Rumor: Amazon's Kindle 2 Due Feb 9?

4:30 PM - January 28, 2009 - By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide US

Those of you eager to follow in the footsteps of Oprah and pick up one of Amazon’s Kindle book readers are in luck, rumor has it the company will be launching the Kindle 2 on February 9, ending the Kindle drought that has been going on since the chat show queen lavished praise on the gadget in November.

Amazon announced that the company will be holding a press conference at the Morgan Library in New York City; and while its keeping quiet about whether or not it will intro the revamped Kindle, the rumor mill has been working itself into a frenzy since the emails went out.

Ever since its Oprah debut, support for the device has soared. Previously, there were doubts that the market had room for something like the Kindle. Many people were reading books on their iPhone (with the help of an application called Stanza) and several analysts threw around the idea that this could kill the Kindle. Offering a piece of software that could do the same thing as the Kindle on a device did text, email, internet and phone; stuff that nearly everyone either wants or needs anyway.

However, now that it’s famous, the Kindle has been completely sold out. The drought has not gone unnoticed and neither does the notice on the Kindle site that says orders placed for the device will ship in 4-6 weeks. Could there be a new Kindle on the horizon? And more importantly, will it have a touch screen? The waiting game sucks. Stay tuned for more.

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Spikke 01/29/2009 12:42 PM

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I think I'll stick to reading books on my PSP, cheaper, smaller, and I can do other stuff on it. Also, way more availability of books too, anything that has been scanned into a digital format.

Cuddles 01/29/2009 11:19 AM

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I may just get this. From what I hear the item feels just like a real book and people who own it rave about it's use. Not an item for people who don't read a lot of books but for me it would be great.

Anonymous 01/29/2009 1:40 PM

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Reading on the PSP? Ill tell you, since I bought the kindle I have been extremely impressed. Its the DISPLAY. This is not an LCD. It is like looking at paper (not quite as nice but close). I don't bother reading on my iphone or any other device as such any more.

Further, its the CONNECTION. I suddenly found out after almost one year of usage that I never connected it to my PC. Ever. Its software and market store are extremely well thought out. I wish it had a folder mechanism, but thats relatively minor.

-d

Anonymous 01/29/2009 2:35 PM

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reading textbooks on an electronic LCD display is nothing compared to the user experience gained by reading it on an e-ink designed electronic reader like the Kindle and Sony PRS series.
The Sony PRS series are MUCH more elegant than the kindle, much cheaper ($275 Vs $>400 streetprice), & is much better (reads pdf, has larger memory, one can convert their own books at home, longer battery life, even some games available; but the kindle has a keyboard and G3)!

Also Sony sold more Sony readers than Amazon sold Kindles.
Sony's longer in the business than amazon.

The only bad thing is Sony has about 60.000 books on their store, while amazon has nearly 200.000 books for sale.
Good thing is that nearly 8.000 free books can be gotten for the Sony, while it's somewhere near to 1.000-2.000 free books formatted for the kindle.

Apart from their own electronic book formats and regular .txt, the Kindle can't read many formats, and they need to be converted.
Sony can read pdf files.