Kindle Touch 3G now available in 175+ countries. Kindle features vs Nook features - Update

Amazon is really in motion these days, isn't it.

  Now they've announced that the Kindle Touch 3G will be available in over 175 countries.  All this time, the UK had only the Kindle Basic (NoTouch/NoKeyboard) available for purchase there.

The heading on their Press Release:

' Kindle Touch 3G – the most full-featured Kindle e-reader – easy-to-use touch screen and free 3G wireless, no annual contracts or monthly fees and never pay for or hunt for a Wi-Fi hotspot

Now available in multiple languages – German, French, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and American and British English '

It's available today for pre-order from Amazon.

The Kindle Touch 3G will ship to customers beginning April 27, a month from now. Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G are also available today for pre-order from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es and Amazon.it.  (Until recently, Kindles in Italy were ordered from U.S. Amazon.)

Update- A personal review or report cited today
KindleZen tweeted the link to this article, "The Right Tool for the Job: The Kindle Touch," this morning, giving his reasons for the title. [End of update]

X-ray Feature
I personally love using the X-Ray feature (now being made available on Kindle Fire also) on non-fiction books especially, but it's also useful to keep track of characters in novels as well.

  You can learn more about what X-Ray actually is or does, at What does X-Ray do? and with an example of my use of it in the book on Steve Jobs in the Tips post on Kindle Touch and its X-Ray Feature.

Kindle Touch features, beyond reading
The Kindle Touch (both in WiFi and in 3G/WiFi) comes with built-in speakers supporting text-to-speech when the publisher allows it, audiobooks, and mp3 files.

Now, I've been asked a lot about whether to get a Kindle or a Nook Touch.  I had bought a Nook Color on sight at my B&N (and used it daily for a year) but am not keen on the Nook Simple Touch because its many font faces and size choices displayed much lighter than what I'm used to seeing with the Kindle 3 Keyboard and Touch models.  B&N wouldn't allow me to photograph them side by side so I could have something more to go on than my personal reaction.  But the relative lightness was described in some magazine reviews and they've recently improved the darkness level, I read.  The darkness of fonts is important to me, and I was among those who posted about the lightness of Kindle 2 fonts (and was quoted in Wired on the problem for some Kindle users).

Nook and its "no ads" statement
It's said the Nook doesn't have ads, but almost half the Nook's Home screen is comprised of recommendations from B&N as to what you might like to read.  I'm one that doesn't want books I haven't chosen to buy, appearing on my home screen like that and, to me, they are ads, and others have felt that way.

Nook Touch advantages over Kindle Touch
 However, in response to those who ask, there are things many have preferred on the Nook (though The Nook Touch is NOT available globally nor can most people outside the U.S. buy Nook books -- which is not a small point especially when U.S. Nook owners can't buy Nook books for their devices while traveling outside the U.S.
  [ B&N was trying to change this.  Let me know if they did.]
  Update
  Commenter Geert responded that B&N changed this last year to allow US credit card holders to be able to buy from outside the U.S.  He added a note about SD card storage, so read the comments also to get that added information.

  .  The Nook has a wider bezel.  That may make it look squarer but it gives the hands more support in that you don't inadvertently touch the screen and turn a page that way.
  .  You can hold the Nook Touch and turn pages with one hand more easily, because it has page-turn buttons, while Amazon did away with the buttons.
  .  You can flip ahead more easily on the Nook, with a slider that lets you move ahead a certain amount.
  .  The Nook Touch, like the Kindle Touch, has "Real" page numbers matching a given print book version for thousands of books, but they also have page numbers that they create when there is nothing available with page numbers that would match a print book.  Many are comforted by having page numbers at all, as they're a more traditional reference than a 4-digit 'location' number (even if the latter is accurate in absolute terms no matter what the font size may be).

Why would anyone buy a Kindle Touch over the Nook Touch?
A couple of months ago, an Amazon Kindle forum member asked about this point:
  If the Kindle Touch 3G does not offer 3G access usable on any webpages beyond Free 24/7 Wikipedia access and the Amazon store, why should anyone not just buy a Nook then.
 (Never mind that no other e-reader offers free 3G access 24/7 to Wikipedia.)

  I didn't blog my response for months because I know that I'm biased on this.  But that's based on some quite real aspects of the two e-readers.
  So, here's a copy of what I posted at the time, in a format that replies to what the Kindle does have and can do that the Nook Touch can't.  Again, there's no pretense to being neutral, as the reasons given are the basis for the bias in my case.

' Zad,
Re your note that the new KTouch is [basically] the nook Touch and your question
  "What sets your reader apart now Amazon?"

I'm not Amazon but I've identified the following for a blog entry earlier:

1a. The Kindle has a web browser that works very well under WiFi.
1b. The Nook doesn't have a web-browser at all and B&N removed recently the vestiges of the hidden one that didn't really work, which is why B&N's comparison chart said the Nook didn't have a web browser.

2a. The Kindle has audio and music
2b. The Nook Touch doesn't.

3a. The Kindle has text to speech on most books and all personal docs
3b. The Nook doesn't.

4a. Kindle owners get 5 free gigs of storage space for personal documents (non-Amazon documents) [And these are now sync'd across various devices.]
4b. Nook owners don't. Nor do they have the free 5 gigs ALL Amazon customers get for storage of whatever legitimate [non-Amazon] documents and files they have.

5a. The Kindle can zoom any photo [or map] to full screen, within a book.
5b. The Nook Touch can't. (I can't do it on my NookColor books either.)

6a. Kindle owners who pay $6.58/mo. for unlimited free 2-day shipping of goods sold by Amazon itself get a bonus of access to instant video streaming of about 12,000 movies and tv shows -- older, but good ones, and some new ones from PBS and BBC -- for either their computers, their Kindle Fires if they have one, or even the TV, via a Roku or siimilar box.
6b. B&N offers no free streaming of media

7a. Kindle owners who pay that Prime membership also get now the bonus of being able to borrow one popular book per calendar month with no waiting period or due date.
7b. B&N doesn't have a program like that.

8a. Owners of the Kindle ereader can buy Kindle books when vacationing out of the country.
8b. Owners of the Nook ereader can't buy Nook books when out of the U.S.
    [Update: This was changed to allow this for U.S. customers using US credit cards.]


9a. 3G Kindle owners get free 3G web access to all of Wikipedia at any time, to look up information.
9b. The Nook Touch B&W has no web browser.

10a. Kindle owners get a personal web server page that shows their annotations for each book, backed up and displayable and transferrable to their computers.
10b. B&N hasn't made anything like that for the Nook.

- Andrys
http://kindleworld.blogspot.com '

Note that I didn't mention the X-Ray feature, which many find quite useful.

Nevertheless, look at the Nook Touch advantages above before making up your mind if you're trying to decide between the two (as many still are).



Kindle Touch 3G, US-only   Kindle Touch WiFi (US)   Kindle Touch WiFi-Only, outside US    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 recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.  Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published free books, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

  *Click* to Return to the HOME PAGE.  Or click on the web browser's BACK button 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. )
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Kindle Touch and its X-Ray Feature. Kiplinger on Best Color E-Readers

KINDLE TOUCH AND ITS X-RAY FEATURE
[Revised: Eliminated the one-day Oscar apps header]

I've been spending more time with the Kindle Touch (photo from physorg.com) because I finally went back to reading the Steve Jobs book by Isaacson, and there are SO MANY characters whose function and place I don't remember the 2nd or 3rd time I run across them, that I've been using the X-Ray feature more and really enjoying it for a book like this.  I took screenshots but will add them later as am rushed right now.

But, essentially, for a guy like Andy Hertzfeld, say, who was a member of the Macintosh team in the 80s, I can:
  . click on the top center of the page to get the Menu and options and
      choose "X-Ray" at the bottom-right
      to see a list of all names mentioned on that page and then
  . click on his name to get a Wikipedia summary on him
      (with a link to the full article) and,
        below that, a scrolling list of each mention of Hertzfeld
        in that book, in page/location order,
        with surrounding words for context and a link to each of those pages.

  I saw that although he was doing intense work for Jobs in late 1979 to March 1984 and remained close to him after leaving, the Wiki summary tells what he's done since then, and the last part reads:

  "Hertzfeld joined Google in 2005, and in 2011 was the key designer of the Circles user interface in Google+."

