Amazon unveils lighter, thinner, text-to-speech Kindle

Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled the Kindle 2 today, a thinner, lighter version of the original e-reader introduced 14 months ago.

The new device, at 10.2 ounces, is also .36 inches thick, thinner than the .48 inch thick iPhone, Bezos said at an announcement event in New York City. It also has 25% longer battery life than before, according to the Amazon.com Web site.

It will sell for $359 and is scheduled to ship Feb. 24.

Page turns are also 20% faster and a new text-to-speech feature allows Kindle to read every book, or newspaper article aloud, Amazon.com said.

As rumored in advance, novelist Stephen King attended the event and said he will be writing a story for the Kindle. King read an excerpt of the story titled Ur , which is about a Kindle, at the press event.

Bezos told an audience of reporters that the device will rely on a body of 230,000 books, which some critics have found too restrictive even at that size. But the Amazon.com site points out that the e-book selections are the "Earth's Biggest Electronic Book Selection." "Even the best device without selection is useless," Bezos said.

The Kindle 2 has a six-inch diagonal display with 600 x 800 pixel resolution. In all it is 8 x 5.3 x .36 inches in size and weighs 10.2 ounces. Internal storage is seven times greater than the earlier model, with 2GB.

The increased battery life will allow a user to read on a single charge for up to four days with the wireless connection turned on, according to Amazon.com. It fully charges in four hours.

A 3.5 mm stereo audio jack is provided along with rear-mounted stereo speakers.

Computerworld

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