Presenting Kindle 2

A cool Reader from Amazon

• The unit is 8″ x 5.3″ x 0.36″ and weighs about 10 ounces - 25 percent thinner than iPhone (wow, even Amazon is jumping on the iPhone-killer bandwagon)
• 6″ diagonal E-Ink electronic paper display, 600 x 800 pixel resolution at 167 ppi, 16-level gray scale (original Kindle was only four shades)
• Battery life has been improved by 25 percent - Amazon claims two weeks on a single charge
• 2GB of internal storage - 700 percent more than the original Kindle, holds over 1,500 books
• Page turning is now 20 percent faster
• Pricing is exactly in line with last week’s leak: $359, same as the first Kindle model
• The release date was no surprise either: Ships February 24th

Bezos & Co did have a few tricks up their sleeves - there had to be something unexpected to announce we imagine. In a very savvy move, Amazon had Stephen King write a story (involving a Kindle, err) and will release the story as a Kindle-only exclusive. King’s publisher stated the story may become available in physical form down the road a bit but for the time being, die hard King fans will need to snag a Kindle in order to keep claiming they’ve read every one of his six trillion published works.

Beyond that, the new Kindle will be able to automatically download magazines and newspapers, it will sync your content between devices and with a new feature called Read-to-Me it’ll even read content to you in a synth voice (great feature for the blind). The Kindle 2 is currently available for pre-order on the site and original Kindle owners get priority if they order before midnight tonight. Hit the read link for the Kindle 2 product page on Amazon.com, complete with a video.

Via Amazon