

Amazon Kindle 2 pictures and pricing - jacquesm
http://www.pcworld.com/article/159154/leak_amazon_kindle_2_pictures_and_pricing.html

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ktharavaad
I'll share my experience with ebook readers here. As someone who owns over 30
gigs of ebooks and reads academic journals often, I was naturally excited when
the whole slew of ebook reading device hit the market.

I've tried 3 different E-book readers: The sony PRS505, the Kindle and the
iRex iLiad. In the end, I returned the kindle and gave the 505 to my dad and
kept the iRex. The main reason was that the Kindle screen was WAYYY TOO SMALLL
to read full sized Pdfs and academic journals.

The sony had the same screen-size problem as the Kindle but its cheaper and it
was a good fit for my dad, who mainly reads fiction books. The iRex was the
keeper because of its big 8 inch screen.

The new kindle 2 seems to have the same screen size as the previous one, so
this is an absolute no-buy for me. However, the upcoming plastic logic reader
looks promising with its full A4 sized screen and could be a good fit for me.

~~~
jm4
At $699, the iRex also costs nearly twice as much as a Kindle and about three
times what you can get a PRS505 for. I have no doubt the 8 inch screen is
great, but that's a pretty big jump in price-- especially when you consider
that the Kindle is already priced too high for many consumers.

~~~
ktharavaad
Yes, the iRex is prohibitively expensive but if you buy the 1st edition while
its on sale, you can get it for around $100 cheaper than that.

In the end, I justified the purchase because of the features I'm getting over
the other 2 readers. \- The sony and kindle both have a 800x600 screen while
the iRex has a 1024x768. \- The iRex also has a wacom stylus embedded into the
screen which you can take notes with \- The iRex is open-sourced, the
developer released the SDK a while ago and there is a bunch of 3rd party free
software for it.

However, I can definitely see how the iRex can be overpriced for some people
and the sony and kindle could be a better fit for them.

A good resource for ebook reader information is <http://www.mobileread.com/>
(i'm not affiliated with them in any way) . You can read other people's
experiences with them and find out which reader is right for you.

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swombat
I think the eInk reader market is in dire need of some simplification (pretty
strange considering it's not even remotely mature yet). I know several people,
myself included, who are still waiting for what we consider the basic ebook
reader features:

\- big screen

\- adjustable font size

\- left and right buttons

\- DRM-free

\- reasonable pricing.

I wonder how much of the price could be shaved off by getting rid of the other
features like search, keyboards, image support, etc. I'd buy a cheap, stripped
down eInk reader if only I could.

~~~
unalone
The Kindle lets you adjust fonts, and it can handle non-DRM'd formats with
ease. What do you mean by left-right buttons?

~~~
swombat
I mean that practically the only buttons required on such a device are the
buttons to turn pages (maybe some modifiers to swap between books and to go to
the beginning and end of the book). Other buttons are superfluous to a "back
to basics" device.

What I'm saying is, the Kindle has too many features and is too expensive.

~~~
unalone
The Kindle _needs_ that. Its top, ignored feature is its ability to download
books from anywhere from the Amazon store. For that it needs a navigator, a
keyboard, and wireless Internet access. And from my uses of the device, that's
what puts it in a league of its own.

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tsetse-fly
The title is misleading. As the article mentions, this is all speculative,
based on information from a forum.

Why not wait until Monday to post official pictures/specs/pricing? Visit
Engadget if you want rumors.

~~~
jacquesm
It turned out the price was spot on and the article was correct as far as I
can see.

I agree that it's 'just from a forum', this one turned out to be surprisingly
well informed. My take on that is that it is a secret known by so many people
that if there is a place it's going to be leaked is in a forum.

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Ben65
It looks a lot better than the original Kindle. I tried one and disliked it so
much I returned it. The sad thing is I really wanted to like it. I prefer
reading on the computer anymore. I didn't like how there wasn't a good way to
hold it with out accidentally flipping the pages. This new version seems to
have fixed that. I was willing to accept the non-color display, but I didn't
like the liquid paper. I wish it was backlit. The navigation was terrible. It
looks like they've tried to address the navigation with a joystick, I'm sure
it's better than the original.

I guess I wish I had an something like an iPhone or iPod touch that was around
the same size the Kindle, that had a color screen, the touch features of the
iPhone and iPod touch would be great, but button and stylus navigation would
be alright. Nice looking anti-aliased fonts are essential. A good way to get
content. Kindle has a nice tie in to Amazon, but the on the original it was
such a bother to get other content on it. The big problem was no pdf support.

I'm excited that the Kindle 2 is much improved, I hope they have a lot of
success with it.

~~~
swombat
Hmmm... If you don't like the eInk displays, none of those readers are for
you, really... The whole point of these devices, their reason for existing, is
the high contrast, non backlit, paper-like display that's much easier on the
eyes than typical LCDs.

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greyman
Is the keyboard really necessary? I would probably prefer to have bigger
screen on its place.

~~~
ljlolel
The screen is probably the size it is because of price, not because the
keyboard.

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zacharypinter
I'm still leaning towards the upcoming Foxit eSlick, unless the Kindle 2 has
much better support for PDF programming books (ones not purchased through
Amazon).

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CoryOndrejka
The leaks look like the same design broken on BGR
([http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/10/03/amazon-
kindle-2-eb...](http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/10/03/amazon-
kindle-2-ebooks-its-way-to-bgr/)) 3 months ago.

I love my current Kindle, and if these leaks are accurate, Kindle 2 feels like
a step back for a few reasons: * Pouch instead of binder. Current Kindle can
be opened and read while waiting in line at the airport, train, etc. What do
you do with a pouch after you pull the Kindle out of it? * Larger and heavier.
I'm all for sturdy, but the current Kindle is feather light, which is great
for extended reading sessions. * Joystick rather than roller w/ spare LCD. Is
the new E-Ink screen really responsive enough for a random access pointer? *
No SD slot. So, moving the 400MB of programming books I have as PDFs is going
to be a PITA.

We'll see on Monday.

