Boy Genius has what are purported to be the first shots of the Kindle 2.0. (See his photo gallery here.) Overall, the design looks more rounded, a non-split keyboard, and... larger??? That's a disappointing surprise. I would have expected Amazon to have hired new designers to make the device smaller and more streamlined. It also looks like they've replaced the scroll-wheel with the much-loved navigation pane on the right with a joystick -- another surprising move. If initial speculation is correct, Amazon also eliminated the SD card slot and the removable battery. Two more strange moves.
I hope this is not the actual unit or that there will be a major software upgrade to go along with it. (Amazon, please include the ability to read PDF files.) Overall, this is a bit of a disappointment to see. I wish Amazon would take a design class from Sony or Apple. Currently Amazon wins the function wars of eBook readers, but Sony is winning on form.
As I mentioned earlier, I am out visiting family this weekend and so haven't been blogging much. This gave Ali a chance to scoop me on this story, despite a reader linking to this in a comment on my Sony Reader post on Friday.
2 comments:
Boy Genius has an impeccable track record when it comes to rumors of new devices...I'd say his accuracy is above 95%.
So the odds are that this is the new design for the Kindle.
I agree...I expected more. I'm not even sure this is an improvement on the current model. Maybe Amazon leaked this to spur sales of the current unit :)
A scoop is a scoop. Comments don't count =P
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