Elliott C. Back: Internet & Technology

I’ve got three complaints about the print WallStreet Journal (WSJ) subscription that I have:

• Delivery is inconsistent. Some days it comes, some days it doesn’t. I’d say a good 40% of the time it doesn’t come at all.
• Delivery is often late. If I get, there’s a 20% chance it’s when I’m coming home from work, not when I leave.
• Delivery “on hold” didn’t work. I put the subscription on hold for two weeks while I was in Shanghai, so what did I come home to? A huge stack of Wallstreet Journal magazines, and two emails notifying me of the hold period start and end effective dates. Clearly, not very effective.

If you want to read the WSJ (and it’s a great magazine to read), I strongly suggest you pick up the Wallstreet Journal Kindle Edition and get it wirelessly without any of the physical delivery issues.

When Apple released the Macbooks for the first time, people speculated that the white finish would pick up dirt over time, discoloring. Now that the Kindle 2’s are out, the race is on to see how dirty they get, how fast. So far, mine has picked minor amounts of cleanable grime, and retained its white coloration. The back has picked up some scratches, deep into the aluminum. But, the e-ink screen so far is flawless, which in the Kindle ebook reader, is all that matters.

Amazon’s latest Kindle is the just-announced bigger version of the Kindle2, the
Kindle DX. With 9.7″ of screen real estate, compared to the Kindle 2’s 6″, it theoretically provides a better reading experience for large-format publications, primarily textbooks, newspapers, and magazines. You can pre-order it today for $489, $130 more than the regular Kindle2.

Other advantages of the Kindle DX over the Kindle 2 include 3.3Gb of Storage for 3,500 books, rotation settings for orienting it in different reading positions, and most usefully, native PDF support. That last one is the only thing I really care about–although I’ve heard that the larger screen size will make refreshes slower. And, what about international support, faster refreshes, or color e-ink?

Still, for Amazon, for every 100 hard copies sold, an additional 35 Kindle editions are being sold, which is incredible growth. For more opinions, try searching Twitter for “Kindle DX”!

Update: The latest Kindle firmware enables native PDF on the regular Kindle2, and it’s fantastic!