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Amazon on Monday unveiled the latest version of its popular electronic reader, the Kindle, adding a feature which reads a book aloud. "Kindle 2 is everything customers tell us they love about the original Kindle, only thinner, faster, crisper, with longer battery life, and capable of holding hundreds more books," Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said.
"If you want, Kindle 2 will even read to you -- something new we added that a book could never do," the Amazon chief executive told a press conference. The Kindle 2 costs 359 dollars and is available from amazon.com. Amazon said the first units will be shipped February 24. "With the latest electronic paper display, pages turn an average of 20 percent faster than the original Kindle for an even smoother reading experience," Amazon said in a statement. It said the Kindle 2 has two gigabytes of memory allowing it to hold more than 1,500 books compared with 200 for the original Kindle. It has 25 percent longer battery life, Amazon said, and can go four to five days on one charge with wireless on and for over two weeks with wireless turned off.
Amazon said the experimental "Read-To-Me" feature "converts words on a page to spoken word so customers have the option to read or listen. "Customers can switch back and forth between reading and listening, and their spot is automatically saved," Amazon said. "Pages turn automatically while the content is being read so customers can listen hands-free.
"Customers can choose to be read to by male or female voices and can choose the speed to suit their listening preference," Amazon said. "Using the read-to-me feature, anything you can read on Kindle, including books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, and personal documents, Kindle 2 can read to you," the online retail giant said. Amazon's Kindle Store offers more than 230,000 books including most of the New York Times bestsellers.
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