Are the New Kindles Tablets-In-Training?
Hugh Pickens writes “TechNewsWorld reports that Amazon’s new, slimmed-down Kindle devices are notable for several things, including upgrades to their experimental WebKit browser that makes it faster and easier to navigate, and the new ‘article mode’ feature extracts the main text-based content from Web pages for easier reading (as Safari does), suggesting the possibility that the Kindle may grow up to be a real tablet computer someday. Eventually, the tablet and e-reader categories ‘are going to slam together,’ says Rob Enderle, adding that they are ‘held apart, largely because we don’t yet have an affordable display that will do both tasks well.’ One current problem ‘is that TFT displays like the iPad uses suck for reading because they aren’t outdoor viewable and are very power hungry. Display technologies like the Qualcomm Mirasol stuff will change this over the next 18 months, and by the end of next year — likely before — we’ll begin to see converged devices.’ Mirasol uses tiny mirrors, known as microelectronic machines, to create its display, which has the low power characteristics of E-Ink displays and the video-playing and color abilities of LCDs.”
Source: Are the New Kindles Tablets-In-Training?
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