A win for ebooks: Kindle 2 available for pre-order!
Music I'm listening to: my own whoops of joy
My kindle 2 will be here on Feb. 25. Squeeee!
The brand-spankin' kindle 2 will be $359 (same price as the kindle 1, which they're no longer selling) and available for sale on Feb. 24.
The k2:
- is the same width as k1, is half an inch longer, but only a third of an inch think
- has seven times the original amount of storage space and 25% more battery life
- features 16 shades of gray instead of the original 4 (though external rumor has it that within a year or so, color e-ink screens will be possible)
- has better annotations (you no longer have to select an entire line to highlight one word)
- will offer location syncing between devices (in other words, it hold your place even if you're reading the same book on more than one device--wish I had two kindles to enjoy that feature!)
- and will even read a book to you (text-to-speech).
They've done away with SD card storage and a user-replaceable battery, though. I guess they couldn't squeeze those into the super-thin shape. The SD card storage isn't an issue for me, since every book bought through Amazon is on a "permanent bookshelf" for you. You can always download it to your kindle again for free.
Also, Amazon has been hinting that they'll allow users of other devices, such as mobile phones, to make e-book purchases through Amazon. No word yet on whether they'll allow it for other dedicated e-readers (competitors of the kindle)--I hope they do--and there's no expected date for this yet.
I'm also sad, though not surprised, that Amazon's kindles aren't supporting the ePub format (which, with luck, will become the standard e-book format--one format capable of being read on many devices). Unfortunately, Amazon has an interest in NOT supporting ePub, since Am owns the competing Mobipocket format.
Also no word about whether the new kindle will have *folders* in which to organize all your books. The lack of folders was one of my peeves with the k1, as the only way to see all you had on the kindle was to look through a long list of every book on it--no organizing by genre, etc. I do hope they'll have this fixed on the k2, since it was one of the biggest user complaints. We shall see!
Anyway, go drool. It's what I've been doing this morning.
- Katey, eagerly awaiting Feb. 25
My kindle 2 will be here on Feb. 25. Squeeee!
The brand-spankin' kindle 2 will be $359 (same price as the kindle 1, which they're no longer selling) and available for sale on Feb. 24.
The k2:
- is the same width as k1, is half an inch longer, but only a third of an inch think
- has seven times the original amount of storage space and 25% more battery life
- features 16 shades of gray instead of the original 4 (though external rumor has it that within a year or so, color e-ink screens will be possible)
- has better annotations (you no longer have to select an entire line to highlight one word)
- will offer location syncing between devices (in other words, it hold your place even if you're reading the same book on more than one device--wish I had two kindles to enjoy that feature!)
- and will even read a book to you (text-to-speech).
They've done away with SD card storage and a user-replaceable battery, though. I guess they couldn't squeeze those into the super-thin shape. The SD card storage isn't an issue for me, since every book bought through Amazon is on a "permanent bookshelf" for you. You can always download it to your kindle again for free.
Also, Amazon has been hinting that they'll allow users of other devices, such as mobile phones, to make e-book purchases through Amazon. No word yet on whether they'll allow it for other dedicated e-readers (competitors of the kindle)--I hope they do--and there's no expected date for this yet.
I'm also sad, though not surprised, that Amazon's kindles aren't supporting the ePub format (which, with luck, will become the standard e-book format--one format capable of being read on many devices). Unfortunately, Amazon has an interest in NOT supporting ePub, since Am owns the competing Mobipocket format.
Also no word about whether the new kindle will have *folders* in which to organize all your books. The lack of folders was one of my peeves with the k1, as the only way to see all you had on the kindle was to look through a long list of every book on it--no organizing by genre, etc. I do hope they'll have this fixed on the k2, since it was one of the biggest user complaints. We shall see!
Anyway, go drool. It's what I've been doing this morning.
- Katey, eagerly awaiting Feb. 25
posted by Katey Coffing, Ph.D. | 8:56 AM
2 Comments:
I'm keeping an eye on the whole Kindle thing, but I confess that I'm not convinced yet. I'm a person who often prints stuff from my computer because I prefer to read hard copy rather than a screen. I like books, the feel of them, the smell of the paper in some cases. I love marking them up with a yellow or pink marker....how can I give that up! I wear reading glasses, and I'm not convinced that it's relaxing enough to read things on yet another screen of some sort. I haven't seen a Kindle....maybe that would change my feelings about it.
Despite my misgivings, I'll admit to being intrigued....
Carole
I understand, Carole. My house is chock full o' paper books, and I love them all. But the Kindle won me over within a day, so maybe it will do the same for you.
The eInk screen is *much* different than reading on a screen (which I do all day, and it's tiring). Try one out to see how you feel. The Sony Reader models also have eInk, and I think they're available at Target and Borders, so you might be able to see one locally. I prefer the Kindle, but that's me.
The ability to change the font size is also handy. Any Kindle book can have large print. Normally I'll read on the second smallest font size, but when I'm tired I'll change it to size three or four. (There are six sizes total.)
Hope you enjoy the Kindle's eInk--and if not, I hope something better for you comes along in the next couple of years. :-)
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