I'm about as tailor-made for a Kindle as they come, and I have to say that the Kindle 2 leaves me totally nonplussed. Why is this upgrade really necessary? It sure doesn't seem like it brings anything particularly new to the table. Here is what I will need to finally by an e-book reader:
- Color: Until someone gets a color screen on an e-reader, I'm simply not buying one. End of story. I know that color is not super utilized, but if I'm going to read magazines/browse websites on the thing, I'm not getting something that's stuck in monochrome. The fact that Kindle 2 doesn't do color seems like a total waste of an upgrade. Is anyone really going to buy this thing now who wasn't going to buy one before?
- A Decent Screen Size: What's the point of an actual keyboard? It would seem like a little touch screen wizardry could easily pop a virtual keyboard on the device AND allow the thing to disappear to give me more reading room. I can't imagine that I'm going to buy a reading device that doesn't offer me at least 8-10 diagonal inches of reading space (dare I wish for 12?). I mean, the thing is supposed to be a book for jebus' sake, and one where I can make the text larger to suit my inevitably failing eyesight.
- Expandable memory: The thing doesn't have an SD slot? Stupid, stupid, stupid.
- .pdf support: I know, I'm asking a lot for the device that I will do the majority of my reading on to display the most commonly used document file type. Project Gutenberg awaits (to say nothing of all of those fancy, free google books).
- Cost is not an issue: I'd happily spend close to a cool grand on an e-reader that met all of the above criteria. Admittedly, I'm a bit of a freak on this last point, but you haven't seen my bookshelves/books in storage/books kept on my parent's bookshelves. If you had, you would know who you were dealing with here.
So that's it: What I want in an e-reader. Until you can give me a device that fits my wishlist, don't waste my precious time Jeff Bezos.