Amazon’s Kindle 2 Announced

By Andrew

Today, Amazon.com announced the release of their second generation “wireless reading device,” the Kindle 2.  Weighing less than a standard paperback and as thin as a magazine, the Kindle 2 offers 3G downloads (as well as wi-fi), allowing users to download an entire book, from anywhere, in less than 60 seconds with no computer needed. And with 16 shades of grey to choose from, reading off the 6-inch screen is as pleasant as paper.

It also offers many features you’ll never get out of a stack of paper, like built-in dictionary, adjustable text size and custom bookmarks and annotations. They’ve also added some “experimental features,” like a basic Web browser, PDF document conversion and a Text-to-Speech feature that reads anything in your Kindle 2 aloud to you.

Amazon currently offers over 230,000 books as well as magazines, newspapers and blogs. Basically, if you want to read something, you can read it on the Kindle 2. However, we’re still waiting for them to start offering college text books, which would significatly reduce the cost of the books and lighten your class-to-class load by about 50-lbs.

Most books cost around $10, but you can find a lot for less. And the Kindle 2 goes for a whopping $359. A bit pricey, if you ask us. But I guess that’s what it costs to be nifty these days…