Kindle Review – Kindle Fire Review, Kindle 4 Review

There are 2 sets of Kindle 3 rumors fighting each other today.

Kindle 3 is thin with no touchscreen – Bloomberg

Bloomberg says that Amazon is ready to introduce Kindle 3 in August -

Amazon.com Inc. plans to introduce the next version of its Kindle electronic-book reader in August, according to two people familiar with its plans.The device will be thinner and have a more responsive screen with a sharper picture … The new Kindle won’t include a touch screen or color,

Really? A Kindle 3 with faster screen refreshes and better screen contrast and that’s it.

Well, neither color nor touchscreen are absolutely essential to reading – However, it would be really nice to get one of them. Hopefully there are some other killer features.

This video of a newer eInk screen with a 12:1 contrast ratio and a faster screen refresh rate (that can support basic animations) seems to be very close to Bloomberg’s prediction of what the Kindle 3 will be like (just the screen, not the design). eInk says that it expects some products to debut in time for Christmas so August might be too early.

The added benefit is the flexibility which if ready in time for Kindle 3 would make Kindle screens tough to break. The video has a couple of really amusing attempts by the eInk gentleman to show the screen is unbreakable – not exactly the fist of Thor.

Probability of being Correct: Depressingly High if there aren’t killer features like unbreakable screens.

Was hoping TouchCo’s touch technology would make it into Kindle 3 – If Bloomberg is right that means we’ll have to wait until Kindle 4 (or another Kindle device?) to get touch.

Kindle DX 2 (or Kindle 3) is black and might not have a keyboard – CrunchGear 

Different blogs and sites are calling a random Kindle sighting either the new Kindle DX2 or the Kindle 3.

CrunchGear started things by publishing a photograph someone took of a Kindle-like device being photographed in a Seattle coffeeshop. Apparently Amazon were shooting the sort of product photos that make up the Kindle product page. It would make sense if they were getting ready to release a new Kindle.

1. There’s mention of it being black and looking like a Kindle DX – which would suggest it being Kindle DX 2.   
2. There is the possibility it’s an entirely different eReader – not from Amazon.
3. There’s a borderline chance it’s actually the Kindle 3 and just has a bigger, 7″ screen.

There’s also mention of someone seeing a Kindle without a keyboard a few days ago -

a report from only a few days ago describes a black Kindle with no keyboard at all.

The box shown in the image (and perhaps it’s just my imagination) seems just like a Kindle box with the ‘Once Upon a Time’ strip torn away.

Probability of Being Correct: It probably is correct though it’s such a boring rumor - there’s nothing to it other than the Kindle being black. It’s not like he found it’s run by a tiny nuclear reactor.

In the comments the author of the post, Devin Coldewey, says that the person who took the photograph was told that Amazon was shooting video and that he was adamant it’s not a skin or cover.

Did Amazon ask LG Display for their 9.7″ color display?

Brier Dudley at Seattle Times reports some rather interesting news on color Kindle possibilities -

at the Society for Information Display conference, members of his Kindle team may have discovered what looks like a perfectly good color display material.

They liked LG’s 9.7-inch electronic paper display material so much, according to an LG engineer, they asked the Korean company if Amazon’s Kindle group could be the first customer..

“Amazon had so many people come to our booth,” said David Park, team leader of LG Display’s advanced color electronic display research group. They “said they want to be the first customer.”

Amazon aren’t going to be happy that the LG Team Leader spilled the beans. He also said that Nook representatives were in touch and that he expects products featuring the 9.7″ color screen to be in the market by October. He ended by making a pretty good argument for using the LG color display in textbook readers -

LG’s 9.7-inch color displays were created with textbooks and comic books in mind, Park said. He contends electronic books are better for textbooks than devices like the iPad because they are easier on the eyes for extended reading and they won’t be used for playing games.

It was also good to be reminded that LG will be manufacturing the huge black and white eInk display used in the Skiff reader.

Could both Kindle 3 and Kindle DX 2 be ready to launch?

Here’s a summary of the rumors regarding the new Kindles -

1. Bloomberg think August will see a thin, fast, better contrast Kindle 3. It may or may not have a flexible, unbreakable screen.   
2. Bloomberg’s Kindle 3 rumor matches up pretty well with where eInk technology is i.e. no color, touch doesn’t work properly, faster screen refreshes, and better contrast. 
3. CrunchGear’s tipster saw a black Kindle DX 2 or a black Kindle 3 and Amazon was shooting videos starring it.
4. Amazon asked LG to use their color screen with the Kindle – the color screen might be in the market by October though we don’t know which eReader will have it and Kindle almost certainly won’t.

We might be looking at a black Kindle DX 2 launching soon (hence the shooting of the video for the new Kindle DX product page) and a Kindle 3 launching in August (if Bloomberg is correct). That would mean the Kindle DX 2 arrives approximately a year after the first Kindle DX and that the Kindle 3 arrives 1.5 years after the Kindle 2. It’s certainly possible.  

As for the LG Display color screen – there’s no way it’d make it to an August Kindle 3 release. We’ll probably see it in Kindle 4.

Filed under: kindle 3 Tagged: | kindle 3, kindle dx 2