The latest e-book device from Amazon is the Kindle DX. Of particular note is the "Read-to-Me" feature which is text-to-speech. They had a big row with the Authors' Guild of America recently over Kindle 2. (The Authors' Guild demanded Amazon turn off their text-to-speech because it infringed their rights.) According to Amazons' own website, "Kindle DX can read newspapers, magazines, blogs, and books out loud to you, unless the book's rights holder made the feature unavailable". This may explain why this new version comes so quickly after Kindle 2.
Other feature are that it is a lot bigger (9.7 inch diagonal screen - up from 6 inch for previous models), can hold 3500 books, periodicals and documents, uses wireless to download a book in less than a minute, the display auto-rotates from portrait to landscape as you turn the device, reads ordinary pdfs, and has a battery life of two weeks!
But before you rush out and buy one (at around £320 or €360) it is worth looking at the downsides. For example, using their "highlighter" is difficult, searching is problematic (I love to flick through a book quickly to find what I am looking for - how can a single screen ever allow that?), and what about all those books that are not available electronically. Also, the technology for colour is not yet available. So you can forget changing background colours etc.
Amazon Kindle DX
TechCrunch Review
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I bought a Kindle 2 and had it for three weeks. I just couldn't wait for the DX. When the DX arived I returned the kindle 2. I am completely satisified with the Kindle DX. I think it is a great piece of engineering technology. see Amazon Kindle DX
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