Here’s a chance to meet some fellow Kindle-owners, if you’re in the Reston, Virginia area. There will be a gathering on July 14th. Check out this thread for details!

Amazon has dropped the price of Kindle 2 to $299. This is a drop of $60 from the $359 price that it has had since its February debut.

Judging from the response in our forums, this brings the price down to an level of attractiveness for a lot of new Kindle buyers – not to mention a few people looking for an excuse to buy a second Kindle!

And if you purchased your Kindle 2 within the past 30 days, call Amazon customer service – in a few seconds you can get a $60 credit refunded to your credit card. Dozens of our forum members have done this in the past few hours, and – in usual fashion – found Customer Service to be courteous and responsive in crediting those sixty clams.

Thanks, Amazon! This has put a lot of people in a very good mood today!

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Our members continue to post insightful reviews of their new Kindle DX readers – you can see dozens of posts and reviews here and in our Reviews board.

Several people have commented on how useful the DX would be for displaying sheet music. KindleBoards member Forster has posted pictures showing the DX displaying sheet music in portrait and in landscape mode.

As someone who participated in piano recitals for many years, I was always slightly stressed at the mechanics of page-turning: having to deal with pages flipping backwards, or with a page persistently lifting at awkward times by the natural tension of the manuscript binding.

I’ve been dying for my DX to arrive in the next few days, and to start loading some of my novels and IT reference manuals on it. And now, I’m also looking forward to downloading sheet music PDFs and propping my DX on the old piano.

The Kindle DX is available now from Amazon, for $489.

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KindleBoards members started receiving their new Kindle DXs yesterday. The earliest arrival was member andyadler who received his DX at 10 am. He did note he lives in Louisville, KY, which is the central shipping point for many Amazon deliveries. I am in Maine and mine arrived at 10:38 am and was out of its box by 10:39.

Initial impressions of the DX seem to be positive. The screen is bright and clear, with good contrast. One member took hers out into the sun and did not report any problems with fading, as was seen on so many of the Kindle2s. (I couldn’t test mine since the great State of Maine has been under a blanket of rain for the past three days!) Personally, I think the auto-rotate feature is very cool. While I was eating lunch, I turned it upside down so the buttons were on the left, allowing me to use my left hand to change the page and continue using my fork with my right hand.

Weight: the DX weighs 18 oz and my Kindle2 in its Oberon cover weighs 20 oz. Interestingly, the DX “feels” heavier. I think it has to do with the center of gravity, especially if you hold it near the bottom. Of course, the perfect solution was sitting right on my desk: an old, metal copy holder for papers (which I never use anymore). The DX fits like a glove. It also fits very nicely in the Peeramid pillow.

We have lots of mini-reviews and first impressions posts at KindleBoards. Some of the more popular include Kindle DX: Your Mini-Reviews, It’s Almost Here, Time for the DX to Ship, and First Person to Receive a Kindle DX. There are also three reviews, with comments, posted in the Reviews Forum, which can be found here.

Shipping emails for the Kindle DX were sent from Amazon this week, to the intense interest of all who ordered the latest Kindle reader – including me.

I chose SuperSaver shipping, and my projected arrival date is June 22 to June 26. Others who arranged for overnight shipping are seeing arrival dates as early as June 11.

I’m hoping that Amazon delights us again with their shipping. My Kindle 2 came in a full week earlier than its projected arrival date. I would love to see my DX a little earlier!

If you haven’t witnessed the DX in use, play the above video from mobileread – it shows an extended demo of the Kindle DX from the Amazon press announcement of a few weeks ago.

The Kindle DX can be ordered through Amazon and is being shipped next week on a first-come, first-served basis.

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This has not yet been announced by Amazon, but a KindleBoards member who happens to be a college professor learned that Amazon plans to open a Kindle DX textbook store, on or about July 1st.

She wrote to the publishers listed in Amazon’s May 6th press release, and one of those publishers leaked the news to her. No word yet on which textbooks will be offered, or at what prices.

Kindle DX is available now for pre-order and starts shipping this week. The DX is targeted to college students, business people, and others who can benefit from its larger 9.7-inch screen, auto-rotating display, PDF support, and 4GB storage capacity.

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Today was national Kindle & Koffee meet-up day, with Kindle owners appearing in Starbucks or other coffee houses around the country at 10:00am local time.

KindleWidow and I showed up at the Bellingham Starbucks at Holly & Railroad, along with our daughters. We enjoyed some coffee (cocoa for the girls – it was a cool spring morning in the northwest) and some Starbucks breakfast sandwiches.

And, had a nice conversation with a barista and with another customer about Kindle. We brought my Kindle 2 as well as KindleWidow’s Kindle 1, and a handful of covers as well.

Other meet-ups were slightly more active, with one group reporting a half-dozen Kindle owners converging on a Starbucks in Pennsylvania. All in all, a nice way to spend a Saturday morning. Thanks again to Kathy S for getting this organized – the first-evah National Kindle & Koffee Day!

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It looks like summer is coming early, with Amazon’s DX product page indicating that the Kindle DX will start shipping next Wednesday, June 10th.

The Kindle DX is a larger brother to the Kindle 2, with a 9.7-inch e-ink screen, and with superior ability to read and display PDF documents.

Amazon had previously indicated that the newer, larger Kindle would ship this “summer”.

It’s available for pre-order now for $489 from Amazon, with shipments made on a first-come, first-served basis.

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The National Kindle & Koffee meet-up is one week from today, at various Starbucks or other coffee house locations around the country.

Most Starbucks locations will allow posters to be put up within one week of an event, so I posted mine this morning at my local Starbucks on Railroad and Holly in Belingham.

You can download your own poster to print out, in this thread. In that same thread, you can see where people have posted about which Starbucks they plan to bring their Kindles to. The meet-up begins at 10am on Saturday June 6th.

With this being the first of its kind, it’s impossible to know how many people will show up where. Worst case, I’ll be sitting at a Starbucks with my Kindle for an hour on Saturday – - sounds good to me! (Actually, my wife is bringing her Kindle, so I will have some company.) And, if another Kindle owner or two shows up, so much the better!

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A group of KindleBoards members held a Kindle meet-up in the D.C. area today. By all accounts this gathering – the first of its kind from our forums – was a great success!

As you can see from the pictures, our accessories board was well-represented at this meet-up. There were eight Kindles there, an even split between Kindle 1 and Kindle 2s – and plenty of skins and leather covers.

Many of us have become friends in these boards, and enjoy our shared interest in books, reading, and – of course – all things Kindle. Kudos to the group for arranging this meet-up to hang out with each other “in real life”…!

You can see more pictures and event details at the Comments link below.

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