it looks better than the last version. it seems amazon has finally found a few bucks to spend on an industrial design that doesn't look like it's been inspired by kryten's head.

count me out in screaming for book readers, though. as much as i like the availability of them, i much prefer real books. i know people that swear by e-readers and have done so since the day of the newton, but it's my personal opinion (and nothing else) that the aren't going to replace dead trees any time soon.

magazines and other periodicals make way more sense, but as long as i can read them on their respective websites, i don't see a huge point in paying subscription fees to amazon.

i think their DRM-induced inability to be shared with others (correct me if i'm wrong there), makes the whole distribution model only appealing for specialized markets, that demand high subscription rates now. face it - who here would still pay $100 bucks a year for hard copy delivery of macweek magazine?

especially if you couldn't leave it in the bathroom for everybody else to read...

Yes, Apple should steal the idea of the Classics authors and get into that business. That sounds like Apple.

It's just too bad the classics program doesn't give you your own books to read, just theirs.

I own the first iteration of the Kindle and absolutely love it. There are some very nice things about the Kindle 2 that I like. Thinner, better e-ink screen, better button placement, more storage, better case for it, etc. I will get one as soon as possible and pass the older Kindle to my wife. It may be a while though as I am still recovering from my aluminum MacBook purchase. :)

Steve Jobs made a huge blunder when he said "“It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore. Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.”

Never has Steve exhibited such shortsightedness. The Kindle is the first installment in the future of reading. My wife and I have bought (and read) more than 100 books for our Kindles in the past year, plus (grudgingly, now) many paper books. The first Kindle was great, the second will be better... Sounds a bit like Macs and iPods, except that Apple is not in this game. Too bad. This could have been an even bigger world changer with Apple's name on it. Now, if Apple ever decides to get into this game it's going to have to license technology from Amazon, because Apple cannot duplicate Amazon's book distribution system.

"Guest" says "bah" and wonders what if Apple... But Apple didn't. See first two paragraphs. And, by the way, PDF's and other documents not originating at Amazon may be transferred to the Kindle via Stanza for Mac.

"ricardogf" will keep his "natural paper books" close, he says. Thousands of them in the palm of his hand? (By the way, paper is a human invention, not found in Nature any more than Kindles are found in Nature.)

"Tofino," you are corrected. Kindle accounts are based on household and Amazon account. We have two Kindles in the household and each can access all purchased items. It could be 10 Kindles, and they could all hold the same material, at the same time.

Not one person here, and relatively very few anywhere, has said "I have a Kindle and I don't like it." I use Stanza to read books on my iPod. It's OK for what it is, but the Kindle is book-like and the iPod is not. No comparison. Skeptics change their tune when the get a Kindle. Those who don't get it, don't get it.