Today, Amazon officially announced their second iteration of the Amazon Kindle electronic book device. I'm really tempted to try this thing out and review it but had to walk back from the ledge based on the still pricey $359 cost. Here's some details on the Kindle 2
- Slimmer (think really slim)
- Super Lightweight - just over 10 ounces
- New buttons for page turning - now 20 percent faster then on the original Kindle
- New 5-way controller - for precise note-taking, highlighting and easy jumps between articles and newspaper sections
- 6-Inch, 600 X 800 electronic paper display - 16 shades of gray (original Kindle had 4 shades of gray) so it should have more crisp text and sharper images
- 2GB memory that can hold over 1,500 books (original Kindle could hold about 200 books)
- 25% Longer Battery Life - 4-5 days of battery charge with wireless on is very nice. Over 2 weeks of battery life without wireless on.
- More portable power charger
- Instant dictionary look-up powered by the New Oxford American Dictionary with 250,000 word definitions built-in
- Read-to-Me feature - converts written text to spoken word so customers have the option to read or listen hands-free (choice of male or female voices)
- Delivery system is Amazon Whispernet (same as before) so you can shop the Kindle Store wirelessly, download new content and read from the store library.
- Auto-sync with original Kindle
If you want to preorder the Kindle 2 now (Amazon is an affiliate) it's $359 and will start shipping February 24, 2009
Pre-Order the Kindle 2: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device (Latest Generation)
$359
I'm waiting for the day we see a similar device for $150 with WiFi included. I asked my wife yesterday what it would take for her to want a Kindle as she's an avid reader. She told me it needed to read to her (do audiobooks) and should be pretty cheap since you have to still buy the book after getting the reader.
After the announcement of the text-to-voice feature today, she told me that she wants the text to voice feature to sound like Jim Dale (he did the Harry Potter series audiobooks). So what do you think? Is it time to get a electronic book device?
