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New version book reader fixes glitches
By Seth Porges |
March 22, 2009, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
WHEN it was released in late 2007, Amazon's original Kindle electronic book reader turned a lot of heads and, eventually, a whole lot of pages. The product redefined ebook readers, and was perpetually out of stock.
So what kind of new product did Amazon produce as a follow-up? One that looks a lot like the first. The Kindle 2 is a sleeker and faster version of the original device, but all in all, not much different.
A little background: the Kindle wasn't the first ebook reader to feature an Eink screen (which uses tiny shape-shifting ink-like capsules to produce print quality text without any of the eye strain of LCD screens). But it became a breakthrough product because its high-speed wireless connection (from Sprint Nextel) allowed US users to quickly download new books directly to their device, without paying extra.
The original Kindle had its share of flaws, and they have only grown more noticeable and frustrating during the year users have had to play with their toys.
The worst offense: the product felt like it had been designed to be read in a library or laboratory. In real life, users would be grabbing it at odd angles while being bumped around in subway cars and in the seats of cars. Merely grabbing the side of the Kindle without an almost-surgical level of care was often enough to cause accidental button presses and page skips.
So Kindle 2 is less of a revolution and more of a refinement. All that was good about the original is still here. Its screen is easy on the eyes, it's extremely easy to download new books over the device's built-in 3G cellular network, and it uses barely more battery life than a paper book. (Amazon promises, and delivers, weeks of reading time between charges, allowing travelers to leave their charger at home.)
Most of the changes are aesthetic. Buttons are now accident-proof, it's thinner (about half as thick as its predecessor), has more built-in memory (now up to 2 gigabytes, but there's no longer an SD card slot), and the original's awkward navigation wheel has been replaced by a joystick-like button, which makes it easier to scroll.
Among the Kindle's few actual new features, some users might enjoy the improved built-in dictionary, which now displays the definition of any word unobtrusively on the bottom of the screen.
Overall, the new Kindle is certainly the best ebook reader on the market. The only real competition out there is the Sony Reader, but the top-end model's US$399 price tag is US$30 more than the new Kindle's, and it doesn't have the Kindle's best feature: wireless access.
So what kind of new product did Amazon produce as a follow-up? One that looks a lot like the first. The Kindle 2 is a sleeker and faster version of the original device, but all in all, not much different.
A little background: the Kindle wasn't the first ebook reader to feature an Eink screen (which uses tiny shape-shifting ink-like capsules to produce print quality text without any of the eye strain of LCD screens). But it became a breakthrough product because its high-speed wireless connection (from Sprint Nextel) allowed US users to quickly download new books directly to their device, without paying extra.
The original Kindle had its share of flaws, and they have only grown more noticeable and frustrating during the year users have had to play with their toys.
The worst offense: the product felt like it had been designed to be read in a library or laboratory. In real life, users would be grabbing it at odd angles while being bumped around in subway cars and in the seats of cars. Merely grabbing the side of the Kindle without an almost-surgical level of care was often enough to cause accidental button presses and page skips.
So Kindle 2 is less of a revolution and more of a refinement. All that was good about the original is still here. Its screen is easy on the eyes, it's extremely easy to download new books over the device's built-in 3G cellular network, and it uses barely more battery life than a paper book. (Amazon promises, and delivers, weeks of reading time between charges, allowing travelers to leave their charger at home.)
Most of the changes are aesthetic. Buttons are now accident-proof, it's thinner (about half as thick as its predecessor), has more built-in memory (now up to 2 gigabytes, but there's no longer an SD card slot), and the original's awkward navigation wheel has been replaced by a joystick-like button, which makes it easier to scroll.
Among the Kindle's few actual new features, some users might enjoy the improved built-in dictionary, which now displays the definition of any word unobtrusively on the bottom of the screen.
Overall, the new Kindle is certainly the best ebook reader on the market. The only real competition out there is the Sony Reader, but the top-end model's US$399 price tag is US$30 more than the new Kindle's, and it doesn't have the Kindle's best feature: wireless access.
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