NYC

It has been dubbed an 'iPod moment' for the electronic book as Amazon launches Kindle 2, the successor to its popular ebook reader. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announces Kindle 2 electronic reader at news conference in New York   Photo: REUTERS The Kindle, a paperback-sized gadget, which sells for $359 (£240), lets users download books, newspapers and blogs onto a high-resolution screen with a white background and black text - imitating the look of a real book. It's successor, the sleek Kindle 2 is as thin as an HB pencil, comes with inbuilt speakers and expanded 2GB memory - so it can hold more than 1,500 books, compared with 200 with the original Kindle. However, British consumers may have to wait to get their hands on it. So far, the Kindle has only been available to US shoppers, although analysts expect the device to go on sale in Europe later this year. Amazon has invested in Kindle in the belief that more people will want to read books electronically. The revamped model inc...

The Kindle 2 is thin, fast, and far better than reading from a computer screen but does Amazon's new eBook beat a real book? Tom Leonard beats the crowds in New York to have a look.   The new Amazon Kindle 2.0  Photo: GETTY If this is the future of literature, then I can only say I'm very glad I didn't drop it. More illuminated medieval manuscript than airport novel, the wafer-thin Kindle 2 sits in your hand like a small, fragile bird. Wrap this one up in your beach towel and forget about it at your peril. Amazon calls the flat panel its "purpose-driven reading device" but it's hard to work out whether it's really a book designed by a computer lover or a computer designed by a book lover. In its monochrome simplicity – white surround, grey screen, black text – seems to be saying that it wants to be a book. But its technical wizardry – the 60-second internet synching and built-in dictionary - speaks instead of its computer aspirations. Fans of iPods, iPhone...