Amazon re-kindles the Kindle e-reader

Fwd Tech  Monday 09 February 2009

Amazon e-reader sequel unveiled; trees breathe sigh of relief

The Amazon Kindle 2 has just been launched. It’s official. The Kindle, not to be confused with Detective John Kimble, the character Arnie played in 1990 hit comedy Kindergarten Cop, is an e-reader!

So what does it offer? Well, for starters it has a QWERTY keyboard and 3G net connectivity, and at just under a centimetre thin, it’s highly portable. Ideal you might say, if you like wearing trousers as tight as Russell Brand’s.

A five way controller also allows you to flit through everything, from novels to newspapers, quicker than it would take you to say “Read all about it” and the battery has been improved by 25 per cent over Kindle number one. Not only that, the Kindle 2 can now store up to 1,500 “books” (as long as they’re not all the length of the War of the Roses that is).

With the ability to download magazines and newspapers, this e-reader might even knock Sony’s effort off its perch. Available at Amazon.com for pre-order, it’s out in March, with a UK release likely later on in the year. In the meantime, we’ll finish our paper copy of the Beano. That Mini the Minx cracks us up!