Hello, folks. We’re here at the Amazon press conference and will be live blogging the event. Everyone is expecting Kindle 2 to be announced today. What new features have been added? What changes have been made? Keep it here at Gadgetell. Hit refresh to keep getting updates.
No big surprises. No big new features other than text to speech. The screen is 6-inches and displays 16 gray tones. Additionally, I got to see a Kindle 1 vs. a Kindle 2 and the new one is an incredible improvement. The Kindle 2 has over a 1GB of onboard storage but does not have any room for expansion. If you ordered a Kindle 1 recently, Amazon might send you a Kindle 2 instead. We’ll have more photos and videos soon.
King’s character gets a pink Kindle. Jeff made King a pink one as a gift. The novella is called “Ur” by Stephen King and is only on the Kindle. You can pre-order today. When it’s released, it will be automatically delivered to your Kindle.
USA today, WSJ, NY Times, Washington Post on the Kindle 2. The New Yorker, new blogs including Gizmodo added.
What do you get with Kindle 2? Free 3G access to 230k books. No contracts. 9. Ships on Feb. 24th.
For Kindle 1 owners — if order before midnight tomorrow night, they get a priority in getting the device. And we’re done.
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Strange. Stephen King is reading a story that he wrote with a product placement for the Kindle. Reading time is over.
He’s talking about his new Kindle and he’s reading us a part of the story he wrote — a scene where a character comes face to face with the Kindle. He calls the text-to-speech feature the “GPS voice.” He wrote the story in January and downloaded to the Kindle recently.
Books are .99 and delivered wirelessly in less than 60 seconds. “The Kindle is designed to disappear.” The idea is to just read what the author wrote. Here’s Stephen King, an author, to tell us things. He’s talking about how he will write an exclusive download for the Kindle and how he’s a customer.
Video is over, Jeff’s on stage again. Amazon’s goal is to get every book out there to the Kindle.
People love their Kindle 2. They are going to marry them. Okay, I made up the marrying thing.
The Kindle 2 is USB chargeable and the claim is 2 weeks on one battery charge.
Testimonials of Kindle 1 users after playing with Kindle 2 video is up now: They like the thinness and comfort. They are also claiming the display is very easy to read.
Text to speech has different speech rates. The voice isn’t too robotic. It keeps the page as it reads. That’s pretty cool
Jeff is showing off the dictionary feature. We’ll have some video of the demo soon. The dictionary look up is very quick. Completely new feature: text to speech
Demo time. Page forward button pushes in. The design is smarter.
7x more storage, all books are backed up on Amazon.com. Whispernet is still there — in 3G form. New feature — Whispersync — between Kindles. You can read on one device, switch to another. Amazon will bookmark stuff for you wirelessly.
Jeff Bezos is on stage talking about books. Talking about how little they have changed over time. He’s talking about short form vs. long form reading.
Now he’s talking about how e-book sales for Amazon went up since they came out with the Kindle.
He wanted the book to disappear — the Kindle couldn’t be heavy. It had to be readable in sunlight with long battery life. So far, he’s still talking about the original Kindle. Here are some testimonials about how people love the Kindle.
Those Kindle pics were the real deal. Jeff is holding the Kindle 2 and it is really thin. It makes the iPhone look like a pig. 16 shades of gray instead of 4. Longer battery life
The staff is setting up the lighting. Everybody’s getting their video cameras ready. We should get started any minute now.
The staff is setting up the lighting. Everybody’s getting their video cameras ready. We should get started any minute now.
Just got into the auditorium and there’s a big screen with plenty of literature-based quotes. What on earth could Amazon be introducing today?
cool but im new and i do not get it