I did however forsee a day when a new, better version would come out, or the price would come down, or both, and I would finally take the plunge. This Valentine’s Day I did, by getting a Kindle 2 for my wife, who both reads a lot AND commutes on the train. She still seems a bit standoffish on the Kindle , but she has yet to start commuting with it so we’ll see if it was a good gift or just another male Valentine’s Day blunder.

Here’s my first impressions of the device after playing with it for a few hours.

There are two things I noticed immediately about the Kindle 2. The first is that when I went to peel off the protective plastic sheet over the screen, I expected the display advertising text and graphics on the screen to peel off as well, which they didn’t. E-ink displays can display the last page viewed forever without using any battery power, so Amazon used this in the packaging of the unit – cool.

The second thing I noticed is how thin the Kindle 2 is – its about as thin as my iPhone. As for the rest of the form factor, nothing really stood out at me that I didn’t expect from seeing photos and videos of the unit online. One gripe I did have is that the page turn buttons make a fairly audible click when pressed, which I feel is undesirable when reading in bed with a sleeping spouse.

An ebook reader is a very simple device, and as such the Kindle 2 performs fine for that purpose. The screen, which has been upgraded to 16 levels of grayscale from the previous 4, is very easy to read and very easy on the eyes compared to an LCD screen.

Page turning is surprisingly abrupt, however, as it takes a second and the screen flashes in between pages, but it gets the job done – its one of those annoyances you notice only because you are used to the speed of an LCD screen on a laptop or iPhone. The advantages of the eink display are readability, low eye fatigue, and outstanding battery life.

By far I feel that the real value of the Kindle 2 and Kindle 2 is in the subscription-free 3G Whispernet service. It worked perfectly out of the box with absolutely no configuration whatsoever, and seemed just as fast as my 3G iPhone from the same location.

With the Whispernet service, you can browse, buy, and download ebooks in seconds (for about $10 a pop), as well as Kindle-formatted blogs, magazines, and newspapers. It also has an ‘experimental’ web browser, which seems to be fairly decent. This makes the unit a godsend for commuters, as they can get access to most information just as easily – if not more easily – than their mobile phone or laptop without draining the battery on either device, or worrying about the battery running out on the Kindle either. Again, as a free service, Whispernet is an outstanding value.

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: Amazon Kindle 2 Review – Its About The Network [Whispernet Review]

If you have been on the fence about buying an an Amazon Kindle, today is probably a good day to order one, as Amazon has announced the release of Kindle 2. Amazon reccommends placing an order for the Kindle 2 before midnight February 10th for priority fulfillment.

The first version of the Kindle, while lauded as the best e-book reader ever, still turned off some people with its strange angular looks. The new Kindle 2 is thinner than an iPhone, looks great, and can even reads books to you in a decent computerized voice.

The price remains at $359, and the slick leather binder now costs an extra $30 whereas it was previously included with the device.

The Kindle 2 is now available for sale on Amazon’s website, and ships February 24. My advice is to order one today and get in the front of the line in case they run out, as Amazon has traditionally had a very difficult time keeping the device in stock.

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: Amazon Kindle 2 Release Date Arrives – Amazon Says Order in 24 Hours for Priority Fulfillment

Well, another major player has blundered as well – its only Dec. 2, but Amazon lists their Kindle E-Book reader as not shipping for 11-13 WEEKS. That’s not just ‘after Christmas’ – that’s the end of February.

What is it with the Kindle? I don’t personally know a single soul that owns one, yet Amazon insists its selling like hotcakes and it has had availability issues like this since it was launched over a year ago. Amazon has not released sales figures for the Kindle.

The Kindle is such an outstanding gift for the reader on your Christmas List – to not have enough on hand for Christmas is just so bizarre to me. How does that happen?

Despite brick and mortar retailers seeing a relatively flat start to the Holiday selling season, online retailers are seeing a growth in online holiday sales of about 2% over last year, although that is considered a slowdown based on the online shopping’s traditional year-over-year growth.

As I mentioned in this year’s Holiday Gift Guide, I have committed to shopping early and well this holiday season for once in my life. Yesterday, I knocked off about 70% off my list – by shopping entirely online.

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: Amazon: No Kindles For Christmas!

However, I think its a brilliant concept, and I knew it would be successful and spawn much better models down the line – and that is exactly what is happening this fall.

According to analysts, the new Kindle 2.0 is thinner, lighter, has a better screen, a better interface, better controls – but most importantly, its more *sexy*, like an iPhone – sex appeal was the #1 missing factor in Kindle 1.0. As a bonus, the price is coming down to under $300.

Although Amazon is not releasing exact figures, most analysts have predicted they have sold about 300,000 Kindles, and are looking at revenues of $100M+/yr based on unit, media, and vertical sales (you can download and buy ebooks wirelessly in about 2 min, plus you can buy anything on Amazon from the device).

In addition, a second Kindle is being launched in an 8.5×11″ form factor, designed more for textbooks, which are more likely to include advanced illustrations, tables, graphs, and figures which presumably need the bigger screen.

I can’t imagine what it would be like to go to college with a Kindle instead of textbooks. I probably had 30 or so books to buy a semester, weighing a total of 20 lbs. Half I would need to buy at one campus bookstore, the others were only available at the other bookstore on the other side of campus. Of course in the beginning of the semester at least 10% of your books would not be in stock, so you would have to revisit the stores to get them. Also inevitable was the 10% of books on the course’s list that the professor ‘never got around to’. Then you would have drag them back to the bookstore at the end of the year to get some really disappointing news on their resale value.

How about clicking your professor’s Amazon reading list link from his Facebook page – while in class – and having all of the books downloaded onto your Kindle instantly? In your knapsack, just a notebook computer, a Kindle, and your iPhone. Bliss.

Read more at BusinessWeek

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: New Kindle 2.0 Release Date Sept/Oct- ‘They’ve Jumped To Generation Four Or Five’