My new Kindle DX with global wireless arrived today
As I last month, I decided to finally and dive into a new Kindle – namely the Kindle DX Wireless Reading Device. Though it did not offer the global wireless feature of its little (6") brother, I was happy to get the larger reading surface after several recommendations from friends.
Sadly, I was notified that my Kindle DX was back ordered and not expected to ship until late January. So I opted for the smaller model and chose to wait to see what CES brought.
Little was I to know that my then delayed shipment at the end of 2009 was due to the refresh of the product to a new worldwide model, as I noted in my post Tablets & Slate PCs in Steve Ballmer's CES keynote- The debut of Apple's new iTablet? Dunno, but the Kindle DX does wireless worldwide on Jan 19th…
"Now I know why, thanks to chatter at CES on Twitter from engadget last night (https://bit.ly/5I04ex), the WSJ Blog and now this latest mail from Amazon: the new Amazon Kindle DX includes global wireless support, shipping January 19th for $489. I love it when a company takes the initiative and beats my email query to the punch, asking about my back order…"
(You can read the late nite email from Amazon proclaiming this new product on said post.)
Well, said Kindle DX arrived late today and I look forward to putting it through its paces internationally at some point. For now, I'm happy to have the larger screen (the 6" really was fine, but I found myself turning the page, so to speak, more often than deemed necessary.) The package appears prima facie the same as the previous U.S. wireless version, with nothing to give away its new global abilities. And after a few minutes I can attest that it appears to be all I expected.
Interesting that the smaller Kindle shows up prominently on Amazon's home page as the "#1 best selling product" on the site. Quite understandable given its performance and reasonable price.
Now to decide: do I keep the 6" or return it? Surely, family members will get good use of it at home. And that way, we won't have the need to fight over who gets the ebook as was the case for one certain laptop destined to make its way to repairs for a faulty keyboard with a dangling "G" key and screen illumination malfunction that dims just as you are about to save your work. And all this just after the expiration of the original warranty: thankfully, the doubled warranty through my credit card company will take care of the fix.
That's sure to be another post.
Tags: gadgets, Amazon, CES 2010, CES, Kindle
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