Just as
expected, Amazon announced the second-generation Kindle ebook reader with the exclusive Stephen King novel UR today -- the page actually went live during the press event. The new version will still cost $359, but it's much thinner than the angular original -- in fact, it's thinner than an iPhone at just .36 inches. Arguably the biggest new feature is Read to Me, which can read any content on the device back to you in a decent-sounding computerized voice, but there's also seven times more storage, a sharper 16-level e-ink display that turns pages 20 percent faster, 25 percent longer battery life, and a new five-way joystick that improves navigation. Amazon's Whispernet service is also getting a feature bump, adding in Whispersync bookmarking -- if you start reading a book on one Kindle, you can pick up again on any other Kindle automatically. Sadly, it's still only available in white -- the pink Kindle here is just a one-off made to promote UR. Video after the break.
A few more informations:
- Amazon is still working on international release, but has nothing to announce at this time, and wouldn't even confirm a launch this year.
- Battery is non-removable.
- There will be no Kindle 2-exclusive content, and some of the software improvements will be pushed to the original Kindle -- Whispersync is a shoe-in, text-to-speech is a no.
We spent some time playing with the Kindle 2 hands-on -- check it out
right here!
posted Feb 9th 2009 12:20PM
Hooray!
Wait... I'm broke!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
.036 isn't that like a human hair or something. Announcing kindle picano!
The post actually says 0.36. Announcing decimal misplacement!
actually .003 is about a human hair.
This thread reminds me of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCJ3Oz5JVKs
4/100th of an inch thick? Man, that is thin. How thick is a piece of paper?
Did you misread the article as well, or just read the comment above you without consulting the source?
If you read the article, rounding fail.
If you only read the above comment, judgment fail.
Either way ...
*yawn* wake me up when they ship it outside of US.
Wake me up when it's not GROTESQUELY overpriced.
wake me up when it displays porno
Black and white porno is no fun. (And I don't mean interracial.)
What's the point in letting a country who can't read have an ebook readers (jokes!)
finally I can realize the dream of having a robot read "everyone poops" to me!!
Hahahahahahahahaha yes!! All my dreams!
I am thinking that this thing is too expensive and I would never buy it (with the recession and all), but theres going to be tons of stupid housewives who get it simply because fat Oprah loves it. I also don't read books so no need for this.
you dont read books? OMG HOW SURPRISING. =|
I think that the fact that you do not read books is very clear from your comment.
"Don't" or "Can't"?
this site is experiencing a serge of illiteracy
as evidenced by your "serge" vs "surge" comment
if you want to make people cry, you need aimbot accuracy
Umm. You do realize that he was making a play on words with his Serge comment. Right? I think I will hazard a guess that Phanbouy knows the difference between Serge and surge.
What I want to know is does it read PDF documents or not? I read a lot of journals and this would be great if it could read PDF filles.
Amen. The fact that you had to convert PDFs one at a time to some other format—and pay for the privilege—made me totally not care about the rest of Kindle 1's features.
Not that native PDF would necessarily sell me on the new one (I'd still rather have a lower price and Wi-fi-only connectivity (with maybe an option to use a cell phone as a modem)), but it would make it worth considering. I'd bet a lot of other folks in academia feel the same.
Looks like you still have to pay your 10 cents per document converted
This is the big question....it's really the reason why I would rather buy a Sony Reader at this point, even though there are many more books available from amazon, and they're easier to get.
Making me pay to put free PDFs on this thing is absurd
Actually, you can convert any PDF file to the Kindle format for free by simply e-mailing it to your Kindle address. If your Kindle email is BRAINS@kindle.com, and you email as an attachment a PDF or txt or .doc file to that address, it will be sent through Whispernet to your Kindle.
If you send the document to BRAINS@free.kindle.com, you will receive an email back with the converted file in AZW format. It really is easy then to use the usb connection to transfer it to your Kindle.
I read many professional articles one my Kindle which i transfer that way.
Okay, I dug a little and it looks like you still have to convert PDFs, but you only have to pay if you want to e-mail them and have them just show up over the wireless connection. If you send 'em over from your own computer via USB, no payment.
