Digitimes says 8.9-inch tablet display may be next

DIGITIMES NOW PREDICTING 8.9 DISPLAY ON NEXT TABLET"

Digitimes' Yenting Chen and Steve Shen report that Amazon is "likely" to shift the display size of its next-generation Kindle Fire to 8.9-inch "instead of" the originally planned 10.1-inch one reported for awhile.

  They cite "sources in Amazon's supply chain."

' Amazon's current 7-inch panel suppliers Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) and LG Display (LGD) reportedly have begun to prepare production capacities for 8.9-inch displays, added the sources. '

They add though that Amazon "may" also release 9.7-to-10.1-inch models in 2012, according to their sources.

In other words, be prepared for anything.  Sources talk but nothing's done until it's done.


Earlier
A history of the stronger tablet and e-reader rumors


Kindle Touch 3G   Kindle Touch WiFi   Kindle Basic   (UK: KBasic)   Kindle Fire
Kindle Keybd 3G   (UK: Kindle Keybd 3G)   K3 Special Offers   K3-3G Special Offers   DX

---

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Kindle Fire said to be "on fire" at 2000 per hr pre-ordered the first 5 days

Per geek.com's Matthew Humphries: "Kindle Fire pre-orders exceeding 2,000 per hour"

The article explains that the figure is extrapolated from "Amazon’s Availability Lookup and SKU Aggregator (Alaska) system, used internally for tracking stock" -- "in the first 5 days pre-orders were available, 250,000 Kindle Fires were snapped up."

  They're referencing an original story at Cult of Android, which loads on my Firefox only if I grant all kinds of script permissions, while it loads automatically on Internet Explorer.  So, with that caveat for those of you who use NoScript and other browser-script imonitors,  the rest of this is from the Cult of Android story written by John Brownlee yesterday afternoon.

I started this blog article early this morning and then had to leave, not getting back until 5pm so this is "old news" as I type it but I thought I should finish the report of the headlined news anyway, so here it is.

Amazon's internal inventory management system
Brownlee says that a "verified source within [Amazon] has provided exclusive screenshots of Amazon's internal inventory management system Alaska (Availability Lookup and SKU AGgregator)" and you can see the scaled down and larger version at the linked story.

  For the first five days, the pre-orders are said to be showing 50,000 orders per day, and their projections -- which probably should not be based, in my view, on the first 5 days, because heaviest pre-orders would be in the first days of the announcement --  are that "if this level of consumer demand...continues, Amazon will have 2.5 million pre-orders for Kindle Fire before it even officially goes on sale on november 15th.

Biggest tablet launch in history?
  Brownlee adds that if the trend contnues, this would be the "biggest tablet launch in history" for first month sales, and that includes, he says, the launch of the far more expensive iPad, which has, since its launch only 1.5 years ago, established an amazing library of curated applications that currently dwarfs the Google Android Marketplace's more chaotic smaller set of Android apps.  The 7" Kindle Fire would use the currently even smaller Amazon Apps Store, but obviously Amazon and its developer parties are gearing up for quite an expansion there by mid November.

Was it an unapproved leak?
The gist of the article is that someone at Amazon leaked the pre-order numbers but that Jeff Bezos would be "annoyed."
  Since the numbers alone can spark more sales, because people tend to want to go with 'winners' when they're investing money, it's not totally convincing to me that this was a rogue leak, but who knows.

Numbers for the new low-cost EInk readers
THEN, Cult of Android shows what they call "The Amazon internal pre-order numbers for the Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G eInk readers, respectively" and the numbers indicate, Brownlee says, that the tablet is vastly outselling the two lower-cost e-Ink reader models.

  That would be expected, since the "rest of the world" that doesn't want a either a dedicated e-Ink reader or another eInk model after 4 years of availability and past purchases) and which has been waiting for a low-cost but promising tablet (for media needs) from a company they expect will deliver both a good tablet and also content that makes it worth buying that tablet, would heavily lean toward the new, color-filled option with video and audio features that are never a focus of the lower-cost dedicated readers.

Co-existence
 As we've seen, many have bought the iPad AND either a Kindle or a Nook, the latter for books only. 

The WiFi-only Kindle Touch, at $99 with Special Offers (ads subsidizing part of the cost) is being outsold, Brownlee writes, "at the rate of ten to one, racking up only 20,000 pre-orders to date, while the Kindle Touch with 3G and WiFi and with Special Offers is shown with only a few more than 12,000 pre-orders so far.

