New tiny Kindles: the 'paperback' version we've been waiting for?

Amazon is going the way of the iPad and the Nook with a new Kindle
that comes in two flavors: Wi-Fi only and more expensive 3G. More
importantly, there's also a new form factor to ponder. It's smaller,
lighter and oddly makes the Kindle attractive again.














The new Kindle — or Kindles, we should say — is broken down into the
Kindle Wi-Fi and Kindle 3G + Wi-Fi. You can still buy the Kindle DX for
$380, but honestly that always seemed more like a move to tickle
magazine publishers rather than entice users.


If the Kindle has any life in it yet, this is it. It's about as small as your average paperback
book, it's thinner than a pencil, it's got a 6-inch, e-ink screen and,
at $140 to start or $190 if you're springing for 3G, it rides in cheaper
than the Nook's $150 Wi-Fi-only offering. Both the Wi-Fi and 3G flavors are available for pre-order right now, and ship out on August 27th.


We'll have to wait until we get our hands on it to know for sure, but
on paper this looks like exactly what we've wanted all along from the
Kindle. Sure, it could lose that chin, but we can't argue with it being
21% smaller and 17% lighter, according to Amazon. It's also got a nice
bump up to 4GB of storage, and you can delete books off of it at will,
as your purchases will remain in Amazon's cloud.


So, what do you think? If there's a change you'd like to see made to
the Kindle, speak now or forever hold your peace. After all, we could be
looking at one of the last, dedicated e-ink versions of the e-reader,
what if it's really going to turn into an iPad one day.