Amazon released the second iteration of its Kindle e-book reader Monday, a device that will hold up to 1,500 books, boasts 25 percent better battery life, and includes a "talk to me" feature that reads books aloud.
The $359 Kindle 2 is available for pre-order starting today, and will ship February 24.
The new Kindle is just over a third of an inch thick, and weighs about 10 ounces. Amazon has added buttons to make it easier to flip pages, and a new five-way controller is intended to facilitate note-taking and highlighting text. Kindle 2 definitions, pulled from the New Oxford American Dictionary, will appear instantly at the bottom of the page.
The six-inch, 600-by-800 electronic paper display includes 16 shades of gray, compared to the 4 shades available on the original Kindle. Like its predecessor, the Kindle 2 does not use backlighting in an effort to eliminate eyestrain and glare.
The Kindle 2 also features a redesigned, more portable power charger. With one charge, the Kindle 2 will last up to five days with wireless turned on and for two weeks with wireless powered off, Amazon said.
The revamped e-reader comes with 2GB of memory, which will hold up to 1,500 books. The original Kindle came with 180MB of onboard memory, or about 200 books.
Patagonia, Cole Haan, and Belkin designed covers for the Kindle 2 that are available in the Kindle Store.
Tired of actually reading words on a page? Kindle 2 boasts a text-to-speech function that will convert books into speech. Customers can switch back and forth between reading and listening, and can select a female or male voice. Read-to-Me also works for newspapers, magazines, blogs, and other personal documents.
Starting today, Amazon will add The New Yorker to the Kindle Store. The site also provides access to more than 1,200 blogs, up from 250 when the Kindle launched.
As part of the launch, author Stephen King will release a new novella exclusively for the Kindle 2. The story, titled "Ur", features an appearance by the Kindle, naturally. King's novella is available for pre-order starting Monday, and will be released later this month.
Get the rest of this story, and a slideshow of Kindle 2 images, on pcmag.com.
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February 9, 2009 1:49 PM
Swing and a Miss:
- Still no Wi-Fi access
- Still cannot easily display standard PDF (Acrobat) files, nor can it utilize e-book formats other than Amazon's.
- 16 shades of gray (no color)
- Price point is STILL well into full-featured netbooks and entry-level notebooks.
February 11, 2009 10:48 PM
> Price point is STILL well into full-featured netbooks and entry-level notebooks.
And above Netbooks like eePc's now available @ Target for $249. Somebody wake me when a $99 Kindle is available so I can drop it on the subway and not break into sobs in front of all those strangers.
February 12, 2009 12:23 PM
> - Still no Wi-Fi access
Who needs wifi access when you've got Whispernet? This is an e-book reader, not an iPhone. You're not about to use it to play internet poker, so who cares?
> - Still cannot easily display standard PDF (Acrobat) files, nor can it utilize e-book formats other than Amazon's.
Even the old Kindle could use a variety of ebook formats, and software for converting PDFs to these formats is widely available.
> - 16 shades of gray (no color)
The Kindle utilizes 'e-paper', a technology that in addition to drawing intensely less power then a color LCD display, is much more natural appearing, and less likely to cause eye strain during prolonged use. The ability to display 16 shades is a major improvement over other e-paper based devices on the market.
> - Price point is STILL well into full-featured netbooks and entry-level notebooks.
I could be wrong on this, but I sense you've never owned a Kindle. ;)
Sure, you could get a netbook, but the battery won't last as long, and its less comfortable to read with. The Kindle is an e-book reader, and that single function it performs quite well.
Personally, I'm happy with the redesign. The old Kindle had a very large 'Next Page' button across more then half the right side of the device. I assume the designers intended to make it easier to turn the page (which you admittedly do quite alot), but instead you ended up having to hold the device awkwardly to avoid turning the page when you didn't mean to.