The old Kindle was angular and odd looking. It looked like something out of a sci-fi movie. While this was no doubt appealing to some, a more sleek, practical design would have appealed to the majority of us. Amazon has fixed this problem with the Kindle 2.

Doing away with almost every awkwardness found in the original version, the device is now cleanly laid out, very much shaped like a large iPhone. The keyboard has progressed from a unnatural, slanted design to a standard keyboard layout. The next / previous buttons occupy a very similar location, but are much smaller (as opposed to taking up the entire side of the device), so the threat of constantly hitting them is noticeably alleviated. They've also been stiffened up, so even if you do accidentally brush past one of them, it takes a little more effort to actually push them.

The old slider is gone, replaced with a rocker that allows you to scroll horizontally and vertically -- this is a big help when you're looking through text.

The screen has become alot clearer, now displaying 16 shades rather than the original 4. This has had a noticeable impact, rendering text and images much clearer and more vibrant. Additionally, the screen now loads quite a bit faster.

All around, the hardware of the new KIndle has been seriously improved with beautiful results.

Amazon has made some serious improvements in the Kindle's software. Whereas the old Kindle made you use a dedicated search that brought up a search field and then took you to a page of search options and then took you to your results, the new Kindle gives you a search tool accessible from your home page with a bunch of useful search options built in. This makes finding what you're looking for on your Kindle much easier.

Additionally, using the dictionary to lookup words was a huge hassle on the old Kindle. You had to highlights an entire string of words and see a definition for each of them on a separate page. Now you can simply click on a word and the Kindle will display its definition at the bottom of the screen in a small pop-up box.

The menus have been cleaned up substantially and navigation in general has become far more streamlined in the new Kindle.

In the end, the whole point of the Kindle is to make storing, accessing, and reading books and other print as easy and comfortable as possible. The new Kindle accomplishes that with resounding success. After a few minutes of use, you cease to notice that you aren't reading a book or newspaper. The device fades away.

But the Kindle does things no book can do: fully searchable content, including your annotations; hundreds of books in your pocket; continuously-updating weblogs, with no computer needed; almost everything backed up to Amazon's servers, with no configuration needed.

I highly recommend the KIndle for those who love to read and keep their books for later use. It's too convenient not to have.