Amazon has made its premium Kindle Oasis e-reader an inch larger and given the device an IPX8 waterproof rating (in this case, immersion in up to 2 meters of fresh water for up to 60 minutes):
Amazon has been selling Kindles for 10 years now, but "waterproof" hasn't appear on its list of incremental technological advancements until now. The company just announced a new version of its popular e-reader that builds on last year's Kindle design and now has an IPX8 waterproof rating.
The new Kindle Oasis — the same name as last year's premium Kindle — has jumped up in size, moving from a 6-inch screen to a 7-inch screen. It has an aluminum back, which gives it a more premium look and feel than the Kindles with soft-touch plastic.
It supports AZW, TXT, PDF, MOBI, and PRC, but lacks EPUB support. Storage starts at 8 GB ($249) but there is a 32 GB option. Amazon has brought back physical buttons for page turning as an alternative to the touchscreen, and comes with an accelerometer to automatically change page orientation.
Still no color e-ink.
What's that book to the right of The Hobbit? Does it support that book?
Also at CNET and TechCrunch.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday October 12 2017, @06:50PM (1 child)
Getting EPUB/DRM-free books onto Amazon Kindle is not hard. You just use Calibre [wikipedia.org].
I have done it with a Kindle and Amazon made no fuss about the free/pirated ebooks within the device.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday October 12 2017, @07:01PM
I have used Calibre before, for reading e-books on my computer. While it's nice that it has the ability to get the epubs on a Kindle. It's not so nice, that Amazon, blocks use of such a widely used format for the average consumer. Amazon created their own proprietary format to essentially create for themselves a similar ecosystem to Apple.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"