Ah, the grand days I spent on campus… the half-mile walks between classes, the knee-buckling weight of my backpack, folders overflowing with loose notes. Ok, so I’m being a little sarcastic, but would you believe that there’s a new product on the horizon that has the potential to eliminate some of our college woes?

Even though the college life is generally a high point in our lives, most of us will never forget the years of academic drudge. Amazon’s recently announced Kindle DX quite possibly can give students a well-deserved break.

If you set aside college tuition, the next large expense for the average student is textbooks. Weighing up to a few pounds and often costing over $100 each, college textbooks are a burden to students in multiple ways. To make things worse, students have to buy these books every semester. As the semester goes by, publishers are pumping out the next version of their textbooks, forcing students to buy the latest versions instead of catching a break on used books.

So why is the Kindle DX a good choice for students? There are several reasons:

• Pay less for books. Traditionally, Kindle books have been for sale at a reasonable discount compared to their paperback and hardback counterparts. If the textbooks offered for the kindle follow suit, students should expect to easily save a $100 per semester.
• Greater availability and convenience. One of the things I never looked forward to was going to the campus bookstore. List in hand, I would wonder about the store looking for the books I’ve been told to purchase. Then, I stand in the checkout line with twenty pounds of books in my arms. Purchases made with the Kindle are done via Amazon’s wireless “Whispernet” connection. Kindle owners can potentially purchase their book in class, from home, where ever is most convenient.
• Less bulk to carry across campus. Finally there’s an alternative to carrying several pounds of books on our shoulders. Personally, I think having a Kindle to store just one the required texts would be justification enough, but can you image if your entire semester’s worth of books were tucked away in a single, slim, ultra-light device?
• Generate study notes easily. One of the features I really enjoy using with my Kindle is the notes and highlights feature. Whenever I come across something worth noting in a book, I can highlight and save a clip of the text with just a few clicks. I can then take that collection of clips and use them to find important parts of a book, or simply skim through them to refresh my memory. I think this could be a huge benefit to students.
• It’s a Kindle. – Remember, guys, we’re still talking about the same Kindle that everyone loves to use for their everyday reading. With the DX you’ll enjoy a larger screen, built-in PDF support, an auto-rotating screen, and more available internal storage than ever!

I’m looking forward to seeing how well the new Kindle DX does in the academic market. I’m not sure if I will jump over to the new, larger format (I’m just now rocking the Kindle 2). Though, students who don’t already own a Kindle should definitely consider pre-ordering a Kindle DX, which is due out this summer. If you can’t wait that long, the popular Kindle 2 is available for immediate shipment.