• On CHOW: Sexy vampire party
February 24, 2009 2:50 PM PST

Amazon Kindle 2: A full review

by David Carnoy

(Credit: Amazon)

There's been a lot of anticipation about what Amazon would do for an encore to its much-hyped e-book reader, the Kindle, and now that it's finally here we can say that the Kindle 2 is about what we expected it to be. Talk of it being a huge leap forward or going from generation one to generation five in one fell swoop was really, well, just talk.

In reality, the Kindle 2 is a nice upgrade over the original Kindle; yes, it leaves off a couple of key items--most importantly removable memory and a protective carrying case--but it makes up for it with a slicker design, improved performance, increased internal memory, built-in speakers, and a new feature, Text-to-Speech audio reading.

That's all you need to know in a nutshell. But I did write about 2,500 more words on the device if you want the full skinny on Amazon's Kindle 2.

Read the review.

Hunkered down in New York City, Executive Editor David Carnoy covers the gamut of gadgets and writes his Fully Equipped column, which carries the tag line "The electronics you lust for." He's also the author of "Knife Music," a novel. E-mail David. Follow David on Twitter.
Recent posts from Crave
Beamer, the iPhone case for night owls
This week in Crave: Day of the Droid edition
Verizon's LG Chocolate Touch is nice but nothing new
Popular iPhone movie app flops on BlackBerry
Top 5 most popular products for November
Ridiculous new Peeks inspired by TwitterPeek
Hands-on with the Nokia Booklet 3G
Battle of the international power plugs
Add a Comment (Log in or register) (3 Comments)
  • prev
  • 1
  • next
by macewan_ February 24, 2009 3:55 PM PST
$350+ is $200 too much. Call me when Amazon wakes up from the dream.
Reply to this comment
by Farthing Haypenny March 4, 2009 11:48 AM PST
Amen brother!
by TiVoJoe February 25, 2009 8:52 AM PST
I won't receive my Kindle until later today but from my reading of the user guide it seems that your statement that you have to pay to have a document converted to Kindle format is not entirely correct. The user guide reads "You can have the converted files sent wirelessly to your Kindle for a small fee or to the e-mail address associated with your Amazon account for free." Once you receive the converted file you can then download it to the Kindle from your computer.
Reply to this comment
(3 Comments)
  • prev
  • 1
  • next

About Crave

The name says it all. Crave is our blog about gorgeous gadgets and other crushworthy stuff. If you would like to contact Crave with a tip or comment, please write to: crave@cnet.com

Add this feed to your online news reader

Crave topics

FAQ: Buying the right Windows 7 upgrade

Readers still have lots of questions on just which version of the software they need to buy in order to upgrade their PC. CNET News tries to offer some answers.

N.Y. lawsuit details Intel's 'largesse' toward Dell

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's federal antitrust case filed Wednesday alleges a longstanding symbiotic relationship between Intel and Dell.