  They don't show a table for the NON-Special Offers e-Ink models, but Amazon has always said that the Special-Order models outsell the regular ones.

Verified numbers?
  Brownlee closes with the statement that these are "verified order numbers" (and that would only be if he knows and trusts the person at Amazon said to have given him these numbers) and that "a preorder is not the same as a sale," pointing out that consumers could mass-cancel orders (not likely) or that demand could level off (a more realistic possibility but also not a given either as the word spreads, which I've been experiencing).

Reconsidering the 7" tablet market
  Steve Jobs has dismissed the 7" tablet market as negligible, saying that people want a 10" at the minimum (apparently that's what the research of Apple-leaning consumers told him) but the rest of the consumer world may be similar to another group whose wants he had dismissed in Jan. 2008, when he also told The New York Times's John Markoff and David Pogue that the new Kindle device wouldn't do that well, explaining, "The whole conception is flawed at the top because "people don’t read anymore."

  As we've seen, different devices and form factors coexist because people can be more varied than some market research might indicate depending on the structure of the questioning or interpretation of results.


A Starter Tablet?  Or is ultra-portability, lightness, the draw itself?
  It may well turn out that people decide that, despite the attractiveness of ultra-portability and a lower price that can encourage gifting of a 7" tablet within families, they'd rather have a 10" tablet.
Or, not.

  Amazon and others are certainly "ON that," and some columnists point out that most who are drawn to the 10" form factor and the beauty of an iPad have, for the most part, already bought one and will again when a new one is released, but there are those who will look at other products too, and -- as been said over and over again lately -- Amazon's media and network ecosystem is a strong factor in this market.  The 7" KTab could function as a starter for those who want to look at whether or not they want to invest in a higher cost tablet, already having netbooks that can do more than a tablet while still being lightweight and less expensive than a tablet for sitting and consuming media.

Apple
  The upshot of Brownlee's article is that Apple, who would not be particularly threatened by this turn of events, could just decide that maybe it's time they ought to just offer a 7" iPad !

Interesting Comments
In the Comments section to Cult of Android's story, one commenter expressed doubts about the story itself, citing Photoshop as a good 'source' for the figures, and Brownleee responded,
  "We verified our source, so no, these aren't Photoshops."

More entertainingly, maybe, another commenter said,
  "The rooted Nook is the bomb. A rooted kindle is a nuclear weapon"

Possible Cost to Amazon of each Tablet
Within the two articles I cited, Cult of Android being the primary one, there are related articles indicating the innards of the Fire may cost about $150 based on what's known about RIM's Playbook, minus the features (camera, amount of memory, SD slot) that would allow them to price a basic tablet at the lower cost -- with the idea that the Cloud and Amazon Silk browser's network computing power, will compensate for the lower amount of local storage given, via virtually unlimited storage on the Cloud.
  Other estimates of the cost of the Kindle Fire have not included looking at the inside of the tablet or even the Playbook, which was a sort of hardware template for Amazon's new offering.


Kindle Touch 3G   Kindle Touch WiFi   Kindle Basic   (UK: KBasic)   Kindle Fire
Kindle Keybd 3G   (UK: Kindle Keybd 3G)   K3 Special Offers   K3-3G Special Offers   DX

---

Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.  Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

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Kindle Fire - a bit more (which means quite a lot of things) - Update2

A QUICK LOOK AT THE KINDLE FIRE

I'll add to this blog article later.
Now that things have settled down some, here are some additional facts on the Kindle Fire 7" tablet (isn't it odd this is not just another Rumor story and that Amazon actually announced this?)

  Except that there's no SD slot nor functional USB port (except for cabled access), what it IS able to do, otherwise, has exceeded my own expectations for a speedy $200 device.

  First I was glad to see it was a dual-core processor instead of the almost insane-sounding single-core processor suggested in the earlier hands-on that Tech Crunch had and that the screen resolution is 1024 x 600 resolution at 169 ppi, with IPS (in-plane switching) technology (it should be beautiful on this size screen), AND anti-reflective treatment (which works well for the NookColor I have)

  It's not even a pound, at 14.6 ounces.

  Unlike the 6 GB storage guessed earier during the Tech Crunch hands-on that was given, it's 8GB internal, enough, Amazon says, for 80 apps, plus either 10 movies or 800 songs or 6,000 books.
  As mentioned before, it could be that Amazon was lowering expectations when Tech Crunch received that unit.

