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Amazon Launches The Kindle Paperwhite

By TechTaffy Desk

[Techtaffy Newsdesk]

Amazon launched the fifth generation of its Kindle e-readers, the Kindle Paperwhite, in a much-anticipated event in Santa Monica, California. It is the most advanced e-reader ever constructed says Amazon. Along with the Paperwhite debut, Amazon also released a HD version of the Kindle Fire, among other developments. But lets talk of the Kindle Paperwhite first.

The Paperwhite comes with a 212 ppi display,  which features 62% more pixels and 25% increased contrast, a patented built-in front light for reading in all lighting conditions, and up to 8 weeks of battery life, even with the light always on.

Jeff Bezos (Founder and CEO,  Amazon.com):  Paperwhite is the Kindle we’ve always wanted to build — the technology didn’t exist to build a display with this level of contrast, resolution, brightness and battery life, so our engineers invented it.

Every font on Kindle Paperwhite is hand-tuned for maximum readability. The Amazon typography team worked at the pixel level to ensure consistency of stroke thickness and shape profiles across all individual glyphs, aligning each size to the specific grid of the new Paperwhite display.

Time to Read is a new feature for Kindle Paperwhite that helps readers know the amount of time it will take them to finish a chapter or a book. This  personalizes the time for each user based on their reading speed and is constantly updated as the reader’s speed and habits change.

There is more. With a single tap, readers can see all passages across a book that mention ideas, fictional characters, historical figures, places or topics that interest them, as well as more detailed descriptions from Wikipedia and Shelfari, with Amazon built ‘X-Ray’ using its expertise in language processing and machine learning, access to significant storage and computing resources with Amazon S3 and EC2, and a deep library of book and character information, says the company.

A quick look at the Kindle Paperwhite features:

  • Built-in front light,  designed to be used at all times both in daylight and at night
  • 8 weeks of battery life (even with the light on at all times)
  • Free 3G connection
  • Built-In Wi-Fi (Along with  free Wi-Fi access at AT&T hotspots across the US)
  • Capacitive touch technology
  • Over a third of an inch thin
  • Weighs 7.5 ounces
  • 6.7″ x 4.6″ x 0.36″ (169 mm x 117 mm x 9.1 mm)
  • 2 GB internal storage
  • Parental Controls
  • Cloud Storage

The Kindle Paperwhite is priced at $119. The Kindle Paperwhite Wi-Fi + 3G costs $179. The devices are available for pre-order, and ships October 1.

[Image Courtesy: Amazon]

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