Kindle DX
I garnered some First Impressions of the New Kindle DX from the NYTimes’s Gadgetwise Blog. According to the post, the new Kindle DX‘s main feature is its larger size.
The DX has a 9.7-inch display, which the company says is 2 1/2 times the size of the Kindle 2. But the device doesn’t feel or look as large as a sheet of copier paper. It won’t give you the feeling of reading an entire page of a newspaper. You read the paper by flipping through it, article by article.
With a price tag just south of $500, this e-book reader ought to have some bang for these big bucks. The larger screen is great, but what does this mean for the visually impaired? The Kindle already comes with a hobbled text to speech function and a narrow choic of font sizes. Rumors have it that Amazon engineers are looking at adding an audio interface option.
Digging a little deeper on the Kindle DX s web site, I found a list of the DX’s fetures that might be useful for the visually imapired.
Auto-Rotating Screen
By simply turning the device, you can immediately see full-width landscape views of maps, graphs, tables and Web pages.
Built-In PDF Reader
Unload the loose documents from your briefcase or backpack, and put them all on Kindle DX. From neighborhood newsletters to financial statements to case studies and product manuals–you can take them all with you on Kindle DX. Native PDF support allows you to carry and read all of your personal and professional documents on the go. With Amazon’s Whispernet service, you can send your documents directly to your Kindle DX and read them anytime, anywhere.ead as long as you like.
Sharp Display of Images and Photos
Kindle DX’s high-resolution screen boasts 16 shades of gray, so images and photos are sharp and clear.
Full Image Zoom
Whether you prefer reading in portrait or landscape mode, images and photos display crisply on Kindle DX and can be zoomed to the full size of the 9.7″ screen.
Read in Sunlight With No Glare
Kindle DX’s screen reflects light like ordinary paper and uses no backlighting, eliminating the glare associated with other electronic displays. As a result, Kindle DX can be read as easily in bright sunlight as in your living room.
Adjustable Text Size
Kindle DX has six adjustable font sizes to suit your reading preference. You can increase the text size of your favorite book or periodical with the push of a button. If your eyes tire, simply increase the font size and continue reading comfortably. Now every book in your library can be large print.
Read-to-Me Feature
Kindle DX can read to you. With its Text-to-Speech feature, Kindle DX can read books, blogs, magazines, and newspapers out loud to you, unless the book’s rights holder made the feature unavailable. You can switch back and forth between reading and listening, and your spot is automatically saved. Pages automatically turn while the content is being read, so you can listen hands-free. You can speed up or slow down the reading speeds or choose a male or female voice. In the middle of a great book or article but have to jump in the car? Simply turn on Text-to-Speech and listen on the go.
The auto-rotate feature could be very useful at larger font sizes. As I talk about in The Widescreen Edition, a wider screen is more natural when reading with large fonts. The full page image zoom is great as well, but why not go whole hog and let there be full page zoom as well? If no full page zoom, ahy not allow for a wider selesction of font sizes? It would be no great technical issue for Amazon. I look forward to testing the built in PDF reader. I have to deal with PDFs often. The Kindle DX‘s TTS and larger font would make PDFs much more partable for me and other visualy impaired users.
It seems that Anazon has taked one more step towards building a mainstream accessibility device. A few more strides and we’ll have one!
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