  Most of us would like 16-64 gigs but the Cloud technology focus along with Amazon's Silk web browser feature that lets the Cloud do half the work in presenting your content promises a Cloud-accelerated experience on the Web.

  Adobe FLASH player is directly supported. (Most know that a primary tablet doesn't support it.)

Update1 The image at the right is from Engadget's photo gallery yesterday, and I was struck that, taken from the side, the image is very solid, with all the overhead lights.  Normally these won't photograph well from that angle. {End Update1]

The Speakers are top-mounted for once, so maybe we can hear the content rather than let the desk absorb it.   Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX) is supported, as are DOC, DOCX, the usual image files, and non-DRM AAC, MP3, MIDI, OGG, WAV, MP4, VPB.

  The warranty is 1-year Limited (will need to look at what that means). Optional 2-year extended warranty.

  *BUILT-IN EMAIL* app "that gets your webmail (Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail, AOL etc) into a single inbox." You can import your messages and contact lists from other email accounts. Additional email apps are available in the Amazon Appstore.

  FREE PRIME TRIAL for one month. That gets you 10,000+ commercial-free  movies and tv shows (not the most current ones) and free 2-day delivery on Amazon orders.
  It's $79/year after that, something under $7/month.  Students are eligible for Prime, at half that price, currently.

  Amazon offers now over 100,000 streaming videos, including NEW releases and current TV shows (for a price of course but it has been less expensive than most places that do single item sales).

  Amazon has 800,000 book titles at $9.99 or under as well as there being over 2 million free, out of copyright, pre-1923 books also available to the tablet, as many know.

 They now have over 1000 "beautifully-illustrated children's books" (NookColor had the lead on that one).

  FREE CLoud Storage for your Amazon digital content. That's for all books, movies, music and apps purchased from Amazon. 5 gigs of cloud storage for each customer, globally, have come free for some time -- it's about $1/mo. more for each gig beyond that.  Amazon digital purchases never count against the maximum storage selected. So, of course they're banking on customers buying more from Amazon.

Extra Durable Display
Amazon calls this  their "state-of-the-art" Kindle Fire display -- "chemically strengthened to be 20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic, making it extra durable and resistant to accidental bumps and scrapes.

Amazon's Whispersync technology -  "automatically sync your library, last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights across your devices."

On Kindle Fire, Whispersync extends to video.  Start streaming a movie on Kindle Fire, then pick up right where you left off on your TV - avoid the frustration of having to find your spot.  Here is more information on Kindle Whispersync

Update2 - CAVEAT - 3G:  Although the iPad did not have a cellular network 3G model for a few months when it was first released, Amazon Kindle users are used to being able to access the Net with free (very slow e-Ink-style) 3G web browsing and that has worked well for me for Net lookups when out and about.  I don't do data contracts for my phone as it's not worth it for me.

  This first Amazon tablet, like the first iPad, also does NOT have 3G network access. So if you are not near a local WiFi network, you won't be able to access the Net, much less that Cloud and its Amazon Silk browser service.

  You saw above how many videos or books will fit on the device locally -- 80 apps plus "10 movies" (that could NOT be at HD size though) "or 800 songs or 6,000 books" -- you would view those without a Net connection

  However, you will also be able to store your videos on Amazon's Cloud storage and redownload them as needed for offline viewing.  While there is basic storage given for any customer, it's "only" 5 gigs/yr but any movie, music or books bought from Amazon will get free storage that doesn't count against storage limits.

  At one point they offered unlimited storage (in a year) for all your music received from anywhere, in addition to storing other files within the max) for $20/yr and I wouldn't be surprised if they make similar offers for the Kindle Fire.
  I'll keep a watch on those, as usual though, to make sure people are aware of that type of promo.  While Kindle users had little reason to care about music or video storage, that'll be different for the tablet. [End of Update2]

Will look over more carefully the other new devices and update the pages on this site also.

Attached is the usual footer that shows what types of book-buying deals exist at Amazon -- and the Kindle 3 keyboard models and the larger DX Graphite are still for sale and in-stock, for those who don't want touchscreens.



Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($139)   DX Graphite

---

Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.  Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

Amazon Kindle Tablet and BN Nook forces poised at High Noon, ready to Fire

TECHCRUNCH'S MG SIEGLER GETS THE WORD AGAIN

MG Siegler got the news today, and from the time he first posted the mock-up you see at the left, done by a compatriot, TechCrunch has replaced the lead image of the mockup with a more descriptive one.

