
Amazon Kindle 2 on its way - nreece
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/10/03/amazon-kindle-2-ebooks-its-way-to-bgr/
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jws
Getting there. I still need it to be water proof before it is enough of an
advantage over paper books to overcome the ephemeral nature of ebooks. I'd
love to carry my fiction around in a more compact form when I go sailing, that
would save a significant portion of my duffle bag space, but "water happens"
(or pop/soda spills). Once it is waterproof I can read in a pool too!

Get me a sealed unit, capacitive touch screen, inductive charger, wireless
data interface (wifi or bluetooth) and I'm ready to go.

I'd also prefer that a larger portion of the physical size be given to the
screen, so either grow the screen or lose bulk.

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umjames
Geez, do you want fries with that? :)

But seriously, I agree about the bulk. I don't need mine to be waterproof,
just be able to let me read PDFs (including password-protected PDFs). A color
screen would be good too.

Let me plug it into my Mac and manage my own PDFs. That's all I need.

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LogicHoleFlaw
If they can ditch the DRM and drop the price of the ebooks I'll start
considering a purchase. I do like the look of the e-Ink.

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tdavis
Someone, tell me what I'm missing here. Why does an e-book reader need a
keyboard and other nonsense taking up roughly half of the real estate that
could be used for adding more screen? This seems like the perfect application
for a touch-screen since the majority of time should be spent reading or
interacting with existing documents, something that isn't terribly difficult
to do with limited navigation.

To me it just looks childish because there's so much bezel and cruft and no
screen.

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kqr2
The keyboard is useful for:

* taking notes

* using experimental web browser over free evdo

* accessing the boot loader and linux shell

<http://igorsk.blogspot.com/>

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unalone
The browser is a BIG part of the Kindle. And, to be honest, this is not meant
to be such a casual product. The interface doesn't matter so long as when
you're reading text, you don't have to look to know what button to press.

I don't think this will kill the book, but I think it's great for people who
read a ton and can't afford to buy every book. And libraries are good
stopgaps, but they've got a much more limited selection and library books
always feel skeevy to me.

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timtrueman
The one thing this article doesn't mention that really surprises me is when it
will ship. No speculation, nothing even to say they have no clue. Only Cnet
seemed to admit to not knowing anything.

I guess that's what we get for having a non-Apple rumor surface: sub-par
coverage.

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smhinsey
It looks like they've solved one of the biggest problems of the first model,
which is the fact that the bottom corners are both acute, so there is no easy
and comfortable way to hold it for long periods of time.

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unalone
I also like the fact that you can't accidentally turn pages. That was a
problem with the first model.

It looks kind of long, though. Less bookish. I dunno, maybe it's just because
I haven't seen the glamor shots yet.

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ashleyw
[http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10058352-1.html?part=rss...](http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10058352-1.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20)

Looks cool. Hope they lower the price, I know its worth it, but for a student
who already needs to buy a lot of books anyway, it can soon become something
you can live without.

Amazon should get the kindle in collages just like notebooks are, and make
profit from the book sales when having a kindle is a must for every student.

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abstractbill
_Hit the jump for the rest!_

What?

~~~
zacharye
It just means that the full post isn't visible on the overview page of the
blog.

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iamdave
How long has the first kindle been out? Less than a year? How long?

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unalone
Came out last November.

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phaedrus
Have they lifted the DRM? Can it display PDF's? Can I load whatever I want on
it from whatever source I want?

The biggest shortcomings of the first Kindle were not its physical
limitations.

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unalone
You... apparently haven't used a Kindle before. Because... yes. You CAN load
whatever you want on it from whatever source you want.

The PDF thing: guys, I'm sorry, it's overblown. There are good converters
available for Windows and Mac, and you can EMAIL the PDF to Amazon to get it
converted and emailed back instantly. You can even pay a buck to have it sent
there automatically. The PDF format is not necessary. Frankly, if I can load
Ulysses from Gutenberg as a TXT file and have it good enough to read without
distraction, then things are pretty good. If you insist on chapter indexes and
hypertext, the .prc is completely fine and basically works just as the PDF
would have. It even displays images, though I didn't get a Kindle for that.

HN has a habit of dismissing what they don't like offhand. The Kindle is one
of those suffering products. I speak now not as a "hacker," but as somebody
who loves the written language, loves novels, even loves certain poetry, and
the Kindle is wonderful for people who want to read books. That's what it's
for. This isn't an enterprise tool. This isn't meant to help you with work.
This is for literature, for novels, for people who like reading. And it does
what it does STUNNINGLY well.

The physical limitations weren't really limitations. I dunno, I love the
Kindle's original design. I'll have to use this one to see if it's still just
as intuitive, but if you've ever used a Kindle, it's something where the
design just makes perfect sense. You fall in love with it. I know I did.

And, between getting a mobile browser that displays fairly nicely, being able
to mark up texts as I see fit, and having the ability to download The Complete
Shakespeare for 99 cents if I need it (oh, and I DO need it), makes the Kindle
basically an extreme orgasm of a literature product. I found ebooks online for
books that have been out of print for 20 years, books that I read when I was
younger and couldn't find again. Think of what it would be like if we moved
directly from LP to mp3 with nothing in between for music. It opens up an
entire world of literature for the casual/hardcore reader.

So... please. If you're going to diss the Kindle, diss things that actually
make sense to diss. Because this is an excellent product, people happen to
love it, and it also happens to be selling well, and we Kindle users aren't
dicks like Mac users are yet. Don't push people like me into being sarcastic
and abrasive. There's still hope for our entire userbase.

