Amazon.com has followed up their revolutionary e-book reader, the Kindle, with a slightly more revolutionary e-book reader called the Kindle 2. Why do I say slightly more? Because not much has changed. At least not enough to satisfy the average book reader.

There have definitely been a few improvements. Things like longer battery life (~25%), increased storage (from 256MB to 2GB – or about 200 books to 1,500 books), and a smaller all around frame won’t disappoint anyone. Also, better placement of the page turning buttons will make everyone happier. Accidentally turning the pages was complaint number 1 for the first generation Kindle. The final addition worth mentioning is the text-to-speech capabilities.

Read-to-Me Feature
With the new text-to-speech feature, Kindle can read every newspaper, magazine, blog and book out loud to you, unless the book is disabled by the rights holder. You can switch back and forth between reading and listening, and your spot is automatically saved. Pages automatically turn while the content is being read, so you can listen hands-free. You can choose from both male and female voices which can be sped up or slowed down to suit your preference. In the middle of a great book or article but have to jump in the car? Simply turn on Text-to-Speech and listen on the go.

Even with all those improvements, I still am hesitant to recommend the Kindle 2. I can’t get over the price. $360 makes the Kindle 2 quite an investment. Especially when you consider books are going to set you back another $10 a piece. And since all media on the Kindle 2 has DRM protection, there’s no way around paying that $10 every time. Last time I checked, my public library was free.

My recommendation: Try before you buy. Find a family member or friend who has one and ask to borrow it. You had better love this thing before making such an investment. So, even with all the improvements, the Kindle 2 is not yet on my recommended list.

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