![]() ![]() ![]() You can choose from a male and female voice and set the reading speed (slow, medium and fast). The Kindle 2 adds text-to-speech and unlike most digitized voices, it's bearable and doesn't sound creepy. Battery life is increased from 2 to 4 days with the EVDO modem on and up to 2 weeks with it off. One catch: you must use USB transfer for audio files and Audible books due to their relatively large files size. You still don't need to use a computer to load books onto the reader, though you can mount it via USB cable on the desktop in mass storage mode (Mac and Windows) to copy your own files to the device. A cover is no longer included, nor is the SD card slot. Search is much more usable, as is the dictionary (definitions pop up in real time as you move the cursor via joystick across the text). 4 shades- nice for book covers and newspaper images. This doesn't affect text but images look much better in 16 vs. The display now supports 16 shades of gray up from the original Kindle's 4 shades (the two current Sony models have 8 shades of gray). So what's new? Much improved page turn buttons that aren't so easy to accidentally press, a joystick for 4-way navigation, a more normal QWERTY thumb board that's not askew and increased internal storage (2 gigs with approximately 1.4 gigs available). There is no desktop or other format supported, so these books currently work only on a Kindle. That said you can put purchased books on up to 6 Kindles registered to your Amazon account. Hopefully, the DRM conundrum won't last as long with eBooks as it did with music. You can subscribe to a selection of newspapers (New York Times, Wall Street Journal and more) and magazines (Time, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Forbes and more) for a fee, and these are delivered wirelessly to the reader over the Kindle's wireless Whispernet connection. Amazon's online service will convert PDF, HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG and BMP files for you and send them to your reader for 10 cents apiece (though I haven't found a Kindle owner who has been charged for the service) and for free when mailed to your desktop email account. Both Kindles support the same eBook formats: Kindle (AZW) which is a variant of the MOBI format, TXT, Audible, MP3 and unprotected MOBI/ PRC files. Like the original Kindle (also $359), the new version has a basic web browser best suited to text-ish sites, a micro version of the storefront for Kindle books, a QWERTY keyboard for searching and making annotations, the New Oxford American Dictionary pre-loaded, a 6" e Ink non-touch screen display and a Sprint EVDO modem that powers what Amazon calls the Kindle's Whispernet connection. ![]() The Amazon Kindle 2 basic web browser displaying the Wikipedia homepage. Looks are indeed the biggest thing the Kindle 2 has over the Kindle 1: there are no new major features here as there was when Sony released the touch screen PRS-700 reader (the first mass production consumer eBook reader with a touch screen). And it's half the thickness of the original Kindle. 0.36" for the Kindle 2) it looks thinner thanks to tapered sides. Though not thinner than the Sony Reader PRS-505 (the Sony is 0.30" vs. It's easy to see the Kindle heritage: the white bezel, BlackBerry-like QWERTY keyboard and 6" e Ink grayscale display but while the Kindle 1 looked like a lab prototype the Kindle 2 looks like the iPhone 2G, complete with brushed aluminum back and super-slim design. The Kindle 2 takes a 180 on design and is in fact a darned fine looking eReader. The original Amazon Kindle was arguably one of the most ungainly gadgets to actually make it out of the R&D labs. ![]() Looks aren't everything but they sure do help in the world of consumer electronics. Home -> eBook Reader Reviews -> Amazon Kindle 2Įditor's note, August 2010: Read our review of the latest Kindle, the Kindle 3.Įditor's note, July 2010: Want a bigger-screen version? Check out the Kindle DX Graphite with 9.7" higher contrast screen and native PDF support. ![]()
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