Rumors regarding the upcoming launch of the second iteration of Amazon's Kindle portable eBook reader have been floating around the Internet for quite a long time now, but it seems that the time of rumors is finally over. Hence, the company has decided that it's about to bring into the spotlight its new eBook reader, a device that should, at least theoretically, firmly establish the online retailer as the most important name on the eBook distribution market.

So, at a very interesting event, which took place at the Morgan Library from New York, Amazon, through the voice of its CEO, Jeff Bezos, finally unveiled the Kindle 2. And boy, was it worth the wait. Plus, there was also a surprise, since the Kindle 2 comes pre-loaded with a new novella by famous author Stephen King, which will apparently be available solely on Amazon's eBook reader.

Since quite a lot of people have been talking about the Kindle for a very long time, it was expected for leaks to occur, and sure enough, they did. However, now that the device has officially been announced, we can see that the leaks have actually been pretty correct, at least as far as the device's external aspect is concerned.

Hence, the leaked photos seem to be quite accurate. So, we're talking about a very slender, thin device (just 0.36 inches thick, which makes it slimmer than the iPod), whose rear side is made from brushed aluminum, which makes it resemble the aforementioned Apple player to some extent. It features a grid keyboard, as well as a re-arranged button order, plus no slider and a 5-way controller, which can be used for moving through the pages and for searching for the definition of a certain word within the built-in New Oxford American Dictionary.

The device’s 6-inch, 600 x 800 electronic paper display provides 16 shades of gray, while the built-in battery has been improved in order to provide more reading time. Thus, users will be able to read for four to five days on one charge with wireless on and for over two weeks with wireless turned off.

Other very interesting novelties are the fact that the Kindle 2 provides seven times more storage space than the original Kindle (namely, a total of 2GB), and is also capable of automatically receiving newspaper and magazine information. Plus, it sports a little feature called Whispersync, which allows users to read on several different devices and switch between them, need be.
The new Kindle 2 also sports a text-to-speech engine, which explains the presence of the speakers on the rear side of the device. Moreover, Kindle 2 uses the same wireless delivery system as the original Kindlem, namely the Amazon Whispernet, so the digital content can be delivered instantly to all the Kindles out there.

As everyone pretty much already knows by now (with Amazon just confirming the leaks), the new Kindle 2 will sell for 360 US dollars and will start shipping on February 24. However, until then, you can pre-order it at will.


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