Still, it puzzles me that they don't have native support for the format. Almost any researcher reads dozens of papers per month that they acquire in PDF form. So many folks I know hate all the printing they do but want to be able to read their references away from the computer.
10 cents a doc isn't terrible.
Especially considering I get many of my ebooks free from, well, you know, that internet site with a ship and cassette skull and cross bones on it.
No native PDF is a major reason for me not getting this. I was hoping they would change that with v2. The whole things just reeks of the iPod/iTunes proprietary ecosystem. Yeah, there are ways around it but why do I want to deal with the hassle? The reader from Foxit is looking better and better.
For me, pdf support on these devices is not that useful.
The issue is the screen size. Most pdf documents (older ones) are not reflowable. They are often just scans of printed documents. This means that reading on a 6 inch screen is a pain (or should that be 'a pane'). You basically get a zoomed out image of a crappy scan. Or you zoom in and you have to page right/left and up/down. If pdf's are your thing you need to wait for the upcoming 9.7inch screens (upcoming from other vendors, don't know about Amazon's plans).
Michael
p.s. Reflowable refers to the ability to reset the amount of words based on the screen/form-factor of the reading device. Formats that are not reflowable always fit the same page image on the screen -- no matter whether you are using a cell phone or a video wall.
Wow - after all this time, some folks still need to research their PDF answers before replying...
A FREE utility (Mobi) will convert PDFs to Kindle-readable files...AT NO COST!
Granted, you have an option to pay, but why would you?
@carlwf: So the best solution for my 1000+ PDF articles is to convert them (even for free) and then maintain two libraries? Or maybe, just maybe, the better solution is to have a device that supports a well-established standard? I'll choose the latter.
The comments about PDF are exactly right. Having to send off a possibly confidential or private PDF to Amazon so it can mangle it into an unrecognizable form is just stupid. Competing devices such as the Sony Reader manage it.
Amazon should just suck it up and realise that not everyone wants to go through their stupid service. Some people don't like submitting their books, especially when they're likely to be mangled out of all recognition. Support HTML, PDF, RTF, LIT and all the various other common formats natively and let users discover the Amazon service for themselves. In other words make it a great device even if someone has no intention of buying a book, because the chances are they will eventually assuming it does other stuff well. The strategy worked for the iPod and it would work for Kindle.
But as long as they demand silly money for a DRM'd and hobbled device, the thing is always going to be a waste of time and money. But hey, maybe you can buy a pink version.
why does it have a keyboard?
I'd prefer a touch screen too, but it probably wont look too good on the super slow refreshing eink material.
So you can search for books.
"free access to wikipedia"
"browse the online store"
"search for your favorite title"
You think you're going to lick the entries into the kindle or perhaps it has super advanced speech recognition or perhaps telepathy...
Looks like they could use sliding Keybd or someother option.
Once you are in reading mode, why do you need the extra space of the keybd there. Doesnt look right.
The keyboard is also useful for taking notes. Making it a sliding keyboard would increase cost, weight, bulk, and reduce durability. The keyboard area is actually useful as a place to hold onto while reading. most of the keys are inactive while you are reading.
Thought they were going to start shipping it outside of the states by now....
So basically for the cost of five paperbacks per month for a year I can have just the reader? Considering my monthly reading falls more along the lines of one or two paperback novels, this is closer to the cost of three whole years of reading for me. For just the reader.
Sorry but no thanks, as cool as it is.
Don't forget that the Kindle is also a free 3G web browser, although it's usefulness depends on what web pages you visit. Engadget and other blogs work well. Video sites or high graphics sites hardly work at all. It's great for checking email on the go.
Also, after a year of ownership, you can still sell the Kindle 2 for close to the price you bought it for. Ask the Kindle 1 owners (or former owners) or check ebay. Also, if you subsribe to any magazine/newspaper, that's where the real savings are because I admit that some books really aren't worth the $10 pricetag.
I love the idea of a Kindle, but two things would have to happen before I would consider buying it:
1) A $99 price point for the device itself. $359 is way too expensive.
