Official-looking Kindle 2 pictures and pricing leak out
By Nilay Patel 
posted February 6th 2009 7:43PM
posted February 6th 2009 7:43PM
[Thanks, Alex]
posted February 6th 2009 7:43PM
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Great, very cool . but i think is too thin as its width.
We'll admit to missing the polarizing ultra-80s look of the original, but this thing looks pretty sweet -- too bad it's still going to set you back $359. It is a bit expensive to my afford.
You all are hilarous. If it was $249, you'd complain that it should be $199. Some are never happy. Remember that this comes with unlimited lifetime EVDO from Sprint that gives you access to the store and web services, AND you can use Audible with it. And stop comparing everything to the iPhone. Everyone doesn't want to read a book on that small freakin' screen. If you want to strain your eyes reading on lit screen for hours you go right ahead. eink tech is awesome, and it's the right size for a book.
And I'm aware of the *hilarious* misspelling; hit add comment too fast. :)
Make this $150 and I would be interested. So these are geared towards people who read a lot on the go and don't want to carry around $5 paper back books?
It's geared towards people that want to carry around a whole library with them at all times with random access searchability, ability to change text size, access to RSS feeds, newspapers, and buy new books over the air at anytime. Having used a Sony Reader I would have to say these are really great devices for heavy readers - especially heavy fiction readers and people that go through a lot of books. I found it more comfortable and relaxing to read than a real book. But I'm still not sure if these will ever become mainstream products without color and video capabilities - and combining that with e-ink seems to be an impossibility at this point. As good as it works I think e-ink might end up being one of those dead end technologies.
Reading a Kindle on the bus. Someone snatches it. You're out $370 and all your books.
Reading a book on the bus. Someone snatches it. You're out the cost of one book.
I can't justify using a $400 device to read a $10 book in a public place.
At least Amazon is making progress. Sadly 2.0 isn't the leap I was hoping for. Lot of wasted real estate that should go to a larger screen or smaller device, no color, and probably no backlight. These limitations would be fine at a much cheaper price but as it stands, the device remains a pass.
So many complaints from so many people who seem not to have had real experience using the Kindle. I have about 3,000 old style, paper and bound books on my shelves. I also have about 1500 books downloaded to my Kindle. Most of that are free books, classics from either Gutenberg.org or from the free Kindle books that Amazon now offers. I can carry with me hundreds of books in one device. I can switch from reading a book on Google AdWords, to Plato's Republic to Oscar Wilder whenever I want a change of reading material. Yes, it would be nicer if the screen was larger and if it felt more ergonomic to hold, but for someone who is a daily, voracious book reader, it is better (easier on my eyes) to read from my Kindle that from a computer screen. Also, I can read the Kindle in bed as I would a book. I cannot do that with my netbook. And, I can put my Kindle in my back pack easily and just take it without adding the weight of several books. Yes, I wish it was cheaper, but, the cost is not just for the device, but for having Whispernet and for having access to the library.
It's not that the device is a fail. It's just that it is so close to being something I would want. I would be first in line for a device that had triple its thickness if it had a keyboard that stows on the back and a device form factor that is mostly screen. In all those 1500 books, I can't imaging you were typing a whole lot.
Even the lack of a keyboard would be OK. Take a look at the xbox 360. When you have to type something in, you have to hit control buttons or an analog stick to select letters from an on-screen keyboard. It's slow and a pain, but you have to do it so rarely it doesn't matter that much. The vast majority of the time, you are using the console and not typing in text. Very few people want to constantly word search their books. Most people would use this to read literature and novels.
I don't buy the sony because of lesser selection - I don't buy the kindle because of the ergonomics. I would happily buy a keyboardless "kindle lite" with only on-screen typing controlled by that stick in the right lower quadrant.
