I'm a great believer in the e-book concept; having been reading e-books since the Apple Newton (and down through various Palms, Sony Reader PRS505, and Kindle 1). The dream has always been a portable electronic device that could hold a ton of reading material, automate subscriptions and facilitate quick easy downloads, and be as portable, as easy on the eyes, and as intuitive as a book. The Kindle 1 was the first really practical device to get close to that dream. The combination of the reflective e-ink screen, effortless Whispernet wireless cellular connection to Amazon (and the Internet - without requiring hooking up to a computer, ever), and Amazon's tremendous ability to rope in a critical mass of book and periodical content made the promise of the e-reader real for the first time. But the Kindle 1 had some rough edges that got in the way of effortlessly reading. Things like the buttons that made it easy to accidentally turn pages; the separate cursor on the side that could only select lines and was sometimes hard to see; the occasionally awkward menus; the case which practically forced you to remove it to use it and sometimes pulled the battery door off. With the Kindle 2, Amazon has addressed all these issues and more. Each of the differences looks superficially subtle, but they collectively combine to make the Kindle 2 feel polished and comparatively effortless to use. It comes closer than any other device yet made to getting out the way and leaving the reader alone with the text, like a book.
The first thing that grabs you about the Kindle 2 is how elegantly thin it is. The Kindle 2 is THIN. It positively disappears in your briefcase. The second thing is the buttons. They are smaller, but well placed and critically pivot from the edge inwards towards the screen. This means that when you handle the Kindle 2 by the edges, the pages don't change even if you grab by the buttons. Yet changing pages is effortless when you do - the buttons are right between your thumbs and the slightest pressure on their faces is enough to activate them. The problem with the case was addressed by using a post-in-slot locking arrangement reminiscent of recent Palm organizers. The fact that you must buy the case now is disappointing but the silver lining is that you can opt to individualize your Kindle. The issue with the battery door opening is thus solved, but Amazon went further, eliminating the door altogether and wrapping the back with sleek stainless steel. It is tactile and elegant, but doing away with the door means doing away with the SD memory card slot that the Kindle 1 had, as well as the ability to change batteries. This is, undoubtedly, the most controversial aspect of Kindle 2. Frankly, I never used either the card slot or changed the battery on my Kindle 1 but I liked that they were there and I miss them on the Kindle 2, even though, I have to admit, I don't actually need them. In practice it's no hardship to live within a 2GB (1.4 GB available) limit, especially if you are willing to trust Amazon to archive items you are done reading. The screen is incrementally improved. 16 shades of gray is WAY better than 4. They say it's faster, but only a tiny bit. I notice the snappiness of Kindle 2's performance, but it's certainly not a dramatic difference. The e-ink screen's text quality is basically unchanged from Kindle 1. 40% white is pretty good, but the Kindle 2's screen looks just like the one on Kindle 1. Where the improved e-ink screen really shines is dynamic update - which is fast enough to allow a live cursor within the text area. This does away with the scroll wheel and side cursor of Kindle 1. In Kindle 2 this has been replaced with a 5 way joystick (4 directions plus click down to select). The joystick does plenty more than just allow you to actually select a word to get a definition on. It lets you quickly navigate periodicals - moving to the next article with just a click right or left, or up to the section or article list with a flick up or down. Losing the side cursor gives Kindle 2 a cleaner look - but it's the greatly improved navigation that's the real benefit. This ease of navigation is one of the most compelling new features of Kindle 2 for me. As for the text to speech feature, it is probably invaluable to some - but not me. I like Stephen Hawking a lot but don't want that voice to read me a book. Talk to me later and maybe I'll have changed my mind.
All in all, Kindle 2 feels like Amazon is getting to the soul of the e-reader. Most of the annoying things about Kindle 1 are gone, but almost all the strengths remain, or are accentuated. The trouble is, the differences are subtle. At first glance, Kindle 2's enhancements look very incremental; almost trivial. Clearly the future will hold color, and better contrast than 40% - but these enhancements are in E-ink's court, not Amazon's. I have other items on my wish list for the future - like being able to fold out a larger screen to better display bigger books. I'd like the content manager to allow me to create folders so I can organize my growing collection of titles. I really really want Kindle to be able to read PDF files natively (you still have to e-mail in your PDFs for conversion with Kindle 2). These thing will come, I'm sure, in time. Meanwhile, the Kindle 2 is currently the best e-reader on the planet. In terms of in-the-hand usability it blows Kindle 1 away.
Some of my colleagues and I at work have been talking lately about the implications of the Kindle on the future of the book. Kindle eradicates page numbers, loses the physical form, forces all books into a common size and shape, and homogenizes the typeface. Clearly something is lost compared with a printed book. Yet, what is gained is undeniable and as impending as the weather. The ability to carry whole libraries (like the iPod did for music), and the ability to get the daily paper, magazine, or a new book automatically - practically instantly - at a savings - is literally a dream come true. There's little doubt that Kindle has utterly transformed the book distribution model. The big divide seems to be Amazon's .azw, Kindle's file format, and .pdf, Adobe's Acrobat format which has become almost universal. PDF's universality has the feeling of almost being open source (which it is not) because the there's no copy protection or copyright features built into it. While .pdf-only format readers are around, and tons of .pdf titles are available, they tend to be composed disproportionately of public domain, technical libraries, and other arcana. That's because mainstream publishers don't want to sign on to a format that doesn't protect them. Amazon's .azw format does, and thus Kindle has that awesome selection of content. In the modern economics of increasing returns, early critical leads in technology tend to become dominant trends. Kindle's .awz format seems to be on the verge of having an unsurmountable lock on the e-book market as a result. When it comes to the actual book titles (and periodicals) you'd like to read, Amazon's Kindle has no competition. For me, the dream of a workable e-book is realized.
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Kindle DX Wireless Reading Device (9.7" Display, Global Wireless, Latest Generation)
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