No more heavy books: pencil-thin Kindle

I love a well-printed, well-bound book but let’s face it - books are heavy. The new Kindle 2 reading device from Amazon might be a way of shedding several pounds from your typical load. At $359 it costs about the same as a netbook and it weighs only 10.2 ounces. It uses 3G networks to download content. Battery life is said to be about 4 days (probably not continuous). Release date is Feb. 24.

Update on February 10, 2009 by Frank@OBOW

Re: non-Amazon content:

Personal Documents

Kindle makes it easy to take your personal documents with you, eliminating the need to print. Each Kindle has a unique and customizable e-mail address. You can set your unique email address on your Manage Your Kindle page. This allows you and your approved contacts to e-mail Word, PDF documents, and pictures wirelessly to your Kindle for a small per document fee—currently only 10¢ per document. Kindle supports wireless delivery of unprotected Microsoft Word, PDF, HTML, TXT, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, PRC and MOBI files.

You can email your PDFs wirelessly to your Kindle. Due to PDF’s fixed layout format, some complex PDF files may not format correctly on your Kindle.

If you are not in a wireless area or would like to avoid the fee, you can send attachments to “name”@free.kindle.com to be converted and e-mailed to your computer at the e-mail address associated with your Amazon.com account login. You can then transfer the document to your Kindle using your USB connection. For example, if your Kindle email address is Jay@Kindle.com, send your attachments to Jay@free.kindle.com. 

Update on February 10, 2009 by Frank@OBOW

Update on February 10, 2009 by Frank@OBOW

And Engadget weighs in. And Gizmodo.

Comments

[Jeff]

4 days with 3G on...14 days with 3G off. I'm interested.

[Frank@OBOW]

I never imagined they were so small either. Cost of media and compatibility with other formats are the main issues.

[John Skillman]

I use a netbook, a SONY Reader and a Pentax K20D camera (which offers processing of pictures, in the camera) to replace my notebook when I travel. The Kindle is only useful at this point in the USA. Alot of its features are pretty useless to us 'aliens'.

[Buzz]

I have the original version of the Kindle and like it. Not enough upgrades on version 2 for me to shell out another $360.

The new version is only a few ounces lighter than the originall and a little thinner. Buttons have been redesigned. A better grayscale. Other than that, not much else new.

I'll wait until Version 3.