New Amazon Kindle: 5 things you need to know

Whereas before most Kindles required an audio adapter for someone to utilise Amazon’s screen-reading software VoiceView, the new Kindle comes with Bluetooth connectivity built-in.

There’s no change in the price, as we mentioned, so the entry-level Kindle will still set you back US$79.99 with special offer ads on the lock screen and $99.99 without.

The white version of the Paperwhite will be available on June 30th and pre-orders are available right now for 9.00. That means you get 4GB of storage, which will hold thousands of e-books.

It’s also sporting a few brand new features.

But the Kindle ecosystem has one fatal flaw from my perspective: Only a select subset of Kindle newspapers and magazines can be read on the e-reader devices for some reason. This best-selling Kindle will also be available in white, with a 300 ppi resolution – that’s “print-quality text” according to the retail giant. For the first time, the e-reader also includes Bluetooth to allow visually impaired people to listen to books using a wireless headset. Through the generations, the device has gotten progressively better, and today, bookworms should rejoice at the new-and-improved model. This lets you send your notes and highlights as a PDF to your email for future reference.

In other Kindle-related news, the Kindle Paperwhite is now available in white. You’ll be able to share your annotations with other people, a feature that could be particularly useful to reading clubs and groups.

Last year, ebook sales fell for the first time.

For eighty bucks, will you be snapping up the new Kindle? Amazon remains committed to the e-reader market despite wider use of tablet computers, which can also be used for electronic books.