Kindle 2.0

There are rumours that Kindle 2.0 will be released shortly. It might have colour display - right now it is only black & white - and may remove certain design defects (read below).

Just before I hear, Kindle ... what?, let me give a two line overview.

Kindleis a light-weight e-reader that is easy on the eye because of the e-paper technology. There are other e-readers in the market, and cheaper, such as Sony, but Kindle scores because of its content.

After all it is an Amazon product and there are more titles available on Kindle when compared to others. However, Kindle has a proprietary format and it is difficult to use with PDF format. There are several other design issues but the content rules. Besides, one can purchase and download (e)books, (e)magazines, blogs, etc. wirelessly on to Kindle. One could also download content over Internet.


What are the design issues?
First it is no apple product. If you expect an ubercool design, forget it.

Second, if you have ever "looked into" a book on Amazon, you would notice that the extract has two long side bars to move forward and backward. That makes it quite easy to use on a computer because you can point the mouse to any point on the side bar and move pages. Unfortunately, Kindle has duplicated this concept in a product that is held in hand. So you could accidentally depress the forward/backward key while reading.

Some people have cribbed about the lack of backlight (they are missing the point - the Kindle is supposed to replace paper and paper does not come backlit) and also about the fact that the Kindle cover does not stay (a most trivial point).

Do I have it?
Unfortunately no. It is not sold outside US.

Why do I speak of it?
Because I have spent most of my leisure hours lusting after it. I must have spent hours visiting Amazon, reading reviews and deriving vicarious pleasure from comments of those who possess Kindle.

I find it surprising that Amazon does not sell Kindle world-wide. There is such a huge market for Kindle that lies outside America. Whispernet may not be available outside of America. I do not want my newspaper delivered every morning on Kindle by wireless. but the convenience of buying and downloading books over Internet is a big plus. Just imagine having all my books on Kindle. 

Laptop ... iPod ... Kindle
Kindle will make my e-life complete.

Note: I have taken the picture of Kindle from the Amazon website.