New Kindle eBook Reader Available This Week
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New Kindle eBook Reader Available This Week

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by Chris Smith
New Kindle eBook Reader Available This Week

A new Kindle eBook reader from Amazon was announced this week, enhancing their line of existing e-readers. The new Kindle Oasis expands upon the line of Kindle eBook readers rather than replacing any of the current models. The new Kindle ebook reader also offers an available protective case that includes batteries, allowing for the device itself to be both smaller and lighter. The rechargeable cover is removable, allowing for the thin Kindle ereader to be used on its own, but with shorter battery life. With the case that incorporates batteries, the e-reader can be used for up to two months without recharging, and if the case is removed, the Kindle should last up to two weeks without recharging. The new Amazon Kindle and case were developed by Amazon engineers under code names of Whisky for the Kindle and Soda for the battery-enhanced case at Lab126, located in Silicon Valley.

Amazon Kindle eReader Options

The Kindle ebook readers are focused exclusively on book reading rather than serving as a general-purpose tablet. The Kindle readers are not designed for media consumption such as watching a movie or streaming audio. They now come in four varieties, the Kindle, Paperwhite, Voyage, and Oasis.  All include either a greyscale touch-screen and are priced between $79 and $199 for the older models, with the newest Kindle Oasis priced at $290. The higher priced Kindle ebook readers include a higher resolution screens which provides for less eye-strain and clearer text when reading. All Kindle devices except the lowest priced model offer an integrated light for reading in the dark. While all Kindle devices can download content over wi-fi, the top-of-the-line Voyage and new Kindle Oasis both offer an option for accessing content over cellular data connection for a one-time fee of $70. After the initial payment, any data costs associated with downloading books is paid by Amazon. The new Kindle Oasis also returns to analog buttons for turning pages, something that had been eliminated on the other ebook readers. While all models have touch-screens, this enables a page to be turned without needing to possibly dirty the screen itself.

Differences between Amazon Kindle and Amazon Fire

Amazon has separated multi-purpose devices into a line of products known as Fire tablets, which were originally branded as Kindle Fire. The Fire tablets can read all Kindle books, but also offer color displays. These tablets can access Amazon’s library of audio and video content as well. Because the displays are designed for multiple uses, they are not optimized for reading in the same way as the Kindle devices.

Formatting eBooks from InDesign for Kindle Voyage

The impact of the new Kindle device on publishers remains uncertain at this time. If additional formatting changes are required for digital books, the ebook training courses will be updated to reflect this new device from Amazon.

About the author

Christopher Smith is president of American Graphics Institute. He is the co-author of Adobe Creative Cloud for Dummies and more than 10 other books on design and digital publishing. He served as publisher and editor of the Digital Classroom book series, which has sold more than one million books on topics relating to InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Premiere Pro and other Creative Cloud apps. At American Graphics Institute, he provides strategic technology consulting to marketing professionals, publishers designers, and large technology companies including Google, Apple, Microsoft, and HP. An expert on web analytics and digital marketing, he also delivers Google Analytics classes along with workshops on digital marketing topics. Christopher did his undergraduate studies the at the University of Minnesota, and then worked for Quark, Inc. prior to joining American Graphics Institute where he has worked for more than 20 years.