Hasta La Gadget!

When Amazon launched the Kindle 2, many of us thought it looked a lot like the iPod, with its slick white body and shiny metal backplate. It also mimicked another iPod trait — the slow sloughing of in-box accessories, in this case the case.

The Periscope (or the “Periscope® Lighted Folio for Kindle 2” to give it its rather stupid full title) fills this gap for a hefty $50, but for that you get a hefty leather-bound flap along with a flip-out reading light (the lack of a light is another common complaint from people who don’t understand e-books), hence the name “Periscope”.

The lamp uses two LEDs powered by three AA batteries for up to 40 hours of life. It also includes a pocket for a notebook, a rather strangely shaped 5×8 inch notebook. At first glance, I thought it was actually a checkbook. A checkbook inside the case for an e-reader. You can imagine the perceptual disconnect that followed.

If this is for you, then you’ll know it. I tend to think that we should just get these e-readers out there in their naked, honest form until they look as cool to read in public as a dog-eared paperback. The Periscope will never do that: It’s less Jack Kerouac and more Sir Leigh Teabagging from the Da Vinci Code.

Product page [Periscope. Thanks, Chris!]