SlashGear Japan
Amazon are “tentatively” preparing to launch their Kindle 2 ebook reader in early Q1 2009, according to the latest rumors. Leaked shots of the second-generation device emerged back in October, with a launch tipped to take place before the holiday season, but Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos apparently postponed the release to allow for last-minute software tweaks.
Meanwhile a version of the Kindle 2 with a larger display is planed for the first half of 2009, targeted at students who want to view textbooks on the device. The Kindle 2 has a sleeker, less angular casing than the original ebook reader, with new circular QWERTY keys, a joystick and smaller page-turn controls to minimize accidental movement.
Like the first Kindle there’ll still be integrated EVDO cellular wireless for downloading ebooks directly to the device. Storage has apparently been boosted to around 1.5GB, while the SD slot has been removed.
2 Responses to “Amazon Kindle 2 coming early Q1 2009?”
Charles Wilkes December 1, 2008
The shocker is that the SD slot will be removed, which would make it totally impossible for me to upgrade to from my present Kindle 1. I have a 32 GB SD card installed, and almost 800 books already there, with many more to come. When a 64 GB SD card becomes available as announced, I will upgrade to that. With a limited 1.5 GB internal memory all that is available, I would overflow that immediately, and lose books I already have bought and paid for. This is a real Bummer!!! Why remove something that is already there — it’s enough to add new features, but they should not remove features already out their and in use by their customers.
I would like larger screen, and hopefully a higher resolution one. Someday I expect color, using the same technology as now not requiring battery power except to change it. I would also like a much better catalog system, using hierarchical entries to allow many similar books to be under a higher level catalog name, reducing the number of entries in the first level catalog.
Charles Wilkes, San Jose, Calif.
+1fred gibson January 7, 2009
Higher resolution, a more fuctional carrying case that will hold the Kindle
+2instead of falling out because it only has slots on one side.
On-Off swith should be on the front of the unit.