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Gadgets Amazon.com's E-Book Reader Details Leaked
Tuan Nguyen (Blog) - September 11, 2006 4:14 PM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 21 comment(s) - last by SilthDraeth.. on Sep 13 at 8:49 AM
Called the Kindle

Amazon's upcoming e-book device had its details revealed this morning when the FCC published a PDF on the device which included specifications and pictures. For those of who don't quite remember, Amazon started out with the goal of being the premier online book store -- of course today it's much bigger than that. Amazon's e-book reader, called the Kindle, is a monochromatic display that competes with the likes of Sony's own Reader.

Despite being designed to display e-books, Amazon's reader also comes with a full keyboard. Unlike Sony's product, Amazon's Kindle will let users type up their own documents or edit existing ones. No details on what formats the Kindle will be able to save to have been released. The following are its specifications:

  • Screen: 6-inch monochromatic 4-level gray scale LCD
  • Resolution: 600x800 pixels
  • Storage: 256MB internal
  • Expansion: SD slot
  • Audio: built-in speaker with 3.5mm stereo jack
  • Connectivity: EV-DO/CDMA wireless, USB 2.0
  • Size: 4.9-inches by 7.5 inches, 0.7 inches thick
  • Weight: 10.2 ounces

The Kindle is larger than Sony's Reader primarily because of the keyboard. The Kindle also has wireless connectivity, which the Reader does not. The Kindle will be manufactured by Hon Hai Precision, which is otherwise known as Foxconn. No release date has been announced.

Responsible for also manufacturing Apple's line of iPods, Foxconn was recently in a legal debacle over articles published about its treatment of employees. Apple launched a probe into Foxconn and revealed that while most situations were pleasant, Foxconn's employees still felt that there were areas that needed drastic improvement. Foxconn then went on to sue the two authors that published the original report but later dropped the suit due to pressure from the media.

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Old School
By Haggar on 9/11/2006 4:34:29 PM , Rating: 4
That unit looks so old, it reminds me of the digital type-writers. Looks awful, large and with the 4 shade grey scale, I'll stick to my laptop for now.




RE: Old School
By R Nilla on 9/11/2006 5:15:54 PM , Rating: 3
It looks like a Macintosh Classic on an LCD diet. The outdated beige casing doesn't help at all. It really looks like it's from 10-15 years ago. Weird.


RE: Old School
By dice1111 on 9/11/2006 5:36:27 PM , Rating: 3
It's even got, what looks like, glue reminants from an old sticker on the side of it under the back key. Just like a lot of other old equipment and thing around my office have.


RE: Old School
By Hypernova on 9/11/2006 9:17:27 PM , Rating: 3
I think it's probably due to it being an FCC test sample.

Still, that thing looks like a broken top half of one of those all in one printers.


RE: Old School
By rushfan2006 on 9/12/2006 11:59:34 AM , Rating: 2
LOL I agree...if I didn't know any better I could be persuaded to believe that thing is from the early to mid 90's. Not only does it look old, its so bland looking the color choice is horrible -- in other words this thing is just down right UGLY!



With those specs, it's got to be CHEAP
By slashbinslashbash on 9/11/2006 6:28:34 PM , Rating: 2
The only reason to go for such crappy specs (2-bit LCD? Didn't the original Palm Pilot do better?) is to make it super duper cheap. I'm talking like less than $50. Hopefully in the $35-$40 range. Comparable to the price of a couple of nice books. And then the e-books themselves need to be priced in the $5 range (for relatively new books -- out of copyright classics should be $1 or less). If Amazon can pull that off (which they probably can) then they may have a winner despite the craptasticness of of the product.




By Clauzii on 9/11/2006 7:13:16 PM , Rating: 2
They probably use this kind of LCD to save on power usage :)


By ET on 9/12/2006 4:10:38 AM , Rating: 2
It's not an LCD. It's an e-ink display, like the Sony uses. And they're pretty expensive. (Look at the Engadget article, which mentions an "electrophoretic display". Why Daily Tech says it's an LCD is beyond me.)


