Amazon just announced their 6th generation e-reader called Kindle Paperwhite, offering new display technology with higher contrast, next generation built-in light, faster processor, plus all-new reading features like Kindle Page Flip, Goodreads, Kindle FreeTime, Smart Lookup, Vocabulary Builder, and more
The 6-inch sized Kindle Paperwhite delivers an uncompromised reading experience—unlike tablets, it’s easy to read in bright sunlight, won’t tire your eyes in the dark, weighs just 7.3 ounces so you can read comfortably for hours with one hand, and has eight weeks of battery life. Amazon says Kindle Paperwhite combines the best hardware, massive selection, lowest book prices, best reading features, best customer service, personalized recommendations, customer reviews, and more—into one seamlessly integrated service for customers.
New Features:
- New display technology with higher contrast—Kindle Paperwhite’s display is the most advanced e-reader display ever constructed. Higher contrast and better reflectivity means whites are whiter and blacks are blacker, so the pages are virtually indistinguishable from a physical book. You won’t find this level of contrast with any other e-reader display.
- Next generation built-in light—Guides light toward the surface of the display so you can read comfortably without eyestrain.
- New, 25% faster processor—Books open and pages turn faster for a seamless reading experience.
- New touch technology—19% tighter touch grid makes Kindle Paperwhite respond even more accurately to the smallest touches.
- New Kindle Page Flip—Skim page-by-page, scan by chapter, or skip to the end of your book, all without losing your place. For example, it’s now easy to quickly flip back and forth to that map of Beyond the Wall in A Dance With Dragons.
- New Goodreads Integration—Combines the world’s largest e-reading community and the world’s largest community of book lovers. Join over 20 million other readers and see what your friends are reading, share highlights, and rate the books you read with Goodreads on Kindle, available exclusively from Amazon.
- New Kindle FreeTime—Built-in parental controls have been extended to give parents a simple, engaging way to encourage kids to spend more time reading. Hand-select books for your kids to read, and hand out achievement badges when they hit reading milestones. A progress report keeps parents updated on total time spent reading, number of words looked up, badges earned and books finished.
- New Vocabulary Builder—Compiles words you look up in the dictionary into an easy-to-access list. Use these lists to quiz yourself with flashcards and instantly see words in context.
- New Smart Lookup—Integrates a full dictionary definition with other reference information about a word, character, topic or book via X-Ray and Wikipedia. For example, using an ordinary dictionary to look up “credit default swaps” in Michael Lewis’ The Big Short would give the individual definitions of “credit,” “default” and “swaps.” Smart Lookup recognizes this is an important topic and phrase in the book, and gives you the correct definition of “credit default swaps” via X-Ray.
- New In-line Footnotes—With a single tap, read the complete text of each footnote in-line without changing the page or losing your place in the book.
- New Kindle MatchBook—New benefit lets customers purchase Kindle editions of print books purchased from Amazon—past, present and future—for $2.99 or less.
The Goodreads and FreeTime features will be delivered later this year as part of a free software update.
Standard Features:
- Reads like real paper—No-glare display for perfect reading, even in bright sunlight.
- 8 weeks of battery life—Read for weeks, not hours, on a single charge.
- Weighs just 7.3 ounces—Hold comfortably in one hand for long reading sessions.
- Built-in Wi-Fi and free 3G—Think of a book and be reading it in under 60 seconds.
- Whispersync—Saves and synchronizes your last page read, bookmarks and annotations across all of your devices, so you can always pick up where you left off.
- Worry-Free Archive—Automatically backs up your Kindle books in the cloud, so you never need to worry about losing your books—re-download your books wirelessly anytime for free.
- X-Ray—Explore the “bones of a book”—see all of the passages across a book that mention relevant ideas, fictional characters, historical figures, places or topics of interest.
Price and Availability
Amazon Kindle Paperwhite will be offered with or without 3G and/or special offers:
- Kindle Paperwhite — $119 (available September 30, 2013)
- Kindle Paperwhite Wi-Fi + 3G — $189 (available November 5, 2013)
