Another model, the $140 Kindle Keyboard, has real keys, while the extra large Kindle DX has a 9.7-inch screen for people with poor eyesight or who prefer a bit more reading real estate.
Amazon's extra-large Kindle DX is available this weekend (which is to say for the next few hours) for the low, low price of $259, down from its normal $379.
However, if you are primarily looking for a very simple, very compelling, and very well-built e-reader with a few interesting extras, the Kindle Fire HD is well worth the price.
Although the Kno has a color touch-screen and runs a browser and learning apps, it is competing less with the iPad than with the extra-large Kindle DX, which sells for $379, has a 9.7-inch black-and-white screen, and also targets the textbook market.
Go to CreateSpace (owned by Amazon), check the box that you want to be both paperback and Kindle (it costs an extra $69 to be on kindle), pick a cover, upload your manuscript, and in a few days you will be published on Amazon and people can start buying your book.
So what we're dealing with is the first Kindle with an extra feature.
A few years ago, extra excitement would also have been kindled by the appearance of the brilliant Russian conductor Valery Gergiev.
Does the nostalgia for print run deep enough among Kindle users to justify the extra price, though, and is there really much hunger for digital editions of long-ago print purchases?
It's a competent device for a great price, though of course for maximum selection and features (sharing, annotation, 3G) the Kindle may be worth the extra $16 or $40.
Amazon.com, in an apparent switch in its pricing policy, said over the weekend that it would allow buyers of its new Kindle Fire tablet to pay $15 extra to turn off advertisements that are built into the devices.
