Supersized Kindle comes with some trade-offs

Excerpts

from the blog

I was pretty excited about Amazon.com's supersized Kindle, the DX model it began selling last week.

But after spending a week fiddling with a test unit loaned by Amazon, I'm not sure it's worth the extra $130 over the price of a standard Kindle. The DX costs $489 vs. the standard model at $359.

Amazon is aiming the DX particularly at college students. It's working with textbook companies and plans trials at universities around the country this fall.

I wonder if students would prefer the smaller Kindle, though, and not just because it's less expensive.

The DX screen is about the size of a hardback book, compared with the paperback-sized screen on the standard Kindle. The DX also has double the storage — 4 gigabytes — and onboard support for PDF documents. They both use 3G wireless service to download books, newspapers, blogs and other material.

But there are some trade-offs for that bigger screen. For one thing, it seems to burden the processor more — page refreshes seem slower. A spokeswoman said the DX uses the same processor as the smaller Kindle.

Amazon also added an auto-rotate feature, so the screen shifts to a horizontal mode when you turn the DX sideways. I found it maddening. It takes too long to rotate, and sometimes you have to really tilt it upward to get the rotation going.

But the thing I missed the most was the compactness of the previous Kindle, which has a better blend of power and portability. It's small enough (8 x 5 inches) to stuff into a large pocket and easily hold with one hand. The DX, meanwhile, is like a thick clipboard that needs backpack or briefcase to conceal.

Even though it's more of a two-handed device, the DX only has page-turning buttons on the right side. The standard Kindle has page buttons on both sides of the screen, so you can read while holding it in either hand.

The DX brings to mind slate-style PCs that are just a little bigger (the DX is 10.4 x 7.2 inches and 0.38-inch thick) but more powerful, with color screens that take pen and finger input. That may not be a fair comparison — the Kindle is only trying to be a reading device and it's thinner — but it's hard to shake the association.

If you're going to carry around something this big, and devote that much space in the backpack, you may expect more than a black-and-white reader with a rudimentary browser, a weak MP3 player and an oddly spaced keyboard.

Newspapers are especially interested in devices like the Kindle that can deliver their content to subscribers. Some readers say they like papers on the Kindle but I think it has a ways to go, and the DX isn't much better.

Perhaps I'm jaded or too caught up in the handheld-gadget thing.

I've got to say that when I showed the Kindle DX to a group of people who had never seen any Kindle before, they were impressed and excited by the possibilities of the device. They didn't mind the size or miss the left-side button.

Maybe there's demand for a whole lineup of Kindles — coupes, sedans and pickups, whatever size you need — but let's hope the big ones will get more powerful engines. And they all desperately need lights, so you can use them in the dark.

Branding at the Core

Finally, Intel is clarifying the jumble of brands used for its PC processors. Sort of.

During the Windows Vista era, Intel's brands became confusing, forcing consumers to choose between "dual core" and "Core 2" processors, for instance.

Changes announced Wednesday will take effect in coming months and could make it easier by the time Windows 7 launches in October.

The biggest change is coming to the "Core" brand, which is going to come in three flavors: Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7. Core i3 will signify entry-level systems, i5 to midrange and i7 to high-end. (The current vPro tag used on business-oriented systems will still be added to i5 and i7 systems).

Intel's Atom processor — the one designed for mobile devices and now used in all sorts of budget netbooks and some desktops — will keep the Atom name.

Also sticking around for a while is the last generation of Intel CPU names — Celeron and Pentium. They'll be used on lowest-end systems, with Celeron designating the base models, Pentium a step up and Core (in its various flavors) "representing the best we have to offer," Intel's Bill Calder said in the blog.

Centrino — an Intel term referring to a set of components, including a CPU and wireless module — is being dropped from the PC lineup next year. But it will be used on WiMax products starting in 2010.

Funding in the picture

New York startup Animoto is announcing today that it raised $4.4 million, largely from Seattle's Madrona Venture Group.

Animoto offers a Web-delivered service that converts photos and music into polished videos. After nearly two years in business it's cash-flow-positive with more than 100,000 consumer and commercial customers.

"They make really high-end multimedia storytelling and multimedia production super-easy and accessible to the masses," said Matt McIlwain, Madrona's managing director.

It may seem far afield for Northwest-focused Madrona, but Animoto is practically a local company, McIlwain noted.

Animoto was started by a group of Bellevue High School graduates who went on to work in New York's media industry and it received initial funding from Seattle-area angle investors.

McIlwain said Animoto is planning to open a Seattle office but will keep its headquarters in New York and a satellite office in San Francisco.

Also participating in the funding round are SoftTech VC and Bruce Livingstone, founder of iStockphoto.

This material has been edited for print publication.

Brier Dudley's blog appears Thursdays. Reach him at 206-515-5687 or bdudley@seattletimes.com.