The Times, in an oddly vague sentence about itself, notes that it is "expected to be involved in the introduction of the device." Some rumors suggest the paper's current Kindle subscription fee of US$13.99 a month will drop down to $9.99 a month on the new device. A number of other publishers are thought to be on-board as well.

• Amazon's new Kindle will also have a classroom tie-in.

The Kindle DX is expected to be optimized for textbooks, too. At least six schools are in which they'll hand out Kindles to incoming freshmen and allow them to get textbooks on the devices. Pace University, Case Western Reserve University, Reed College, Arizona State University, Princeton University, and the Darden School at the University of Virginia are the institutions that have been named.

• Lots of new software features will be included in the new Kindle.

Amazon's updated Kindle is said to come loaded with a build-in PDF reader and a "more fully functional Web browser" than its predecessor. The DX is also rumored to have a new function that'll allow you to create annotations within texts, in addition to the standard highlights and notes.