Kindle 2 announced

$359 just seems way too overpriced - especially these days. I'd love to buy a Kindle but I'm not really willing to pay more than $249 for it.

Happy that they "sold out" last fall and forced me to wait. Will buy, but not review-unseen (I could wait 2 years and still be first on my block although there is at least one in the community).

It would be nice to have this device in other markets. I live in Australia and there is nothing like the kindle available here.

can't say i've (as yet) heard of an e-paper-based touchscreen device. i get the feeling that the addition of a touchscreen, on top of having a larger screen (otherwise what's the point?) would be a battery killer though.

Yes, it is expensive. Why so expensive? Is the display the cost driver? Speaking of display, I would much prefer the whole thing to be a display with a touch interface that disappears when I'm doing the main activity of the device: reading. This may be a Mac users POV, but thing is just WAY to buttony. No need for all though, especially since you could put it all into a touch interface. Probably the combination of touch and e-paper doesn't exist....

@netmac Agreed, 99.999% of the time I will be at home and able to DL content without EVDO, and I bet for 99% of people who might consider the Kindle it would be fine that way as well. I wonder how much of the price is the EVDO hardware

@LC21 - "but the iPod Touch is a perfectly fine reader. " I think that the primary difference is the display. I can read text on my Samsung Omnia, too...but I think that the eye strain would make it painful to read a daily newspaper, let alone an entire book. --tayme

EVDO hardware is cheap. (Probably they are now using the newish multi-protocol chips that can follow the EVDO to HSPA transition when the time comes, also found in better laptops.) Part of cost is paying for the Sprint accounts which do the data transfer (I have no idea how much that is). For the period from purchase until failure of device or Sprint whichever comes first (at this point, likely an open question). More expensive than I would like, but not stopping me.

I would've prefered having clear plastic buttons with the letters behind them, thereby eliminating the issue of letters wearing off after a while of use. Plus it looks MOAR AWESOMER!

Not inexpensive by any means. Assuming you read 26 books per year at an average price of $15.00 is $390. Hmmm, subscribe to Audible Books 2 credits per month @ $22.95 is $550.80 year. Buy the Kindle add 26 books for the year it's slighly higher than an Audible book subscription at least for the first year. On demand delivery of newspapaers too. It's a viable option. $249 would have been sweet.

"The two US CDMA carriers have announced their plans for 4G services. Verizon is going LTE, and Sprint is going WiMax, at least for now. LTE seems to have the momentum, although WiMax has deployments." LTE seems to be the next logical option for cellular providers since it doesn't require a huge change in infrastructure, although it will for a CDMA provider, since it's based on GSM technology which would indicate that they're also bailing out of CDMA altogether. WiMAX has had numerous problems already too, but it's closer to WiFi than anything else. Face it, CDMA is dead. "The HSPA series is 3G" "3.5G" actually. UMTS is considered "3G". Rogers uses both HSDPA and HSUPA on their network, and downlink speeds currently run at 7.2Mbps - half of the maximum attainable on standard HSPA. Bell and Telus currently offer EVDO Rev.A which runs at a maximum of 3.1Mbps, so it's a sizeable jump. Telus is a big company in Western Canada. They are BC's local phone company, but have cellular access nationwide too. Bell Canada only does local phone access in Ontario and in some parts of Manitoba. They also run their cell phone service nationwide. Rogers is practically everywhere though. They own a huge chunk of Shaw Cable which is available in the west, but they also own all the GSM towers in Canada. Telus wants to start the transition to GSM for the Olympics, but Bell doesn't want to be shut out either, so they're also tagging along. I think they realized that they picked the wrong technology in the long run, and they'll just partner along with Rogers to build more GSM towers and make it a singular network in Canada. I think that'll be the best option though, because the EVDO networks typically employ ESN-based phones, whereas GSM networks can use SIM-card phones, making it easy to switch carriers. The CRTC (Canadian Radio and Telecommunication Commision) already made it mandatory for digital telecom operators (including VoIP carriers) to allow for phone number portability. With phone hardware portability becoming an option down the road, it'll be good for consumers.