Roger Fingas
Amazon on Wednesday launched preorders for a new edition of the Kindle Paperwhite, upgraded with a sharper e-ink display rated at 300 pixels per inch, matching the display resolution of its high-end Kindle Voyage.
The new resolution is effectively equivalent to print, and in that regard puts the Paperwhite on par with the top-of-the-line $199 Voyage e-reader. The $80 premium cost for the latter now only adds page-turning controls on the bezel and an ambient light sensor that adjusts page lighting automatically.
Other Paperwhite hardware specifications are unchanged, and include a touchscreen interface, adjustable lighting, and estimated battery life up to six weeks. In software, however, users now gain access to Bookerly, an Amazon-designed font previously available on Kindle Fire tablets and the Kindle mobile apps.
Later on the company will implement its new typesetting engine, which adds things like kerning, hyphenation, and better character spacing.
Amazon will ship the updated on Paperwhite on June 30. Prices range from $119 for a Wi-Fi model with ads to $209 for an ad-free, 3G-capable reader. 3G models are ready to go out of the box, and let users download books and sync page position in 100 countries. 3G service is typically free, although charges do apply for U.S. owners downloading periodicals internationally.
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23 Comments
" estimated battery life up to six weeks." You do realize that's complete nonsense right? The fine print states that's when it's used a rather limited amount of time each day. "A single charge lasts up to six weeks, [B][U]based on a half hour of reading per day[/U][/B] with wireless off and the light setting at 10. Battery life will vary based on light and wireless usage" So then it will last THIRTYSIX WEEKS when used for 5 minutes per day!!!!! How innovative! OR: that's 21 hours of reading, they should just say that straight up: and media shouldn't simply echo the silliness either. That's a nice use life in and of itself.
double post
I own a 2nd gen Paperwhite and it's a ok reader: long battery, good contrast, but slow screen. Typing is abysmal, and it has one of the worst keyboards imaginable. I noticed the iOS 8 keyboard does a pretty good job of predicting the next word as you type. The Kindle's keyboard is comparatively brain-dead. On top of that, the input is not multitouch so if you don't slow down your typing, the keyboard registers phantom key presses between the two keys you pressed, causing spurious errors. It's a usability fail in my book. For that reason, I prefer using the iPad Air for reading & annotating Kindle books.
None of these Kindle hardware updates matter a whit until Amazon supports proper page layouts (justification with hyphenation) for the actual content you're supposed to read with their atrocious typesetting. It's getting to the point where suggesting this device is for reading books is a joke, given that all their other competitors (Kobo and iBooks) have been shipping a far more legible reading experience for years.
I own a 2nd gen Paperwhite and it's a ok reader: long battery, good contrast, but slow screen. Typing is abysmal, and it has one of the worst keyboards imaginable. I noticed the iOS 8 keyboard does a pretty good job of predicting the next word as you type. The Kindle's keyboard is comparatively brain-dead. On top of that, the input is not multitouch so if you don't slow down your typing, the keyboard registers phantom key presses between the two keys you pressed, causing spurious errors. It's a usability fail in my book. For that reason, I prefer using the iPad Air for reading & annotating Kindle books.
This is what irks me about the so-called "competition". They proudly claim how their devices are superior in areas - when they compare against an iPad - yet the reality is that they cannot code themselves out of a Hello program. Amazon seems to have a semi-lucid sense to build devices, yet the software (and upkeep) to keep them running is atrocious at best. Making hardware I think is easy. Getting it to run good takes great software, which so far, no one can compete with Apple on. Just shameful.