Kindle 2 Finally Arrives with Longer Battery Life and More Storage
Posted 02/09/09 at 12:30:56 PM by Paul Lilly
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The latest of many rumors regarding Amazon's next-generation Kindle eBook reader predicted the new device would make an official debut today, and New York Times blogger Brad Stone can now pat himself on the back for getting the release day right. Amazon has finally introduced the long anticipated Kindle 2, the followup to the immensely popular Kindle.
"Kindle 2 is everything customers tell us they love about the original Kindle, only thinner, faster, crisper, with longer battery life, and capable of holding hundreds more books. If you want, Kindle 2 will even read to you—something new we added that a book could never do,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO.
The redesigned Kindle 2 measures just over a third of an inch (0.36 inches), weighs slightly over 10 ounces, and comes with a 6-inch, 600x800 electronic paper display providing 16 shades of gray, which is four times as many as the original Kindle. Amazon says the Kindle 2 turns pages on average up to 20 percent faster than the original, and will hold more than 1,500 books with its 2GB of memory, versus 200 books in the first Kindle.
Other notable improvements include 25 percent longer battery life, an instant dictionary lookup, a new experimental read-to-me feature, and a new 5-way controller "for more precise note-taking and highlighting both up and down and side to side in lines of text." Amazon says the new controller also makes it easier to jump between articles and sections of newspapers.
The Kindle is available for pre-order for $359 at http://amazon.com/kindle2 and will start shipping on February 24.
Image Credit: Amazon
Let's face it, this will be
Submitted by lunchbox73 on Tue, 02/10/2009 - 6:01am
Let's face it, this will be the way of the future. Once other companies can get around Amazon's patents and there is some competition out there this will take off big time. It will be especially big for newspapers and magazines. Newpapers are already half dead, imagine the cost savings of not having to print and deliver all those papers.
It's a neat device but there's this building in my town called a library that actually let's you borrow books for free. Until they can figure out a way to do that I'll pass on a Kindle.
Interesting
Submitted by BaggerX on Mon, 02/09/2009 - 7:03pm
If they'd make one that doesn't require you to go through Amazon every time you want to put a file on it, then I'd consider it. The hoops they make you jump through to use it are ridiculous. There's no reason I shouldn't be able to attach it to my PC via USB and transfer PDFs and other files to it. I wish it could do CHMs as well. That would make it even more handy for reference material.
Also, it seriously needs removable storage. I assume they don't allow it for the same reason they don't let you just transfer files onto it. I want to be able to carry docs on SD cards. Why can't I do that? Maybe if Amazon someday decides to take the leash off of the Kindle, I'll get one.
I agree 100%. When will
Submitted by Tekzel on Tue, 02/10/2009 - 8:21am
I agree 100%. When will people realize the fastest way to kill a technology like this is to encumber it with restrictive DRM? When they come out with one that supports a wide range of open formats and allows me to just plug it into my computer and put what I want on it, and the price comes down to around 150 bucks, I will probably get one. But, no matter the price, if the thing is stuck on proprietary formats, or DRM crap, I will pass.
Submitted by yagisencho on Mon, 02/09/2009 - 1:03pm
Looks like a solid feature set and a nice update from the original. If it were $100 cheaper and displayed PDFs, I'd be sorely tempted.
Submitted by Shalbatana on Mon, 02/09/2009 - 10:47am
Wasn't one of the initial annoyances of this thing that it didnt' read PDF's or anything else not kindle proprietary? Doesn't sound like that's fixed. Hopefully I'm thinking of a different brand.
Either way, There is absolutely no way I'd pay more than $125 for it. I'm dying for an e-book, but I'd never pay more than that. I'll just carry the book I'm reading instead.
_______________________________
"There's no time like the future."
Woo
Submitted by maniacm0nk3y on Mon, 02/09/2009 - 10:34am
A giant ipod frame that lets you read books. Who reads books anymore. I used to but not I never do.
Submitted by Tekzel on Tue, 02/10/2009 - 8:19am
For some reason, I found that immensely hilarious... and exactly what I was thinking.
Yeah who reads books anymore...
Submitted by D.E. on Mon, 02/09/2009 - 12:18pm
That's why Barnes and Noble is going out of business...
Oh wait.
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