2) A subscription-based model, where I pay a subscription fee to check out books from a "Kindle Library." (A Netflix-type model where $10/month might get me "two books out at a time" or whatever.) This would put the Kindle on a more even playing field against public libraries, and open it up to a wider customer base that (like me) doesn't see the utility in buying a book that you are only going to read once.
You are not the Kindle's audience. People who would not buy a book that they read once also wouldn't want to buy a hard copy of a book and would not collect books.
Remember the cost of the device includes 'free' lifetime access to titles via a built-in cell service. Instead of paying $5-10+ a month for wireless access from anywhere, that's a pretty good deal.
They've been completely missing their opportunity to catapult these things into, um, usefulness: textbooks. Once your average student can choose to buy his $100 Abnormal Psych textbook on a Kindle for $35, then all the pistons will be firing on this device. It will save weight and bulk versus physical books, and they could even come up with a way for the Kindle to email or IM you text that you highlight along with the citation in the format of your choice.
Bonus points if they can figure out a way for libraries to "check out" books to them without upsetting rights/profits schema in place.
Yes! Exactly.
I would buy the kindle today if it met those two points.
I'd even pay a little more if it could open regular PDFs as well!
"They've been completely missing their opportunity to catapult these things into, um, usefulness: textbooks. Once your average student can choose to buy his $100 Abnormal Psych textbook on a Kindle for $35, then all the pistons will be firing on this device. It will save weight and bulk versus physical books, and they could even come up with a way for the Kindle to email or IM you text that you highlight along with the citation in the format of your choice."
Ah you poor poor silly! Textbooks are an absolute profit goldmine, and are in fact changed year to year in incremental amounts to ensure you have to buy the 'new' version...no buying old copies!
jeez.... two books a month... too much free time
So the page turns are 20% faster but does it still "blink black" when the pages turn?
I still don't see the point. It's not like you can rip your existing collection of books to it.
well you can email it PDF's and read them so technically yes you can rip your books to it.
This version is uglier than the original!
Pre-ordered. Been waiting for this for months. Great coverage, Engadget, it's much appreciated.
If they start publishing school text books on this for a somewhat more reasonable price then I can see myself getting this, especially considering how expensive some engineering textbooks are...
This would be hell. I'm constantly flipping back and forth between pages.
The capability to highlight and write notes on the screen would be a huge improvement for school work, especially if there was some system for managing the notes.
and that would be where the new Sony reader still outshines the kindle.
note taking and highlighting built in.
not too mention support for open standards like pdf and mobi.
if it has text to speech, why not have it play music too???
Did you read somewhere that it can't? The original Kindle can play music.
It already does. It will play MP3s and audiobooks
So any news on when the rest of the world will be allow to read? Seems kind of a wasted technology only letting the US have it! LOL!
Well, remember we had iPhones for a good while before you got em? Amazon is working on it... there's too much money in it for them not to be!!!
eddy: you'll be tremendously disappointed. The screen is so small, barely the size of a paperback. You'll stop using the kindle after a month.
I have the Sony PRS-500. I know, it has only a 4 gray scale screen, and less response time. But, the resolution is the same and it's just not comfortable to read for long on it. If you read fast enough, you'll be turning pages too frequently.
I kind of wish the new kindle would've been at least 8" diagonal and 1024 x XYZ resolution. Then it would be really worth the $360. This new version doesn't cost more than $100 to build.
And Eddy, you won't be disappointed... screen size is perfect. I read my K1 every day for hours. It's lighter than most books, easy to hold and carry.You don't notice turning pages, and this one will be even faster than the last... my sister is going to be happy for her hand me down K1, and I am movin on up Feb 24th!
Maybe I'm just old, but I remember feeding nickles into a xerox machine to copy pages in college... 10 cents for any PDF seems cheap enough to me...
Did you buy the copier and papers?
Was the Xerox machine at the top of a large hill?
lol @ mill!
Way to expensive for a reader, why not buy a cheap netbook, and read the NYTimes for free online?
Because the New York Times is a terrible newspaper.
Call me when this is at a price people will actually buy the thing at.....
So does it still do the black screen between pages? Because that is a deal killer for me. Seems minor, but that bugs the hell out of me and would continue to do so, kind alike once you notice the screen door effect on a Plasma TV, you ALWAYS see it.
