Amazon Reveals New Kindle

Keane Ng

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Sep 11, 2008
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Amazon Reveals New Kindle



Amazon has revealed the newst iteration of its fancypants e-book reader, and this time it's thinner, faster, and, if you're too lazy to read even after buying an e-book reader, will even read to you.

While the future of e-books remains decidedly unclear, the future of the world's most famous e-book reader, Amazon's Kindle, has been Kindle 2 [http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1254544&highlight=], the newest version of the device, will be available within the month. About a third of an inch thick, the Kindle 2 is thin as a pencil and light as an R.L. Stine book.

The new design, which has a much more eye-pleasing sleekness to it than the bulky old one, also sports a 5-way controller that Amazon claims "allows for more precise note-taking and highlighting both up and down and side to side in lines of text" and easy section-jumping when reading e-newspapers. It also features a 25 percent longer battery life, 2GB of memory (that's a library of 1,500 books) and a half-inch 800x600 display that can render 16 shades of gray. That's four times as many shades of gray as the first Kindle. 16 shades of gray. What a world we live in.

Other new features include an instant dictionary (that'll make it easier for me to read my e-copy of Stephen Hawking [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity%27s_Rainbow], but I'm not optimistic.

The Kindle 2 is available for pre-order now for the price of $359 (the same price tag as the current Kindle), and will start shipping on February 24. I myself have never tried the thing and have only seen them used in public a handful of times. Any of you guys Kindle users? What do you think of the new machine?

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ThaBenMan

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Mar 6, 2008
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Yeah, these are pretty cool, but practical? They seem like kind of a ridiculous waste of money, really - is it that hard to just carry a book around with you? I'd be scared of breaking it or something.
 

zoozilla

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Dec 3, 2007
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I actually like the feel of turning pages, and feeling paper in my hands.

I'm sure this would be useful for people who read constantly, but I'm not that kind of person.

I kind of wonder if I would actually start reading more if I bought a fancy-schmancy device to read with.
 

jupiterman

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Jan 8, 2009
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If I were a rich bastard I would get one just for the constant Wikipedia access and almost have a real Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Otherwise, yeah, actual books are just nice to read. My copies of Lord of the Rings are from the sixties and they have a nice, musty smell and goofy cover art. Plus with Kindle you're limited to whatever publisher's are willing to digitize and put in Amazon's library. So by default it can't replace real books. Lame.
 

GRoXERs

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Feb 4, 2009
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One question:
Is it waterproof?

until the answer to that question is yes, i'll stick to my cheaply-replaceable paperbacks, thanks.
It is very interesting technology, though. It would be awesome if you could check out ebooks from your local library. Anyone know if that's in the works? maybe?