By SilthDraeth on 9/11/2006 7:02:33 PM , Rating: 2
I got to thinking. These pictures are obviously old. And one would assume that the original proof of concept pictures provided years ago would be old compared to today.

I am pretty sure that the spec sheet listed on engadget is somewhat accurate. But if you view engadget's link to the FCC website there is a dismissal request from Foxconn stating that it would like the pictures removed, (which they are) pending release of set documents revealing private information, and the release of updated images.

Good thing you take an old proof of concept image and report it as news, as if that device would really be released in this day.




By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 9/11/2006 7:33:57 PM , Rating: 2
I am not sure if you have seen the document or not. The label information on the devices in the document have date stamps for June 2006. If you are looking for more, feel free to drop me an email and I can show you the document.


By SilthDraeth on 9/13/2006 8:49:19 AM , Rating: 2
That is ok Kris.

It isn't that I necessarily believe the story to be false. But DT didn't list a source for the information. Just a link to engadget. And when I followed engadget's link to the fcc site, there was only a letter posted stating that they request the information be taken down, that it revealed private information, and they would be updating it etc.

I still have a hard time believing that the product would really look like that. And I will go with your word that the pictures where legit on the original FCC release before it was removed.


By Gatt on 9/11/2006 4:27:35 PM , Rating: 4
It needs to be shaped and maybe covered like a hardbound, opens like a book, the display needs to be one of those flexible displays the size of a page, with a small button bar along the inside of one edge of the cover for navigation.

Then I'll buy one. I'm not reading on something that looks suspciously like a modern speak-N-spell.




Crap-ola
By bldckstark on 9/11/2006 4:36:47 PM , Rating: 4
Gee, I wonder why these never really took off. (sarcasm drips)...

I looked for an e-reader for my wife and they all sucked horribly. Screens weren't bright enough, proprietary formats, short battery life. Besides that they wanted too much $ for an e-book. She can get used paperbacks 20 for $5 at a garage sale.




600x800 resolution
By Hare on 9/11/2006 5:14:02 PM , Rating: 2
That won't be too comfortable. Fonts will definately have "jaggies". I don't think this will be very comfortable in the long run. Reading will also be a lot slower compared to a real book (there are lots of studies about reading from a display. It's just not comfortable). Low resolution makes things even worse.




RE: 600x800 resolution
By ET on 9/11/2006 6:17:16 PM , Rating: 2
800x600 isn't that bad. Especially if you use the 4 grey scales for antialiasing. I read at 1024x600 on my Fujitsu P1510D, and find the font good looking and comfortable to read. Only problem is that it's hard to see in bright daylight, which the e-ink display should solve.


It's crap
By nerdboy on 9/11/06, Rating: 0
RE: It's crap
By psychobriggsy on 9/12/2006 6:36:01 AM , Rating: 2
It looks pretty awful, that's for sure.

However I don't want a colour screen on an eBook, I'd rather have a cheap high resolution display, of at least 200 dpi, that is a reasonable simulation of a page in a book. This device appears to be approaching that. 300 dpi would be preferable.

However I dislike the devices black-on-dark-grey screen. Hopefully it is just an artefact of when the picture was taken, and the 'white' colour is nearly white when being used normally.


SEPLLNIG ERORRS OGM!!!
By SilthDraeth on 9/11/2006 6:45:19 PM , Rating: 2
Subject for emphasis.
"most situations were peasant" Peasant eh. . .

"dropped the suit do to pressuer" Is that French for pressure?

And, I would like to ask. Is this article a joke?




By bobsmith1492 on 9/11/2006 6:45:46 PM , Rating: 2
The workers at Foxconn are simple peasants, farming their land in hopes of digging up a new idea of a computer part to produce. :)




That thing...
By Clauzii on 9/11/2006 7:11:43 PM , Rating: 2
... are NOT going to make books obselete :)




Kindling!
By Arkham1 on 9/12/2006 10:40:37 AM , Rating: 2
I wonder if they chose "Kindle" as a tongue-in-cheek reference to Fahrenheit 451. Y'know... the end of all paper books.




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