On Monday, Amazon.com announced it had started shipping the Kindle 2, a day early (as it had previously announced availability on Feb. 24). Although some people had gotten email updates on their orders stating the device had already shipped Sunday, we all know that it really didn’t enter the shipping system until Monday, right?

Amazon.com (and users) are excited about the updated device, so Ian Freed, vice president, Amazon Kindle said:

“The response from customers to Kindle 2 has been tremendous. In order to ensure we ship Kindle 2 by the original ship day of Feb. 24, we started shipping one day early. We’re excited about the new design and features of Kindle 2, and we think our customers will be too.”

Those new features include:

• Pencil-thin and lighter than a typical paperback at just over 10 ounces and 0.36 inches
• 25 percent longer battery life
• Pages turn an average 20 percent faster
• Holds more than 1,500 books with 2 GB of memory
• Sharper images and crisp text with 16 shades of gray
• “Text-to-Speech” read-to-me feature converts words on a page to spoken word
• “Whispersync” technology saves and synchronizes reading location across Kindle devices

Text-to-Speech (or rather, Read-To-Me) has gotten Amazon.com into some hot water with The Authors Guild. However, for those of us who are readers, rather than authors, the Kindle 2 is the same price as the original, $359. Start checking your mailbox / porch.