Iron-clad rumor: Kindle 2 arriving February 9

It's totally unofficial, but all signs -- including word of a big Amazon event coming on February 9 -- point to the much-anticipated second version of the Amazon Kindle hitting the market in less than two weeks.

The New York Times has the analysis: Jeff Bezos will be hosting an event at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York on the 9th (event at a library... suspicious already), but the Times' real proof is on the Kindle page on the Amazon site: Previous wait times suggested a three-month backlog, but that's now been reduced to four to six weeks. (On the other hand, won't the Kindle 2 have its own product page on Amazon? And will Amazon continue to sell the Kindle 1 after the new version is released?)

Leaked photos -- always a dicey proposition -- show a Kindle 2 with a more classic (some might say it's even iPhone-like) design, dumping the weird angles and haphazardly-placed buttons for a cleaner look and simple, round buttons. The screen looks the same on the surface (no color, sorry), but it's said to use a new technology under the hood that refreshes much faster than the first version of the device, correcting a common complaint from users that the Kindle was slow to "turn" pages. (As the Times notes, Sony's latest touchscreen-based reader already uses this technology.)

Check out Boy Genius Report's alleged photos of the new Kindle in the previous paragraph and sound off on your thoughts. Better? Worse? Assuming the price is roughly the same, are you more or less likely to buy one now? Or rather... more or less likely to put yourself on the waiting list for one? No matter what, my guess is that Amazon has done nothing to correct its supply chain issues and perpetual problems keeping the Kindle in stock.