was the finding that on a 1-7 satisfaction scale, “the iPad, the Kindle, and the printed book all scored fairly high at 5.8, 5.7, and 5.6, respectively. The PC, however, scored an abysmal 3.6.” That’s helpful information. Isn’t it interesting how the iPad and Kindle beat the paper book? Alas, even many recreational readers still try to enjoy e-books on PCs with less than optimal ergonomics, and the sooner the industry can get them to switch over to tablets, the higher will be satisfaction with E—and the number of purchases of e-novels and the rest. Lower e-book hardware prices, of course, should help.

A reminder: Reading speed isn’t the same as comprehension—check out comments from Bruce Wilson and Marilyn Byerly.

Related: Paul Biba’s earlier item on the Nielsen study (thanks, Paul, for interrupting your Fourth of July weekend to get your item posted). I was tempted just to write a comment, but usability is topic I couldn’t be more passionate about—hence the above post, in the main part of the blog.

And unrelated: Happy Fourth of July and—for non-U.S. citizens—honorary Fourth of July! July Fourth is also when Project Gutenberg founder Michael Hart digitized his first document, the Declaration of Independence. By the way, July 1 is Dominion Day in Canada, so special if belated best wishes!

E Ink® Corporation, the leading developer and marketer of electronic paper display technology, today announced the Q2 release of its next generation display technology, Pearl. With Pearl, E Ink expands the capabilities of reflective displays, bringing electronic paper performance to the next level. With the whitest reflective displays in the industry, and a contrast ratio now approximately 50 percent greater than today’s products, text on Pearl “pops” from the page, enabling a reading experience most similar to reading text on printed paper. …

Images and text become crisp on the screen as the contrast between the background and item of interest is increased. E Ink Pearl raises the bar for displays used in digital reading. This allows for eReaders to go from a contrast ratio typical of newspapers, to a higher contrast ratio typical of paperback books. The crisp text and detailed graphics also continue to remain pleasant to view when E Ink products are enjoyed outside. In addition, with 16 gray level depth, E Ink Pearl offers the sharpest rendering of images and allows product developers to display images with smooth tones and rich detail.

Note that, just like the press release, the new Kindle DX is touting “50% better screen contrast”.

The new Kindle DX will ship July 7th, but Amazon is taking pre-orders now. If you were considering buying one of those $350 DX refurbs we mentioned earlier, you might want to think again.