Amazon sets ‘newspaper’ Kindle

Amazon last week said it would roll out a new Kindle engineered with a larger display and also struck deals with three newspapers to market the device.
The Kindle DX boasts a rotational display measuring 9.7 inches, more than two times the size of the Kindle 2, which was released earlier this year. The reader also sports a built-in PDF reader and can hold up to 3,500 books, Amazon said. It will be available this summer and priced at $489.
As part of the rollout, The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe will offer the device at a reduced price in exchange for subscriber commitments.
Competitor Plastic Logic, which next year will begin offering its own e-reader with a larger display, earlier struck a deal with Detroit Media Partnership through which DMP will offer the device to its readers as part of a trial (see News & Tech Dateline, March 16, 2009).
The test units — which will also be evaluated by USA Today — will be available in late summer or early fall, Plastic Logic said.