Kindle 2 Announced

Engadget released a nice set of pictures of the Kindle 2, the next generation of Amazon‘s E-book reader. For alternate coverage, Crunchgear has a nice Kindle 1/2 side-by-side photo comparison.

It has several improvements over its predecessor

• Screen refresh is 20 percent faster
• 7 Times Greater Storage
• 16 Shades of Grey as opposed to 4.
• Thinner

We still can’t justify the $359 cost for the privilege of paying more for books than the printed version. The discount has to ultimately, if not subsidize the cost of the reader, at least justify with value-added service the cost of buying it. For less cost, one could use an old PDA or a cell phone, although the screen would not be as conducive to easy reading. For the same cost, one could go for a netbook.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Amazon Kindle 2 announced: $359 on February 24 (engadget.com)
• Amazon’s Kindle 2.0 Event (technologizer.com)
• WSJ: Kindle 2 launching today with Stephen King exclusive (engadget.com)
• Kindle 2.0: Thinner, More Storage…But Is It Enough? (mashable.com)