It’s been now two days since I received my Kindle 2, Amazon’s eBook reader. It’s early days, but I am extremely happy with it so far.

These are the really pleasing attributes of the Kindle 2 (International Version):

• The speed of the transfer from the Kindle Store to the device
• The management of titles on the Kindle; both those purchased from the Kindle Store and those transferred from previous purchases on other devices
• The integration with the Kindle for iPhone app, whereby books are synchronised over both devices for ease of continuity of reading
• The iPhone app is as good an eBook reader for the iPhone that I have used – easily on par with Stanza
• The reading experience is pleasant and better than expected
• It’s lightweight, easily held and controllable with one hand
• Unobtrusive style, with clean lines that don’t distract from the reading experience
• The good level of third party software to assist in managing your Kindle and its library. The best that I have found is Calibre
• Lastly, with the addition of a Gelaskin cover (mine are in the photos here), the Kindle is easy to hold, and looks really good.

As it has been only two days, I haven’t yet used the included dictionary or the note taking features but they look promising and both appear functional and practical.

However, not all things are perfect. In my opinion there are a few issues that need to be addressed in the future (I have no doubt that Amazon will address these).

• The synchronisation between the Kindle and the iPhone appears only to be functional for books purchased from the Kindle store – titles loaded locally do not show up on the iPhone
• The quantity of titles available for international users is significantly less than those available to US users. In fact, I was unable to buy Nancy Wake, a book by Australian author Peter Fitzsimons, yet I could purchase this book if I lived in the US.
• Computer usage is restricted to Windows based PC’s at the moment. Kindle for Mac is coming, but no date has been given for it’s release. This is only an inconvenience as you can run Windows on any Intel based Mac. Having a Mac based client however, will complete the Kindle experience for me.

An interesting footnote is that eBooks outsold physical books at Amazon over the Christmas period.