  He writes that the Kindle name is now "Kindle Fire" - with the idea, I guess, that this will spread like wildfire, or a person buying it will be "afire" with Amazon's latest kindling of interest in reading and digital information in general. :-)  Now that'll include streaming of video and audio through its own (but outsourced) tablet.  Someone had earlier guessed the name "Aspire" but that would have left it always short of a goal, so that must have never really had fans.


Outstanding "off-topic" detail
Ryan Block, from gdgt.com writes that Amazon's Lab126 group which develops the Kindle eReader, decided not to take on the tablet project, "in favor of continuing to work solely on next-gen E-Ink-based devices."  (Computer-bound feet doing a happy dance) Yay!


Quanta and the RIM Playbook
So, Amazon turned to Quanta (which Digitimes has been correct about in saying, some time ago, that Quanta was producing the 7" Amazon tablet).  RIM had originally outsourced much of the hardware design and production of the Playbook to Quanta, which builds and sometimes helps design, Block says, hardware for name brands.

  Block's story is that the development process made a shortcut by using the RIM PlayBook as their hardware template.  He says it's meant as a 'stopgap' measure, with the Spring tablet to be The One, and most have agreed that Amazon itself has as its main focus its own larger tablet which isn't due for months.  He mentions a slow processor for the current, smaller one.

  Even then, the Kidnle Fire won't be ready to ship, Siegel says, until the second week of November, from what TechCrunch has learned.

Lowering expectations as a strategy?
  But then Siegel's now much-read original article in early Sept., describing what he had, in hand, had said this 7" tablet  likely did NOT even use a dual-core processor, only a single-core one!  I had hoped out loud he was definitely wrong on that one!, and it appears he was, somehow.  Siegel reports today it has a dual-core processor after all.

  I've been hoping Amazon has been leaking information that would cause gadget sites to underestimate the 7" tablet, but it's nevertheless definitely *modest* in aspirations and in what is on it, which will keep the cost lower.  The sense is that it's entirely utilitarian and there's nothing snazzy about it whatsoever.

The Ease of Use thing
I'lll add a thought -- re its not being a normal 'open' Android system -- of course it's not.  Amazon wants a controlled, easy to use interface for an audience that wants ease of use, above all,  and a bare Android device would require 25/7 customer support without letup.

  With the stock Android, I browse the web nicely with the really interesting but discontinued Entourage Pocket Edge (rooted and on version 2.2.1 and with a dual-screen setup that is a lot of fun),  but then I need to call an app like FREEdi to get the YouTube videos which this now basic Android tablet then presents in full-screen, although not with the beauty of the NookColor's smaller YouTube displays -- but NookColor's tended-garden has a controlled, easy-to-use interface, even if it's a bit buggy.  I'm looking forward to what B&N does with NookColor 2, said to be announced within a month.

 The first-generation NookColor does have a single-core processor, I read, but the NookColor 2 will almost surely have a dual-processor chip -- and a $350 model is also due from B&N, which means (in my mind) a larger, more capable, second tablet or one with 3G access in addition to WiFi. 

As I say, the online bookstore e-forces are almost at the top of the hill, ready for battle :-)

Back to Amazon:
   Giving thanks skyward, I am glad to add that Siegel says the KTab he held is

' much better than the PlayBook because the software is better and, more importantly, the content available is much better. '

  In addition to Amazon's own custom version of Android, it uses the Amazon AppStore of course.  While I've found it pretty good (and generally helpful to new users),  Siegel says that Amazon has "been rounding up the big app makers to get them on board for the Fire launch, I'm told."

Movies, TV, MP3s, colorful magazines tailored to the 7" form factor
  I mentioned yesterday that Amazon signed a deal with 20th Century Fox for streaming of movies and tv shows, a service "which will be a key part of the Fire."

  The big magazines are on board too, Peter Kafka says, except for TIME, which won't be ready "in time" but then TIME still hasn't done a subscription arrangement with Apple either.
  Kafka also mentions that Amazon is already a 'huge partner for many of them, as a marketing platform for their ink-and-paper titles.  Hearst and Amazon shared a press release earlier this month, which noted that "Amazon will become Haerst's single-largest third-party seller of PRINT subscriptions for its magazins via digital channels."

 Siegler adds that industry sources say publishers have tailored some of their titles for the 7" tablet that Amazon will be introducing on Wednesday.  Some publishers have, of course, already done this for the NookColor.  The National Geographic magazine that's on  that 7"NC  is just stunning and is the main reason I really like it, although I enjoy the very portable color web browser too, despite having no highlight, copy or paste tools!


