Amazon Kindle 2

The Amazon Kindle 2 has arrived (if you can actually get your hands on one) and it is certainly an improvement over the first generation model.
The design of the original Kindle was a little difficult to live with. The button placement was low and awkward, and the strange click wheel was useful for very little more than basic menu navigation.

The Kindle 2 is almost a complete redesign from a visual angle. It is now more like an oversized iPhone in appearance. The keyboard is now laid out in a more usual keyboard layout, and the rectangular pellet keys of the original are replaced with easier to use circular ones on the Kindle 2, and are far more solid, making it difficult to activate the wrong key accidentally, which was a complaint many users had about the original .

As previously noted, the strange slider is a thing of the past. The Amazon Kindle 2 boasts a five way “rocker” which is far more helpful when navigating onscreen text. The back of the machine is now flat, and a volume rocker is featured on the side of the device, as well as a mini USB port. A headphone jack is built into the top for easy access.

The viewing screen itself now has a much sharper image quality, thanks in large part to the fact that the Amazon Kindle 2 can show up to sixteen individual shades of grey, as opposed the mere four the original Kindle could handle. Newspaper content looks especially good with this improved color capability, losing the smudged look that it had when viewed on Kindle mark one.

According to the engineers at Amazon the screen on the Amazon Kindle 2 now refreshes 20% faster than before. This is most apparent in cursor movement and text loading. It is not so noticeable in page turning, but the Kindle 2 certainly has a “speedier” feel. Some people were concerned over the fact that the SD slot that was a feature of the original has been omitted, in favor of adding 2G of onboard storage. This really is not too much of a problem though, although having both would have been a nice touch (maybe for the Kindle Amazon guys?) 2G is plenty for most peoples reading needs, and you do still have the option to offload while retaining all your content a la the Ipod.

From a software point of view, there are only a few small changes in the Amazon Kindle 2. The menus however are vastly improved and content is far easier to search and navigate, as well as organize.

One much criticized aspect of the Amazon Kindle 2 is its new “read to me” mode. Many authors have complained that this impinges on their copy rights, as it turns their text works into instant “audio books”. If these guys actually listened to the Amazon Kindle 2 speak though, whether in its “male” or “female” voice, they might realize that their statements are just an insult to the hardworking voice actors who give life to their work in real audio books. You can slow the “voice” up and down but it really still sounds like Klatuu is reciting the prose. This mode might be fine for brief newspaper articles, but would prove far too annoying I fear for use with complete books.

When you take a look at the Amazon Kindle 2 as a whole, you do realize that it is the hardware tweaks that have made all the difference from the original. There is little the new version can do that the first gen model could not.
At $359 the Amazon Kindle 2 is a long way from cheap. But if you like to travel light, are an avid reader and the kind of person that loves new gadgetry of any kinds chances are you are going to end up buying this device. Though its appeal may not be as universal as say the Ipod, I know a lot of people (myself included) that think the Kindle is another breakthrough that will become hard for us to live without in the future.

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