New Kindle hits June 10, and other e-book reader news

Amazon announced that its new Kindle DX, introduced May 6, 2009, will begin shipping on June 10. [Photo: Amazon]

Amazon has firmed up the vague "summer" timeframe for the launch of the Kindle DX, the new and bigger addition to its family of wireless e-book readers. The $489 device will begin shipping on June 10.

I wrote some first impressions of the Kindle DX after using it at the press conference on the big-screen reader. We plan to bring you more in-depth coverage on June 11 or 12, after we receive the device, which we pre-ordered the day it was announced.

In other news on the e-book reader front:

• Kindle gets a new Web connection. The ability to highlight passages or make notes on what you're reading is among the Kindle's distinctions. Now you can read those notes online as well as on the Kindle itself, by signing in to your to Amazon account from your computer. The features doesn't allow you full flexibility—you can't e-mail the notes on to others, for example—but it's a welcome step, especially for those (like the author I met last summer) who use these Kindle features when writing on a computer.
• A new, would-be Kindle killer is unveiled. We learned more last week about the Plastic Logic reader, a pilot of which is promised for later in 2009; no price has been announced. Its Kindle DX-sized (about the size of 8.5 by 11 paper, the company says) and, like the Sony PRS-700, offers a touchscreen interface.
• A smartphone/e-book reader is coming to Japan. The Toshiba Biblio resembles many other smartphones that have sliding QWERTY keyboards, and it boasts a 3.5-inch LCD screen and a 5-megapixel camera. But, interestingly, the device is being marketed—so far, only in Japan, where it launched June 24—as an e-book reader. Like the Kindles, it allows wireless downloading of e-books, and can store up to 5,000 titles.

—Paul Reynolds.