Other details, from Siegler:
  . No email client, but, he points out, you'll be able to get one from the Appstore or -- as I do -- use my regular web mail on the browser.
  . Uses a TI dual-core OMAP chip - the same chip used inside many newer Android devices. &He 'guesses' the clock speed (why 'guess' with his sources?)  at 1.2 GHz, and if he's correct, that "would make it significantly faster than the NookColor, which uses an 800 MHz OMAP chip."
      BUT the NC2 will be built on top of "Gingerbread" (Android 2.3), he hears, which will put the NC ahead of Amazon in that regard.

  As has been said, NookColor 2 team is lined up and ready, after maybe learning from almost a year on the first model (though their NC updates do not confirm this idea or maybe their goals have not been high).  Still, NookColor 2 should be formidable, but I will stress, their e-device customer-service is definitely not, while Amazon's has been superior.

Whispers
Siegler *now* says that he hears floating whispers (reminds me of the TV Series LOST!) that the price could be $300 with Amazon's Prime program and $250 without it.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($139)   DX Graphite

---

Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.  Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

Latest Amazon Tablet Rumor - on a 7" model due end of September

MORE FROM DIGITIMES ON EXPECTED SCREEN DISPLAY

Another update from Digitimes, which is considered a somewhat more solid source of rumors than most, but they tend to give conflicting information.

  Last time out, Quanta was already shipping 7" tablets to Amazon.  This time, they say Quanta "will be solely responsible for assembling the tablet, the sources noted."

Yenting Chen and Adam Hwang write:

' Amazon has settled on a Taiwan-based supply chain for its tablets to be launched in the third quarter of 2011, with TFT-LCD panel maker Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) to supply touch sensors for use in 7-inch G/G (Glass on Glass) touch panels, according to supply chain makers.
...
While Wintek will be the major supplier of ITO touch modules for use in the G/G touch panel, CPT will provide touch sensors for J Touch to make such touch modules, the sources indicated. Based on Amazon's launch plans, 2.0-2.4 million touch panels should be shipped by the end of September and Wintek will account for 70-75% of the volume, the sources pointed out. '

E Ink Holdings is the liaison, and it seems E Ink will become a shareholder of CPT, making it possible for them to use CPT's 6G production capacity.  In addition, the touch screen of Amazon tablets may involve use of E Ink's FFS (fringe field switching) technology.

See this blog's article on E Ink's FFS technology earlier.


Also see the ongoing List of stronger Amazon tablet rumors with dates, titles and links to the Kindleworld blog articles and sources.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($139)   DX Graphite

---

Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.  Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

E-Ink Touchscreens and font darkness, and Carnoy on 7" tablet rumor

TOUCHCO AND THE CHALLENGES THEY'VE HAD TO MEET

Steve Bain, of the KindleZen website, whose @kindletoday Twitter posts of Kindle and other e-reader news from all sources and viewpoints are highly valued by many, sent a news alert to a story that explains why Amazon has been slow in coming up with a touch screen edition of their Kindle.

Nick Bilton, NY Times describes the challenges facing Amazon's Touchco company in making a touchscreen that retains the darkness and crispness that Kindle 3 users are used to.

TOUCHSCREENS AND SOMEWHAT GRAYER FONT/TEXT
During my blog article on "Nook Touch Screen contrast shots" from a Nook forum, in which a Nook owner attempted to demonstrate that the original Nook text was darker than the text viewed on the Nook Simple Touch (NST), I had wondered if the lighter fonts at normal reading size were an end-result of settings necessary for the new touch screen and then whether or not that was causing Amazon to delay releasing one, since the Kindle 3 has a reputation for high-contrast, dark, almost bold text, which can seem etched on the screen.

Nick Bilton talked with a person who "works with Amazon" but isn't authorized by the company to speak publicly, who mentioned a number of issues giving pause, during the last half year, on moving ahead with tablets and a touchscreen Kindle.

Among them was a side effect of the touchscreen technology that "it planned to use in the upcoming tablet."  [But Bilton goes on to talk about its use in the Kindle, since touch panels for the tablets are being made in China.]

 In February 2010, Amazon had purchased Touchco, a touchscreen company that uses a technology called "interpolating force-sensitive resistance" (IRSF), which uses embedded resistors sensitive to the force or pressure applied to touch points and is very inexpensive, but:

' ...engineers have had trouble integrating the technology into the Kindle e-readers because it can reduce the intensity and crispness of the screen. '

Since that is exactly what surprised me when I tried out the new Nook Simple Touch, I had wondered if some of the pictures of the new Google Books iriver Story HD e-reader were showing this reduction also.  The screens reminded me of the nicely thin fonts of the Nook Simple Touch in that they seemed also somewhat grayish in the way you see when there are shades of gray rather than just black against a display background which is essentially a light gray already.

