Amazon launches new Kindle 2 on their site (pre sales only).  As you see the Kindle 2 is slim but largest than Kindle 1 which is a bit odd for me.

Compare dimensions:

Kindle 1 - Size (in inches): 7.5″ x 5.3″ x 0.7

Kindle 2 - Size (in inches): 8″ x 5.3″ x 0.36″.

Here the other details:

Slim: Just over 1/3 of an inch, as thin as most magazines
Lightweight: At 10.2 ounces, lighter than a typical paperback
Wireless: 3G wireless lets you download books right from your Kindle, anytime, anywhere; no monthly fees, service plans, or hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots
Books in Under 60 Seconds: Get books delivered in less than 60 seconds; no PC required
Improved Display: Reads like real paper; now boasts 16 shades of gray for clear text and even crisper images
Longer Battery Life: 25% longer battery life; read for days without recharging
More Storage: Take your library with you; holds over 1,500 books
Faster Page Turns: 20% faster page turns
Read-to-Me: With the new Text-to-Speech feature, Kindle can read every book, blog, magazine, and newspaper out loud to you
Large Selection: Over 230,000 books plus U.S. and international newspapers, magazines, and blogs available
Low Book Prices: New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases $9.99, unless marked otherwise [via amazon.com]

Amazon Kindle 2 Leather Cover $29.99

Patagonia Book Case $39.99

Cole Haan Grain Cover Case $99.99

Cole Haan Patent Cover Case $119.99

Cole Haan Smooth Cover Case $99.99

Cole Haan Woven Cover Case $119.99

Belkin Neoprene Sleeve Case $24.99

The Kindle 2 costs you $359 USD and is going to be available for sale on February 24th, 2009 (edit: unconfirmed).

The Pixelar e-reader contains a relatively sufficient 512MB of internal flash memory that can hold up to 1,000 books. It emplos a 6 inch 600 x 800 resolution e-Ink technology display (similar to Kindles). The reader also has an SD card that effectively expands the memory to up to 4 GB. The Pixelar e-Reader is also quite svelte, measuring just 184 x 120 x 9.9mm and only ways 22 grams including the battery.

The Pixelar rates that the battery life will get up to 8,000 page turns. Of course, battery life will be much faster if you use the built in MP3 function. What I love about Pixelar’s reader is the sheer amount of formats that it can read. To whit, it can read the following: PDF, MOBI, DOC, WOLF, MP3, HTML, TXT, CHM, FB2, Djvu, PNG, TIF, GIF, BMP, JPG, PPT, EPUB, LIT and PRC.

The screen technology means that you won’t have any problems reading in direct sunlight. There’s also a multi language menue and three levels of font adjustments. You can even add bookmarks to a page or book. Priced at £219 with a free 1GB SD Card, travel charger, USB leade, earphons and a leather pouch. [via gadgetspy]

CrunchGear predicts ”the new Kindle is thinner and has a nicer design and probably has a touchscreen,” and doubts the device will include a color screen because “Color e-ink is still in its infancy.”

The Los Angeles Times talks to analysts and concludes the new Kindle may have “a better battery life” and a “design that relocates the page-forward and page-back buttons so users would be less likely to hit them accidentally.”

The New York Times Bits Blog reports, “The new Kindle likely uses the new Broadsheet microchip from Epson and E-Ink” — technology that “breaks the screen into 16 pixel sets and can update them in parallel, allowing for faster screen refreshes and a generally more responsive screen.”

[via techflash]

Foxit Software are the folks behind Foxit Reader, a free PDF reader that is a great alternative to the standard Adobe Reader.  The folks at Foxit know text file conversion and formats and in a surprising twist are going to introduce an electronic ebook reader in January.

The eSlick will be short on bells and whistles but it will only set you back $229 in January and $259 shortly after that.  It’s a simple device with a built-in MP3 player, 128 MB of memory, SD slot (2 GB card included) and a 600 x 800 screen.  It appears to only read PDF files and Foxit is including software to facilitate creating your own PDF files to put on the eSlick.

Full specs:

Screen:6? E Ink® Vizplex screen 600 x 800 pixel resolution at 166 dpi, 4-level gray scale
Size: 7.4? x 4.7? x 0.4? (188×118×9.2mm)
Weight: 6.4 ounces (180g) battery included
Color: Black/Gray/White
Connectivity: USB2.0
Operating System: Embedded Linux
Supported Formats:
- eBook Formats: PDF, TXT, Any printable document(after converted to PDF using included software)
- Sound Formats: MP3
Internal Memory: 128MB
Storage Memory: SD Card (2GB included. Supports up to 4GB) [via salon.com]

Amazon has modestly cut the price its Kindle E-Book reader.  Barely released late last year, the white hand-held reader is now 10% off at $359 and buyers will also receive free two-day shipping.  Amazon hasn’t released an official statement about the price cut (at least not yet), but this should provide a decent boost in sales for anyone sitting on the fence. [via tgdaily]

How many Kindles are out there? To date we’ve only heard the vaguest of anecdotes. Now some theoretical numbers: According to Asian tech pub Digitimes, the Taiwanese company that makes the display module for the Kindle and other e-readers is shipping 60,000-80,000 of them monthly and expects that number to hit 120,000 by the second half of the year. [via indiekindle]

Prime View International, which manufactures the Kindle’s 6-inch electrophoretic display (EPD), says 60% of those displays go to Amazon. That means Jeff Bezos is ordering up to 48,000 per month–and the number could approach 72,000 by year’s end, if PVI’s forecast is accurate.

 Also, the Kindle could contribute 3% of Amazon’s overall revenue in two years, argues Citi analyst Mark Mahaney, who has a born-again relationship with the device. Combining device and book sales in an iPod/iTunes-like model, Mark says, the Kindle could add $750 million to Amazon’s top line in 2010. [via alleyinsider]

After six weeks without product because of booming demand, BooksonBoard now once again has Cybooks available, this time with increased on-board memory (easily allowing for the storage of up to 500 eBooks) and longer battery life.

BooksonBoard (www.BooksOnBoard.com), a leading provider of eBooks and audio books, shipped the first back-orders today and has enough units to fill new demand for a short time.

At a new reduced priced of $379 (including $25 worth of new eBooks for free from BooksOnBoard), the Cybook Gen 3 Ultralight is 30% lighter than the Sony Reader and 50% lighter than the Kindle.

“Weight is very important when you’re trying to hold a piece of hardware for hours at a time while you read,” says Bob LiVolsi, CEO of BooksOnBoard, “Plus the Cybook uses the Mobipocket format which is generally available and an industry standard.”

The Ultralight North American bundle includes $25 toward eBooks or downloadable Audiobooks, premium leather case, USB charger, and USB cable.

There’s no final price yet, but Astak’s eBook reader with five-inch display might be the reader for folks on a budget. Rumors are that the device will arrive in the U.S. next month and could cost as low at $150, which if true, gets this type of device more in line with the consumer electronics market. That’s not suggesting that a $399 Kindle won’t sell; obviously it can and does. But most folks I speak with that show an interest in the Kindle really balk at the price.

Supported formats: TXT, PDF, RTF, HTML/CHM. May an FBReader ports appear for the Astaks, so people can at least enjoy nonDRMed Mobipocket, as well as ePub, the standard of the future! And who knows? I wonder if old editions of Mobipocket’s own software might run on the six-inch and ten-inch Astaks (WIN CE5.0), even now. Unlikely but you never know. The five-incher runs Linux (QT environment). Any FBReader possibilities for that one even now?

Given all this competition, combined with the dearth of titles available to load on them, it might be worth sticking with pulp for awhile to see if prices go even lower. [via astak]