14 DAY TRIAL // After a long wait, Amazon finally refreshed its Kindle eReader lineup, introducing its next-gen flagship – the Kindle Voyage.
The new eReader arrives with a touchscreen display with high-resolution, front-lit panel and a nifty new system that employs built-in touch screen on the side of the screen to help users turn the pages without touching the screen with their fingers.
The digital reading device also comes with 4GB of internal storage and boasts 802.11n Wi-Fi. However, the eReader is priced quite high, selling for $199 / €156 as opposed to the $119 / €93 of the second-gen Kindle Paperwhite.
The question is: the Kindle Voyage or Paperwhite?
And for those who are still mussing over to buy the Kindle Voyage or Paperwhite, the next bit might help you make a decision.
You might be aware that Amazon has been offering the so-called Kindle Active Content for its Kindle eReader lineup (exclude the tablets). This name is utilized to describe a bundle of apps that are designed to run on Amazon’s eReaders (with E-Ink displays).
Amazon offers 490 such apps in the Kindle store (from which 20 are freebies) that are compatible with the company’s line up of digital reading devices. But surprise, surprise – as a reader of Mobile Read discovered not so long ago, they won’t run on Amazon’s latest flagship eReader, the Voyage.
Is this a bug or maybe something else?
As the folks of Digital Reader managed to confirm, Amazon has basically discontinued support for Kindle Active Content on the Kindle Voyage. So, sorry, folks, if you were hoping to play a quick game or plunge into a world of interactive fictions with apps like Dusk World, you won’t be able to do so on the Kindle Voyage.
Kindle Active Content is still available for other Kindle eReaders
But there’s a tweak. Amazon is not actually discontinuing the Active Content bunch altogether. You will still be able to download and install these apps on other Kindle eReadrs such as the Kindle Paperwhite and even other entry-level models.
You must be wondering what the purpose behind Amazon’s move is. Well, the company is looking to concentrate on developing the Amazon Appstore for its Fire tablets (and subsequently for other Android smartphones and tablets too).
This isn’t the first time when Amazon’s drops features that used to exist with previous models. For example, at some point the company’s digital reading devices used to come equipped with headphone jacks and support for text-to-speech.
But when Amazon rolled out the Kindle Paperwhite in 2012, these feats were nowhere to be found.