Personally, I read at least 1 book a week, and I buy 1 or 2 new ones a month. I would love an e-reader, but not this uni-tasker of a device for $359.
My perfect device:
Color screen. this is more important to me than battery life. Maybe they can get OLED working cheaply enough in the next year or so.
Web Bowser. the ability to browse the Web on a device like this would be really nice.
Media playback. Music, movies, photos.
Games and Applications would be nice too. - mail client, etc.
A front facing camera for "on the sofa" video chat.
I want to be able to listen to music while reading a book. I want something I can take on trips. I alsmost always tale my laptop and a couple of books, this could replace all that for short trips. Sometimes on the plane I get sick of reading and I want to watch a movie or play a game.
Honestly, I think Apple is missing a big opportunity. A 7 or 8 inch hi-res iPod Touch coupled with the iTunes store selling e-books would be a kindle killer. Plus OSX has decent text to speech built in. I'd pay $500 for what I've described, and before people scream Apple fanboy, or think I'm stupid because you can get an Eee cheaper than that. My response is, if someone other that Apple does it and does it right I'll buy it, and a netbook (I hate that term) is not an e-reader. In this case, the form factor is very important.
so, you want a laptop then?
I know my post was long, but I specifically answer that question.
The Kindle does do web browsing. Might even be decent with the new screen.
Pretty much everything you want can be done with a Nokia N810, or maybe one of those UMPC things. Though the form factor/UI is not as sexy as you'd like.
I believe the 'black blink' that everyone talks about is a function of the e-ink technology, so yes...it still does it. However, i've had my K1 for over a year, and it has never bothered me...I have over 200 books I've read on it, as well as subscribing to the WSJ, so...lots of reading, never bothered by the page blink.
I agree with carlwf. I never had a problem with the blink between page turns. While not as quick as glancing from the left page to the right page of a paperback book, it takes as much time to physically turn a page as it does to go from one page to the next on an e-ink device.
The only paper books I will buy now are reference books, as flipping back and forth between chapters is a pain on ebooks.
LOL@ "UR, By Stephen King"
Well, it was good while it lasted?
Pre-ordered. My wife will be getting my much-loved K1. If you check out www.mobileread.com in the forums are all sorts of wonderful folks who love e-books. Lots of folks are hacking away at making using these devices really easy. Kovid Goval has written his Calibre software for the Sony Reader and extended it for mobipocket support (including the Kindle). This makes conversion an absolute breeze. PDF's don't look great, but they work good enough. Calibre downloads newsfeeds automatically, converts them to e-books and puts them on your reader so they're availble in the morning- it's awesome.
Hey thanks for the link!
its unbeliavable, you all pay $359 to look intelectual and say you "read books", really i can't thing of any other use for it besides showing everybody you are a (pseudo)"hight tech book worm", why is its soo better then a real book? and why is it different from a smarthphone for example?
i will really apreciate to understand that it's not a fashion thing...
why is its soo better then a real book?
Portability, the ability to have multiple books with you, the ability to acquire a book you want to read NOW instead of a trip to the store or waiting for UPS to deliver it, the ability to search for specific phrases in the book...
and why is it different from a smarthphone for example?
Read Atlas Shrugged on your iPhone and get back to me.
Jonathan,
Its probably not a good device for you. Different strokes for different folks. It only makes sense if you are a high usage reader (like I am). If you are a high-usage reader this is a great alternative for several reasons.
1) Battery life. For more than casual usage you don't want to run down your smart phone device.
2) Screen size. I have (and can) read on smartphones, but the constant page turn is quite the pain.
3) Eyestrain. This tech is more like reading a sheet of paper. A lot of folks (although not me) complain that long hours reading on a smart phone leads to eyestrain.
Then there are the advantages versus paper.
1) Entire library. One lightweight device has hundreds or thousands of books. I carry it with me and choose what to read.
2) Re-reading. I like to go back and read books I enjoyed in the past. However, with my allergies pulling out those old books results in me sneezing and coughing my way through the books.
3) Decor (grin). My wife wasn't too fond of my library of a few thousand ratty paperbacks in our house.
