Qualcomm is showing their new Mirasol displays, and they look good. It's a 5.7" XGA color screen, that is very power efficient, but faster (can play video), has color, and should be cheaper.
There are rumors that the new displays might be used in future Kindle devices. We'll have to wait and see. In any case, Qualcomm say that the displays will be ready by automn.
Amazon has finally announced international support for the Kindle. They now offer the Amazon US & International edition for $279 (available since October 19th). It can be used in over 100 countries (using AT&T's global roaming network). Each download overseas will cost 1.99$ (when you buy a new book or download one from your archived items). This is rather expensive - so this is more for Americans who want to use this abroad as well, although it can be shipped internationally from Amazon.
The Kindle US edition now costs 259$ (down from 299$), and will not allow for international roaming.
AUO says that its e-paper displays will be better, and much cheaper than available today, using its large-size production capabilities. In fact, they expect e-book readers prices to fall in half within two years - and they see a 100$ reader by 2011.
Sony says that over one million public-domain books are now available for their e-readers (PRS-505 and PRS-700). Sony is using Google's Books project for these books, which are available in EPUB format.
Amazon has over 300,000 titles in their Kindle store, and Barnes & Nobles, which recently announced their own online bookstore, has over 700,000 titles, out of which more than 500,000 are public domain, also powered by the Google Books project.
The "New" Democratic Leadership Council
in Washington has a new plan - the Government will buy
They say it will be cost effective because currently the government spends over 100$ in text books, and ebook reader will fall in price soon. (currently the Kindle DX, the only one that can read text-books, costs 489$...).
A Chinese company called Peking University Founder is showing a new eBook reader, that looks just like Amazon's Kindle 2. They say they will release it by the end of 2009, in Japan, for around 210$ (the kindle 2, by the way, costs 299$).
It includes a cellular connection (they say it needs a SIM card) to download new books, and will use their own 'Apabi' ebook software. The screen is 'about' 6", not sure what kind of display yet.
Amazon has dropped the price of the Kindle 2 reader by 60$. The new price is 299$.
Kindle 2
The new Kindle DX is still priced at 489$, and Amazon are still out of stock (says they will ship within 3 to 5 weeks).
Amazon's Kindle DX is sold out again. Amazon says that this is due to heavy customer demand. It will continue shipping in 4-6 weeks (just a couple of weeks ago, the Kindle DX was sold out, but than it took Amazon only a couple of days to get more inventory).
Amazon kindle DX
It might be that E Ink have problem supplying the large 9.7" E Ink display, or, perhaps, there is indeed heavy customer demand. The Kindle DX costs 489$.
Amazon's Kindle DX (with the 9.7" E Ink display) has sold out in 3 days. We do not know how many they actually sold, but in any case Amazon will have more devices ready by June 17...(you can see this info over at Amazon's Kindle DX page)
The Kindle DX costs 489$, it's not a cheap device, and it's great to see that it is selling so well.