I think the extra space around the display is a good thing. I have the original kindle, and thats one of the things that can get annoying. You are laying in bed reading and get tired of holding a book from the bottom all the time, sometimes you want to grab it from the top. If you are reading a book you have more thickness to grab onto, so its different. This is a reading device after all. I'm kinda bummed at not putting expandable storage, but you can fit so many books in the memory that its not a big deal unless you want to add audio, which I bet most people don't even do.
Oh and I see a % marker and what looks like an actual page number, maybe there are other nice improvements to the software that we will find out about. I am wondering where the selection bar has gone. I guess they are going to be doing it on the screen now. The reflective bar thing was a bit weird, but works well on the first gen.
...looks like a white iphone wit a keyboard....
Why are there 2 buttons for "Next page" ... ?
So that it's equally accessible to both lefties and righties.
If they can get the device this thin, then they could have made the keyboard a slide-out from the back. I am happy to have a 1/2" wide e-reader if it means that I can stash the keyboard and have the front be nearly all screen.
Welcome back to 1983:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Radio_Shack_TRS-80_Model_100.jpg
Look sweet, but price is too much.
200 bucks or less then it will be hot sale.
Sweet as it looks, I'm not buying it if the earlier reports of Amazon restricting content are true. If they want to lock me into using only their content, they'd better be free or damn close to it.
About $250 is about the most I'd expect/be willing to pay for an ebook reader.
Improve the ratio of screen size to overall size.
It would be better with a touchscreen rather than a hard keyboard that is rarely used - unless they plan is to expand capability to check emails etc.
Some people have criticized the Sony PRS-700 saying that its touchscreen makes the screen more reflective and takes away some of the visual sharpness of the e-ink screen... Unless they can implement the touchscreen with no sacrifice in text quality, that may be a stumbling block. The iRex products avoided this by use a WACOM transmitting coil in the stylus to determine position by electromagnetics - but then you have to have a stylus, and I'm sure the WACOM tech adds significantly to the price tag.
@frankXchange
"I'm not buying it if the earlier reports of Amazon restricting content are true."
Amazon does not really restrict content. It supports a wide range of non-DRM documents (txt, rtf, doc, htm, prc, mobi, pdf). It also supports their own DRM's format (azw) for books that they sell. I doesn't support other DRM'd format, true, but most such formats are only readable on specific devices. There is not, yet, an open-drm format.
FINALLY! I've had $500 set aside for months, waiting for a Kindle 2 announcement. Gimme gimme gimme.
Still it is 20 century product. I could have bought touchscreen kindle for this price. The keypad could go touch and all the features as well. Then the price will be reasonable. Now, iphone is better option.
Looks nice, but clearly a fake. The big button on the right would have to be Previous page not Next page. This is the choice on the current model, and makes design sense for usability reasons. And I'm hoping for an upgrade price :-)
I think Amazon miss the point
it's really annoying and useless to have a gadget larger and wider than its screen!
Please Amazon:
-use a touchscreen instead of the keyboard
-move the button on the very side instead on the surface
-fit the Kindlle to the size of its screen, no need for more useless space
The kindlle need to shrink to take place in our pockets, thanks!
Too bad Amazon took the stance to close the platform and enforce draconian DRM standards. I wouldn't normally complain about competition, but this is rolling back work done by platforms such as Mobipocket and E-Reader. With the audience Amazon is getting with the nasty DRM in place, publishers are not going to continue allowing rollouts of less restrictive DRM'd formats such as .prc.
I don't think that I, paying customer should be the one who has to pay the price by losing my rights because someone else stole the material. I just paid for it, come on!
The Kindle
He was slow in learning how to look. "My parent company was so worried," he later recalled, "that they consulted a doctor." Even after he had begun looking better, sometime after age 2, he developed a bezel that prompted the fan base to dub him "der depperte," the dopey one, and other readers to label him "almost backwards." ...
His slow development was combined with a cheeky rebelliousness towards customer preferences, which led...
