A New Kindle Cometh

Everyone is talking about the Kindle Firetoday and while I’m very interested in getting one, I didn’t want to hard on about the same thing as all other tech sites out there. Instead, hit the above link to read everything I know.Instead, I wanted to take a different approach and look at the newly announced Kindle model that is seemingly splitting opinions right down the middle. The new Kindle is to be released on October 12th (A year after the Kindle 3) and is probably the biggest refresh of Amazon’s most popular product ever sold.

The fundamentals of the device remain the same. This is a 6” screen e-ink device solely for reading that is backed by Amazon’s Kindle Market. But when you put the devices up against each other they couldn’t look any more different. The new Kindle is sharper, sleeker and a lot more welcoming to new comers. There are less buttons so the not-so tech savvy will have less to worry about and are instead welcomed in to the world of e-ink readers with a design that states functionality along with simplicity.

So, lets take a look at the specs:

The things you’ll want to note if you are already a Kindle owner is, firstly, the weight. Dropping the keyboard in favour of just the five way control and a smaller battery means the new Kindle weighs in over 70 grams lighter

older model sports.  than its big brother. It also has a smaller hard drive only allowing for the storage of up to 1.25 Gb although, I can’t even fathom using that much, let alone the current storage the Kindle offers (3Gb). The one worry is using the search function in the store without a keyboard. I can imagine they’ve come up with some way of using the five way control to select the letters you want but that is obviously going to be far more fiddly than the keyboard the

I’ll quickly add here that his version isn’t replacing the larger versions but will actually run simultaneously to the others, offering an entry level device to people who are worried about dipping their toes in to a new device. At £89 in the UK ($99 in the US) I can already hear the harpies circling about non-correct price match across the pond but the new Kindle is a very intriguing package that offers little functionality loss for a 20% price drop.I use my Kindle every day and have done for the last year. Amazon have created a great device and keep improving on the winning formula. The lowered battery life and storage won’t hamper the devices’ function or design but will finally break the people who were on the fence about moving away from physical media. This entry level Kindle offers everything someone may want from a device thats sole purpose is reading and will ineviteably lead to a mass of converts throughout the land. I’m excited, even if I’ve no plans to upgrade just yet, because of the possibilities a whole new mass of people means to the e-book industry. Amazon hit it out of the park with this announcement and have solidified themselves as the number one e-book retailer, catering for all.