Best Kindle 2 Feature Might Be The (Lack Of) Fine Print

"The response from customers to Kindle 2 has been tremendous. In order to ensure we ship Kindle 2 by the original ship day of Feb. 24, we started shipping one day early," said Ian Freed, vice president of Amazon Kindle, in a company statement. "We're excited about the new design and features of Kindle 2, and we think our customers will be, too."

ChannelWeb asked for comments on Kindle following Monday's post on e-book and e-reading issues and if there's one thing you're telling us en masse you love about Kindle and are looking forward to most about Kindle 2, it isn't the battery life (though you're fairly pleased), it isn't the long-term investment (yes, the $359 price tag is steep, but it pays for itself eventually, you're suggesting) and it isn't even the "Text-to-Speech" read-to-me feature (sounds cool, you're saying, even if it might be breaking the law.)

It's the display.

Amazon's Kindle 2 boasts 16 shades of gray (the original Kindle offered only four) for clearer text, reflects light like regular paper does—the Kindle does not use backlighting and is designed to reduce glare—and both text and images on the screen are adjustable: six different font sizes, and a zoom-in feature for images that allows them to take up the whole screen if you want.

"Given the fact that I am well past 40 and find small print difficult," said one commenter to ChannelWeb, "the Kindle is my answer and I think will also be so for others."

The Kindle is a "godsend," said Melinda Varian of Princeton, N.J., in a Boston Globe article examining Kindle user demographics. Varian, the Globe reported, has glaucoma and favors setting her Kindle text to large print. "We are retired and travel all the time, and I can carry a couple thousand books with us. It's fantastic."

Praise for the 16 shades of gray and adjustable font sizes has been echoed all over the Web, from tech blog message boards to a forum on Amazon.com devoted to Kindle issues with a section titled "Average Kindle Owner's Age." (As of Tuesday afternoon, the section had more than 950 posts—hundreds more than the other most recent discussion topics— and a skim of them revealed the discussion centered as much on eyesight and arthritis concerns—and how Kindle was good for them—as specific ages.)

Among other attributes, Kindle 2 feature a 25 percent longer battery life, allows more than 1,500 books with 2 GB of memory, includes "Whispersync" technology to save and synchronize reading location across Kindle devices, and enables page turns that are 20 percent faster than on the original Kindle.

The device weighs 10 ounces, and is, yes, available now, though not without competition.

Keep those comments coming, Kindle observers. Write to [email protected] and tell us why or why not the Kindle 2 is an electronics retailing slam-dunk.