Kindle Manga.jpg

Well, the hype is building for the NX reveal, so let's all take a deep breath and think about something else for a short while; it's good for the blood pressure.

Back in the early days of the Wii U, when we were still full of optimism for the system, this writer shared the view that the system was in a unique position to capitalise on the sizeable eBook market. With the GamePad and its capabilities, standard and 'interactive' eBooks seemed like an interesting way to add depth to the Wii U, especially as Sony was also trying to explore the area (sort of) with its Wonderbook initiative. Your humble scribe once worked in eBook production and publishing, so was naturally keen on the idea.

It never happened, ultimately, but eBooks are still a growing part of the publishing industry. Having recently complained about the size of the Wii U internal drive and the horrors of losing content from an external drive, this writer was amused when he received a tweet (thanks, Robert Emmerich) about a special Kindle Paperwhite that's only getting released in Japan.

It's a standard current-gen Kindle, albeit it'll include a software update that allows quicker page turning and have the option to display two pages on screen at once. The selling point? It's a 'manga' edition with 32GB of memory - yep, that's an e-ink Kindle with the same amount of memory as a premium Wii U.

As anyone with an e-reader will know, most devices have between 1-4GB of memory, and that's enough for thousands of books. This Japan-only edition (out on 21st October) has manga enthusiasts in mind, with all that extra space allowing for the far bigger files typical for the genre. That's smart, though the fact that these Kindles use e-ink, and therefore display in black and white, still means that there are compromises in using them for manga or broader comics.

In any case, there's a Kindle Paperwhite with the same amount of memory as a Wii U. What a world.

[source translate.google.com, via engadget.com]