Amazon launches Kindle 2 as expected

No surprises here. In the worst-kept tech secret since the iPhone 3G, Amazon has launched the second version of its Oprah-beloved Kindle e-book reader, a wholly redesigned unit with a more modest upgrade under the hood.

The new Kindle joins a small but growing collection of e-reader devices, including the Sony Reader (recently upgraded to include a touchscreen) and the iRex iLiad Book Edition (which includes an expandable storage feature).

Amazon's definitely making the right moves here, but will the upgrades push Kindle from niche curiosity to mainstream device? At $359 (shipping February 24), it probably still remains too pricey for mass-market appeal, but at least it's taking baby steps in the right direction. The biggest challenge might just be whether Amazon can work out its production problems; the original Kindle faced delays stretching for months while supply of the units was backordered. If Amazon wants to make the Kindle a hit, it first needs to make sure everyone who wants one of the devices can actually get one.

Here's what's in the new Kindle 2.

The biggest selling point is a more modern design. The display is still six inches diagonally, and the device weighs about the same as before (just over 10 ounces), but the shell and button design has been wholly revamped (and the device is now longer than before). The old trapezoidal case has been jettisoned for a curvy, modern one, with a simple grid of circular keypad buttons at the base instead of the angled rectangle buttons on the old Kindle. The big addition is a new five-way nav pad, much like on a cell phone, which is designed to make note-taking and highlighting easier, plus give users an easier way to jump between sections in an e-newspaper. A redesigned leather cover (no longer included with the base unit) also promises to fit better on the device.

Again, as rumored, Amazon has upgraded the display technology to a new version of the e-ink system. Page turns appear, on average, 20 percent faster than the original Kindle. As well, with 2GB of memory onboard, Amazon has nearly octupled the amount of storage space on the device. Battery life gets an upgrade, too, with the Kindle 2 running about 25 percent longer than Kindle 1 -- four to five days of typical reading time per charge.

Need to look up a word? Kindle 2 includes a 250,000-word dictionary onboard, offering instant definition of a highlighted term. Also, there's no need to worry if you're upgrading from Kindle 1 -- you can sync the content from your original Kindle to the new one, and according to Amazon you can even use both readers simultaneously.

Of final interest is an experimental text-to-speech system on the Kindle 2, which reads aloud from the page at the push of a button. Kindle can read anything it can display, though I haven't heard firsthand how good the audio sounds.

Other features -- including the wireless downloading system -- remain the same, and you can check out interviews, video demos, and more photos of the new device on this press site if you want to see it in action.