After months of speculation, Amazon.com on Monday introduced a new version of its popular e-book reader, the Kindle. The Kindle 2 sports a dramatic redesign and will begin shipping on February 24th for $359.
The original Kindle was bulky and angular. The Kindle 2 has been completely redesigned; it features new buttons, a new five-way controller and a redesigned power charger. The device's interface lets you search for text, write note sand annotations, and highlight text that interests you.
Inside, the Kindle 2 features 2GB of memory storage -- more than seven times the storage capacity of the original, capable of holding more than 1,500 books. E-books purchased through Amazon.com are automatically backed up, so Kindle users can re-download titles in their library at any time.
The new Kindle 2 touts 25 percent longer battery life than its predecessor, and can operate for about two weeks on a typical charge (with wireless networking turned off), according to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who publicly unveiled the device at a press conference earlier today. The charge lasts for approximately four to five days on a charge with its 3G networking on.
A new text-to-speech feature lets the device read to you -- any text visible on the Kindle can be read, and you can adjust the speed of the playback and gender of the voice -- your page location is saved if you're listening to the content, so you can return to it and read or have it read to you later. The Kindle 2 also comes with the New Oxford American Dictionary built-in.
The Kindle 2 measures 0.36 inches deep -- thinner, in fact, than an iPhone (which measures about 0.48 inches deep), and weighs 10.2 ounces. The display is 800 x 600 pixels, and can show 16 shades of gray (versus 4 on the original Kindle). Pages "turn" an average of 20 percent faster on the Kindle 2, according to Amazon. You can choose from six different text sizes.
Bezos also touted "Whispersync," a new synchronization technology Amazon is introducing with the Kindle 2. Whispersync automatically syncs with the original Kindle and Kindle 2, along with future as-yet unannounced devices.
This story, "Kindle 2 E-book Reader Is Thinner Than IPhone" was originally published by Macworld.