That keyboard is such a huge waste of space. Who is going to type on that thing? They need to concentrate on being a good book reader, not on doing 10 things. I don't want it to listen to podcasts (have an iphone for that), don't want it for browsing the web (have an iphone for that and computers everywhere).
Drop the extra junk, get a bigger screen and cut the price in half... and maybe.
But ebooks are so much cheaper at the used ebook stores. ;)
Looks nice, http://www.atomicsub.net
Funny how e-paper technology isn't getting cheaper even though they sold 500K kindles, and it's been a while since kindle 1.
I wonder what volume is needed to make it start to get cheaper.
Hi-res images: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38174
My Natural Gas options just made $147,000.00. I'll take 10.
Go thin to win. Go fat and lose your hat.
@billav
Reading books on the Palm really? Dude I have been reading books on the Newton 2000 since 1996.
Palm was simply a rip off.
https://www.msu.edu/~luckie/gallery/mp2000.htm
I hope the specs are more impressive that the last version (I heard somewhere that this thing would not have a SD card slot). And I really hope that the next version is considerably cheaper than the old one. Otherwise, I will be passing on it again.
Looks cool, if it will let you import txt, rtf, lit, etc files without having to email them to amazon I'll consider it. Currently loving my sony prs-500 and have since it came out. To the person complaining about the prs-505's software, try calibre, it will allow you to transfer (virtually) any format text file (including pdf) to the reader as an LRF (sony's format) results is a much better looking pdf and txt reading experience.
Really? Everyones getting sucked into this as being real? I'm sure there is a Kindle2 in the works but this is a total hoax. Some of the pictures with people holding it is a joke. Come on people.
its the iKindle
Wow I do really hope this is a mock-up or a fake. It looks like a horrible, retro design. How am I supposed to hold this or to curl up with this in bed? My 8$ cheese grater looks more friendly.
Ugh...bezel. And why the fballs does it still have that stupid effing keyboard?
I want to love you, Kindle, I really do. But jesus you're ugly.
Also I'm not that interested until the price comes down and I can pirate books as easily as music.
(linkback) Cool or Lame? Official-looking Kindle 2 pictures leak out - what do you think? [VOTE] - http://www.thriveorfail.com/11d53
Are there any libraries that lend ebooks that would work on the Kindle? If so, how does it work? I like the idea of the Kindle but I read so much that borrowing books makes much more sense then buying them. I think most avid readers use the library because it's so much cheaper then buying, even at Kindle prices. Now, if Amazon decided to let me borrow books if I paid them a modest monthly or yearly fee, I would probably get one right away. Or maybe if I could resell the books I purchased. Anyone listening out there? Engadget, can you make this happen?
Screen is too small compared to the overall size of the unit. The Sony Reader has the same or bigger screen, and is a much smaller unit overall. The only thing this has the Sony Reader doesn't is a page-advance button on the right. That's it. In every other way, the Kindle 2 is worse. You can buy the PRS-505 for $300 new, and the PRS-500 for $200 used on ebay. Same screen!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ATTENTION AMAZON ENGINEERS AND MARKETERS: IF THE SCREEN IS SMALLER THAN THE SONY READER, THIS PRODUCT IS DOOMED TO FAIL.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sony PRS 500/505/700 screens: 6 inch diagonal, 170DPI. If the Kindle 2 isn't better, don't bother releasing it. Oh, and the PRS 700, yeah, it's a touch screen.
Sheesh, noobs.
The screen is only 42% of the surface of the Kindle, this is insane! What a waste.
From the pictures
Kindle= 11.7*7.8 = 91,3 cm²
Screen= 7.2*5.3 = 38,2 cm²
38.2/91.3 = 42%
For that price I would rather have a netbook.
Can I just ask, in this day and age of colour and touch pads why the Kindle does not have a colour display, if they're going to allow you to download newspapers surely a colour kindle would make a great comic book reader too...
Price is still too steep... why not just buy a book, you're still gonna have to carry it around and it's only gonna cost ya £7 to buy and instead of £320 + Book fee