Of course, that last item leads me to the biggest issue, and it isn't the cost of the reader, its the cost of the books. In the music world they finally figured out that customers really prefer music without DRM. Unfortunately, as it stands now I have to rebuy books every time I switch book readers and formats. Unless, I buy my books from somewhere like www.baen.com or unless I like the 'classics' like gutenberg.com.
Here's a test:
You can easily find Bruce Sterling's "The Hacker Crackdown" for free and in multiple formats across the net. Go find one in a format your phone can read and go read it. Then tell us how the experience was.
(I read it on a Palm IIIxe eight years ago and the experience was... tiring, to say the least.)
What exactly is the appeal of having multiple books at your fingertips? When I am at home and have multiple books at my fingertips from my personal library, I've never found the need to grab a half dozen of them just to peruse all at once. If that does happen, it's usually because I've come from the library and want to flip through a few just to see what I've gotten, but after that initial phase, I rarely see the point of having more than one at a time. Usually, I don't even get any benefit from having that many books at once anyway. It's no different from channel surfing. It may be fun, but there's no real benefit to watching multiple shows at once. It's just a nice time killer.
To me that feature would only be really useful in school or at work for reference books. In recreational reading, I would almost NOT want to have multiple books at my fingertips simply because reading should be a focused activity. You get pleasure from books by focusing on one at a time and taking it in. That's the beauty of it. You've got one book in your hands and you HAVE to read that and give it the attention it deserves. Having too many just sullies the experience to me.
@allenu: The kindle's ability to store lots of books, magazines, etc. is a life-saver for those of us who travel a lot and spend hours and even days in airplanes and terminal buildings and hotel rooms. It allows me to entertain or educate myself as I please, for an indefinitely long period of time. All that in a small light device that fits in a small carry-on bag and can easily be put on a tray table in coach class.
Jonathan,
It's understandable that this might not be the device for you, but can you really not think of why someone would want something like this? Let me give you an example. I travel regularly, and am usually gone for around a week at a time. In order to keep myself occupied across several hours of flights and 5 nights alone in a hotel I pack a lot of reading material, usually at least 2 magazines and two novels, more for longer trips. This is significant. Even a few paperback books weigh several pounds and take of quite a bit of storage space. Not to mention that going through security, being pulled in and out of bags, stuffed into overhead bins, etc... tends to wear down a book very quickly.
A device like the Kindle is ideal for a person like me, who reads and travels regularly. It greatly increases the amount of reading material I can carry with me, and greatly reduces the amount of space it takes up in my luggage.
So this is the Segway of books?
I am not paying freaking $300+ to read books... how often do I read book!? Maybe 1 or 2 a year the most. I can get a book for like $20 at amazon.
E-book is a failure! Period!
Lazy or illiterate?
Then it's (get this!)... not for you.
Amazing how that works, isn't it?
I read at least a book a week. For me this is a definite space and money saver. Maybe for you it isn't, but does that really mean this is a failure? Doubt it. Amazon has made a load of money on these things and the users I know who have v.1 are quite happy with it.
"E-book is a failure! Period!"
You better hurry and call Fujitsu, Sony, Amazon and several other hardware manufacturers, as well as all the publishing industry and let them know. They may pay you a lot for the money you saved them. To think they invested all this money with zero chance of profit and it took one commenter to show them the light.
does the browser work as a real browser in this? meaning, can I use gmail, engadget, etc? The description on amazon is pretty vague
I think the nature of e-ink means no scrolling without repainting the whole screen, which means the black flash. I'd really like to see a video using this to brows the web, complete with scrolling a long page. I'm thinking that it would not be a very good experience.
It's a very basic browser. It is pretty much only good for mostly text based sites. Still, it is nice to browse some news sites free of charge.
Dude... it's not
20 TIMES faster its 20% faster... MUCH DIFFERENT!
BOb
Pre-ordered. I'll be donating Kindle 1 to a student or a school of my choosing.
I read all of Stephen King's It on a palm zire. That worked fairly well for me. I actually found it very natural.
This device is gonna set the world on fire!
See what I did there? ;)