Then we saw the review of the iriver Story HD e-reader by Melissa Perenson for PC World and other publications, in which she said:

' ...but its black tones lack the contrast and punch of the Kindle (and the Barnes & Noble Nook, for that matter)... I routinely found the light text to be an issue while reading.  Although the sans serif font -- the Story HD offers only one font choice -- rendered smoothly and lacked pixelation, the weak contrast meant that my eyes had to work harder to read. '

Nevertheless, I think most wouldn't find the somewhat lighter text a problem just as there are those who are able to distinguish between 6 or more different types of snow, and might prefer one type or another, and there are those for whom it all looks the same.

The photo that begins this blog article is from another thorough review of the iRiver Story HD e-reader, this time by Casey Johnston of ars technica, who uses the photo to show that the iRiver "packs text right up to the edge of the bezel, and the margin width can't be adjusted," -- but in that ars technica article, the caption for the preceding photo claims that the high resolution of the iRiver "makes the Kindle's display look sloppy." Yet, in the original-sized version of this photo, the text of the Kindle, at the left, is more readable.  Although the reviewer chose a somewhat larger font for the Kindle, both are within normal reading size and the Kindle's text looks darker.

While the iRiver text's level of darkness against the background looks similar, in photos, to the Nook Simple Touch's, the touchscreen of that Nook has wow'd many reviewers and buyers, and the "weak contrast" that Perenson mentions more than once for the iRiver e-reader, which made it harder for her to read it, will not bother most buyers.

  So, maybe Amazon's tech team will worry less about that aspect and release a touchscreen Kindle, having seen that the reduction "of intensity and crispness of the screen" that concerns them has not been a problem for the reviewers, for whom just being able to use Touch instead of a 5-way button is the key feature.  While I think that avid readers who read serial text (novels) for more than 1/2 hr per day are more likely to note the difference if they've seen the higher-contrast displays before, I think that readers new to e-readers and most gadget reviewers won't.

THE RUMOR THAT AMAZON IS ALREADY RECEIVING 7" TABLETS FROM QUANTA
CNet's David Carnoy addressed this rumor yesterday, using the title: "Amazon's Nook Color killer shipping soon?" and writing (all emphases mine):

' ...But much less has been said about a smaller tablet, a 7-inch model, that the company has been rumored to have in the works.

Now Taiwan's DigiTimes, which we can't say is terribly reliable, is reporting that Foxconn will deliver the larger 10.1-inch Amazon tablet in early 2012 but that Quanta Computer has already begun shipping a 7-inch model to Amazon.

We've been hearing similar reports on that 7-inch model.  A major app and content developer who wished to remain anonymous told CNET that Amazon was on the verge of announcing the 7-inch tablet "literally any day now" and that it would be designed to at least partially compete with the Nook Color.  He added that he thought the 10.1-inch model would be released in time for the holiday season. '

Again, who knows? Many have been interested in the various rumors gaining steam, but a lot of this is often wishful thinking.  Still, David Carnoy is the only writer who has been predicting a new, smaller, touchscreen Kindle in September or so, and now that particular rumor appears to have been true.
  Since I'm one of those who is somewhat oversensitive to less-dark text fonts, I'm not sure I'd want one if that particular reduction in "intensity and crispness" is similar to what I've seen in current e-Ink touch-screens.  As one who blogs about the Kindle, I'd likely get one despite my reservations over these screens, to be able to report on its functioning and the various pros and cons.

  As regular readers are aware, this blog doesn't ignore what can be felt are less-than-ideal features of any Kindle.  See the May 2009 blog entry on the situation of an Amazon customer who helped resolve the strongly-perceived problem, for some, of "too-faint fonts" relative to the earlier Kindle 1.

  As with everything else, people's sensitivities just vary quite a bit, but the one thing that has met with agreement over the last half year has been the punch and crispness of the Kindle 3 Pearl screen's non-touch display.  I'll be very interested to see what the Kindle techical engineers are able to do with their touchscreen model.


See the ongoing List of stronger Amazon tablet rumors with dates, titles and links to the Kindleworld blog articles and sources.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($139)   DX Graphite

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