The Kindle 2 has landed – and it's stunningly simple to set up

The first Amazon smiley boxes containing the Kindle 2 (Click on the image for a closer look), the company's second-generation e-book reader announced a few weeks back, arrived in mailboxes yesterday. And if, like me, you owned the original Kindle, you'll get an instant illustration when firing up the Kindle 2 of how the device embodies simplicity in use—that most compelling of attributes in a cutting-edge device.

If you owned a first-generation Kindle, your Kindle 2 will power up with a greeting that invites you, unless the device is a gift and so requires registration, to proceed to its home page. And when you do, by clicking the button to the right of the screen, you'll see your name already on the device and all of the content from your first Kindle already loaded.

Not only that, but when you click on a book, as I did, it will open on the very page on which you stopped reading the title on your other Kindle. So within three minutes of pulling the cutesy "Once upon a time…" tag on the Kindle 2's box, I was able to resume reading page 22 of This is Your Brain on Music, which I left off reading on my original Kindle a few days ago.

Why does this matter, other than giving a gee-whiz moment to Kindle veterans and consumer-electronics editors? Because, as I covered in my blog on the first Kindle, part of what makes this product compelling is its wireless simplicity – you need never connect it to a computer. And what can move an emerging category, like electronic book readers, from geekdom to widespread acceptance is to cut away complexity; witness what the seamless integration of Apple's iTunes music-management software and iPod music players did for MP3 players.

Of course, another key factor to mainstream adoption is price. There, the Kindle has a way to go, since the new version has the same $359 price as the old one.

Price aside, my first impressions of the Kindle 2 when using it at its launch event were mostly very positive. Now that we have the device in our labs, I'll elaborate further on it later today in a video report.

—Paul Reynolds