Kindle 2.0 is out! Should it go back inside now?

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Happy Monday to everyone.  Today is K day!  The new Kindle 2.0 is out and is practically everywhere on the net.

Let’s take a look, shall we?

The Good:
Kindle 2.0 took a bite out of Apple’s marketing plan by making it’s Gen2 device:

• A little more sleek, a lot more sexy and very easy to use. 
• It now comes with an internal battery, which provides longer life, and more EV-DO web time with less battery drain.
• The on-board memory has been increased to 2GB of space.  This translates to about 1,500 books on the device.
• 16, COUNT THEM 16 shades of Gray, which is more than the 4 that K1  has.  That’s more black and white than even the justice system can handle.  The screen can be it’s own Film Noir.
• The price appears to have remained the same at $359, but it’s still within the range of competitors.
• Let’s also not forget the sexy new silver back, improved navigation with a new 5-way controller (because it’s easier to move the buttons on the device than just move our hands…)
• More power efficient as it now uses integrated power and USB
• Includes a text to speech converter, in case you have a fetish that includes robots reading romance novels and other illicit fiction to you. (oh yeah!) Or if you just happen to be visually impaired (neat addition then) or just too lazy to read (Steve Jobs)

The Bad:
As with every device there are some downsides, let’s list them out for the sake of argument.

• The first is that the price does not include a carrying case as it did with the first edition.  I can live with that, since there are more features, and there are Oh So Many New Cases. 
• They got rid of the SD Card slot!!!!  This really pisses me off as a consumer.  When nearly all other  major competitors have an SD Card Slot.  No, really the SD slot removal is one of the way’s we lose control over how we manage our own content and become slaves to DRM materials. I get it, I do, but I want to control my own documents without interacting with the device sometimes too.  Also, it’s how I can share my non DRM books with another Kindle owner. (if I ever get to meet one IRL, ha!)
• The new 2.0GB hard drive is really 1.4GB after OS, and other software are included.  Still not bad, but I have a 4GB card because I am a greedy book hoarder.
• The scroll-button, which I have personally come to love is no longer there.  It’s an asthetic that I can learn to live with, but only after a sort mourning period.
• It looks more like an iPhone now… I just have to complain about that once so that people will know that not everything needs to look like a new iPhone.
• Still no support for ePub or other files like PDF out of the box.  Personal conversion or pay for conversion methods will still be needed, and PDB, PDF, ePub and other formats still not supported.  This will be a big one in terms of competive advantage, since Sony has learned to play nice with their local public librarys now. 

There are, however no ugly parts in the release.  There are still some features that need to be worked in, but for a generation 2 device, it’s not that bad.

That said, please note that unless my own Kindle fails to work, or gets smashed, or otherwise expires, I will not be purchasing any new e-readers.  I am curious to how durable the K1 is and just how long it will last. I had my Gen 1 iPod for three years before the battery even needed replacing. Four, before I got a new one, and now, it’s a 20GB hard drive that I still use sometimes. So, let’s see what Amazon does next, but let’s also take a moment to say, early adoption isn’t that bad, and just keep reading.

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Filed under Informational, Kindle, buying stuff, talk-tech