By: Jennifer Saba There has been a lot of excitement generated over Amazon?s digital reader Kindle -- and the prospect that people will pay for digital delivery. Today the company unveiled the newest generation of the device the Kindle 2 in New York.
Moreover the company stresses that Kindle is not only good for books but newspapers too. Several newspapers including The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer and USA Today, provide subscriptions to their papers ranging from $5.99 to $14.99 per month. The editions are delivered wirelessly overnight so readers can access the paper in the morning.
?If you want, Kindle 2 will even read to you -- something new we added that a book could never do,? Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, said in a statement.
Bezos is referring to a new text-to-speech feature giving customers the option of listening to printed material as well as reading it.
The Kindle 2 is over a third of an inch thin, weighs roughly 10 ounces, and features a five-way controller that makes it easier to jump pages and sections of newspapers.
The second version of the reader, at 2GB, provides more shades of gray 16 versus four making for sharper text, images and photos. It can hold 1,500 books compared to 200.
Amazon is selling the Kindle 2 for $359. It?s also offering more 230,000 books (up from 90,000).
Amazon has been coy about how many Kindles have sold since the first product was launched. Citibank analyst Mark Mahaney estimates 500,000 have been purchased so far.
From the release: "Over 1,200 blogs are available on Kindle today?up from 250 when Kindle launched. New blogs added to the Kindle Store recently include the Wired blogs, VF Daily and James Wolcott?s Blog from Vanity Fair. Blogs are updated and downloaded wirelessly throughout the day so Kindle customers can read blogs whenever and wherever they want. Wireless delivery of blogs costs as little as $0.99 each per month and includes a free two-week trial."
UPDATE: Brad Stone at the New York Times' blog Bits live-blogged the launch and offered this "recap" at the end:
"Amazon?s newest version of its popular e-book reader (see their announcement here) looks a whole lot more attractive and seems to have a simpler, more intuitive interface (the new joystick controller helps). The Kindle 2 is thinner (thinner than an iPhone, to give you some idea), has a crisper black-and-white display, turns pages much more quickly and should hold its battery charge for about 25 percent longer than the previous version. New features include text-to-speech and the ability to transfer content to other devices (such as mobile phones and other Kindles). It?s the same price as the outgoing model ($359) and will be shipped February 24th. Amazon is taking preorders now. The online retailer has said customers that are already on the waiting list for the old Kindle will get new Kindle 2?s."
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