If you’ve been waiting with bated breath for a proper Kindle 2 knock-off, the Chinese have answered your prayers with this one that looks just like the Kindle. The device will arrive in Japan by the end of 2009, and the price tag will be around $210. The device will have a built-in cellular modem with SIM card.

The company, Peking University Founder, offered no further specs, but we would really like them to explain just what the hell their name means. Shady gadgets, shady names. I suppose they want to make you feel safe, as if the founder of Peking University endorses this thing.

How time flies. It’s been about five months since Amazon introduced the Kindle 2 e-reader. To celebrate, or maybe just to move more units, the company has slashed $60 off of the price tag, giving it a US price of $299.

Now that it’s under $300, they should be able to move more of the devices. The e-reader market is getting more competitive, so it’s a good move. Question of the day. Now that the Kindle 2 is under $300, does it make up your mind to get one?

Hey, you readers who still have not bought a Kindle 2. Is it the lack of colors? The Kindle does suffer from that sterile look. As usual, the folks at Colorware are here to help. They will gladly sell you a model that lives and breathes in color. (For a $599 base price).

You can also send in your own e-reader, which will cost you $199 per paint job. You will be without your device for 2-3 weeks, but when you get it back it will be wearing it’s new technicolor outfit.

If your Kindle 2 was feeling a little naked, now it has a new Folio booklight case to snuggle up to, complete with small memo pad, a pen and a retractable light for night time reading. Your Kindle 2 will feel fully clothed at last.

It isn’t cheap at $50, considering what the Kindle 2 has already cost you, but you’ll be helping the economy I guess. Or you can go to Amazon is where for $30 you can get a standard book cover without the pen and notepad and light.

For the most part, Amazon Kindle 2 owners are happy. But a small minority has a real problem with the way fonts are rendered on the new device. That’s because the newest version of the e-reader has font smoothing algorithms and sixteen levels of gray (the original had four). This makes for nicer pictures, but it causes text to blur when displaying fonts in the smallest three sizes.

If you are one of the users who are bothered by this you do have some options. You could try the Unicode Fonts Hack, which will allow you to replace the system font. Or you could wait for that rumored Kindle with a larger screen. You could also downgrade to the original device.

Rumors continue to swirl around whatever(if anything) Apple is building. Reports are that Apple has ordered 10-inch touchscreens from Taiwan. That part is looking more like fact. So the question is, will those screens end up in a netbook?

Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun-Times has a slightly different and interesting theory about the device. He thinks it might be an ebook. Which makes more sense as the only real competitor they would have is Amazon.

What have we here? The Kindle 2 has only been in our collective hands for a few hours, but already it’s been lovingly and thoroughly dissected. The guys at iFixit have already ripped theirs into pieces. Lovingly of course. Someone has to do it.

Probably the most interestingly reveal of the teardown is an empty space for a SIM card slot, which seems to suggest that Amazon has some plans for the Kindle’s international debut. Maybe. Hit the link for step by step details of the teardown.

As expected, Amazon announced the next-generation Kindle ebook reader. It comes with the exclusive Stephen King novel UR. The new version will cost $359 and you’ll get a reader that’s thinner than an iPhone at just .36 inches. One of the most interesting new features is Read to Me, which can read any content on the device back to you in a computer voice.

The device also features seven times more storage, a 16-level e-ink display that turns pages 20 times faster, a battery that will give you 25 percent longer battery life, and a new five-way joystick for navigation. It also features Whispersync bookmarking, so if you start reading a book, you can pick up where you left off on any Kindle.

Mobileread has some official-looking Kindle 2 photos and info that it’s being released for $359 on February 24. It looks dramatically thinner than it’s predescessor and it may be smaller too, judging by that large hand.

Also the back is apparently made of metal and there are stereo speakers at the bottom. It seems pretty official and it has us convinced, but there’s no way to know for sure until we hear from Amazon. We’ll find out for sure on Monday.

Boy Genius has some pics of what is in all likelihood the Kindle 2. You’ll notice that this follow-up to the original reader is more rounded, more iPod-esqe, but still in boring white with the same screen. The LCD status bar is nowhere to be seen and a joystick replaces the clickwheel, and so you can avoid accidental page turns, it sports smaller buttons. The SD slot is gone too, since there’s 1.5 gigs on-board, along with grills on back that may mean stereo speakers.

Basically, it’s a lot less ugly. Current Kindle owners can probably skip the upgrade unless the ugliness of the original is really bugging you. No word on the availability yet. Hit the link for more pictures.