Amazon's New Kindle Range

Amazon have held a press conference to announce their new Kindle product line up. The existing 3rd generation Kindle came in both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi +3G and feature a hardware keyboard, physical page turning and an incredible "just like paper" E Ink display. Amazons USP (unique selling point) in the e-reader market is that they provide the complete package: Great hardware coupled with free access (even over 3G) to their ebook store. There is no need to own a computer, making this the e-reader of choice for a lot of 'non computer' people as previously discussed in "The eBook Revolution". You can even download the Kindle app for your iPhone, iPad, Android device, Mac or PC. All of these devices can then access your library and you can carry on reading where you left off using their free 'Whispersync' service. Amazon's system is 'purchase once, read anywhere'.

So todays announcement comes with some anticipation. What could Amazon do to improve their offering to the e-book market? They have previously made their Kindle Reader smaller, lighter and cheaper and improved the screen quality on the 2 previous revisions. Todays product announcement separates the Kindle into four models to reflect the various requirements of different customers.

Kindle ($79)
This new revision of the kindle features a much lower price and an improved E Ink display. The hardware keyboard is dropped from the this Kindle product. As a result it's smaller and lighter than the previous model.

Kindle Touch ($99)
Featuring the same advanced E Ink as the new Kindle the Kindle Touch includes a touch screen for using the on screen keyboard and page turning. A new 'X-Ray' feature allows you to get more information about your book's content from Wikipedia.

Kindle Touch 3G ($149)
As above but with unlimited 3G internet access across 100 countries with no subscription, thats right, no subscription. Feel free to go on holiday and purchase your holiday reading when you are already by the pool.

Kindle Fire ($199)
The Kindle Fire is unlike any previous Kindle model, its a full on tablet device to rival the Apple iPad, Samsung Galaxy tab and Blackberry Playbook. It features Amazons new web browser: Amazon Silk.

So as you can see Amazon's range is greatly improved and these devices will become available in the next few months. More info at www.amazon.com.

Image: www.amazon.com

The ebook Revolution

Ebook readers, tablet devices and smart phones are becoming more and more popular ways to digest written content such as news, books and magazines. Are the days of the printed press numbered? The range of devices that can gather content is increasing daily with manufacturers scrambling to compete with the market leaders in smart phones, tablets and ebook readers. Apple's iPad has revolutionised the market by bringing hardware to the forefront of people minds.

With the Apple iPad and the iBook store Apple hope to capture the technology keen with an ebook reader by selling them what they really want: a shiny new gadget with a bright colour screen, touch screen and motion controls. Other manufacturers have a more "book" focused strategy. Sony, Amazon and many others have released ebook readers which feature "e-ink". The e-ink screen looks like the printed text you might find in a book. It behaves just like a printed page, reflecting sunlight. In comparison tablet computing devices such as the new Samsung Galaxy tab or the Apple iPad fail miserably to remain readable in bright sunshine.

With technologies developing for both decent reading screens and multifuntion devices full of music and video content, the number of books and magazines which are downloaded and read on digital devices will enevitably increase. One day reading may undergo a similar revolution to music where it will not be uncommon to have your entire bookshelf in you pocket or on your computer.

As proof of this the Metro have an iPhone app so you can recieve their free newspaper on an iPhone without having to get to the train station and pick one up. The Times have an iPad app which, controversially, requires a monthly subscription. It will be a toe in the water for the newspaper industry looking into new technology.

Interesting the Independant newspaper will soon be launching a smaller version of their broadsheet called "i" which will cost only 20p.

Amazon are really leading the way with ebook readers by providing both great value hardware (with free 3G coverage) and an online bookstore which is competitivly priced. You can even keep multiple ebook readers or Kindle apps in sync with their whispersync service.

These new techologies also allow access to far more material than the newsagents, for example you won't find Web Warp Blog for sale there!