. Here's an example of the list for one such book:
The question is, what does it really mean for a book to be Optimized for KindleDX? It may mean that there are a lot of pictures in the book, as the one above has, but I have a number of books in my library with a lot of figures and they don't have this tag. The official explanation is that the book "has complex layouts and has been optimized for reading on Kindle DX's larger screen, but can still be viewed on other devices." Fair enough.
The Featured Books for Kindle DX
page says that "cookbooks, travel guides and computer books" will be optimized for the KindleDX, but many of the page's links are for the regular Kindle book sections (books featured on the page are all "optimized", it appears); you have to click on each book to see if the tag has been applied to it's description. The link for "computer books", for example has two versions of WordPress For Dummies; the newer one is Optimized for KindleDX and is marked down to $9.99, while the older edition is both higher priced and presumably would not look as good (as well as being 18 months out of date, which is a lifetime in the computer industry).I wondered if any of my books were optimized? I checked on The Clutter Diet: The Skinny on Organizing Your Home and Taking Control of Your Life
, a book with one of the most complicated layouts of those I've purchased and one that, although readable on the K1 and K2, could benefit from the larger screen of the KindleDX. Alas, it doesn't have the tag, so is not "optimized". The version I have also has no table of contents or links to figures, which the current version has, as I cannot download the latest version of the book, even though that's what new purchasers would receive.I checked a few cookbooks, thinking perhaps their layout might be complicated enough to benefit: Gluten-Free Girl: How I Found the Food That Loves Me Back
, Selections from Feast: Food to Celebrate Life
, The Cook's Illustrated How-to-Cook Library, Design and Equipment for Restaurants and Foodservice: A Management View
and Trail Food: Drying and Cooking Food for Backpacking and Paddling
. None of them sport the Optimized for KindleDX tag.
In fact, out of 361 Kindle Books, I found exactly four that are Optimized for KindleDX:
Kindle Shortcuts and Kindle-friendly Websites. This concise Kindle user guide describes keyboard shortcuts and hidden Kindle features for both Kindle 2 and Kindle 1. Updated 04/28/2009
How To Do Your Own Dentistry
Rick Warren's Bible Study Methods
Tramping Through Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras Being the Random Notes of an Incurable Vagabond
Of these, note that the first is about how to use the Kindle 2 and Kindle 1, but has been updated fairly recently, the last is a free public domain book that lists a number of illustrations, but actually has none (is it possible that those with a DX will get the illustrations?) and has practically no formatting, the second is a short comic strip (the one most likely to benefit from the large screen). Rick Warren's Bible Study Methods is one I'd expect to benefit from an overhaul (it really isn't very usable on the K1 or even the K2), but I really could not identify any particular feature that distinguishes it from many other complex layout books I've purchased. It is a fairly large book (the others are not), but not as large as many that don't have the tag.
The KindleDX
starts shipping in a week. We'll have to wait until them to confirm how these books differ on the various Kindle devices (I do know that some books in the Kindle store have color and appear differently on the iPhone, for example). Will those who use a KindleDX get the same book and just have more screen real-estate for viewing pictures and charts (and if so, why is Tramping Through Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras Being the Random Notes of an Incurable Vagabond marked with this tag, but The Clutter Diet: The Skinny on Organizing Your Home and Taking Control of Your Life is not?). Or will those with a KindleDX get an entirely different book, with pictures, tables and other layout features omitted from the basic reader device versions?
