What follows are my questions. We’ll see how many Amazon answers.

What are they calling the new Kindle?

Bezos: “Today I’m excited to introduce the Kindle 2.” Here’s a link to the new Kindle 2 detail page. “If you have previously placed an order for Kindle 1, and have not yet received it, your order will automatically be upgraded to Kindle 2. You need to do nothing. “

Has Amazon fixed the most glaring problems with the first-generation Kindle? (Gratuitous page turning, poor content management)

The page-turning buttons are much more compact, so that problem should be solved. I’ve got nothing on content management other than WhisperSynch and the fact that we can now delete content directly from the home screen. But with 1,500-title native storage, there better be folders!

What’s new about the Kindle 2 hardware?

It’s 0.36″ thick (about 3/4 as thick as the iPhone), with 7 times as much storage capacity as the original Kindle so that it holds 1500 books. The new Kindle is half an inch longer and half as thick as the old Kindle (at the widest edge of the Kindle 1’s wedge).

It looks just like the pictures that have been showing up on the web recently with improved button/bar placement and a grid keyboard. There’s an elegant 5-way controller that allows you to move the cursor through documents, preview stories, etc.

There is a built-in “text-to-speech” feature so that you can automatically listen to any book or document you are reading. Way cool, I think: Read-to-Me: With the new Text-to-Speech feature, Kindle can read every book, blog, magazine, and newspaper out loud to you

The battery life is 25% greater, according to Jeff. A graphic says you can read for two weeks on a single charge. (From my experience, that would be more than a 25% improvement).

The screen refresh is marginally faster: about 20 per cent. Even better, the display now features 16 shades of grayscale for much more elegant graphics.

What’s new with the Kindle 2 software?

A new feature called WhisperSynch automatically synchronizes what you are reading (including the “page” you are on) between your various Kindle-enabled electronic devices.

From the Kindle 2 product page: Content Formats Supported: Kindle (AZW), TXT, Audible (formats 4, Audible Enhanced (AAX)), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; PDF, HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion.

What’s the price for the new Kindle?

$359. Interesting change: the Kindle cover is no longer included in the box, and must be bought separately. This will be a boon to third-party Kindle cover manufacturers and sellers.

When will the new Kindle ship?

“This item will be released on February 24, 2009.“

What’s the deal with Stephen King and the new Kindle?

The early word is that the Kindle may actually come loaded with a Kindle-exclusive Stephen King story that features a Kindle-like device. Product placement gone wild! The story is called “Ur,” and the Kindle in the story can access other worlds, which may be a 3.0 feature.

Has Amazon enhanced the Kindle’s audio features?

Yes, the new Kindle comes with 2 built-in stereo speaks on the back of the device. There is also a nifty built-in “text-to-speech” feature so that you can automatically listen to any book or document you are reading. Way cool, I think: Read-to-Me: With the new Text-to-Speech feature, Kindle can read every book, blog, magazine, and newspaper out loud to you

How about USB-recharging and improvements to the Kindle battery?

The battery life is 25% greater, according to Jeff. A graphic says you can read for two weeks on a single charge, and four days with the wireless turned on. (From my experience, that would be more than a 25% improvement).

And, on the Kindle 2 product page, Amazon says: “Fully charges in approximately 4 hours and supports charging from your computer via the included USB 2.0 cable.” (emphasis added)

What has Amazon done to keep its production in synch with its orders?

On the Kindle 2 product page, Amazon says: “… we’ve increased our manufacturing capacity.”

Questions that will wait for another day:

What is Amazon doing to get the Kindle into schools and public libraries?
How about new features like a Kindle Buffet?
Is Amazon saying anything about specific plans for a larger display or a textbook-friendly Kindle?
Is Amazon showing signs that it will see Google and Apple as partners in the growth of digital reading?
How many Kindles has Amazon shipped, and how many will it ship in February 2009?
Has Amazon provided any specifics about opening the Kindle Store to other devices?
Has Amazon made any moves toward going open source?
What is Amazon doing to support social networking among Kindle owners and other readers?
Is Amazon taking specific steps to empower Kindle owners as Kindle sellers?
When will Kindle owners be able to connect easily with the main Kindle store?
Where and when will the Kindle go global?

To see the pertinent Kindle detail as it appeared directly on the Kindle detail page in the main Amazon store as of 8:40 a.m. 2.9.09, click here.

Meanwhile, here’s a great post by Dana Blankenhorn over at ZDNet: Time for Kindle to go open source

Amazon share price at 10 a.m. – $66.55

News is spreading this morning that, among other things, Jeff Bezos will announce today that Amazon has signed Stephen King on for a (temporarily) Kindle exclusive book deal. This is a great idea.

And I apologize for being a teensy bit self-referential in pasting in this paragraph from p. 92 of the August 2008 paperback print edition of The Complete User’s Guide to the Amazing Amazon Kindle:

Since I ordinarily come at these things from a bookselling perspective, I’ve been thinking for a while that the time should come soon when Amazon should arrange with Stephen King or J.D. Salinger to release his or her next book for the Kindle 60 days ahead of print, and then keeping doing this about once a month. Of course Amazon already knows that: nothing sells TVs like must-see TV.

After all, this one is not rocket science. But I’ve had a crush on Sissy Spacek for over 30 years and it is great fun that somebody managed to snap that picture of her holding her Kindle….

from TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home:

TeleRead Editor’s Note: We are happy to welcome Stephen Windwalker as a regular contributor to TeleRead. Stephen has been writing about Amazon’s strategic innovations since his niche bestseller on online bookselling in 2002, and his Complete Guide to the Amazing Amazon Kindle was the top-selling title in the Kindle store for 17 weeks in 2008, but on advice from Amazon’s attorneys Windwalker refuses to divulge how many books have been sold. Stephen is also publisher of the Kindle Home Page blog and the weekly Kindle Nation email newsletter. Paul Biba

Far be it from me, just hours before the heralded launch of the Kindle 2.0 (or whatever Amazon plans to call it), to pull back the curtain with wild claims about any of the device’s new features. Tomorrow I’ll do my best to base all of that on the actual news, rather than the rumors, and pack it into tomorrow afternoon’s felicitously timed weekly issue of my Kindle Nation email newsletter.

Tonight seems like a better time to look back at the prospective Kindle 2.0 features that I suggested last summer in The Complete Guide to the Amazing Amazon Kindle. We could all agree on the obvious fixes demanded by thousands of Kindle owners including, most notably, those pesky next- and previous-page bars and a user-friendly system of content management folders or labels. Other hardware enhancements such as quicker refresh, a touch screen, and a color display will happen when the technologies are ready.

But the more significant questions to be answered at Monday’s press conference may tell us how aggressively Amazon is prepared to pursue the still unrealized revolutionary potential of the Kindle. Without making too much of the fact that these suggestions are discussed in much greater detail in my book, let me here provide the briefest of discussions of a few of the high notes Jeff Bezos could hit in between those signature fits of forced laughter. [Read rest of post]