Official Amazon Kindle 2 images leak out
Announcement to follow within hours
Just hours before Amazon is expected to officially unveil its second-generation Kindle in New York, a pair of very official-looking images of the so-called Kindle 2 have appeared online.
Amazon's 'Kindle 2': rounder and sexier
Pictures of the device have been seen before, but they were quite blurred and poorly framed. These latest images, however, have an official air about them and show the rounder, sexier and possibly thinner device off in all its portable e-reader glory.
But what’s changed? Well, for starters the split keyboard’s been merged into one, and the angular keys replaced with round ones. Several keys appear to have been lost in the redesign, though, which is probably an attempt to de-clutter the typing space. Large side buttons, including Home and moving to the next page, have been relocated too.
The E-Ink display’s edges have been rounded off, although it doesn’t look any bigger than the screen on the original.
An official announcement could come later today
It’s impossible to say what changes have been made to the machine’s innards, but you can wait a few hours before finding out, can’t you? Oh, the Kindle logo’s also been moved from below the screen to above it. That’s very important.
We’re expecting an official Kindle 2 announcement later in the day, so stay tuned. ®
COMMENTS
Re: eBooks more espensive than their paper equivalents
I am still convinced that every dead-tree edition should come with the e-book included *for free*.
re: Robert Moore
Because some folks actually have to leave the house every once and so often and like/need to take their books with them, as in not just one or two but many big, heavy volumes. Ever reflected on that? It is true that an e-book reader can never truly replace a real book, especially not that of nicely made one, yet it is also true that an e-book reader removes a lot of the pain and hassle from the experience when it comes to having your book with you. Again, the Kindle is not that device. It is incredibly tied and underfeatured. Any device with easy, free PDF support surpasses it, not even to speak of those with a touchscreen allowing—behold!—to actually do some real work on them, beyond painfully tapping in some notes.
at the Why people
The reason Why ebook readers are a cool idea is that books are inefficient -- you have to go to a bookstore to buy them or have them shipped. You have to carry them around and they're relatively heavy and take up a lot of space.
Here are a couple of the use cases where the Kindle would be very cool:
* You live in a country where they speak language X, but your native tongue is Y, so you can't buy books in Y easilly.
* You want to read the newspaper everyday, but delivery of the paper is not available.
* You travel but don't want to bring everything you MIGHT want to read.
eBooks more espensive than their paper equivalents
Particularly for "mass market" titles, the eBook version is often only available from the publisher. They typically offer a 10% discount for the electronic version, while you can pick up a physical copy at your book store for 20% or 30% off the publishers price.
The first book I checked on Amazon (Liberty: A Lake Wobegon Novel), costs $11.44 on the Kindle, and $10.20 in the dead-tree edition. Other titles are slightly cheaper, but not enough to justify the huge premium for the device itself, unless you spend a lot of money at Amazon already.
story on amazon.com home page.
pre-order now:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00154JDAI/ref=amb_link_83626371_1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=gateway-center-column&pf_rd_r=0KYPWVYXK1J7V3B67EV8&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=469548931&pf_rd_i=507846
