Hasta La Gadget!

The leaked information had it right. Here are the full details on Amazon’s new Kindle 2:

New Functions
• “Whispersync” to sync Kindle, Kindle 2 and other devices wirelessly
• Text to speech (yes, it will read to you)

Price
• $359 on February 24

Form
• 8″ x 5.3″ x 0.36″.
• “25 percent thinner than the iPhone”
• 10.2 ounces
• New 5-way controller
• 3.5mm audio jack
• USB 2.0

Display
• 6″ diagonal E-Ink®
• 600 x 800 pixel resolution at 167 ppi
• New E-Ink features 16 shades of grey

Battery Life
• Battery life has been increased by 25 percent
• Read for 4 days straight with EVDO on, 2 weeks EVDO off

Storage
• 2GB, or 7 times more storage than the first Kindle, or 1,500 books

Performance
• 20 percent faster page turning

Formats supported
• Kindle (AZW), TXT, Audible (formats 4, Audible Enhanced (AAX)), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively
• PDF, HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion

And you can pre-order it from Amazon now.

Amazon isn’t really much when it comes to mastering suspense. For about a week and a half we’ve all been assuming that today will be the day the online retailer launches the second iteration of its popular Kindle e-book reader, a fact that The Wall Street Journal confidently confirmed, earlier this morning.

What is news, however (aside from said seeming confidence), is who they’ve chosen to help launch the device–an actual master of suspense, Stephen King. The absurdly prolific author was tapped to pen a new work which will be available exclusively on the device (a Kin-sclusive?).

The work (which King no doubt will pen on his way to the event) will be published by Scribner, appearing on the device first, possibly followed by a print version at some point. According to The Journal, the latest book the Cell author will feature a “Kindle-like device.”

There’s not much of a surprise in store now, seeing as we’ve already seen official photos of Amazon’s newest iteration of its e-book reader (and gotten a handful of info on price and release date). Still, we’ll be there liveblogging and blowing it out Engadget style come 10AM ET Monday morning — and who knows, maybe Bezos will announce some other colors.

Filed under: Announcements

Amazon Kindle 2 launching on Monday — we’ll be there live! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Feb 2009 23:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re not going to call it official yet, but a bunch of very real-looking Kindle 2 press images just hit the tubes, and we’ve got to say we’re pretty convinced. Although the device itself looks basically the same as in those previously-leaked shots we saw back in October, there are some surprises in store: it’s way thinner, the back is apparently made of metal and there are stereo speakers at the bottom. We’ll admit to missing the polarizing ultra-80s look of the original, but this thing looks pretty sweet — too bad it’s still going to set you back $359 when it arrives on February 24. We’ll find out what’s what for sure on Monday — in the meantime check couple more shots after the break and way more at the read link.

[Thanks, Alex]

Continue reading Official-looking Kindle 2 pictures and pricing leak out

Official-looking Kindle 2 pictures and pricing leak out originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon has been famously coy about how many Kindle e-book readers the company has sold. But Mark Mahaney, an analyst at Citigroup, is estimating that Amazon sold 500,000 of the things in 2008, and that the Kindle is on track to become a $1.2 billion business for Amazon by 2010, according to AllThingsD.

The report said that Mahaney came up with his figure by examining a recent filing by Sprint, the company that handles the Kindle’s wireless data connection for over-the-air e-book purchases from Amazon. The $1.2 billion figure is a little more suspect, though; essentially he assumed that the Kindle equals the iPod, will do similar business to the iPod at a comparable point in its life cycle, and that customers will buy one e-book per month from Amazon on average.

Meanwhile, everyone—including, presumably, Dick Cheney—is waiting for the other shoe to drop next week, when Amazon has its press conference and unveils Kindle 2.0. Mahaney thinks the new Kindle will be thinner, lighter, have a nicer keyboard arrangement, and cost $299 instead of $359 like the current model. Me, I’m just hoping for page turning technology that doesn’t flash the entire screen each time.