

Amazon’s Kindle 2 Will Debut Feb. 9 - davatk
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/amazons-kindle-2-will-debut-feb-9/

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JoelSutherland
_the new device corrects some of the design flaws of the first model, adding
round buttons instead of those strange angular ones, and smaller side buttons
to avoid accidental page turns._

I received a Kindle as a gift and at first I hated the buttons. Now having
read a dozen books or so, I think they are genius. I am sure they are making
this change to satisfy the initial-reaction reviewers.

It can be a little to easy to accidentally press the side buttons on the
original, something that happens to me a couple of times per book. This is
greatly outweighed by the thought that went into them. It is really easy to
press the buttons with an elbow, pillow or even your nose when need be. It
makes reading a book a one- or no-hand operation.

Behind the screen, I would put the weird and unique buttons on the kindle as a
top feature.

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palish
All buttons should be eradicated.

I can't wait for the day someone creates an affordable brain-to-computer
interface. (And one that doesn't require you to drill holes in your head.)

Man, that was a huge tangent. Anyway...

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dimitar
I would like a 100$ e-book reader with an electronic paper display and pdf
support, with no extra features, please.

~~~
simon_kun
<http://www.foxitsoftware.com/ebook/>

Not the right price, but the PDF support is build right in.
alt.binaries.e-book.technical will finally realise its promise.

~~~
blasdel
Not supporting SDHC cards (the 4gb limit) in 2009 is pretty bizzare, and makes
the device look quite suspect to me.

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DanHulton
I always imagined this thing similar to consoles - you sell it at break-even
(or even at a loss) to encourage the purches of books over its service.

Lord knows that if all it took was a quick bit of navigation on the Kindle
itself to buy any book at Amazon, I'd have a full Kindle and an empty wallet.

~~~
indigoviolet
that is actually exactly how the kindle works. not any book, but many books.

~~~
superkarn
Except the Kindle's entry price is still quite high (at least for me).

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rbanffy
I just want it to be GSM-friendly and to sell for less than US$ 100.

For the $100 to $500 range, I can use a full-featured entry-level notebook or
a cheaper, lighter netbook. The Kindle has a big problem then.

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Goronmon
I, for one, hope that "leaked" design isn't the actual redesign since judging
by the pictures I liked the original better. The shape, while weird at first,
works well for something you can hold easily in one hand. The large buttons
allow you to hold it in much more varying positions without having to worry
about have a specific finger rested in a specific place on the device to
perform an action you are going to be doing quite often.

Plus, the new one looks quite a bit larger.

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matthewking
We haven't even got version 1 in the UK yet!

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anuraggoel
Hopefully Amazon made changes to their final design based on feedback on the
Boy Genius Report 'leak':

[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/)

 _"...the battery does not look to be user-accessible, and there’s no more SD
card slot..."_

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DocSavage
I'm wondering when Amazon will bundle Audible's digital audiobook tech into
the Kindle. Amazon acquired Audible last year and for some markets, like
children's books, it's a no-brainer to sync narration with the written word.

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AndrewWarner
Kindle should be software, not hardware. And it should run on as many
different devices as possible--including my mobile phone, on which I read the
newspaper and HN every day.

~~~
njharman
There is already such software it's called PDF.

~~~
ajju
No, it's called a web browser. (I don't think HN publishes an updated PDF
every time someone posts a comment)

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TweedHeads
Years ago, when laptops where over $1000, an ebook reader for under $299 was a
good idea.

Netbooks changed the game...

~~~
ryanwaggoner
Do you regularly read full-length novels on your laptop?

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jerf
Not infrequently.

There's a lot of "personal taste" involved in this domain. Some people can't
seem to stomach reading for a long time on anything short of a Kindle, whereas
I used to read Project Gutenberg books on my 160x160px monochrome Palm Pilot
with reasonable comfort.

I understand the personal taste in general but have always been surprised by
programmer's problems with electronic displays. Reading a novel is way easier
than reading code. If you can handle reading code, surely you can deal with a
novel... but again, personal taste.

~~~
jodrellblank
You think widely available eInk displays will bring improvements in code?

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jerf
That's the exact opposite of what I think. If you can read code on a monitor,
surely you can read a novel.

(Personal taste! Personal taste! Don't flame me!)

~~~
jodrellblank
Yes I see that - but if people who don't want to read a novel on screen, yet
who code at the moment, could use a new display that they would read a novel
on happily - would that also bring any improvements to their coding?

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delackner
Clearly you are all missing the insight here: where are our widescreen e-ink
displays for writing code? Who needs color? Just give me paper-like
readability and bold and italic.

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glymor
_where are our e-ink displays for writing code_

They take too long to refresh.

~~~
delackner
You're so right. I just finally looked at a youtube video of the display tech
in the new kindle (the "broadstreet" version of e-ink) and it is indeed far
slower than is necessary even for simple text editing.

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keltecp11
This thing is becoming quite powerful... However, I expect the economy will
hit their sales hard.

~~~
josefresco
Somehow I trust that Amazon will know how to navigate these waters. They're
one of the few retailers that have not seen a major drop in profits.

