Exclusive: Stephen King Helps Launch Amazon Kindle 2 in NYC

by Nicholas Kolakowski

Jeff Bezos takes the stage at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York to announce the release of the Kindle 2 electronic reader starting at $359.

Device navigation happens via a five-way controller. The Kindle 2 is designed to be used one-handed.

Stephen King takes the stage to read from a novella, “Ur,” that he wrote exclusively for the Kindle 2.

“I don’t even know how to say the word, ‘Zeitgeist,'” King joked near the end of his reading.

The Kindle 2 introduces a text-to-speech option, where users can have the document read to them by either a male or female voice.

The Kindle 2 has been designed for 25 percent more battery life than its predecessor, roughly 2 weeks’ use with a single charge.

The Kindle 2 features seven times more storage capacity than its predecessor: 1.4GB of user-accessible data, the equivalent of roughly 1,500 books.

At 0.36 inches thick, the Kindle 2 is thinner than most smartphones.

Every Kindle device comes with a unique e-mail address, allowing users to wirelessly e-mail PDF and Word documents to it.

The 3G wireless delivery allows books and other documents to be downloaded to the Kindle 2 in less than 60 seconds.