This is a spy shot, but let’s presume it’s the real deal.
We collectively slammed the first version. Is this better? Why did they make the changes they made? Discuss.
Well, they made it more Apple-like. Strange, because I think the old one looks just about right now, except for the odd ball button location for the page changes. Strange too that they made it bigger. I say, it looks like a step back.
Interesting. Not bad, but the small buttons make it look cheap still.
too wide compared to the screen. buttons look very cheap. side buttons look like their on the other side of the planet. 99 cent knockoff feeling.
very applish, wheres the flexible pull out lcd?
There’s something about the proportion of the thing that makes me cringe. It’s incredibly ugly. It looks like they’re trying far too hard to emulate a design but are just pulling things out of their ass.
It looks like some technology must be dominating on the inside to need all of that space around the screen. Maybe that’s why the first one was beveled, to try to visually thin it out.
The design sucks, the technology is drool-worthy.
It’s a tie.
Do we know who’s designing these ugly things?
why do I need a keyboard to read a book?
Wolfman: It has a keyboard because you can search Amazon’s catalogue remotely. You need to be able to enter the title of what you are looking for. However, since that is an occasional activity, it brings up the question of the dominance of the keyboard.
At first glance it reminded me of the Peek mobile
But this design is off, the thickness of that bezel is just killing it. I actually don’t mind the qwerty keyboard, I’d imagine it could come in handy for searching for keywords, adding brief notes (can you take notes? I’d hope so). It looks like they got rid of the flappy-paddle page turner which was a big complaint from the first version.
It’s not quite kindle 2.0 and more like kindle 1.1 update driver.
ah I see, so its trying to be a laptop come smart phone? It would be nice to see them do a super basic model like the flip camera did for recording video. Most people just read a book. Having a feature that makes the device 25% bigger for provisional limited use doesn’t make sense. They did to do some feature reversal.
Why not just put the buttons for the keys behind the e-paper display and then when the keyboard is needed, display an overlay on the paper?
Acidmonkey: I think that would be too difficult to use & scare customers away.
Why not just hinge the keyboard part to flip around to the back when not in use. That’s probably the easist.
The problem is they copied a 1st gen iPod. It needs to be all screen, page turn buttons on the side, and if a physical keyboard is really needed, it needs to fold or slide away.
The first one was odd, but almost kind of compelling in its oddness. This is awful. It’s twice as big in plan view as it should be. You’re trying to replace a book, one of the simplest objects we interact with. Replace it with something simple, not something that looks like a giant white Blackberry.
Scott: Amen brother
I agree, it is an ugly design, the keypad and some buttons could be concealed by numerous methods. But I can see reason into some of the physical design.
Consider how a book is read: body posture, hand hold positions and duration. Are these not different enough than those for pda type devices. Of course, I am only considering actual reading, not searching, acquiring, notating, etc.
Perhaps, assuming here, the requirement was for suitable hand hold areas that do not impinge on a certain screen size, thereby emulating actual paper book anthropometry. All print materials have significant white space around the body copy.
Further assumption, perhaps some research showed a more compact geometry maximizing screen to device ratio resulted in fingers overlapping the screen: possibly a source of negative feedback. And consider that on pda type devices the screen and joystick type buttons are failure items 1a and 1b.
A short article on the Guardian site regarding the new kindle.
Im really surprised no one has brought up Sony’s reader. Basically the same thing, but looks a little nicer. Im not a huge fan of the real estate below the screen, but I suppose it dos need some room for internal components. I dislike that it doesnt have wifi as well.
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665245740
The only thing the Kindle has on the Sony or iRex is the lifetime free cell-phone based internet. But the included RSS reader and such is too lacking to make use of it much.