  Google Plus and its Circles are something new in the last year, and many of us find ourselves using them this last year, so he is still very much in the zone.

  I do like the X-Ray feature for non-fiction especially.


KIPLINGER'S MONEY POWER ON "The best color e-readers"
Kiplinger's Money Power's Jeff Bertolucci chooses the Kindle Fire, mentioning the "vibrant color display" -- and, about the 7" form factor, says --

' And smaller can be better.  The paperback-like Fire weighs nearly 7 ounces less than the iPad and is easier to hold with one hand.  The weight difference may not seem like a lot, but it matters when you're watching a two-hour flick or spending the afternoon reading a novel.

Recent software upgrades have corrected many early shortcomings.  Given the Fire's software and content, it gets our nod as the best of the current crop of color e-readers. '

He finds the Nook Tablet's screen is the best of the roundup and the unit has better specs but that the Kindle Fire has the better overall package, and he feels that the Kobo Vox isn't "as easy to navigate" and that the touch screen is "a bit balky."



Kindle Touch 3G, US-only   Kindle Touch WiFi (US)   Kindle Touch WiFi-Only, outside US    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 recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.  Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published free books, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

  *Click* to Return to the HOME PAGE.  Or click on the web browser's BACK button

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!

Kindle Touch models and the X-Ray reference tool - what it does

THE X-RAY FEATURE AT WORK

Video
Laptop Magazine's Kenneth Butler describes the X-Ray feature and shows the video demo Jeff Bezos used to demonstrate how this works.  Those who watched the entire 52 minute presentation will have seen this in very low resolution.  Here's the YouTube video (Link: bit.ly/xraydemo ) which is taken from the audience and is in HD with very good sound.  It fills my 24" monitor with extreme clarity (at least starting at 50 seconds in) if I choose '720p' at bottom right of the YouTube screen, which means I can read the Kindle text easily, sitting way back).

  Fixed a bad link Thursday morning
  There's also another video (Link: bit.ly/xraydemo2 ), which shows the close-up video-demo along with Jeff Bezos at the podium although the contrasts in light can't be picked up well and the sound is so low it's hard to hear.  I liked seeing the full scene though.

Note to Kindle-Edition subscribers re the video links
  Those reading this on a Kindle-Edition subscription can type those two links into the browser when at a computer.  I have to say this because the Kindle blog dept regularly sends me demands to remove video links from the Kindle editions to meet quality requirements, which I can't do without removing them from this webpage blog itself (!), but I think it's better to let Kindle subscribers know how they can see a demo or tutorial if they want.

The added information shown by X-ray
  The X-Ray feature comes with the Kindle Touch models.  When you highlight a word to get more information on it (dictionary definition, or choosing to go to Wikipedia or Google), it won't need to connect you to the Internet to get information external to the book (unless you want it to) -- Amazon will (in late November) include with every book purchase "a small file pre-loaded with relevant Wikipedia content (and other information)."  As you can see in the video, some of that information can be descriptions of characters as seen on Amazon's Shelfari (Link: bit.ly/shelfari-wiki ), and when users request outside information, this additional file is accessed rather than the Internet.

Instances of word or character in sequence with links to pages
  While one of the features (pointed out by Consumer Reports) is that pressing to highlight a word lets you see, sequentially, all mentions of a character or phrase within a book, the Kindle has always done that and is one reason I like it.  Here's an example from Oct. 2009 as to how that works in all models currently.  Consumer Reports did not look at or report on features like this when doing e-reader comparisons in the last two years.  Nor did they mention these were presented by-book, in sequence and printable, on a private, password-protected annotations page given to Kindle customers in our Amazon areas.

X-Ray's new statistical information
  Amazon has mentioned that it can display statistics that include the frequency of appearance of a word or character in a book, or even in a chapter or on one page.  You'll see this in the video.   (I guess one can wonder if a character will show up again or is particularly important in the scheme of things).

What's involved in gathering the added information for the file
  Whatever algorithms Amazon uses to choose which words or phrases get the added information in the side-file, Amazon points out that the process of choosing and including this external information uses "its expertise in language processing and machine learning, access to significant storage and computing resources...and a deep library of book and character information."



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.

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!