Just a friendly reminder that CrunchGear will be blogging live from the Amazon.com press conference on Monday, 2/9, at 10am eastern. How great is it going to be? Will Bezos be there? Will it involve Kindle 2s? Will there be dancers? Will it involve something even better and more incredible? We won’t know until Monday morning. Here’s what we know so far:
- It is an updated version with the same sized screen, a smaller form factor, and an improved interface. The source told us that Amazon has “skipped three or four generations,” comparing the old Kindle to the 1st gen iPod and the new version to something like the sexy iPod Mini.
- It’s a longer device but not as thick as the original Kindle, and fixes some of the button issues that plague users (like accidental page turns).
- It may have a touchscreen but if it has a color e-ink screen I’ll eat my hat, provided said hat is made of cake.
- There may be a new model shaped like an 8 1/2 x 11-inch piece of paper, is considerably bigger than the current model and should be available next year. This one would be for students.
- No word on pricing, but expect something in line with current pricing or less.
- The Kindle 1.0 is essentially being pulled and new new Kindles should ship shortly after announcement.
How excited are you?
Very
GREAT!
Excited? Well, I own the Kindle 1.0 so a little glum that the new one is coming out — the punishment of every early adopter of a technology is having to shell out the bucks again (unless Bezos offers upgrades??)
Jeff Bezos is the next Steve Jobs.
Think getting on the wait list now will roll over to the next gen? I guess there’s no harm in trying since Amazon is pretty friendly when it comes to canceling orders.
I’m hoping you get to eat a piece of that hat.
Yeah. Color screen or not, I want some of that cake hat. And definately some dancers, i’m there if you live-blog from the club.
John, if you could sneak a couple and send them to Charlie Flowers (c/o The Daily Hack) I’d greatly appreciate it! :D
Done and done!
The market is still strong on eBay for first gen Kindles. Mine sold in December for $475 (purchased for $360). I’m ready to click the buy button with overnight shipping (with Prime of course) as soon as the 2nd gen hits. It’s really a wonderful device and you really appreciate it the more you use it and discover all of its capability.
Can’t wait!
Autosurfing ^^^
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Amazon-to-offer-Kindle-ebooks-apf-14281372.html
It might be available as an application on the iPhone at some point, wouldn’t that be nice?
I don’t know if I’d read books on my iphone alone, but if I had a Kindle that I used, and I could read the books on my phone in case I didn’t want to carry my Kindle with me, I’d find that to be a benefit.
I kind of doubt it’ll be color, though that would be a deal-sealer for me (many of the periodicals and publication I enjoy, are color intensive). Also, I’d love to see more love for importing my existing electronic documents (the current system strikes me as clunky and limited).
What about the current system do you find clunky for electronic documents? I am able to get most pdf’s just fine…
My experience was based on loading PDFs produced for/from technical manuals (with Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional), i.e. layout intensive. It seemed that these documents did not appear the same way on the Kindle (albeit one of the first belonging to a co-worker) as they did on desktop with Adobe Acrobat.
I know this may seem nit-picky, but at the Kindle’s price point, a decent netbook seemed like a better investment on my part (color, other uses, better document comformity).
The Kindle really is a one-trick pony. However, it’s a trick that my entire life revolves around. I am so happy to be able to read without worrying about getting interrupted by the device I’m reading on. I used to read on my iPhone, and someone would call me any time I ever got to a tense moment. =x
I’d love a Kindle but Amazon says the device isn’t available to residents of Puerto Rico, even though it’s part of Sprint’s U.S. network. We eventually got the iPhone so I guess I can hope.
This is huge!!!!! I love the kindle. My favorite website below:
http://amazonbest.blogspot.com/
Jeff Bezos will never be the next Steve Jobs.
Bezos is the next Jerry Yang.
Can I loan my books to people yet? No?
I’ll wait, thanks.
Jeff Bezos = Money
Exciting. Can’t wait to see what they release about it.
No monthly wireless bills, service plans, or commitments. Good for college student. Need to get me one of these.
I am currently in the market for an e-book reader and the Kindle is really tempting given its easy availability in the US, the WhisperNet and the large amount of (relatively) cheap content available for it. However, as a graduate student, I would much rather have a device that had native PDF support and a bigger screen. I guess that 8.5×11 version you allude to *could* be that device but until it’s shown to be more than just vaporware, I am leaning towards the iRex iLiad (native PDF support, larger screen) even though I might have to sacrifice on the content side a little bit.
A little bit???
Well, I own the Kindle 1.0 so a little glum that the new one is coming out — the punishment of every early adopter of a technology is having to shell out the bucks again (unless Bezos offers upgrades??)
Full PDF support! I’d love to be able to email PDFs from my desktop.
sarcasm,not that much ………….lolz
Only available for US customers ? and UK, France, Italy ?
Yep I’ve asked the same question. Apparently our market isn’t important enough to them. Very US-centric. In Europe we don’t really compete either. Where are the European competitors to fill the gap?
Will be interesting to see what they roll out. I’m not a user yet, but give the product a bit more innovation, plus a price cut, and I might hop on the bandwagon.
Sounds like a great invention worth waiting for. Technology just keeps getting better. Reminds me of the tower of Babble.
John, we at KindleBoards will be watching every second of the CrunchGear coverage. Thanks for live-blogging this. – Harvey
Can I markup documents yet (e.g. highlight, write notes)? Until I can do that I can’t move away from paper.
Le sigh…
To all the morons that own a Kindle you could get yourself a netbook for the same price and do much more. Grow up!