Light My Kindle

A site called the Boy Genius Report claims to have pictures of the second generation Kindle. While Amazon hasn’t announced anything yet, the photos appear real, and the device itself doesn’t look like a fake.

Assuming the pictures are real, however, there seems little reason to buy the new one if you already own a Kindle. It’s approximately the same size as the original Kindle, maybe even a smidge bigger. The buttons are all pretty much the same, except the keyboard is now one continuous keyboard (rather than having the break in the middle) and the scroll wheel has morphed into a joystick (what for?). The back of the thing is awful - it looks like the back of an iPhone: silver, fingerprint-attracting, and probably really cold while waiting for a train in the middle of December.

The one improvement that I do appreciate is the addition of rounded corners. Sometimes when I’m reading my Kindle outside of the included case, the corners poke into my palms. It wasn’t enough to hurt, or to dissuade me from using my Kindle, but it is enough to annoy me. However, I won’t be buying a second generation Kindle just for rounded corners.

While the pictures appear legitimate, I am worried about a slight smudge that appears just to the left of where the Amazon Kindle logo appears on the current Kindle. Check out the bottom row of pictures in their gallery to see what I mean.

Check out the article and the photo gallery for yourself.

As a current Kindle owner, would the changes entice you to upgrade? If you don’t currently own a Kindle, are the changes enough to convince you to buy one?

I’m a huge Stephen King fan (as any casual reader of this site knows), so I was thrilled to see that his new collection of short stories, Just After Sunset, is available for pre-order on the Kindle.

I didn’t even know it was possible to pre-order Kindle books. After all, they don’t get shipped. I think it’s fantastic, though, that you can pre-order a Kindle book and have it arrive the day it’s available. I will definitely be on the lookout for more Kindle books to pre-order now that I know.

Amazon’s description reads:

Just After Sunset-call it dusk, call it twilight, it’s a time when human intercourse takes on an unnatural cast, when nothing is quite as it appears, when the imagination begins to reach for shadows as they dissipate to darkness and living daylight can be scared right out of you. It’s the perfect time for Stephen King.

Click here to pre-order Just After Sunset for your Kindle. It’s also available for pre-order in hardcover. Both will be available on November 11, 2008.

Ever wanted to see the insides of your Kindle? Now you can without taking it apart yourself. CNet took apart a Kindle and posted the pictures on their site.

It’s a pretty informative post about what all the shiny pieces are and how they help your Kindle be one of the coolest gadgets out there.

Check out news.CNet.com for the pictures.

Engadget caught a screenshot of a recent Verizon commercial with a special guest star - a Kindle! The commercial is an obvious ripoff of the “I’m a Mac/I’m a PC” commercials starring Justin Long, with the contrast being the “supercool” Verizon guy and the “lame” cable guy. The Verizon guy, for reasons unknown, is carrying a Kindle. Check out a piece of the screenshot below, and go to Engadget for the full video.

The Kindleville blog recently spoke with Chris Edwards, a high school teacher who has been utilizing several Kindle in his classroom. He sets up Kindle stations around the classroom and has students use them for 15 minute blocks at a time. When asked how the students respond to the Kindle, he said,

The students really seem to be reacting well to the Kindles. This generation is used to dealing with new technologies and I think they see the value in learning to work with something like this. They also respond well to the station techniques because they know that every 10 or 15 minutes there will be a transition where they can stand up and stretch. Besides, let’s face it, there’s something very Harry Potterish about the Kindle. I mean, we’re pulling information out of the air and it just sort of appears. That’s pretty cool.

The rest of the interview is quite enlightening, especially Edwards’ thoughts on a textbook version of the Kindle. You can read the full interview at kindleville.blogspot.com.

Despite rampant speculation about a new Kindle before the holiday season and a bigger Kindle designed for college students to replace their heavy textbooks with, Amazon spokesman Craig Berman confirmed there will not be a new Kindle in 2008.

He spoke to The New York Times and said,

Don’t believe everything you read. There’s a lot of rumor and speculation about the Kindle. One thing I can tell you for sure is that there will be no new version of the Kindle this year. A new version is possible sometime next year at the earliest.

Kindle owners can breathe a sigh of relief knowing their fancy new technology won’t be replaced for at least another four or five months.

There is an excellent thread on the Amazon.com Customer Discussions forum that has become a user-generated Kindle F.A.Q. There are answers to just about every question about the Kindle that you could imagine (including the identity of some of the authors on the screensaver), and if your question hasn’t been answered yet you can post it and you’re sure to get an accurate response from the very active forum members.

Check out the thread at the Amazon.com forum.

The Kindle Daily blog (which appears to only be available through the built-in Kindle store on the Kindle) announced that Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels are now available on the Kindle. All of them.

As someone who has never read the Bond novels, and only got into the Bond movies with the introduction of Daniel Craig as 007, I think this is very exciting. Now I’ll be able to read all of the novels conveniently on the Kindle.

Get your James Bond Kindle Editions today.

Amazon and Chase are running a promotion on the front page of Amazon.com today (as seen in the screenshot above) where you can save $100 on a new Kindle by signing up for (or using, presumably) the Amazon Visa card. That brings the price down to a very reasonable $259.

Click here to get your Kindle and take advantage of $100 off! That’s $100 more you can spend on Kindle books (roughly ten books at the full $9.99 price point).

In addition to the new Kindle request button being included on books that don’t currently have a Kindle version, Amazon is also including a “read this on your Kindle” button on books that do have Kindle versions available. Check it out under The Mist below: