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Amazon announces Kindle 2
Amazon just announced the Kindle 2, the new and improved version of their popular ebook reader.
I like the Kindle (see my review) and even found an amusing trick you can play with it.
But it's not clear whether the Kindle 2 has addressed the key customer experience challenges in its first version.
My concerns in my review were:
• search doesn't work well enough
• uploading files is hard
• button design is awkward
• reading Web pages or newspapers is awkward
• pricing model for online subscriptions is bizarre
• the Kindle arrives with nothing preloaded
The improvements of the Kindle 2, according to Amazon's promo video, are:
• more storage (now holds "1,500 titles")
• longer battery life ("read for days")
• sharper display (16 tones of grayscale)
I hope these aren't the only improvements in the Kindle 2, because none of those three were glaring problems in the first design.
Of course, Amazon might have fixed other things and not mentioned it (promoted benefits have to sound interesting, and "better button design" doesn't do it)... let's hope.
We'll see. The Product Info page lists:
Improved Ergonomics
New 5-way controller
Improved Newspaper Experience
Faster Page Turns
And slightly better uploading:
If you are not in a wireless area or would like to avoid the fee, you can send attachments to "name"@free.kindle.com to be converted and e-mailed to your computer at the e-mail address associated with your Amazon.com account login. You can then transfer the document to your Kindle using your USB connection. For example, if your Kindle email address is Jay@Kindle.com, send your attachments to Jay@free.kindle.com.
Good point, thanks, Nicholas - that reads better!
I thought the Kindle still supported Storage Class USB, so it'd mount as a disk and you could drag files onto it.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200137060
I'm wondering about the battery in the new unit. I hope they haven't taken the Apple route.
I read the review on Kindle 2 the other day in the Wall Street Journal. While they seem to have improved some things, they haven't addressed the single most important factor that is stopping me from buying one: Price. I just bought an 8GB iphone for 199 and look at all the things it can do - and the look at the Kindle 2, at basically double the price, and just think "They can do better". As someone pointed out to me, the Kindle's price is in Netbook territory. Given what the Kindle can do - and that it is in BW (no color screen) - a price around 100-125 would feel reasonable. Unless I am a voracious reader, but unless the price comes down, or the bells and whistles go way up -I am sticking with old fashioned books on paper.
Good point, Deb - I'd also have thought 100-125 would be more reasonable. We're apparently in the minority, though, given that Amazon has a backlog of orders at the higher price. The market has spoken :)
I have been using my iPodTouch as a reader and I must say I'm impressed. I do have a couple of books on there -- Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations and the complete works of Shakespeare. Searchable and free -- couldn't believe it when I entered "beauty plea" and up popped the sonnet with the line "How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea, whose action is no stronger than a flower" -- not a bad Valentine's Day message to consider, by the way. That having been said, I don't use the Touch to read books, but to listen to them. The one thing I like about the physical book format, which neither the Pod (audible books) nor the Kindle share, is that when I am done with the book there is no way to share it with a friend, pass it on with my underlinings and bookmarks stuck into it, my page corners turned down. Because a book is an inherently social form and the Kindle, because it takes away the ability to share the book when you are done, deserves to die a selfish and lonely death.